Maurice Nelson wins appeal for athletic eligibility

Don’t you hate it when you read a newspaper article to get clarity and you end up more confused than before you read it? It usually happens when a story is rushed to print, or bad writing, or choppy editing, or not enough facts, or the story is just plain confusing by nature.

Well, the Nelson wins appeal for athletic eligibility article was a confusing read for me.

The point of the article was to announce that Chester High School student Maurice Nelson was granted an additional year of athletic eligibility as a fifth year high school student. Obviously, according to the rules that govern these decisions Nelson qualified to play sports in his fifth year but if it took a hearing to figure this out, I imagine the outcome could have gone either way.

So, here are the points that confuse me:

• Why was he participating in football practice if he wasn’t eligible to play sports until the hearing result?
• Since he probably was ‘recruited’ to attend his freshman year at Cardinal O’Hara, didn’t they test his academic abilities to place him in the proper classes so he could be eligible to play sports? Did his grades disqualify him from sports or did he leave the school?
• If he attended high school for five years, what classes are left to take?
• Since I only played 3 years of high school basketball and 2 years of high school baseball, could I have petitioned to extend my high school career a couple more years?
• What hardships did Nelson experience that factored into this decision?

I will share that as a substitute teacher, I had Nelson in my class a couple times as an 8th grader at Parry school.  By far, he was the smartest kid in his small class. (If he wasn’t I wouldn’t have mentioned it). His father, Pete Nelson, was one of only two fathers that came to Parent Teacher conferences both times which was extremely impressive and showed how much he cared about his son’s performance in school.

However, I’m not sure how prepared Nelson was for the rigors of O’Hara and like so many kids who get recruited out of their element, these type of issues are far too common. 

I am happy for Maurice Nelson. He is truly one of the nice kids from Chester who, in my opinion, enjoys being a kid more than being the center of attention that his talents have forced him to endure. Having the dubious distinction of always being compared to an NBA All-Star brother can’t be easy, but with another year in sports and a little more dedication to working out, he can at least be a successful Division One basketball player.