Clearing His Good Name : Sylmar’s Bilal Regains Eligibility After Appeal to City Reveals Mix-Up Over Change of Address

Until about a year ago, the word eligible didn’t mean much to Ibn Bilal. He didn’t spend much time plumbing the depths of its definition.

Bilal, an honor student and a pretty sharp guy in general, knew that eligible bachelors are single men on the loose, that eligible receivers are allowed to catch the football.

You know, eligible. Free and clear, no strings attached. Life’s a green light.

On the other side of the fence, Bilal knew that in eligible guys mostly were those players who couldn’t manage a C average in the classroom, or even the rare player sidelined for breaking interscholastic athletic regulations.

Over the past year, Bilal grew to learn the definition of the word. Particularly the part about violating athletic rules.

Tonight at 8, Bilal will start at free safety and play at running back for Sylmar High in the team’s opener against Chatsworth. Like most of his teammates, Bilal will slap a few yards of tape on his ankles and go about slamming heads. He might get knocked over once or twice in the process, but he is used to getting back up.

Bilal has fought through reams of red tape to re-establish his athletic eligibility, clear his name and earn his place on the Sylmar roster in what might rank as one of the more interesting eligibility cases in recent City Section history.

In a story that had more twists and turns than a sidewinder in a microwave oven, Bilal was ruled ineligible for a violation he did not commit. In short, it was a bum rap, and it nearly cost him a year of eligibility.

City Section Commissioner Hal Harkness called the case “a fiasco.” Cleveland Coach Everett Macy called the matter “a mess.” Bilal? Well, he says he is “just glad it’s finally over.”

As a sophomore at Cleveland in 1990, Bilal was a promising prospect at tailback. He rushed for 402 yards and was a bright light on a team that finished 0-9-1. The following season, after a coaching change, Bilal wasn’t playing as much and he quit the team in midseason. His career almost ended as well.

Soon thereafter, Cleveland officials believed they had discovered that Bilal did not live in the school’s attendance area and reported the violation to Harkness. Administrative wheels started turning.

In a gesture of good faith, the school agreed to forfeit a victory over Monroe and a tie with Taft, games in which Bilal had participated. Harkness thanked Cleveland administrators for being so forthright and went along with the school’s recommendation.

Bilal was in athletic limbo. The nuts and bolts of a nutty case, in chronological order:

* Bilal first attended Cleveland as part of the school’s humanities magnet program, just as his older sister had. In an attempt to get better grades, Bilal last year decided to drop out of the difficult magnet program and into the mainstream academic population. The trouble is, Harkness said, students cannot drop out of a school’s magnet program and enroll in the regular curriculum if they reside in another school’s attendance area.

* Bilal lived in Panorama City, in Monroe’s attendance area, when he enrolled in the magnet program. However, he listed as his home an address in Reseda--which fell within Cleveland’s attendance boundaries--when he attempted to transfer out of the magnet program.

Cleveland administrators phoned the house in Reseda and asked whether Bilal lived there. The answer on the other end was “no.” Cleveland informed Harkness that Bilal had supplied a false address, which carries a one-year suspension from the date of discovery.

“He was basically declared a persona non grata at Cleveland,” Harkness said.

Bilal, somewhat perplexed by the events, was sent to Monroe where he attended the intersession semester last winter. He was granted an opportunity transfer to Sylmar in the spring.

“It was embarrassing because all of my mom’s friends read the paper, everyone at school reads the paper,” Bilal said. “People came up and said, ‘I didn’t know you were the reason we had to forfeit.’ ”

* It took several months for Bilal to clear his name. Last spring, the family presented its side of the case to Harkness. Bilal’s eligibility was restored when a City committee agreed that Bilal’s address had not been falsified and that he had not intentionally circumvented City rules in order to participate in athletics.

It was, simply put, a monumental misunderstanding. Stephanie Taylor, Bilal’s mother, wasn’t about to be brushed off without getting her two cents’ worth.

“She wouldn’t take no for an answer,” said Ibn, who hopes to become a stockbroker. “She went before the board and to see Hal Harkness.”

When Bilal’s parents split up last year, he and his mother moved in with a close family friend in Reseda, which Ibn listed as his address when he tried to drop out of the Cleveland magnet program. His parents soon reconciled, however, and Bilal and his mother moved back to Panorama City.

When Cleveland phoned the family friend in Reseda, the school asked if the Bilals lived there and received a negative--and technically correct--response. The corrective ball started rolling, and it nearly squashed Bilal.

On May 28, after Taylor explained the background details and the clouds of confusion finally parted, the City rules committee reinstated Bilal.

There might be a final chapter: Macy said this week that he plans to petition Harkness to have the Cavalier forfeits reversed. If Macy succeeds, Cleveland’s record would improve from 1-8 to 2-6-1.

As much as anything, Bilal is glad the stigma attached to his name has been removed. But make no mistake, compared to dealing with the eligibility ordeal dodging tacklers will be easy.

“It feels real good to get back out there,” Bilal said, surveying his teammates at work on the practice field. “I can’t wait for Friday night.”