By ANDREW CRUM | THE BROWNSVILLE HERALD
Just days before the baseball postseason is set to start, Rivera may not be competing despite a tie for second in District 32-6A.
The Raiders finished with a 10-4 record in district and were set to play a seeding game with Weslaco High before the playoffs begin this weekend. Instead Rivera is being accused of using at least one ineligible player and its fate was in the hands of the district executive committee. The hearing that started Monday, concluded Tuesday with a 6-1 vote against the Raiders, forfeiting the games played by the alleged ineligible player and for the moment, knocked them out of the playoffs.
The player in question is zoned for Rivera, but attended Brownsville Veterans Memorial for the majority of the 2016-17 school year, eventually returning to Rivera near the end of the school year last year and has attended Rivera ever since, including the entire 2017-18 school year to date. His parents are married, but are currently separated and live at different residences, which brought up the red flag due to a lack of a previous athletic participation form or residency waiver for him to be eligible to compete for the Raiders, where he is a starter on the baseball team.
“He has always been in our zone, but they didn’t see it that way,” Rivera coach Travis Parker said. “We’re in the process of fighting back, making an appeal. They’re trying to do something to us that isn’t fair, but we’re not going quietly.”
The UIL was going to allow Rivera to obtain the necessary paperwork to declare him eligible, but said it also required the approval of the DEC, which it has already ruled against the Raiders for the time being. Thus putting an overrule by the UIL in jeopardy due to the small window of time.
“We dropped the ball by not turning in that waiver,” Parker said. “I’ll be honest, we should have done that sooner. But we still had that opportunity (Monday) and (Tuesday).”
Rivera is also running out of time with district certification that was due by midnight last night to approve all rosters for postseason play. A UIL decision could come as soon as early as today with the playoffs starting this weekend.
“I’m going to pray it changes things because these boys deserve a better fate, but we’re not going to go down without a fight,” Parker said. “I don’t know if there’s any light at the end of the tunnel, but we’re going to try.”
The Raiders won 19 games this season and had earned their first postseason trip in Parker’s tenure. But it looks bleak without the UIL stepping in ahead of the playoffs starting Thursday.
“In six years as head coach, I’ve never been a cheater or had the thought about cheating,” Parker said. “Kids have left and switched schools, but I’ve never made a complaint … I want to coach kids that want to be here, I’m going to coach my kids. What we did this year, what we accomplished … was with my boys.”
Parker tried to remain optimistic about the situation, but understands how it may be seen from the outside.
“If this doesn’t get resolved, we’re always going to be known or looked at from the outside as cheaters and we did something wrong,” he said. “But we didn’t do anything wrong except playing a kid that has always been zoned here since elementary.
“It’s a hard pill to swallow … we’ve worked for everything we’ve got this year.”
Andrew Crum covers sports for The Brownsville Herald. You can reach him at (956) 982-6629 or via email at [email protected]. On Twitter he’s @andrewmcrum.