City of Basketball Love

By Josh Verlin (@jmverlin)
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Dobbins Tech boys’ basketball will have to forfeit all of its games for the 2023-24 season after it was found that the program had an ineligible fifth-year senior on the roster, Dobbins coach Derrick Stanton confirmed to CoBL Friday. 

They will be seeded as the final seed in the Philadelphia Public League tournament. 

It wasn’t until after the Public League’s seeding tournament that a District 12 representative was made aware that one of the players on Dobbins’ roster, senior Sam Thomas, who had appeared in all 22 games the Mustangs had played this year, was actually in his fifth year of high school, according to Public League boys basketball director Benjamin Dubin. 

That meant instead of a 15-7 record this year, including a fourth-place finish in the Pub ‘A’ Division with a 7-3 record, by PIAA rule Dobbins would be forced to forfeit all of its games and register an 0-22 record. 

The PIAA bylaws state that a student can not participate in interscholastic athletics if they reached the end of their fourth consecutive year or eighth consecutive semester after eighth grade.

Due to Public League bylaws, which state that all teams in the league’s top division qualify for the league playoffs, Dobbins’ season is not over, but the Mustangs’ road back to the state playoffs after a breakthrough season last year just got infinitely tougher. 

“I thought up about four different options — I had to meet with the executive committee of the Philadelphia Public League, I presented the different options, and they voted on what they felt was the best solution,” Dubin said. “I did not vote in the process.”

Instead of being one of the top four seeds in the Public League bracket, and the top seed in their pod with a route to the semifinals, they now have a play-in game against Bartram on Tuesday, with the winner facing unbeaten Imhotep. 

The Panthers beat the Mustangs 75-42 back in December.

“I was more disappointed for the kids because I know how hard they worked, they were excited in the first place to get moved up to Division A and to earn one of the top seeds this year, so I felt bad for them, but I understand (the PIAA) has rules,” Stanton said. “I’m happy that we’re still able to be in the playoffs, but I accept whatever consequences are handed to us.”

Stanton said he hadn’t been aware that Thomas — who gave CoBL permission to use his name — was repeating his freshman year due to academics in 2020-21, Stanton’s first year in the school. Stanton said he had Thomas in a class along with several other of his players, all virtual during the COVID year, and when the 2021-22 school year began he believed that player was a sophomore along with the rest of his classmates. 

Stanton said he didn’t know that Thomas had been at the school the year before, and that because he had not been part of any athletics team, the school’s athletics director, Jackie Castorino — who assumed her position in August of 2020 — was not aware, either. 

Stanton and Castorino said that Dobbins doesn’t typically have fifth-year students. Castorino explained that normally, a student who fails a class would advance to the next grade, rather than repeating their grade level, while taking “credit recovery” courses in addition to their standard school work. Thomas’ situation was a rarity. 

“I spoke with my principal and she was as blindsided as the rest of us,” Castorino said. “She was under the same impression that we didn’t have fifth-year students.”

In addition, Castorino said that when she submitted this year’s roster to the Infinite Campus system, which the PIAA uses to report rosters and eligibility information to the state, she didn’t see anything out of the ordinary. 

“Sam’s number of semesters completed says six like every other senior,” she added. “Yes, I didn’t look at his transcripts, but that’s something that’s right in my face telling me that he is eligible, and that’s what I showed to the other athletic directors and people at the office of athletics in the district.

“It was just a complete oversight, and there was never a reason for me to think or consider that any of our athletes would be in their fifth year.”

Thomas, according to the team’s MaxPreps page, was sixth on the team in scoring, averaging six points. 

Stanton and Castorino also said that if they knew about Thomas’ eligibility, they would have filed an appeal earlier in the season, which they believe he would have been granted a fifth year by the city due to extenuating circumstances. 

“Of all of the kids, for someone to wait until the end of our season to report this about any child, to do it to Sam Thomas is the most horrific thing anyone can do,” Castorino said. “Sam has overcome every horror story you could possibly imagine. He was shot at close range by a friend in the abdomen [in 2020-21], he was out of school for over a month, he had to deal with the COVID virtual thing without access to Wi-Fi. Last year he came down from a jump shot at practice and shattered his leg.

“He is an amazing person, he really, really is. Everyone in this building has seen him grow and flourish. He does everything possible to make everyone around him happy, he’s the vision of perseverance. I can’t believe this is happening to him.”