Online Petition In Support of Dudley

I don’t know what the impact of this online petition will have with the North Carolina High School Athletic Association (NCHSAA); but it can’t hurt.

We’re monitoring the NCHSAA.ORG website and Andy is in contact with the main office. The Conference Call should be held shortly. We’ll have the news here.

The News & Record has an online poll as well.

10 thoughts on “Online Petition In Support of Dudley

  1. I’m really struggling with this one. While I am a huge fan of Coach Davis and do not believe they gained any competitive edge from this violation we can not lose sight of the fact that the reason for the 8 quarter rule is to protect kids. Not only does it require signatures from parents, coaches, and principal or designee (AD) it requires the athlete be seen by a Dr or certified Athletic trainer to be checked for dehydration and concussion symptons to name a few. I hope Dudley wins their appeal but it bothers me that some have referred to this rule as minor, trivial etc. No rule that protects kids is minor.

  2. Yes rules should be in place to protect the athlete. However the punishment is too harsh. They were required to forfeit the conference championship and not play in the playoffs. There was a similar situation in 2010 in Union County. The shcool was only fined 750.00 and did not have to forfeit a game. Google it

  3. The problem is this is not really an 8 quarter rule violation. The 8 quarter rule is for freshmen and sophomores, not juniors. If the kid that went into the game was a sophmore then there is no scandal. Juniors are handled differently.

  4. From what I am reading, the infraction is the dressing of the players, not whether or not the players actually participated in the game. Please correct me if I am wrong.

  5. I don’t believe that many on this board are interpreting the 8 qtr rule correctly. The rule is in place to help teams in case they find themselves in an emergency situation. For example, if a team loses their only healthy QB to injuries on a Friday night, their JV QB is allowed to step in and play on Friday even if he played the night before on JV as long as he still has 8 qtr eligibility left. Before the 8 qtr rule, coaches who were in a situation where they may need a sophomore/freshmen to play up but weren’t sure had to either make a decision to dress the kid on Friday and him miss the JV game or play him on Thursday and pray that you didn’t need him on Friday. The intention of the rule is to allow a borderline kid to get the needed development and live reps on Thursday night and dress on Friday just in case he is needed for a few plays. All coaches have taken it and ran with it. I see many coaches playing their JV kids in mop up duty. My question is, do you not have 2nd or 3rd string guys who need that experience instead of the emergency guys?

    And yes, even if the juniors never touch the field, if they are dressed for both games it is a violation.

  6. Just to clarify, like the poster said above. Dudley wouldn’t have had any issue if the kids were sophomores (as long as they hadn’t met the 8 qtr limit). The issue is that the kids were juniors. The 8 qtr rule only applies to sophomores and freshmen. Northern was in violation of this rule last year and had to forfeit multiple games. Coaches should (and to be fair most do) know that seniors can not play JV at all no matter how good they are and juniors must play either one or the other but can’t do both.

    The timing of the issue is what is hurting Dudley the most. If Coach had made this mistake in week 5, you forfeit the game and continue on with your season like Northern did. The issue is, how do you reseed your entire bracket on a Wednesday? That would be like punishing the other 15 teams for Dudley’s mistake. Film has already been exchanged, travel arrangements made, pregame food paid for, game plans are already in and practices are winding down. Plus the reseeding isn’t as simple as just picking a new order (there are tiebreakers and draws that have to take place). Unfortunately unless something dramatic happens, Dudley is probably out and I hate it for the kids.

  7. Please allow Dudley to play. Dudley is known for having a great football team . Why take it away from them?

  8. NCHSAA needs to do a better job of defining the rules in the handbook. As the handbook states… An individual is limited to only one game per day, per week (exception: “eight-quarter rule”). This rule can be a little grey and misleading to the interpreter. The athletes should not be punished for flaws such as this… There needs to be a domino effect investigation into all high school football programs to be fair. Southeast wasn’t clean either, I can name several other high schools too…ijs

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