Grandville wrestling team"Grandville High School has been withdrawn from the Michigan High School Athletic Association Team Dual Wrestling Tournament as a result of exceeding the limit of regular-season days of competition during the 2015-16 season," the organization posted on the website.
The Bulldogs wrestled in 15 matches, one more than the maximum 14 that are allowed. It is considered an unfair competitive advantage.
Grandville superintendent Roger Bearup had announced Wednesday the school would file a formal appeal with the MHSAA, per that organization's rulebook. That appeal was denied Thursday.
At the same time, a second party applied for a declaratory judgment and a temporary restraining order of the ruling in the Ottawa County Circuit Court in a hearing before Judge Edward R. Post. That request filed by three individuals was denied.
"Our wrestling coaches and administration feel terrible for our kids especially because they had nothing to do with the alleged error," Bearup said in a statement prior to today's MHSAA and court decisions. "To our student-athletes and the entire Bulldog Nation we would like to apologize for this unfortunate incident. We will be putting additional checks and balances in place to negate the chances of this sort of thing happening in the future."
In explaining the original MHSAA decision, the organization's communications director John Johnson said, "It was brought to our attention on Friday that Grandville had already had 15 days of competition. Any time you have a rule that is broken, regardless of how it occurs, it is still a matter of inherent fairness for the opponent, which has followed the rules.
"This isn't anything new. This has happened before and the rules have been consistently applied."
Grandville, located just outside Grand Rapids, is the OK Red Conference Champion, and is ranked fifth in the state in Division I. The Bulldogs are coached by Ryan "Bubba" Gritter, a Grandville mat alum and former Central Michigan University heavyweight wrestler who was a MAC (Mid-American Conference) champ and an NCAA All-American.
In addition to the school filing a formal appeal, Grandville wrestling supporters are taking to social media in an effort to change minds at the MHSAA.
Back in December, the MHSAA reversed an earlier decision regarding deaf wrestler Ellis Kempf's access to a sign language interpreter while competing. The organization originally required the interpreter to remain seated with Kempf's coaches matside, but reversed itself by allowing the Royal Oak High School wrestler to have a sign language interpreter be able to move around the mat to provide translations to the wrestler from his coach.
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