Scheduling order issued by West Virginia’s Supreme Court
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PARKERSBURG -- The West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals agreed Friday to intervene in challenges to the state Secondary School Activities Commission's football and volleyball classification system and playoff selection process.
The court, with one justice recusing himself, set a deadline of noon Monday for parties in Wood and Mason counties to respond to the petition for a writ of prohibition filed Thursday by the SSAC, the governing body for high school athletics that is headquartered just outside Parkersburg.
Once the deadline has passed, "the appeal will be mature for consideration" and counsel for the parties "will be notified in writing of any decision in the case," according to scheduling orders released by the court Friday.
Legal challenges have put the high school football playoffs across all four classifications and the Class A volleyball tournament on hold.
WVSSAC Executive Director David Price confirmed Tuesday the football postseason would be postponed until ongoing litigation was resolved.
However, two Class AAA "play-in" games involving Capital-Hampshire and Point Pleasant-St. Albans had been scheduled for Saturday. Those games were canceled just prior to Friday's scheduling order.
It all stems from the state realigning from three classes to four in the offseason. Several schools were unhappy with their new classification, citing a number of issues with the competitive balance formula, leading to a series of appeals going into the start of the season.
In August, the state Board of Review ruled that 11 schools were to be moved down one class for football only for the 2024 season. Three days later, 11 more were moved down.
In the weeks that followed, several schools requested that the football rating system, which factors in strength of schedule, should reflect classification of opponents for when their games were scheduled, and not the new classes they were drawn into with the August changes. No changes to the formula were made.
Wood County Schools challenged in court the final rankings for Parkersburg, Parkersburg South and Williamstown high schools, leading to an emergency injunction from Wood County Circuit Judge J.D. Beane ordering that schools be ranked for the playoffs based on their classification prior to the August changes. A second order from Judge Anita Ashley in Mason County mandated the play-in games for teams that would have been left out by that change.
Justice William R. Wooton submitted a memo Friday recusing himself from the case, although court documents did not specify the reason why.
Chief Justice Tim Armstead filed a disclosure notice on Thursday stating that he has known and worked professionally with Herbert Hoover High School Principal Michael Kelley as a legislator and justice. The notice says Kelley is or has been a member of the SSAC board. He is not listed among board members on the commission's website.
It also notes Armstead has a nephew who plays football for Braxton County High School, although that team is not in the playoffs under either system.
Armstead said he does not believe there is a reason for him to disqualify himself from the case but asked if there was any objection to his participation that it be filed by noon Friday. None appear to have been filed.
Gov. Jim Justice weighed in on the topic during his online media briefing Friday. Asked about the situation, he acknowledged he is not directly involved but is monitoring it.
"I guess I can get in it if I have to get in," he said.
"The SSAC needs to get their act together on this," Justice said, before noting they don't have a lot of choice with court orders in play.
Justice, a longtime high school basketball coach who still leads the girls team at Greenbrier East, said his main concern is the delays pushing football and volleyball to overlap with winter sports like basketball. That could lead to student athletes trying to participate in both and getting injured.
"Before you know it, you're going to have kids get hurt," he said. "If we don't watch out, we've got a complete dog's mess going on."
Evan Bevins can be reached at ebevins@newsandsentinel.com.