2021 was supposed to be the year Georgia high school basketball standout Jadis Grant leads his team to a championship and solidifies where he will play at the next level.
Instead, he’s spending it on the sideline.
Grant was suddenly deemed ineligible earlier this month after a Grovetown High School counselor made a mistake putting his class schedule together. According to the Georgia High School Association, “a student is required to pass classes that carry at least 2.5 Units counting toward graduation the semester immediately preceding participation.” Grant was scheduled to take four classes instead of five, leaving him short of the unit requirement.
“Supposedly the counselor didn’t know he played basketball at the time and gave him four classes instead of five classes in the first semester,” Grant’s father, Marlo, said of the situation, per WJBF.com.
Grant played at the beginning of the season, but was ruled ineligible on Jan. 5. It is currently unclear how the GHSA learned of Gant’s actual credits and who exactly reported the information locally. Grovetown High School admitted its mistake and filed a hardship waiver in an effort to get Grant back on the court, but it was denied — even though the school’s principal wrote a letter for the hardship application stating that Grant is on track to graduate despite not having a full schedule.
A letter from Grant’s counselor admitting her mistake was also included in the application, agreeing that Grant can graduate in May and stating that his athletic eligibility was accidentally overlooked due to the “challenge of navigating through the pandemic trying to meet the needs of all students.”
Grant currently holds scholarship offers from schools in Delaware and schools from a couple of other states, according to his father. If he does not get back on the court soon, though, those scholarship offers could dissipate, costing Grant a chance to further his basketball career at the next level.
“They’re blocking my kid at succeeding at something he loves to do,” said Marlo Grant.
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