Channel Islands Loses Three Starters to Grades

Senior O.J. Thomas and juniors Dwight Sattiewhite and Julius Samuel of the Channel Islands boys’ basketball team have been declared academically ineligible and will miss the rest of the season.

Thomas, Channel Islands’ career assist leader, was averaging 13.8 points, 7.9 assists and 3.1 steals a game.

Sattiewhite was the Raiders’ leading scorer at 20.1 points and Samuel was their leading rebounder at 5.7 rebounds.

All three were starters for Channel Islands, which was 17-5 and ranked seventh in the region entering a Marmonte League game Wednesday night against Westlake.

“It’s an unfortunate situation,” Channel Islands Coach Gary Abraham said. “The kids not only let down themselves, but they let down the team as well. . . . Two of them are juniors so hopefully they’ll learn something from this and won’t let it happen again.”

Abraham said that freshmen Jonathan Monette and Manuel Berrelleza would replace Thomas and Sattiewhite at the guard positions and senior Jacques Thibodeaux would replace Samuel at forward.

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