PHILADELPHIA Test case for eligibility set this week

Recruitment and open-enrollment policy will be in the spotlight.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
A Delaware County football player's eligibility case will be decided this week, and it could be a test case of how the Archdiocese of Philadelphia's open enrollment policy affects athletes.
Brahiim Washington, a junior linebacker who previously attended Penn Wood High, recently transferred to Cardinal O'Hara. That prompted Penn Wood officials to charge that Washington was recruited by Cardinal O'Hara, an allegation that school denies.
The case will be heard Thursday by the Catholic League Board of Governors. If the board rules Washington ineligible, a hearing in Delaware County Court of Common Pleas is planned Friday as his family tries to gain his eligibility.
At issue is not just whether Washington was recruited by O'Hara, but if the archdiocese's open enrollment policy is viable.
The archdiocese, trying to halt a decline in Catholic schools enrollment, adopted in 1993 an open enrollment policy that erased previous boundaries for Philadelphia-area Catholic schools.
As a result, some students -- including some athletes -- have chosen to enroll at schools that weren't previously available to them.
No. 200
Two Pennsylvania high school football coaches, Dennis Frew of Delone Catholic and George Novak of Woodland Hills, earned their 200th career victories last week.
Delone Catholic, where Frew has spent his entire head coaching career, defeated York Catholic 35-12.
Woodland Hills, where Novak has coached after coming from Steel Valley, was a 49-48 overtime winner over Pittsburgh Central Catholic.
Position opened
Curt Heverly led Bald Eagle Area High School to its first District 6 softball championship last season. Now he has lost his coaching job.
The school board voted 8-0 to open Heverly's position despite the Eagles' 20-3 record and District 6 Class AA championship last spring.
Heverly, 53, who is also the school's football coach, has no idea why the softball position was opened after seven years.
"I make them work," he said. "I'm no disciplinarian and I'm not mean to them."
School board president Timothy Nilson said he could not disclose the reasons for the decision to open the position.
Heverly served a three-game suspension late in the 2002 season and at the beginning of the 2003 season following a DUI charge.
Wrestlers denied eligibility
The District 1 committee has denied eligibility to three of four wrestlers who transferred out of Souderton Area High School.
Dan and Eddie Geib, who are brothers, and teammate A.J. Detweiler transferred to Pennridge. Sam Walters transferred to Upper Perkiomen.
Only Detweiler was declared eligible for this season. The other three were declared ineligible because the district committee decided they transferred for athletic intent.
An attorney for the Geib brothers plans to appeal District 1's ruling at the PIAA Board of Appeals meeting Nov. 14 in Mechanicsburg.