Eldorado girls bow out of playoffs after forfeits
Fresh off an upset win over Desert Pines on Friday, Eldorado’s girls basketball team was hoping to make a splash in the Sunrise Region playoffs.
It turns out the Sundevils won’t even dip their toes in the water.
Eldorado forfeited all seven of its Northeast League wins Wednesday morning after school administration discovered the Sundevils used an ineligible player in those games.
“I got an e-mail (Wednesday) morning from the athletic administrator at Eldorado,” said Ray Mathis, the Clark County School District’s executive director of athletics. “He investigated and checked the attendance of basketball players on game days. He was investigating the boys first and then the girls.”
A call seeking comment from Eldorado principal Ron Lustig was not returned.
Eldorado was scheduled to play at Silverado in a Sunrise quarterfinal Wednesday. But the forfeits changed the Sundevils’ league record to 0-12 and knocked them out of the postseason.
Las Vegas moved up to the No. 3 seed, and Rancho, a 43-41 winner over Canyon Springs in a makeup game Wednesday afternoon, claimed the No. 4 seed.
Because two of the playoff matchups were changed in the Sunrise bracket, the Nevada Interscholastic Activities Association delayed the start of the Sunrise girls playoffs until today.
“It has to do with keeping the integrity of the bracket together,” NIAA assistant director Donnie Nelson said. “The games have to stay on the same day. We don’t want to play a round on different days and have one team get more rest than another. Changes in matchups do affect teams.”
The forfeits were self-reported by Eldorado one day after the Sundevils forfeited one boys basketball game and Desert Pines forfeited three boys games.
School district policy states athletes must attend all classes on the day of a game to be eligible to play in that game.
“Everybody has to be responsible for their own coaches and their own kids,” Mathis said. “Every high school has an athletic administrator and an athletic director, and that’s their function.”
The Sunrise quarterfinal games — Rancho at Green Valley, Las Vegas at Silverado, Liberty at Valley and Coronado at Desert Pines — are scheduled for 6:30 tonight. The semifinals are set for Friday at 4 p.m. and 5:45 at Liberty. The title game will be played at 2 p.m. Saturday at Liberty.
Today’s Sunrise boys semifinals at Liberty have been shifted to 5:45 p.m. and 7:30. Friday’s boys title game will be at 7:30 p.m.