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North Carolina high school to forfeit wins across eight varsity teams

Lawrence Andrew Fernandezby: Lawrence Fernandez08/12/25lawandfern
reidsville
(Reidsville Rams Basketball on Facebook)

A North Carolina high school must forfeit victories across eight varsity teams for fielding ineligible athletes. The North Carolina High School Athletic Association informed Reidsville about the forfeiture after discovering athletes competed in athletics despite the lack of medical participation forms and updated physicals.

WFMY News 2’s Jeremy Vernon reported that the Reidsville teams affected are: varsity volleyball, varsity men’s and women’s tennis, varsity women’s basketball, varsity men’s wrestling, varsity men’s swimming, and varsity men’s and women’s track and field.

In a Facebook post by Rockingham Update, there are four ineligible athletes in Reidsville’s women’s basketball team, three in men’s wrestling, three in swimming, six in men’s tennis, two in women’s tennis, two in men’s track and field, seven in women’s track and field and five in volleyball.

This count leads to four forfeited matches for women’s basketball, two in men’s tennis, four in ladies’ tennis and five in volleyball. Meanwhile, the swimming team must forfeit the results of the 200-meter freestyle, 200-meter medley, and 400-meter freestyle relay from regionals.

The post also reads, “RCS brought in retired Guilford County Athletics Administrator Leigh Hebbard to conduct a comprehensive review of participation records. His findings confirmed that athletes in multiple sports took part in contests despite expired or missing physicals. In some cases, documentation could not be located.”

The ineligible athletes will force Reidsville to forfeit 45 total matches. This also led to Reidsville athletic director Joe Walker resigning from his position after initially being put on probation. The head coaches of the affected teams will also be placed on probation for the 2025-26 season and won’t coach the first game of the respective seasons.

Also affected by the forfeitures are Reidsville’s junior varsity baseball, junior varsity football, junior varsity men’s and women’s basketball teams.