A star Vancouver athlete who moved to Seattle to attend Eastside Catholic, a private suburban religious school, was ruled ineligible to play basketball for his new team.
Drew Urquhart, a Grade 12 student, moved to Seattle in the summer and said he is living in Bellevue with a team mate. In an interview Monday, he said he transferred to Washington State for academic reasons and to make a transition to the U.S. since he’d committed to play basketball next year for the University of Vermont, an NCAA Division 1 school in the American East Conference.
On Wednesday morning, the Eastside Catholic director of athletics told the Courier that Urquhart was ineligible to play basketball. The head of the school, Sister Mary E. Tracy said Urquhart was accepted at Eastside Catholic as a student but not as an athlete.
“It was a decision we made last spring when we accepted Drew,” she said. “We accepted him with our understanding that he was not going to be eligible [to play basketball].”
Sister Tracy, who is the president and head of the school, said Urquhart’s family had hired a lawyer.
Urquhart said he was training with the team and expected to be among the starting five.
The executive director of the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association (WIAA, which is Washington’s equivalent to B.C. School Sports) said Urquhart’s eligibility was disputed.
“Essentially, the issue is the fact that there is some recruitment issues involved here,” said Mike Colbrese. “That’s all I can comment on at this time.”
Neither the family’s lawyer nor Urquhart could be reached for comment Wednesday afternoon.
B.C. School Sports was not involved in this eligibility case.
[This story was updated Dec. 10 to reflect the correct name of the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association. It was incorrectly identified as the Washington Interscholastic Athletic Association.]
