Goose Creek is not in State Sen. Chip Campsen’s district. But his connection to Gator Nation extends beyond the limits of geography. As a former high school and college athlete, Campsen was stunned by what happened to the Goose Creek football team last month when it was disqualified from the state playoffs by the South Carolina High School League (SCHSL) for having an ineligible player.
Goose Creek was unbeaten and ranked nationally. The ineligible player was an “at-risk” student who saw minimal playing time. Goose Creek self-reported the player as ineligible and asked for mercy in a hearing before the SCHSL Executive Committee, but it was denied. The team was forced to forfeit games, causing it to be removed from the playoffs and ending hopes of back-to-back state titles. For Campsen, a Republican from Charleston County, the SCHSL’s decision was beyond the pale.
“What the SCHSL did to the Goose Creek football team and community was unconscionable,” Campsen said. “There was no proportionality in the decision. It’s a death sentence or nothing else.”
Campsen believes that Goose Creek was punished for doing the right thing. Head Coach Chuck Reedy told the SCHSL that he put the player in question on the roster because being part of a team, and the benefits inherent to such a circumstance, would help bring much-needed structure to the player’s life.
While the decision itself angered Campsen, the fact that Goose Creek had no recourse against the SCHSL caused him to propose legislation.
“The SCHSL has zero accountability and that’s been the case for a long time,” Campsen said. “Unfortunately, I think the SCHSL is only concerned with coaches and officials, instead of its member schools and the student-athletes.”
Campsen’s bill would put the SCHSL under the jurisdiction of the Superintendent of Education and would create a Commissioner who would oversee athletics in the entire state. “It would make the SCHSL accountable to an elected official. They would have to justify their decisions in a way they haven’t before.”
This is not Campsen’s first battle with the SCHSL. For at least six years he proposed legislation that would grant access to extracurricular activities to home-schooled students, which he says was resisted by the SCHSL.
“The SCHSL has thumbed their nose at the General Assembly for years,” Campsen.
But Campsen’s home school bill finally passed in last year’s General Assembly, and in August Gov. Nikki Haley signed it into law.
Campsen is not the only lawmaker seeking to remake the SCHSL. A group of House members including Jim Merrill (R- Berkeley) and Garry Smith (R-Greenville) prefiled legislation that would abolish the SCHSL and put athletics under the auspices of the Department of Education. The same group of House members also prefiled a bill that would give the State Superintendent of Education authority to hear any appeal filed against the SCHSL.
Campsen’s co-signers include two Berkeley County Republicans, Larry Grooms and Paul Campbell.
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