Judge rules Harding player eligible

By Ed Runyan

runyan@vindy.com

WARREN

A judge has ruled that Warren Harding senior Arthur Cook can continue to play sports this year at Harding and that the Ohio High School Athletic Association made an arbitrary decision when it ruled him ineligible.

Judge W. Wyatt McKay of Trumbull County Common Pleas Court issued the written ruling Friday.

Judge McKay granted Cook a temporary restraining order Dec. 28 that allowed him to resume playing basketball for Harding until a final decision had been reached.

Cook missed five games at the start of the year, before Judge McKay’s initial ruling.

In Friday’s ruling, Judge McKay said he found that the OHSAA was arbitrary when it relied “entirely ... on the intent of Arthur Cook” in deciding that he and his parents were trying to circumvent OHSAA rules by transferring to Harding from Euclid before the start of this school year.

Evidence OHSAA cited as reasons why it ruled Cook ineligible were messages Cook sent to a friend on his Twitter account and a comment he and another student made to their coaches at Euclid about the move.

The tweets Cook wrote in June 2011 indicated that his father, Gene Cook, had told him the name of three Cleveland-area high schools where he was thinking of sending Arthur.

The comment the boys made to their coaches, when asked why they were leaving, was that “Euclid is going to suck next year,” according to court documents.

The judge said relying on Arthur’s comments was improper because parents decide what school their child will attend, not the student. Nonetheless, the OHSAA had no incriminating messages from the parents, nor did anyone interview the parents to ask why Arthur was being transferred, Judge McKay wrote.

During testimony, Gene Cook said he moved Arthur to Warren because he expected there to be fewer negative influences on him here, and Arthur would do better in school.

In fact, Arthur’s grades did rise during his initial weeks at Harding, as he achieved all A’s and a B on an interim grade report, Judge McKay said. His grades at Euclid were below a C average.

“The reality of this situation is that Arthur had no control or even a say in the ultimate decision to move to Warren,” Judge McKay said.

Tim Pettorini, one of Cook’s attorneys, said the OHSAA’s rules starting this year allow it to make a decision on eligibility based on what it thinks was a family’s intent when making a move.

If the OHSAA is going to have that kind of authority, “it needs to use that discretion with a great deal of care,” Pettorini said.

The Cook matter is the first one related to the OHSAA that Pettorini and co-counsel Sarah Baker have worked on that ended up in court. Two earlier ones were resolved without a lawsuit.

The OHSAA’s rules say that anyone transferring from one school to another must sit out of sports for a year unless they have bona fide family reasons for the move.

In the case of the Cooks, the reason was the separation of Gene and his wife, Seanine Cook, and Gene’s decision to move Arthur to Warren to provide him with a better educational and personal environment, including distance from his mother.

The attorney for the OHSAA did not return a call seeking comment.