An MSN.com headline broke the news on February 2nd. Ohio high school basketball team vacates 10 wins due to an ineligible player. McNicholas High School, a Catholic school in Cincinnati, “was founded by the Sisters of St. Joseph in 1915 as St. Joseph Academy, and was established in 1951 as McNicholas High School, the first co-ed Catholic high school in the Cincinnati area.”1 Their Rockets varsity boys’ basketball team started their season with a 10-2 record. Vacating 10 wins and adding a few games changed the current record to 5-14.
Led by first-year head coach Trey Scotti, this comes as quite a blow. Immediately, we jump to conclusions, don’t we? We chalk this up to another team that is willing to win at all costs and got busted for their efforts. That’s what I thought. And I thought wrong. The school made the following statement to WLWT channel 5:
“As a qualified institution of the Ohio Catholic School Accrediting Association, McNicholas High School administrators reviewed the student’s application and transcript data in accordance with the State Board of Education’s Operating Standards for Ohio schools. Additionally, OHSAA granted the student-athlete approval to compete in games with McNicholas basketball on November 4, 2025, before the start of the season.
“Throughout this process, McNicholas High School acted in good faith and with transparency.
“We continue to stand by the integrity of our program and the due diligence and interpretation of the data and bylaws that govern Ohio high school academics and athletics. We are extremely proud of our players and coaches as they contend with this difficult news. As we continue to navigate this situation; we remain focused on the well-being of our students and the values of fairness and sportsmanship.”2
So, what happened? OHSAA evidently re-reviewed the eligibility of this team because the team was doing so well and it looked like they were going to win the conference. In so doing, OHSAA determined they had missed the ineligibility of a student. “Based on the initial information submitted to the OHSAA, the student was ruled eligible to participate,” the OHSAA said in a statement. “After receiving additional information recently, it was discovered that the student had already completed four years of high school.”3
A ringer?!? I don’t think so. As the school said of themselves, “We continue to stand by the integrity of our program and the due diligence and interpretation of the data and bylaws that govern Ohio high school academics and athletics.” It would seem that they tried to comply with the OHSAA requirements, and something just slipped through the cracks. If a student failed a grade and had to make it up, that is honorable. I’m sure the school just figured that if the student was going to stay, he might as well play. Since OHSAA isn’t trying to penalize them further, I have to believe this was an honest mistake.
But it cost them.
Did you ever stop to think about the high cost of integrity? The Bible is full of appeals and commendations to us concerning integrity. Psalms 25:21 says, “Let integrity and uprightness preserve me; for I wait on thee.” Proverbs 19:1 proclaims, “Better is the poor that walketh in his integrity, than he that is perverse in his lips, and is a fool.” And Proverbs 20:7 tells us that, “The just man walketh in his integrity: his children are blessed after him.” Even in Job’s final appeal, he said, “Let me be weighed in an even balance, that God may know mine integrity.” (Job 31:6)
The Hebrew word for integrity means “completeness and moral innocence.” We could say that a person with integrity does the right things all the time, even in the dark when no one can see them.
Our rationale says, “I did the right thing, therefore the right result should happen.” We know that’s not true, don’t we? Doing the right thing doesn’t always have the right result that provides us with an immediate reward for our well doing. Instead, it might cost us dearly and we suffer for it.
My dad was a man of impeccable integrity. As a preteen, I remember dad selling a grain truck to another farmer. Within a couple of days, the farmer was taking a load of corn or beans to the elevator when the brakes failed on the truck. Rounding a corner, the truck turned over, spreading its cargo all over SR 6. The brake line had ruptured and the truck was totaled. Dad had no knowledge of a faulty brake line and he had sold the truck in good faith, having divulged everything he knew to be wrong with the truck. Though the farmer didn’t blame dad for what happened, dad couldn’t rest until he had returned the man’s money. Dad wouldn’t have it any other way.
At the time, I didn’t realize what dad had done. All I saw was dad cheating himself. Today, I see the situation differently and wish that I could honor dad for his actions and tell him that I’m proud of him, thanking him for setting such an example.
You can argue that dad didn’t have to do that. While you may be technically correct, integrity goes beyond technically correct answers. It’s willing to do anything it takes to raise the bar to the highest standard. Doing this will be costly.
I’m sure that you, the reader, desire to live a life of integrity. I’m asking us to take our integrity to the next level. And when we feel the pinch, let 1 Peter 2:20-21 encourage you to count the cost as a worthwhile expenditure. “For what glory is it, if, when ye be buffeted for your faults, ye shall take it patiently? but if, when ye do well, and suffer for it, ye take it patiently, this is acceptable with God. (21) For even hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps.”
1https://www.mcnhs.org/about-mcnick/fast-facts
2https://www.wlwt.com/article/mcnicholas-high-school-boys-basketball-ohsaa-review/70226679
3https://www.wcpo.com/sports/high-school-sports/mcnicholas-boys-basketball-team-forfeits-10-wins-due-to-ineligible-student-athlete
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