Darren Kinnard
Section618.com
(Updated with Herrin schedule change)

Herrin High School won its appeal to the IHSA Board of Directors Monday concerning the “double-forfeit” ruling by IHSA Executive Director Craig Anderson for Friday’s game against Benton. That game was called with 57.7 seconds left in overtime following a benches clearing incident that led to four player ejections, two from each team. Herrin was leading 60-52 when the game was called.

The Board changed the ruling to “No Contest” for both teams, meaning no win or loss.

In addition to the changing of the game result, the Board also chose to suspend both head coaches, Herrin’s Sayler Shurtz and Benton’s Ron Winemiller, for one game. In his original ruling, Anderson cited “unsportsmanlike behavior” by the head coaches as the reason the game was called.

“After communicating with the game officials and school personnel, it was my assessment that the game could have been completed, despite the ugly incident that occurred,” said Anderson in a statement issued last Thursday. “I believe the game officials may have indicated that Herrin had won the contest because they were ahead at the time it was called off, but per NFHS rules, because the game was never concluded, we did not have a completed contest. This ultimately led me to rule a double forfeit, because I believe the unsportsmanlike conduct by both head coaches prevented the game from resuming.”

Winemiller will miss the Rangers’ game Tuesday night at Du Quoin. Shurtz will miss the Tigers’ game at Sparta Wednesday, a game added to Herrin’s schedule Monday.

The Herrin Athletic Department posted a response on social media Tuesday morning saying, “We appreciate the IHSA Board of Directors taking time to listen to our appeal. We cannot thank the Herrin and surrounding communities enough for their support. While this is not the ideal outcome we were hoping for, we are moving forward from this decision in a positive direction.”

Both teams have had multiple players serve suspensions either for being ejected or leaving the bench area.