After a hearing with the UIL Executive Committee Oct. 31, 2022, the Duncanville boys basketball team was stripped of their 2021 6a UIL state championship. In addition to their title being stripped, both the boys and girls coaches were suspended for a year and sentenced to three years of probation. Furthermore, both teams have been barred from the 2022 playoffs. 

All of this has stemmed from one thing: the playing of an ineligible athlete. 

Anthony Black transferred to Duncanville from Coppell High School for his senior year, and speculations arose around whether or not his transfer was for “athletic purposes”. 

Black helped the Duncanville team to a 35-1 season record, one of those games being the UIL 6a state championship, where they got a victory over McKinney High School. 

Under Section 29 (b)(3)(b), any contest in which an ineligible athlete plays, the team will be subject to forfeiture of the game. So, the legendary Duncanville basketball team has been stripped of all accomplishments of their 2021 season, including their state title. 

Here at Texas High, we have dealt with the UIL rules surrounding transfers and eligibility. 

Freshman Tradarian Ball and juniors Tamarcus Gray and Brooklyn Threadgill are a few transfers we have here at Texas. 

Ball transferred in his middle school years, where eligibility isn’t affected by transfers. However, UIL rulings affected both Gray and Threadgill. 

According to the UIL Rulebook, one of the requirements to be eligible after a transfer is that you have to live with your parents within district boundaries, which is what kept both Gray and Threadgill from varsity competition. 

In order to avoid problems with the UIL, the ineligible player must play with junior varsity (JV) and is barred from playing at the varsity level. 

This isn’t where Black found his issue, though. His mother, Jennifer Black, initiated a romantic relationship with Duncanville Head Coach David Peavy. After their relationship escalated, Black was enrolled at Duncanville, then he was ruled ineligible after the UIL unanimously agreed that his transfer was strictly related to athletic purposes. 

His mother fought the ruling, and Black was once again ruled eligible, and while his ineligibility stood, Peavy avoided use of the 5 five star athlete. 

Nearly seven months after the state championship victory, the case was re-evaluated and UIL ruled to strip Duncanville, and punish the coaches. 

The arguments of Black being eligible during his time of play, and the fact that he transferred “because of domestic abuse by his father to him and his mother” were presented to the UIL Executive Committee, however, the opinions of the board members were not swayed by the information. 

It is being argued across the internet whether or not it was fair to punish the entire team by revoking their championship, since Black was eligible at the time of the state championship game, however, others are saying that it is fair because they shouldn’t have broken the rules. 

The question now standing is whether or not the UIL was too harsh on their ruling in the case of Duncanville basketball, considering circumstances surrounding it, or was Black’s transfer strictly related to the desire to compete under such a decorated program as Duncanville?