[NAME DELETED] ELIGIBILITY STATUS WILL BE A 'LOCAL ISSUE'

The high school eligibility status of basketball star [NAME DELETED] of
Eastern Alamance High School will be a local issue, the head of the North
Carolina High School Athletic Association said. [NAME DELETED], the state's
all-time leading scorer, was one of 50 students in the Alamance-Burlington
School System charged Wednesday after a months-long undercover drug
investigation. Students charged Wednesday have been issued long-term
suspensions (more than 10 days) by the school system. Charlie Adams,
executive director of the NCHSAA, has been flooded with requests for a
response from his organization.

"This is a tough blow for all of the programs involved, including coach
John Moon and Eastern Alamance," Adams said in a statement released
Thursday. "The only involvement from the Association might be if there are
any convictions, because our felony policy speaks only to ineligibility
upon conviction of a felony." "Right now it is a local matter, including
any appropriate school or school system policies, and in the hands of law
enforcement and the courts."

The NCHSAA handbook's felony policy designates a conviction as "a plea of
guilty, a plea of no contest or the equivalent, or a verdict or finding of
guilty by a jury, judge, magistrate or other duly constituted, established
and recognized adjudicating body ."

[NAME DELETED], a University of North Carolina signee, was arrested on two
counts each of possession with the intent to sell and deliver marijuana,
selling and delivering marijuana and possession of a controlled substance
on school grounds. The alleged offenses occurred Oct. 13 and Nov. 3.

Moon and Eastern Alamance principal Jo Anne Hayes haven't returned
telephone messages from the Times-News. Eastern Alamance's next game is
tonight at home against Northwood. It's the team's final scheduled home
game of the regular season.

"Certainly the arrests of students, including some student athletes, in the
Alamance-Burlington School System on various drug-related charges represent
a dark day for high school sports in North Carolina," Adams said in his
statement. "It is difficult to imagine going from the top of the mountain
and a player who is North Carolina's all-time leading scorer to being
arrested. But unfortunately, in many ways it's a sign of the times and the
drug-infested culture in which we live."