One day later, the forfeits stand – just under slightly different circumstances.
Monday afternoon the PSAL issued six forfeits for Brooklyn Collegiate after, the league said, the boys basketball team used an academically ineligible player. Brooklyn Collegiate coach Jake Edwards said his team didn’t have an academically ineligible player and after a brief appeal, the PSAL ruled in favor of the Lions, Department of Education spokeswoman Margie Feinberg told The Post.
Yet, during the investigation Feinberg said the PSAL found another player was athletically ineligible because he played for another PSAL boys basketball team last winter, so the forfeits stand.
Edwards said he was under the impression the player – he identified him as junior reserve Muheez Folajaiye, who averaged four points in six games with the Lions – transferred to Brooklyn Collegiate under the “No Child Left Behind” act, yet was told by PSAL eligibility coordinator Alan Blanc on Thursday he hadn’t. Folajaiye’s mother, Kafa, told Edwards she filed papers with the DOE, but, Blanc told Edwards, there was no evidence the transfer, under the act, had been approved.
“The PSAL reviewed the documentation of this student and determined the student was not given a transfer under the No Child Left Behind Act,” Feinberg wrote in an e-mailed statement to The Post.
Edwards plans to appeal this decision as well, he said. Edwards, the fourth-year coach and athletic director, said Blanc sent over a fax to the school during the December break that he needed to submit paperwork regarding Folajaiye. Edwards proceeded not to play him, but said the information was surprising because the only player Blanc has previously mentioned was Ervin Mitchell, a safety transfer from Maxwell who was recently cleared.
Even with the forfeits, Brooklyn Collegiate will make the playoffs if it can split its final two regular-season league games against Canarsie and Tilden. The Lions are presently 8-10 overall and 6-6 in Brooklyn A East instead of 13-5 and 11-1.
“Life is full of ups and downs; we got to play basketball and if we want it enough, we will win [the championship] and take what’s ours,” senior guard Isiaha Johnson said.