Friday, September 4, 2009
GREENSBORO — Northern High football player Gabe King was sent back to the sidelines Thursday after a Superior Court judge dissolved a court order that had temporarily restored King's eligibility.
Judge Ed Gregory's ruling prevents King from practicing with the Nighthawks until a preliminary hearing next week. That's when lawyers representing King and the N.C. High School Athletic Association — the group that originally stripped King of his eligibility — will meet in a court to debate the player's future.
The NCHSAA stripped King of his eligibility in March, ruling he had falsified residency information. King's eligibility was restored last week by district court Judge Angela Foster, who granted a temporary restraining order allowing him to practice at Northern until both sides could meet next week.
Gregory dissolved that order Thursday. He said lawyers for the NCHSAA should have been notified of last week's hearing so they could have argued their case to Foster.
Chris Justice, King's lawyer, said that the senior should be allowed to continue to practice with the Nighthawks until his preliminary hearing. The NCHSAA requires a football player to practice with his teammates for nine days before he can compete.
Since Foster's ruling, King has practiced three days with Northern.
“There is absolute irreparable harm of not letting him practice,” Justice said. “(King) is sought by a number of the nation's top colleges as a football recruit. Every night that he's not allowed to play, to showcase his talent to those national schools, jeopardizes his chances.” King, who is 6 feet, 6 inches tall and weighs 253 pounds, plays defensive tackle.
Durham lawyer Jim Maxwell, representing the NCHSAA, said King isn't being hurt.
“He's going through conditioning on his own right now, and we're certainly not trying to prevent him from having his day in court,” Maxwell said. “He'll get that, too.”
Gregory's ruling pushes back King's possible return to football by at least three weeks. After next week's Sept. 11 game against Northwest Guilford, the Nighthawks don't play again until Sept. 25 against Williams. Should King receive a favorable ruling at next week's preliminary hearing, he could play in that game.
King played at Page in 2008. That summer, King's parents moved to Winston-Salem. Instead of joining them, King moved to his adult sister's apartment within the Page school district — the same address he wrote down when filling out a participation form.
The NCHSAA argues that King's parents did not transfer legal guardianship of their son to their daughter, making him ineligible to attend Page.
King's parents moved back to Greensboro within Northern's attendance zone earlier this year. King transferred to Northern in April.
