Kofa hoops forfeits harsh, set right precedent

Slippery slope arguments are the worst.

It starts by making an argument that something bad will happen, then something worse, and before you know it civilization will end if the idea being argued against happens.

That said, the Kofa basketball team should vacate its wins from last season because if the Kings don't, precedent will be set for teams to take advantage of eligibility violations.

For those who haven't been following, a 22-year-old used a fraudulent birth certificate to enroll in school and play for the Kings last year. He has since been arrested on multiple charges and Kofa officials said they were unaware of the deception.

Anthony Avalos came in mostly off the bench for the Kings last year and was a good rebounder, grabbing 10 in Kofa's region-clinching win over rival Yuma High. Although he never exactly looked like a man playing amongst boys, it turns out he literally was.

So would Kofa have won the region without Avalos? Or would they have been much worse without the defense and depth he brought to the team?

The answers to those questions don't matter. It doesn't even matter that the Kofa administration was unaware of what was going on. What does matter is once the Arizona Interscholastic Association confirms the rule violation - no one older than 19 is allowed to play - Kofa needs to lose its wins in the games Avalos played, which was every region contest.

If the AIA determines that the Kofa administration truly didn't know about Avalos (which seems to obviously be the case) and decides to grant leniency, that sets up a tricky precedent nefarious schools could exploit. It would just take a couple corrupt officials, basically an athletic director and a coach, and another 20-something looking to recapture athletic glory - or experience it for the first time - to pull off the scam.

Then the administrators could just plead ignorance, and if they kept enough people out of the loop it would be a case of plausible deniability. They could point to the Kofa example as a case where administrators didn't know and were let off the hook.

I know it's hard to say and to hear that a team should have its season stricken from the books. But let's face it, that's all it is - a penalty on paper.

They might be able to erase the fact that the Kings beat the Criminals the last game of the year by closing the game at Yuma High on a 21-3 run. I mean the actual, literal fact. But everyone who cares, who was involved, will always remember that game. They'll remember the playoff game. They'll remember the 11 region wins. Only the piece of paper known as the record book will state otherwise.

Besides, never discount the frailty of human memory. Twenty years from now, people probably won't even remember which year was stricken from the record. "Was it the year they went to the Final Four?" "No, that was the year before, wasn't it?" "Was it?" "I don't know. Maybe not. It was one of them."

Taking the wins may not be fair to players, but it's what has to be done. Or else civilization will come to an end.