Jamal Poplar, right, defends in a game against Dexter last season for Willow Run.
AnnArbor.com file photo
The Willow Run boys basketball team has been awarded a win via forfeit, after the MHSAA determined that River Rouge used an ineligible player during the Dec. 14 game between the two schools.
According to the minutes of the January MHSAA Executive Committee meeting, the association was provided “erroneous information” in the process of verifying the eligibility Jamal Poplar, who transferred from Willow Run to River Rouge during the offseason.
Poplar, a junior forward, made his season debut in that game, and helped River Rouge to an 81-27 road win.
Willow Run athletic director Matt Seidl questioned Poplar’s eligibility following the game, saying that he should be subject to the transfer rule, which states that students who change schools must sit out until Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
River Rouge athletic director Joe Emery said that Poplar was eligible under an exception to the rule, because he moved with his mother into the River Rouge school district. The MHSAA gave River Rouge written word of that fact before the game.
But according to the MHSAA, after the Dec. 14 game “it was learned that the student previously lived with grandparents and did not actually move with his mother,” thus making him subject to the transfer rule.
Poplar didn’t play from that game until after Martin Luther King Day.
The forfeit win gives Willow Run a 5-7 record on the season.
Kyle Austin covers sports for AnnArbor.com. He can be reached at kyleaustin@annarbor.com or 734-623-2535. Follow him on Twitter @KAustin_AA.