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CHARLESTON – A circuit judge has granted a temporary restraining order to allow a Charleston youth basketball all-star team compete in a season-ending tournament this weekend.
Kanawha Circuit Judge Tera Salango issued the order granting the TRO and a preliminary injunction February 23, a day after West Side Youth Basketball League filed its verified petition against the Kanawha Valley Youth Basketball League and KVYBL President Michael Tomblin.
The crux of the matter is the eligibility of an athlete identified only as J.C., a member of the West Side 4th grade all-star team.
Toriseva
Salango’s order says the West Side league “alleged sufficient facts to allow” the TRO and preliminary injunction.
According to the petition, the West Side league is part of the KVYBL, which includes teams from ages 5 to 11 in Kanawha, Putnam and Logan counties. Tomblin is in charge of determining player eligibility and enforcing league by-laws.
“The season ending tournament is set to begin February 25, 2022,” Salango wrote. “The petitioners will suffer irreparable harm if the tournament proceeds without them as a team and the minor child J.C. have been deemed, by the league, to be ineligible for the tournament. This court find no potential consequence to the respondents with the granting of petitioners’ petition.”
Attorney Teresa Toriseva, one of the lawyers representing the West Side league, hailed Salango’s order.
““Rules apply to everyone the same, including youth basketball rules,” Toriseva told The West Virginia Record. “Adults should ensure that their rules include kids, not exclude them. When the adults exclude a kid or his entire team contrary to their own league rules, it is clear that courts will step in.
“Judge Salango’s order protects kids and fair play.”
Salango’s order says the KVYBL is enjoined and restrained from any action against the West Side league for 10 days or until a final hearing on the merits of a preliminary injunction is held. That hearing is now scheduled for March 4.
According to the petition, Tomblin spoke last month with Varian Cunningham and presidents of KVYBL teams from Nitro and Winfield regarding the eligibility of J.C., who is Black. In October, his mother, identified only has H.C., had inquired about signing her son up to play for Nitro and Winfield during the season.
The mother was told both leagues had conducted early signups and were not taking additional players at that time. But, the Winfield league later released a flyer saying it would allow walk-in signups. The league did not inform H.C. of the new signup period.
J.C. ended up playing in the West Side league. On January 20, Varian Cunningham was told by Tomblin that J.C. was eligible to play for the West Side 4th grade all-star team because he met the requirements to do so.
The next day, Tomblin received a complaint from the president of the Poca league about J.C. claiming the boy’s home franchise was Nitro despite Nitro had released J.C. to play for West Side.
The petition says Cunningham and WSYBL Vice President Andre Nazario have repeatedly asked to see a written copy of any complaint about J.C.
On February 9, Cunningham and all KVYBL presidents were scheduled to meet to discuss the issue. But the meeting instead focused on a West Side coach who had been ejected from a game the weekend before. Cunningham was not given a chance to discuss the eligibility issue of J.C., but he did learn the president of the Winfield league had filed a complaint about J.C.
At the meeting, the president of the Chapmanville league moved for a secret ballot vote regarding J.C.’s eligibility to play all-stars despite South Charleston co-president Carl Lee asking to make all votes public.
“Moving for this secret ballot without giving WSYBL the opportunity to present the facts as to J.C.’s eligibility suggests that the issue had already been decided before the vote was taken,” the petition states. “The vote ended up 6-3 against the WSYBL and J.C.’s eligibility.”
As a result, the West Side 4th grade all-star team was disqualified from the games J.C. has played, would forfeit any game in which J.C. plays in the future and is disqualified from any tournament play. The entire WSYBL was threatened with disqualification for postseason play if J.C. continues to participate.
“When Varian Cunningham again reminded Michael Tomblin that the KVYBL requires disputes to be in writing, Mr. Tomblin told Mr. Cunningham that he did not have to produce or have a written complaint to initiate an investigation or ruling because ‘it was his league now,’” the petition states. “There are multiple other players in the KVYBL from other franchises that are ineligible for all-star play under the same guidelines the league has deemed J.C. ineligible.”
The petition notes that most of the children who play for the West Side league are Black. It also says at least one of the league members who voted against J.C.’s eligibility had tried to recruit J.C. for his team and that other teams have players who are not from their home franchises and that one 4th grade team has a child in the 6th grade playing for it.
“The KVYBL is actively working to keep Charleston children from participating in the tournament,” the petition states.
The petition says the West Side league and team will suffer irreparable harm if the injunction is denied and that the KVYBL will not be harmed by the injunction. It also says West Side has a substantial likelihood of prevailing on the merits and that the public interest favors granting the injunction.
“The other teams and athletes in the tournament deserve the opportunity to face the best competition,” the petition states. “All the other teams benefit from the West Side team participating in the tournament as their exclusion would deprive the eventual tournament champion of the claim that they were the best team in the league as they would not have bested all other teams.”
The West Side league is being represented by Toriseva, Joshua Miller and Michael Kuhn of Toriseva Law in Wheeling.
A similar situation happened to the West Side league in February 2020 when the 5th grade girls all-star team was found ineligible by the KVYBL. Circuit Judge Jennifer Bailey ruled in favor of West Side and ordered that they were eligible for tournament play.
Kanawha Circuit Court case number 22-D-64