With Underwood, age does make difference on field
Saturday, June 26, 2004 SPORTS SPOTLIGHT Todd Porter Repository sports writer
The kid has just finished getting dressed in a hot, smelly locker room. Before he talked to a reporter, Dennis Underwood made sure he was presentable. He checked to make sure his buttons were straight and his shirt tucked in.
The St. Thomas Aquinas High School junior played a key role in the Knights basketball season. He came off the bench and gave the team quality minutes. His athleticism was impressive.
Basketball isn’t Underwood’s favorite sport, but you could hardly tell by watching.
Instead, he is a football star. As a junior, he ran for more than 1,200 yards on a struggling team. Yet, he was impressive enough to catch the eye of major Division I programs. Now Underwood stands to lose playing sports in his senior season.
The well-spoken young man, who always seemed to smile, turned 19 in February. Ohio High School Athletic Association rules prohibit players from taking part in sports if they turn 19 before Aug. 1 of a given school year. Underwood’s attorney is suing the OHSAA to force the organization to let his client play this fall. Underwood, according to the suit, has a learning disability and is suing under the Americans with Disabilities Act.
The OHSAA has an exception to the ADA in its age requirement. Underwood would have to meet five thresholds under the exception. He may not meet more than one.
That’s not the point.
As likeable as Underwood is, as charming and as intelligent as he seems, the young man simply should not be allowed to play sports at Aquinas or any other OHSAA school.
This rule is well written and thought out. In fact, the age-limit rule, OHSAA General Counsel Steve Craig believes, may be the oldest on the books.
If Underwood is able to play this fall, conceiveably, Aquinas would have a bruising 19-year-old running back — pushing 20 years old at this point — competing against 15- and 16-year-olds. Is that fair?
No. Underwood is older than 32 players on Ohio State’s roster.
In his suit, Attorney Richard G. Bing said that Canton City Schools failed to diagnose Underwood’s learning disability in the ninth grade. What does that have to do with anything? If his learning disability had been diagnosed, would it have turned back the hands of time?
No.
“What does it matter if he’s 19 right now?” Bing said. “When I played high school ball, there were kids who were 21.”
Maybe, but this 2004, not 1954. Bing brings a certain amount of passion to a conversation about the case. He should. He is representing his client’s interest. His son, too, is an assistant coach for the Aquinas football team.
Fact is, at some point, an adult close to this young man should have realized this problem. Plenty of years have passed, and they knew he would be 19 before Aug. 1. Someone should have been petitioning the OHSAA the last four years on Underwood’s behalf.
No one did until this year.
Canton attorney Lee Plakas, who has taken on the OHSAA before and succeeded, believes this is a tough, if not impossible, case to win.
“The focus is on the disability,” Plakas said. “You could argue the same case for a 25-year-old or someone who’s 30; that’s a tough situation to sell. In my opinion, the courts should bend over backward to give control to the schools and organizations to administer situations like this.”
Plakas is wise. He sees the Pandora’s box this would open. The guess is, so will a Stark County Common Pleas Court judge late next month.
Would it be entertaining to watch Underwood and pull for him to have a great senior season? Sure.
Would it be fair for him to play?
Unfortunately, not.
Perhaps the best option for the young man is to graduate from Aquinas early. Take the extra time this fall and dive into academics. Prepare for college. Think about accepting the best scholarship offer available, and enroll in college in January.
Underwood always has handled himself with class and dignity. There is no reason to doubt that he will do the same in this situation.
