PIAA restores player's athletic eligibility
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Rob Gronkowski, a tight end at Woodland Hills High School near Pittsburgh, had his athletic eligibility restored by the PIAA but must sit out the team's first game Friday night.
Gronkowski was ruled ineligible by the Western Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic League (PIAA District 7) after his late-summer transfer from Williamsville North High School in New York, only to be cleared to play football by a 5-0 vote of the PIAA board of appeals.
However, Gronkowski cannot play in the opener against Mount Lebanon because the tight end also faced sitting out a game at his former high school for a matter last school year unrelated to athletics.
The PIAA board declared Gronkowski eligible because a parent -- in this case, his father -- has moved into the school district. Under PIAA bylaws, that automatically makes an athlete eligible to play.
COPYRIGHT 2006 ASSOCIATED PRESS. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. THIS MATERIAL MAY NOT BE PUBLISHED, BROADCAST, REWRITTEN, OR REDISTRIBUTED.