Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, November 23, 1994 TAG: 9411230111
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: SCOTT BLANCHARD STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The freshman forward won't travel with Tech to San Juan, Puerto Rico, for a three-game tournament during the weekend because he's not eligible yet. And for about the past two weeks, he hasn't practiced. Coach Bill Foster, worried that Browne won't be able to play this season, wants it that way.
``I've got a ball in my room here,'' Browne said Tuesday. ``I guess it's me and the ball.''
The NCAA's eligibility clearinghouse apparently wants one more piece of information about Browne's ninth-grade transcript to close a case it has been working on since August. Tech hopes the OK comes before the Hokies' home opener, Dec.3 against William and Mary.
``I'm not optimistic this'll ever get cleared, it's gone on so long,'' Foster said.
The latest: The NCAA won't acknowledge Browne earned credits for ninth-grade history and biology courses until it gets a letter from the ministry of education in Montreal confirming Browne's school (John Grant High School), not the ministry, had the authority to award the credits. If the NCAA doesn't clear Browne, he'll be considered a Proposition 48 non-qualifier because he will have NCAA-approved credits in only nine of 11 required core courses.
``But then we're not done,'' said Sharon McCloskey, an assistant athletic director at Tech. ``We'll appeal.''
As a non-qualifier, Browne would miss the season and lose a year of eligibility. But it seems he's the least concerned of anyone.
``Everything is straight,'' Browne said. ``They should've taken care of this a long time ago, the NCAA. I know everything's going to be all right.''
McCloskey has worked on Browne's case since the summer and isn't sure what to think. In September, said Hokies assistant basketball coach Dean Keener, the talk among coaches was the clearinghouse was thousands of eligibility applications behind in its work. Kelley Hayden, director of corporate communications for the Iowa City, Iowa-based company that employs the clearinghouse's staff, acknowledged, ``there was a time in the summer when there was a backlog, although it was nowhere near the numbers you're talking about.''
Browne is one casualty. He'll miss three games and possibly more if, as McCloskey worries, the ministry takes its time responding to the NCAA. Bob Sipos, a guidance counselor at Lauren Hill Academy in Montreal - which Browne attended for two years after transferring from John Grant - is trying to make sure that doesn't happen. He hopes to fax a letter to the ministry within a day or two asking it to contact the NCAA.
``It will obviously be marked `extremely urgent,''' Sipos said. ``Then, we'll watch and see.''
In Canada, a ministry of education - comparable to a local school board in the United States - awards credits for core courses such as English, French and math, Sipos said. Individual schools award credits in other subjects. McCloskey said Browne's ninth-grade transcripts show he passed history and biology, but do not show that he received credit for doing so.
John Grant officials confirmed to the NCAA that Browne earned the credits, McCloskey said, but the NCAA didn't take the school's word that it and not the ministry was responsible for awarding the credits.
``The impression I get is a letter from the ministry which delegates these credits to be awarded by local schools will be very significant in the decision,'' Sipos said. ``That's why we're remaining hopeful.''
Hayden hedged, saying, ``I would guess if that letter answers the questions they have raised, then probably they would move forward.''
Meanwhile, Browne bounces a ball in his dorm room, bummed out that he's missing a trip close to his native St.Vincent, West Indies. Foster heads to Puerto Rico today minus a player he wants badly to use. McCloskey ponders traveling to Montreal to speed things up. And Sipos does what he can and waits for the end.
It all started during the summer, when the NCAA became confused because Browne's high school transcripts came from Sir Winston Churchill High School, which since Browne left changed its name to Lauren Hill Academy.
``This will be the death of me, I'm sure,'' Sipos said. ``[If he's cleared] there will be a major celebration, in my household at least.''
To say nothing of the party at Tech.
by CNB