Cook to appeal before GHSA board of trustees to overturn forfeits

Cook High will make a final appeal today before the Georgia High School Association’s board of trustees to overturn five forfeits assessed to its football team.

The forfeits, announced Oct. 20, were temporarily restored to victories Friday by a Georgia Superior Court, which issued a restraining order.

GHSA executive director Robin Hines said Monday that the GHSA plans to appeal the court’s ruling unless the trustees move in favor of Cook. Hines had no further comment.

The GHSA this month determined that Cook used an ineligible player, who was identified in court documents as Kyree Fuller.

Fuller transferred from Lowndes High in January. One of Cook’s assistant coaches was on Lowndes’ staff for the 2022 season. GHSA bylaw 1.72 requires that a transfer student sit out a year if he follows a coach to his new school.

The GHSA had approved Fuller’s transfer in August but later declared him ineligible when a rival school, Fitzgerald, notified the GHSA of Fuller’s connection to the former Lowndes coach.

In issuing the restraining order, Alapaha Circuit judge Clayton A. Tomlinson stated Friday that the GHSA had no provision in its bylaws to punish an athlete or a team retroactively once the GHSA declares the athlete eligible.

With five forfeits, Cook needed to win its final three games – including an upset of defending region champion Fitzgerald last week – to salvage its playoff streak that dates to 2000. Cook is 2-0 since the forfeits were announced, including a 14-7 victory over Fitzgerald.

If the forfeits remain victories, Cook (7-2, 5-0) will win the Region 1-2A title. If the forfeits are restored, Cook would need to beat Worth County (5-4, 3-2) on Friday and possibly wait out standings tiebreakers to be among the four playoff qualifiers.

“The situation in our program over the past weeks has brought us closer as a staff and as a team,” Cook coach Byron Slack told GHSF Daily on Sunday. “I have never been prouder to be associated with a group of kids. When we got the news last Friday [Oct. 20 announcing the five forfeits] it would have been easy for them to not perform and fall short. And I don’t think anyone would have blamed them. But they went out and played a great game versus Dodge County [and won 27-7]. The kids and their families have represented Cook County with dignity and class.”

Slack would not comment on specifics of the case.

“I don’t know the actual process and what comes next,” he said. “I have turned the situation over to our administrative staff, and they will let me know the next steps to be taken. As a coach, I have to focus on getting our kids ready to play our next game.”