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Ineligible Harding player seeks reversal
By Ed Runyan
WARREN
The parents of a Harding High School senior who was ruled ineligible to play sports this year have asked a judge in Trumbull County Common Pleas Court to overturn the decision.
The Ohio High School Athletic Association used messages from the boy’s Twitter account as evidence that the boy moved to Warren for sports reasons and not valid family ones.
A hearing to determine whether a temporary restraining order will be granted will be held at 1:30 p.m. Wednesday before Judge W. Wyatt McKay.
Gene and Seanine Cook, parents of Arthur Cook, are seeking the order and injunction to allow Arthur to return to the basketball floor.
The legal action says Arthur and his father, Gene, moved to Warren from Euclid before the current school year started because Gene needed a new place to live following Gene’s separation from Seanine.
Warren was chosen because the Cooks have family in the area, the suit says.
But Harding received notification from the OHSAA on Oct. 25 that Arthur’s move was done to circumvent OHSAA rules and that he would be ineligible to play sports for one year.
Ruth Zitnik, Harding principal, conducted her own investigation and later wrote to the OHSAA that she did not feel that Arthur’s move was done to circumvent OHSAA rules.
The OHSAA confirmed that Arthur was ineligible Nov. 28, so the Cooks appealed.
The OHSAA again confirmed the one-year suspension at the Dec. 8 hearing in Columbus, the suit said.
Arthur Cook has missed four basketball games as a result of the OHSAA’s actions, which could jeopardize his college education, the suit said.
“Each day that passes is another day that Arthur Cook misses out on the benefits of participation in interscholastic athletics,” the suit says.
A letter to Zitnik from Deborah B. Moore, associate OHSAA commissioner, says Arthur Cook was ruled ineligible because evidence suggests that it was “the desire to transfer high schools that was the event that caused the father to seek this change of address.”
Moore said administrators at Euclid High School were prepared to provide copies of tweets from Arthur Cooks Twitter account as evidence of the reason for Arthur Cook’s move to Warren.
Tweets from June 21 through June 26, 2011, included with the lawsuit quote Arthur Cook saying June 21: “Pops not feeling the Euclid squad he want me to enroll at Heights but idk man!”
On June 24, a tweet says: “My dad just called me downstairs to tell me I’m going to either Shaker or Garfield!”
On June 27, a tweet says: “I’m taking my talents to Heights.”
Last summer, Boardman senior Dayne Hammond tried to transfer to Warren Harding, only to stay at Boardman once it became clear that the OHSAA would declare him ineligible because his move was sports-related.