DeKalb County relieves two of coaching duties after forfeits
Lithonia and Stone Mountain were found guilty of using ineligible football players by the Georgia High School Association on Thursday.
The two DeKalb County schools must forfeit a total of eight wins — knocking both out of playoff contention. Also, Lithonia head coach Earl White and Stone Mountain assistant Clifford Browning were “relieved of their coaching duties” related to the violations, according to DeKalb County spokesman Dale Davis.
“We take great pride in our athletic programs and are very disappointed to learn of these violations,” wrote Davis in a press release. “All appropriate steps are being taken to correct the violations and prevent this from happening again.”
The forfeits turned out to be good news for Miller Grove and Chamblee, which will play each other on Friday for Region 6-AAAA’s fourth and final berth in the state playoffs. Southwest DeKalb, Marist and Tucker — none of whom were affected by the forfeits — have already qualified for the postseason.
Prior to the GHSA ruling, Stone Mountain was on the brink of qualifying for the playoffs under first-year coach Dante Ferguson with a 6-3 record. Stone Mountain played one ineligible player and will forfeit wins over Miller Grove, Forsyth Central, Lakeside and North Springs — dropping the team’s record to 1-8.
Stone Mountain retained its 20-19 win over Cedar Grove on Aug. 28 because it said the ineligible player did not play in that contest.
Meanwhile, Lithonia was found guilty of using two ineligible players and will forfeit wins over Forsyth Central, Chamblee, Miller Grove and Lakeside, along with paying a $700 fine to the GHSA. Lithonia’s record goes from 4-5 to 0-9 under White, who was in his second year as coach.
Also, the Lithonia-Stone Mountain game on Sept. 25 will go down as a rare “double forfeit” — 0-0 final score, with both teams awarded losses in the head-to-head competition.
Neither White nor Ferguson could be reached for comment, while DeKalb County athletics director Ron Sebree declined to speak.
The GHSA and DeKalb County officials did not reveal the names of the ineligible players.
Anyone have any inside info?
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132 comments Add your comment
Shibbermetimbers
November 7th, 2009
1:23 pm
The truth
Much of what you say is true, but there are a few inaccuracies.
1. Coach Browning was hired away from Lithonia by the new head coach at Stone Mountain to become the defensive coordinator. The new head coach at SMHS was Browning’s defensive coordinator during his senior year at Lithonia back in the late 90s. Browning wasn’t trying to be the head coach.
2. The player in question was cleared to play based on the information his parents turned in to Stone Mountain High School. The GHSA called it a bonafide move. I looked it up on their website. Had nothing to do with AYP. The player was eligible to play at Lithonia and kept his eligibility to play at Stone Mountain because it was a bonafide move according to the paperwork submitted by the parents to the school.
3.
DGXIV
November 7th, 2009
1:49 pm
To me this is very, very wrong. If these two schools should have to foreit their wins, they should do a full investigation of every school in dekalb county because I know for a fact that there are more than just two schools using ineligible players for their sports team, let alone in school period
janice
November 7th, 2009
2:19 pm
It is time to close this blog. Enough has been said.
Former lithonia parent
November 7th, 2009
2:26 pm
I’m reading all this stuff I cant understand some of you people. Do you people not see that coach White started all of this If Lithonia would have beat Stone Mountain this issue would have never came up. Coach White has hurt Dekalb county with this why didn’t he tell on Miller Grove, or stehpenson, MLK, all these schools have formr Lithonia football players on there team. When you impact players live the way coach Browning has I dont blame any parent for wanting to take there kid to the school were he is at. If a parent moves there son to another school thats not on the coach thats on the parent, Lithonia is a bad school. Liike I said befor coach Browning is a great coach. I cant beleave more more parents have not step up to support this man. As much as he has done for the kids at Lithonia and Stone Mountain. Coach Browning if you read this you have a lot of people on your side praying for you.
Former lithonia parent
November 7th, 2009
2:27 pm
I agree janice
why
November 7th, 2009
2:28 pm
Enter your comments here
Parent with SWD Pride!
November 7th, 2009
5:42 pm
Congrats to the 2009 SWD Football team and Coaching staff for a great regular season!!!!!! To the playoff we go! PANTHER PRIDE ROCKS THE HOUSE!!!!!!!!
cpirate
November 7th, 2009
6:15 pm
Enter your comments here
cpirate
November 7th, 2009
6:28 pm
GoldenLion, you are a liar. I was on the coaching at SMMS on 2004. That year SMMS had a young who started the year with SMMS. All of a sudden he withdrew from Stone Mountain and enrolled at Tucker Middle. Tucker’s coach was on the SMMS coaching staff the year before. After Stone Mountain had 3 touchdowns (consecutive) called back, Tucker’s coach charged SMMS head coach. I stepped in between them (Coach Ferguson did not know what was going on). The Tucker coach threw a punch and knocked my glasses off. Fortunately, for me, his punch was like his team…weak!
As far as the players, on both sides, they shook hands and walked off the field.
You are correct, Tucker would when the State championship with those kids. there was 5 Stone Mountain players on that Tucker team. Where did they live/ You guessed it, Stone mountain. Also, Tucker’s leading tackler and rusher on that state championship team lives in Gwinnett county.
dunwoody
November 7th, 2009
7:09 pm
Keep in mind that some of this is unique (in GA anyway) to DeKalb because we have so many (thousands) students who are attending schools other than their home schools. This may be because they were grandfathered in when M to M ended (though I think the last of those students graduated last year), they transferred due to AYP (and remember the school may have made AYP recently, but may not have in the past and the student may have transferred then, and my favorite, the very vague undefined administrative transfers. Lump in another few thousand who are probably using fake papers to enroll in other schools and boom, no one is from anywhere.
In today’s paper, there was an article about the number of GA players playing at Tenn. Tech. Two were Dunwoody grads — one listed their hometown as Atlanta, the other as St. Mountain. Neither ever lived in the attendance zone, both had ended up at Dunwoody through M to M starting in elementary school!
Fan of Coach Browning
November 7th, 2009
8:27 pm
Coach Browning is a great coach and good guy all around. He has a genuine interest in mentoring young men and everything he does is motivated by seeing our young men succeed. More than anything he is REAL, so the things he puts into our youth are straight from the hip and to the point. He has the ability to discipline the most undisciplined student/athlete. We need more people/coaches like him. I know him personally and he is definitely someone I’m glad I know. I know the investigation has to blow over before any decision is made concerning reinstatement, but he will be an asset to any program that will look past this story and give him another chance. SMHS/DEKALB county should let him return when all this is over.
The Good Thing
November 7th, 2009
9:22 pm
Dekalb county did lok into the other dekalb county schools as soon as they found these two schools guilty. They didn’t find inelligable players in any of the other schools.
Again, these forfeits didn’t effect the playoffs at all. Chamblee still would have been the fourth seed. The coaches involved have alread been punished. Leave it alone and move on. Good luck to all Dekalb County schools in the playoffs!
ProudPirate
November 7th, 2009
10:41 pm
THANKS TO THE TRUTH!
Again, many students were affected by the decisions of adults! It does not matter who or what-the ruling has been made. As usual not everything has been published in the media outlets!
Yes, many things have happened in the past for DeKalb County-water under the bridge! I am a former Chamblee parent-does that still qualify my child as a “THUG”? May I add, we do not have “THUGS” as coaches!!!! Our new coaching staff returned with many expectations of OUR KIDS. They are now motivated to be an access to the community through leadership, religion, academics and true pride for themselves. Maybe if some of the former coaches had used this as a practice then we would’ve had a great season b4 now!!!! However, I do understand you receive more attention for negative things than you would for doing positive things.
May GOD bless all that felt the need to blog and remember “THE PIRATES ARE STILL STANDING!”
A Proud Pirate
stonepirate
November 8th, 2009
12:06 am
stonemountain is a whole team so ghsa look at tucker u don’t know gwinnet student tranfers to tucker . people say that tucker is not cheating but schools r getting all of this players to play.stonemountain micheal gibert ran about 10 touchdowns but no care about it.stonemountain has a wining record in my books but LITHONA COACH WHITE NEEDS HELP N GOOD 4 LITHONA FOR RUING OUR SEASON.
stonepirate
November 8th, 2009
12:08 am
I’M SORRY BUT STONE MOUNTAIN IS BETTER THAN ANY SCHOOL IN GA
stonepirate
November 8th, 2009
12:10 am
FAN OF COACH BROWNING IS A JERK AND LAIR HE/SHE NEED HELP
Fan of Coach Browning
November 8th, 2009
11:31 am
StonePirate,
How am I a jerk and a liar? Is it because you are young and dont fully understand Coach Browning’s methods? Young people dont fully understand what an adult is trying to do for them until they become adults, then it all makes sense. Where was I wrong and others back me up on this if you agree/disagree. You dont really know Coach Browning if you think I dont know what I am talking about. But help me understand you. What did I lie about? And does it make me a jerk for seeing the good in Coach Browning? You can’t possibly be from Stone Mountain if you think I need help. I know tons of Lithonia kids that wish they had Coach Browning as their coach again.
Piratefan
November 8th, 2009
11:39 am
The Good Thing,
Stone Mountain would have been the fourth seed regardless if you read today’s article about Chamblee’s unlikely path to the playoffs. So long story short, WE GOT SCREWED! I hate it for our boys. They worked their @$$e$ off and the thanks they get for it all.
KHS Alumni
November 8th, 2009
12:00 pm
The Muscogee County School District (Columbus schools) covers their a** by having magnet schools. If you make decent grades you can choose the school that best fits for you. Carver is a Science/Math magnet. Columbus High is a Liberal Arts College Preparatory Magnet. It is the only way a city our size with 10 high schools can compete in sports on the state level. Sadly all of the other schools suffer. My alma mater is Kendrick High. Since winning the state title in 91 they havent had a winning season. Shaw was the school of choice for many of years for football players. Columbus is and always will be the choice for baseball. Carver is now the school the football players choose. Who wouldnt as they have an allstar coaching staff. Its not fair but I guess I would rather see 1 local team dominate than for all of them to suck. We have way too many schools. Imagine if Valdosta had more than two schools.
The Good Thing
November 8th, 2009
4:44 pm
Piratefan,
Stone Mountain would not have been the 4th seed. Even Stone Mountain fans should know that they would have probably lost to Southwest Dekalb (as every other team in the region did), as they did, regardless of what happened with the forfeits.
With that being the case, chamblee, stone mountain, and lithonia would have all been tied for 4th with a 5-4 region record. The tie-breaker is points against in the games the three teams tied played against each other. Chamblee wins that tie-breaker. Check the numbers yourself or ask someone who has a clue and they will tell you that i am right.
So, after friday night, regardless of the forfeits Chamblee is the 4th seed.
With that, all i am trying to say is that the forfeits didn’t actually effect the outcome of either of the schools seasons. All they did was change some numbers on paper. The players can still be proud of their seasons and know that the 4th playoff spoy in their region was decided on the field and not by the mistakes of one or two adults
Decatur 4 Life
November 9th, 2009
12:27 pm
Red Elephant
This isn’t an essay, although it’s a little harder to understand. Blogs can be written in shorthand, slang or anything else they can think of.
Decatur 4 Life
November 9th, 2009
12:30 pm
Is this writing or grammar class? Who cares as long as I can read it.
Decatur 4 Life
November 9th, 2009
12:39 pm
golden lion
Do you really think they want to go to Pius? I doubt it.
Hooked on Ebonix
November 9th, 2009
3:06 pm
Decatur 4 Life = The Failure of the Public School System
Decatur 4 Life
November 9th, 2009
3:13 pm
Call it what you want but you can read it. That’s my point.
jake sneed
November 9th, 2009
10:36 pm
all of you fool’s,suck nut’s.
pirate pride
November 10th, 2009
9:28 am
Its so crazy that ppl really dont kno whats goin on . Many of you ppl are lookin inside out and dont even have a clue whats goin. If anybody goin to speak the truth then you need to speak but if not dont talk bout what you dont kno.Im not goin to speak bad on anybody well i dont want to speak bad on anybody but lol but we all kno coahc earl white is really full of it. As long as coach white been at lithonia everthing has been goin wrong plenty of parents been mad at hinm for over charging the childrens for bs dues . Who pays 400$ and dont get any peneny they pay for the ppl at lithonia . Coach white supposed to cares so much bout the players but he put his self in sistuation to hurt his team and stone mountain so what type of stuff that. Now coach browing he has never did anything to hurt any of the students or football player . I have witness with my eys he has help plenty of students get into college one that have talk bout him one that really didnt deserved it but him been a coach and keepin his word he help them out any way . Lithonia when 0-8 in 2007 in coach browing put 8 players in school , and in 2008 2-7 and put 9 players in school not coach white so some off you people do the math coach browing has open some off the students heart and some of the people he has never trust anybody they have trust coach browing cause they kno his past and kno he is a good man and he will never do anything to hurt them . IF you go to lithonia highschool or even stone mountain high i promise you if you ask any of they football players who is goin to help them gett in school they will say coach browing not coach white and students at stone mountain will say all there coach beacuse they care but us . But dont judge stone mountain or LIthonia highs school Because all something of us want to do is play football and go to college and make somthng of ourself so good luck to everbody and i pray for some of you people and most of all i pray for coach whit Pirate Pride
stonepirates
November 10th, 2009
6:12 pm
fan of coach browning don’t know any thing ,kids at stone mountain worked hard and still don’t get credit I seen some games but u know what Ghsa need to understand they r not going to stop investigating all school in deklb
fresh
November 11th, 2009
2:53 pm
All of you, please quit crying! I am a Cross Keys graduate. I would rather win with Ray Lewis playing middle linebacker and have to forfeit all 10 wins, then take the beating week to week that I played through. Dekalb County rules.
smhs student
November 12th, 2009
4:28 pm
wow i knew something was fishy to see the pirates get so far this year. Last year they was crappy . It was too good to be true for them
Piratefan
November 19th, 2009
4:06 pm
If you smell fish, you need to check that big opening under your nose. Loser.
A caring Lithonia parent
December 3rd, 2009
11:49 pm
First of all…Im tired of peope making statements that it was all Coach White fault.. Not only was his fault, it was Coach Browning fault too!! I have a son that plays for Lithonia and he will be graduating this year and if it wasnt for Coach Browning for many college football programs interested in my son to attend their school next year, he has been a blessing to me, my son and other players on Lithonia and Stone Mountain and even though he got into some trouble, he is still helping out other kids!! But…he is at fault too just as Coach White!! I hope that the county admistration look into the other powerhouse schools that maybe having this same problem..believe me..Lithonia High and Stone Mountain Hign are not the only schools that are in violations!! This probably wouldve never happen if Coach Browning never took players at Lithonia over to Stone Mountain!! Both coaches were selfish and deserve to be removed from coaching! Like mama says…God dont like ugly!!