News
Hocking Hawks Forced To Forfeit Wins
By: Susan Tebben
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The first season of the Hocking College Hawks’ football team won’t be a winning one, based on violations of the National Junior College Athletic Association.
A representative from the NJCAA confirmed that the team was required to forfeit their wins due to violations related to the players.
“Hocking failed to certify the eligibility of their student-athletes prior to participation,” Mark Krug, media representative for the association, said in an email to WOUB on Thursday evening.
The team will lose four wins on the season, which were against Ohio Northern University’s JV squad, Mount St. Joseph of Cincinnati, Wright State University and Kentucky Christian University’s JV team. The biggest win was logged against Kentucky Christian, with a 47-2 defeat. Of the other games, three were recorded losses and two were cancelled, according to the college website.
The losses are each marked as a “forfeited loss” on the page listing the Hawks’ record.
The college initially had no comment about the violations, but later sent WOUB a press release. No signature was provided on the press release, other than “Hocking College.”
The release stated that athletic director Joe Wakeman and assistant director, the head football coach and Hocking College police chief, Al Matthews, “will assure full compliance with all NJCAA rules and regulations as the program grows.”
“Hocking College’s first football season produced great results for the team and for the schools’ spirit,” the release stated.
Hocking College President Betty Young was quoted in the release as saying the year was a “year of many first(s), including learning all the rules and regulations associated with being members of the NJCAA.”
“The college was required to submit to NJCAA student-athlete eligibility for those playing football prior to the student-athlete participating in games,” according to the release. “Not all paperwork was completed prior to the deadline and as a result, although the Hocking football team successfully defeated the four JV teams they played, NJCAA has required the college to post those games as ‘forfeited.'”
The college now states through the release that it is “much better prepared and in full compliance with NJCAA regulations as we begin our basketball season.”
An NJCAA audit of student-athletes for men’s and women’s basketball has been done successfully, the release stated.
A call and email to Matthews was unreturned as of Thursday evening.
A public records request regarding the violations was sent to Hocking College by WOUB.