GREENSBORO — Even after taking on the N.C. High School Athletic Association and getting some relief from a court, Gabe King's eligibility remains as much a mystery this week as it has all summer long.

But King's murky future could come into focus when lawyers for the football player and the NCHSAA return to court Thursday to argue whether one of the state's top defensive recruits will be able to play his senior year.

King received a judge's blessing Friday to practice with the Northern Guilford High School football team. Absolution came in the form of a temporary restraining order from Guilford County District Court judge Angela Foster, who momentarily freed the defensive end from the NCHSAA's ruling that banned King from playing sports his senior year until a preliminary hearing Sept. 9.

On Tuesday, lawyers for the NCHSAA filed a motion of their own seeking to have Foster's ruling dissolved. A judge is scheduled to hear the case Thursday.

If the NCHSAA's request is granted, King, who began practicing with Northern this week, will be ineligible again until his original restraining order case is heard Sept. 9.

Lawyers from both sides offered contrasting strategies Tuesday. At issue is whether or not King, who transferred from Page to Northern in April, submitted false information when he filled out a Guilford County Schools athletics participation form in July 2008.

King attended Page for two years before his parents, Robert and Patricia Hughes, moved to Winston-Salem in 2008. Instead of moving with them, King moved into his adult sister's apartment within Page's school district.

In July 2008, King listed his sister's address as his residence on a participation form. Chris Justice, King's attorney, said the form is ambiguous.

"He was not falsifying an address," said Justice. "He put the address where he was living. (The form is) certainly ambiguous enough that a reasonable person could interpret it the way (King) did."

Justice also said one of the eligibility rules listed on the participation form states that a student athlete "must live with your parents or legal custodian ..."

"A legal custodian isn't the same as a legal guardian," said Justice.

King has admitted forging his mother's signature on the participation form. Justice said that's not fraud because Hughes has since said the information in the form is true.

The NCHSAA stripped King of his eligibility last spring after Page officials said his legal residence was in doubt.

Jim Maxwell, the Durham attorney representing the NCHSAA, said Tuesday both sides agree King was not living with his parents nor did a court grant custody of King to anyone.

"Either of those is grounds to make him ineligible at any school in the state," Maxwell said. "I don't think this is very confusing."

King's suit also raises a question as to whether Page's coaching staff was aware he was living with his sister in Greensboro during the 2008 season. According to court documents, Page coach Kevin Gillespie and Norman Weeks told King on July 29 he needed to fill out the form in their presence and leave it with them. Justice stopped short Tuesday of saying Gillespie and Weeks pressured King into filling out the form the way he did.

"I'm not suggesting the coaches told Gabe to sign anything," Justice said. "But the fact remains they handed him a blank form and the form was filled out without Gabe or the coaches ever leaving the room. It seems a bit of willful blindness on (the coaches') part to suggest they didn't know what was happening."

Gillespie declined to comment.

Contact Robert Bell at 373-7055 or robert.bell@news-record.com