Temporary restraining order restores Cook’s five forfeited wins

A Superior Court judge issued a temporary restraining order Friday to prevent the Georgia High School Association from forcing Cook High’s football team to forfeit five games over an ineligible player.

GHSA executive director Robin Hines did not respond immediately to confirm whether the GHSA would challenge the order. The last time a court overruled a GHSA decision, in 2018, the GHSA delayed the Class A baseball playoffs four days until it got the matter settled.

The Cook drama came to a head Oct. 18, when the GHSA declared a Cook transfer student, Kyree Fuller, ineligible for athletics for one year and made Cook forfeit the five victories in which Fuller played. The punishments, which also included a $750 fine to the school, threatened Cook’s 23-season streak of making the playoffs.

The GHSA requires that transfer students sit out sports for an academic year unless they meet certain requirements, such as making a legal move into their new school districts without undue influence from the receiving school or coaching staff.

Most transfers meet those conditions, and the GHSA approved Fuller’s eligibility in August. But two months later, the GHSA revoked Fuller’s eligibility, presumably when more information came to light, but Alapaha Circuit judge Clayton A. Tomlinson, who issued Friday’s ruling, stated that the GHSA had no provision in its bylaws to punish an athlete or a team retroactively once the GHSA declares the athlete eligible.

Fuller, who transferred to Cook in January from Lowndes High, according to the ruling, is now eligible under the restraining order.

The GHSA on its website has restored Cook’s victories, making the Hornets’ record 7-2 overall and 5-0 in Region 1-2A. The Hornets beat Fitzgerald on Friday to clinch the region championship, if things stand.

In 2018, the GHSA postponed the first round of Class A Public baseball playoffs to allow it time to challenge an injunction issued by a Charlton County judge. Charlton County High was forced to forfeit a baseball game that cost the team a region title and the No. 2 overall seed in the playoffs. An appeals court backed the GHSA.