The president of Seattle’s Eastside Catholic failed to appear at a hearing this week to explain why she ruled Vancouver’s Drew Urquhart ineligible to play basketball at the private school.
Sister Mary E. Tracy, also the school’s CEO and a nun with the Holy Names of Jesus and Mary, was absent from a hearing of the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association Monday afternoon in Seattle. The school did have a lawyer present who acted as an observer.
The Urquhart’s family lawyer, David Smith, said the meeting was scheduled on short notice but he was surprised by her absence and will now try to get her statement in written form.
“We were unable to cross-examine her about some of her allegations and we’ve asked [the WIAA] to hold open the hearing so we have a chance to take her deposition and then develop some evidence that proves what she’s saying isn’t true,” Smith told the Courier Tuesday morning.
The WIAA can rule Urquhart is eligible.
In December, Tracy said Urquhart’s enrolment in Eastside Catholic raised too many “red flags” and she determined he could not play basketball.
However, when she made the decision in the springtime, she didn’t inform the family. Later that summer, Urquhart started class and began training with the team.
Smith has argued that Urquhart is a foreign exchange student.
However, Smith said the Urquhart family has now also heard of another concern, one that arises because that the teen athlete is boarding with a member of the school’s board of trustees who is also a significant financial booster.
The accusation is that the host father paid for Urquhart’s tuition. Smith said this is untrue because Drew receives financial aid from the school.
“A lot of these problems could have been fixed if they’d only communicated directly with Drew and his parents about these things. Drew would have considered living at a different host family,” said Smith, who noted the host father wasn’t on the board when Urquhart first applied for financial aid in 2012 near the end of his Grade 10 year.
Urquhart was accepted for financial aid at that time but deferred his enrolment until his Grade 12 year in 2013. In Grade 11 he attended St. George’s, a private Vancouver school.
The Urquhart family met the host family during a basketball tournament in Seattle. Smith said the Urquharts had already decided Eastside Catholic was a good school for their son.
Tuition at Eastside Catholic is US$18,995.
“[The school] had some mechanism for funding the financial aid that [Urquhart] was awarded in 2012,” said Smith. “They then awarded him financial aid in 2013 and from our understanding, all the money that goes to pay for scholarships, largely comes out of charitable donations that are made by donors and there is no way to trace the money to any one person.
“This is the school having a problem with one of its board members who’s also a financial donor to the school. In my view, that’s an internal problem. If they don’t like what [the host father] has done or is doing, they can kick him off the board, they can tell him we don’t want your money, give it back. Don’t blame Drew for the grievances you have with [him].”
Smith expects a WIAA decision in the coming weeks.
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