UPDATED: Arlington High Teams Forced to Forfeit Wins from Last Year

Update 6:15 p.m., Wednesday, Dec. 12

The list of teams affected and wins forfeited, from Arlington Superintendent Kathleen Bodie.

Fall 2011

Boys' Varsity Soccer: Forfeit all wins for the entire season. (Boys' varsity soccer team was 7-7-4 in 2011, lost to Dracut in the preliminary round of the Division 2 North tournament.)
Boys' Junior Varsity Soccer: Forfeit all wins for the entire season.

Winter 2011-2012

Varsity Wrestling: Forfeit first three matches. (Varsity team was 15-3 in 2011-2012 season, according to Boston.com standings, will now be 12-6, with wins against Wilmington, Quincy and Catholic Memorial becoming losses.)

Spring 2012

Varsity Baseball: Forfeit three games.
Boys' Varsity Tennis: Forfeit all wins for the entire season.
Girls' Junior Varsity Softball: Forfeit all wins for the entire season.
Girls' Junior Varsity Lacrosse: Forfeit all wins through the first 12 games.
Freshman Baseball: Forfeit all wins beginning April 10.

In addition, ineligible student athletes participated in the following sports, but there were no wins that could be forfeited.

Winter 2011-2012

Boys' Varsity Indoor Track
Girls' Varsity Indoor Track
Varsity Gymnastics
Hockey Cheerleading

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The following is a press release from Arlington Superintendent Kathleen Bodie.

Arlington High School Athletic Eligibility Investigation

Arlington High School has been required to forfeit several wins by some of its athletic programs during the 2011-2012 school year. These forfeitures result from the recently discovered fact that several student athletes who competed for Arlington interscholastic teams last school year were academically ineligible to compete under Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association (MIAA) rules. Academic eligibility to play a sport should be verified by the Athletic Department by checking the grades of student athletes each term. While checking the grades of student athletes following completion of the first term this fall, the Acting Athletic Director learned that there may have been academic eligibility issues last year. A resulting investigation also revealed that some foreign exchange students who competed for Arlington last year did so without required MIAA waivers. In all, twelve teams included ineligible players and eight of these teams have had to forfeit winning games.

While certain team victories in the affected sports must be forfeited, this action does not affect the records of individual athletes, the awarding of varsity letters, or students’ ability to refer to their participation in these sports when they apply for admission to college. Superintendent Kathleen Bodie stated, “These forfeitures are unfortunate but they should not adversely reflect on any of our student athletes or coaches. The discipline, effort, and teamwork that they put into their season will continue to reflect well on them and the high school.”

Superintendent Bodie, Interim Principal Mary Villano and Acting Athletic Director Rob DiLoreto are committed to preventing a recurrence of this unfortunate situation. To that end, Arlington High School has reviewed the enforcement of its verification procedures in the Athletic Department and is establishing a system of checks and balances to ensure that those procedures are enforced and that only academically eligible athletes participate in interscholastic sports.