Posted: Jun 3, 2010 1:53 PM by Alan Cutler
Updated: Jun 3, 2010 1:53 PM
This doesn't mean either Kentucky or Eric Bledsoe is in any trouble, but the superintendent of Birmingham City Schools will meet with the Alabama High School Athletic Association on Monday to discuss allegations involving Bledsoe and his former coach.
The Birmingham News reports that the New York Times story alleging that Maurice Ford, Bledsoe's high school coach paid several months of his family rent and questions of Bledsoe's academic gains after transferring to Parker High late during his junior year has the Superintendent concerned.
Superintendent Craig Witherspoon wants answers to the "eligibility issues" and "instructional programs with correct processes in place" to prevent future accusations of this nature.
"I want to make sure we have everybody doing what they need to be doing and what they are supposed to be doing," Witherspoon said.
At this point there are no plans to go forward with an investigation on Eric Bledsoe. This is being called a "fact finding" meeting.
The Birmingham News is also reporting that the head of a citizens advocacy group for Parker High School claims two high-level Birmingham school district officials told him that basketball star Eric Bledsoe was academically ineligible to play his senior season, but those officials dispute that account.
Roderick Rox, president of the Parker High School Foundation, said City Athletics Director George Moore and then Superintendent Barbara Allen told him before Bledsoe's senior season that the player's grades from his previous high school, Hayes, made him ineligible. Rox said Moore told him again this week that Bledsoe should have been ineligible during his season senior at Parker.
Asked this week if Bledsoe was academically eligible to play as a senior, Moore replied: "The only thing I can say is when we checked eligibility, we went by the book. We checked grades that were given for him and he did meet the minimum standards."
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