Marietta High Football Must Forfeit 2017 Wins

MARIETTA, GA — The Marietta High School football team likely will be forced to forfeit its eight wins in 2017 because it played ineligible players.

Georgia High School Association spokesman Steve Figueroa said Tuesday it has been ruled that Marietta High played ineligible players in every game last season. The minimum penalty for that is forfeiting all games, he said.

MHS has the right to appeal the ruling and the GHSA will have no further comment until those appeals are exhausted, Figueroa said.

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The Marietta Daily Journal first discovered the situation Monday after filing an open records request. The MDJ reports that the Blue Devils had two ineligible players throughout the 2017 season. Those players did not live in the MHS attendance zone, the paper reported.

No recruiting violations were found in the case, the MDJ reports.

Marietta High had a winning season in 2017, making it to the playoffs before losing a 51-41 shootout in the first round to North Gwinnett.

According to the MDJ, the high school association also has put Marietta High on "severe warning status," meaning that additional infractions could result in even steeper penalties.

In a statement to the Journal, Marietta City Schools said that in both cases, the students are children of Marietta City Schools teachers. One was found to have moved into Marietta then left and the other was found to never have established residency in the school district, the statement said.

Marietta City Schools officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Patch Tuesday morning.

Days before the paper made the sanctions public, Marietta High's longtime athletic director, Paul Hall, stepped down to take a teaching position at Marietta Middle School.

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