Athletic director comments on Williams High School athletic department AIA violations

WILLIAMS, Ariz. - Williams High School (WHS) Athletic Director Phillip Echeverria recently went on the record with the Williams-Grand Canyon News to discuss Arizona Interscholastic Association (AIA) violations made by WHS athletics.

The Williams Vikings boys' basketball team forfeited two wins early in its season because a player on its roster did not have all the proper paperwork completed.

"I teach all my students and athletes that are around me to take responsibility for the things we do," said Echeverria. "And I made a mistake in not completing the proper paperwork that needed to be done for the AIA."

The AIA notified Echeverria of his error the week of Thanksgiving. The student-athlete in question was in the process of moving from Ash Fork to Williams.

According to Echeverria, the WHS athletic department filed a domicile hardship appeal because the student-athlete was not only in the process of moving, but his family had not yet found a place to live. Therefore, Echeverria filed the hardship appeal to ask AIA to grant the student-athlete eligibility.

"They [the AIA] granted us that appeal, and all the other paperwork was done," Echeverria said. "So I made an assumption that everything was good there."

The student-athlete played the entire football season and three basketball games before the AIA informed Echeverria that a transfer form, which all transferring students need to complete, was not filled out. This transfer form is called a 520 form.

The boys' basketball team lost one of its first three games of the season, so that game was not forfeited and stayed on the Vikings' record. However, the two wins were actually stricken from the record as if they were never played. The AIA did not give the Vikings two more losses, but simply took two wins away.

"That whole process has all been completed, there's nobody to blame but myself for not going deeper into the rules," Echeverria said. "We did the hardship appeal, we weren't trying to hide anything there it was just a mistake made by myself. Once the form was completed, he was good to go a day later. Kind of a tedious thing but we want to follow the rules and we broke them, so we paid that penalty."

Echeverria said the WHS athletic department has actually reported four violations against itself this year. He said two other boys moved to Williams in similar situations and one girl transferred from Grand Canyon High School.

"All four of the kids we did 520 forms on, so that's all cleared up and basically done," said Echeverria. "It's a learning situation for me. It's something that I really feel bad about because it's nothing that the kids did, it's just something I missed."