Lima Senior boys basketball player Javier Quinones, who was declared ineligible for the 2016-2017 season earlier this month, has been reinstated for the remainder of the regular season but will not be eligible for tournament games, the attorney who handled his appeal to the Ohio High School Athletic Association said Tuesday afternoon.
Quinones, a senior point guard, and Jatsiel Colon, a junior power forward, moved to Lima from Puerto Rico with their families last summer.
Their participation in Lima Senior basketball was delayed by the OHSAA, though, and on Jan. 6, they were ruled ineligible for the season because of OHSAA questions about the possible appearance of being recruited.
Colon’s family chose not to appeal the decision but Quinones and his mother, Belitza Esquilin, asked for a hearing with the OHSAA.
After that meeting last Thursday, an agreement was reached where Quinones would be eligible to play in regular season games, starting this Friday night against Oregon Clay, but would not be allowed to play in tournament games, said Lima attorney Brad Kelley, who represented the Quinones family.
The OHSAA did not respond to messages left by The Lima News on Tuesday.
Lima Senior registered both students at the beginning of the school year, based on the idea there had been a bona fide change of residence by the parents when they moved to Lima, which would have made them eligible immediately. Puerto Rico is a United States territory.
But because both players’ families had looked at the possibility of moving to several other larger cities, the OHSAA saw what Kelley called “red flags” about recruiting.
“Recruiting means exerting influence, using influence to get somebody to enroll at your school and their allegation basically was that somebody must have influenced these kids because who the hell would go to Lima Senior when they could go to all these other places?” Kelley said, referring to the fact the players’ families had visited several bigger cities before coming to Lima.
“They immediately notified Lima Senior they were being investigated under the recruiting violation rule and they were going to put a hold on these kids for 30 days and they weren’t allowed to participate while they conducted their investigation. They conducted their investigation and on Jan. 6 they issued a written ruling that said we find these kids to be ineligible because you violated the recruiting rule,” he said.
Kelley said after the hearing last Thursday, he approached OHSAA commissioner Dan Ross and assistant commissioner Roxanne Price about a resolution to the situation.
“They wanted to punish Lima Senior for what they felt was over-reaching,” Kelley said. “The bottom line is we came to a resolution over the last couple days which basically makes Javier eligible this coming Friday for the balance of the regular season, but he cannot play in any tournament basketball game.”
