Oh Henry! Fresno State Slips One Past CSUN

Just four days after ending Cal State Northridge’s reign of three consecutive Western Athletic Conference softball championships, Fresno State is defending itself and a controversial NCAA ruling.

Senior center fielder Jenifer Henry, a graduate of Buena High, was declared academically ineligible by the NCAA for Fresno State’s final six regular-season games.

Henry, who is among the third-ranked Bulldogs’ best hitters, unwittingly fell below the minimum 12 units required for college athletes when she dropped a one-unit badminton class.

Diane Milutinovich, a Fresno State associate athletic director, said the error was not discovered for 10 days. By then, Henry played illegally in six games, including four in conference.

Fresno State reported the error to the NCAA, which ruled that Henry would be required to sit out six games--the same number of games she played in while ineligible.

Henry, 23, who dropped badminton because of a congenital back problem, has reenrolled in the class, a Fresno State official said.

“There’s a question in my mind: How do you add a class in the middle of the 14th week?” said Northridge Coach Janet Sherman, whose team finished second behind the Bulldogs in the WAC.

Athletic officials at Northridge are wondering why Fresno State reported to the NCAA instead of the conference, and why the Bulldogs weren’t required to forfeit the six games in which Henry played.

“Normally when violations occur they are reported through the conference first, then to the NCAA,” said Paul Bubb, Northridge’s athletic director.

However, Margie McDonald, deputy commissioner of the WAC, said violations concerning conference teams are routinely directed first to the NCAA. Once the NCAA rules on the infraction, the conference can accept the ruling or launch its own investigation.

On Tuesday, the executive committee convened by conference call and decided to take no further action against Fresno State.

“The executive committee considered the case and affirmed the NCAA’s designation of this violation as secondary and reaffirmed that the sanctions were sufficient,” McDonald said.

If Fresno State was forced to forfeit four conference games, Northridge would move into first place, 1 1/2 games ahead of the Bulldogs with two games to play.

“I’d like to think that we won the WAC all four years that we were in it, but unfortunately we didn’t win it on the field,” Bubb said. “But if they are using an ineligible player, then they didn’t win it either.”

Henry declined comment, but Fresno State officials said she dropped the class with the help of the school’s academic services program.

“It was a lack of communication and an administrative error on academic services,” Bulldog Coach Margie Wright said. “If they had done their job, we wouldn’t have been in this position.”

Milutinovich said Fresno State has filed an appeal with the NCAA.