San Diego High Player’s Eligibility Before Judge

At the heart of a scheduled Feb. 19 Superior Court hearing in front of Judge Lawrence Kapiloff to determine the status of San Diego High basketball player John McKenna will be the interpretation of San Diego Section rules 215 and 225 and a San Diego Unified School District rule that dictates the legal residence of an unmarried minor is the residence of the “parent with whom he shares an abode.”

It doesn’t say parents.

Therein lies the catch. The boys’ basketball team at San Diego forfeited 13 victories because McKenna, who lives with his father in an apartment near Ninth and University, transferred from Madison to SDHS in September.

According to rule 215 in the section Green Book, an athlete shall remain eligible in this circumstance “because of a bona fide change of residence of the student’s parents or guardian from one school attendance area to another.”

It says parents.

Rule 225 states that if two schools are under the same governing board--the San Diego Unified School District, in this case--the student can be eligible if he meets the eligibility requirements of that district.

McKenna’s dad, Bob, who got a restraining order to allow his son to continue playing, is the singular parent to whom the SDUSD rule applies.

The Cavers (2-17, 2-4) were 1-1 without McKenna, a starting guard, but beat Madison 101-63 on Friday. He scored 13 points against his former school in his first game since the restraining order was obtained. The ruling next Tuesday will determine if McKenna is eligible to participate in the section playoffs. However, the forfeits won’t be reversed.

If McKenna is ruled ineligible, San Diego’s victories since the restraining order went into effect will also be forfeited.

San Diego Coach Dennis Kane said McKenna transferred for academic reasons.

A 3.66 student who wants to attend Stanford, McKenna transferred to San Diego so he could be part of the school’s International Baccalaureate program, Kane said. McKenna also wanted improve his Scholastic Aptitude Test score in English through San Diego’s Writing Academy.

“His dad thought it would be good to go to San Diego and bring up his (son’s) writing skills so he would have an opportunity to go to Stanford,” Kane said. “(Universities such as) Harvard and Stanford look favorably on the International Baccalaureate program.”

Will the judge look favorably on McKenna, though?

Add forfeit: Rancho Buena Vista Coach John O’Neill showed some conviction when he suspended his two leading scorers for participating in a fight that was not covered by the section’s “Ethics in Sports” policy.

O’Neill brought up junior varsity player Mike Micknius for the varsity game against Vista after he had participated in the junior varsity game earlier in the evening. No state or section rules prohibit a player from competing for two teams in one day--athletic director Ric Bethel talked to the section office twice to confirm it--but there is a North County Conference rule against it. By the time O’Neill was advised of the infraction by Bethel, during the second quarter, Micknius had already participated.

He scored five points in the four-point victory, which was later forfeited by RBV.

“We only kept him on the JV team for that one game,” O’Neill said. “We didn’t tell (junior varsity) Coach Chuck Lamb until after Monday’s practice and it only gave him one day to replace the kid. We didn’t feel he had enough time. That’s why we checked to see if it was OK to play both games.”

Principal Alan Johnson and Bethel advised other league principals.

“We could have kept quiet about it and nobody would have ever known, because I’m sure Vista wouldn’t have turned us in,” O’Neill said. “(But) why try to deceive anyone if you did something wrong? At some point, somebody would have discovered it--maybe down the line--and then everybody looks bad because we hid it.”

Trivia time: Poway High’s wrestling team goes for its ninth 3-A San Diego Section title in 10 years on Saturday. In 1986--when they won their only state title--the Titans were disqualified from the section title because a wrestler was ruled ineligible. Name the second-place team that was awarded the title a week later when the wrestler was discovered to be competing up three weight classes instead of the allowable two.

Got her number: As a junior varsity girls’ basketball coach at Mt. Carmel, Tracey Johnson had a 41-5 record, but was 1-5 vs. Poway. So far in her varsity career, Johnson is 16-2 overall, 1-2 vs. Poway.

Anthem: Southwest High quarterback Andy Quinn, whose long hair gives him a rock-and-roll appearance, played the national anthem on his electric guitar prior to a Southwest-Sweetwater boys’ basketball game. It had Jimi Hendrix overtones but remained as traditional as you can get with an electric guitar. Quinn is the leader of The Andy Quinn Band, which played rock and roll music during warmups.

Sure shot: How good is Christina Adams of Granite Hills from three-point range? This season, she has made 74 of 187 (40%). By contrast, Vista’s Alicia Gerken is shooting 40%, but just 35 of 88.

Trivia answer: Since 1982, the only team other than Poway to win a 3-A wrestling title is Mt. Miguel, which finished 94 1/2 points behind Poway’s then-record 277.

Media alert: Mt. Carmel athletic director Frank Andruski left no stone unturned in advising The Times that the Slam-N-Jam Contest, the high school slam dunk contest, is March 15 at 7:30 p.m. at Sundevil gym. Andruski sent notices to nine staff writers. Anyone interested should contact the athletic director at their school or call Mt. Carmel at 484-1180.