Rome forfeit alters tourney seeding

Published 11:22 pm Saturday, February 10, 2007

On Friday night, the top-seeded Rome Wolves finished their regular season with a convincing 72-53 victory over Ridgeland.

The Wolves’ win meant Northwest Whitfield’s Bruins, who defeated Gordon Central, 71-51, locked up the No. 3 seed and Ridgeland No. 4 for the Region 7-4A tournament that starts Monday at Dalton High School.

But the math didn’t add up.

The Wolves played 26 games during the season, one over the limit set by the Georgia High School Association.

Dalton coach Mike Duffie talked with GHSA executive director Ralph Swearngin by telephone Saturday afternoon and was told Rome would have to forfeit the victory over Ridgeland.

While that did not affect Rome’s No. 1 seed, it caused Ridgeland and Northwest Whitfield to flip their positions on the bracket. Ridgeland would now be the No. 3 seed and Northwest No. 4.

The Panthers fall into Dalton’s half of the bracket and Northwest moves into Rome’s half.

“On the surface everybody says that ain’t much,” Rome coach Keeth Jones said Saturday. “It’s good for one team. We beat Ridgeland twice. We lost to Northwest once. Dalton beat Ridgeland three times and none of the games were close. Dalton lost to Northwest and beat them in overtime. Who would you rather play? As for us, we did not gain a competitive advantage with the extra game.”

The extra game for Rome came during the Christmas holidays in a tournament played in Florida. The Wolves played their guaranteed two games but won once and that kept them in the tournament for a third game.

“In a national tournament like that, you just don’t pick up your stuff and leave,” Jones said. “The same thing happened to us last year but we were seeded fifth in the (south portion of the region) tournament and nobody said anything.

“Folks have said you have to be accountable, and I understand that. We didn’t willingly schedule 26 games; the extra game in Florida just happened. I don’t really want it to sound like sour grapes, but I just think the whole thing could have been handled differently.”

Region coaches meet today at 2 p.m. at Dalton, but altering the outcome of Rome’s forfeit seems unlikely.

“I believe at this point it will stand up after having talked with (Swearngin),” Duffie said. “Coach Jones told me by phone (Saturday) that he played 26 games. Their record was 20-6. I didn’t know quite what to do with that. In the end, GHSA made the decision for us. They cleared it up right away.”

Northwest coach Ryan Richards didn’t agree with the ruling.

“If they have to forfeit a game, it seems to me like it should be a non-region game,” Richards said. “We’re going to make our call to the GHSA through the athletic director and verify this is what will happen. If that’s the ruling, then that’s the way it will be and we’ll worry about that first-round game on Tuesday.

If the forfeit stands, Rome will go into the region tournament with a 19-7 record and 12-2 region mark. Ridgeland’s overall record will be 16-7 and 9-5 in the region.

Dalton has a 17-8 record overall and finished 11-3 against region competition.

“This could make our guys really motivated to go up there and play really well,” said Jones, who is in his second year at Rome.

Jones previously coached in Florida and said when similar situations came up coaches got together and hashed out their differences.

The Bruins will play the winner of Ringgold and Gordon Central at 5:30 p.m. on Tuesday. If they win, the Wolves await on Thursday at 7:30 p.m. in the semifinals.

Ridgeland plays at 8:30 p.m. Tuesday against the Southeast-LFO winner. If the Panthers win, they will face Dalton at 7:30 p.m. on Friday in the semifinals.

All semifinalists — boys and girls — earn berths in the state tournament.

Admission to the tournament is $5 and a tournament pass can be purchased for $25. There will be two sessions on championship Saturday.