In test of new PIAA rules, Roman Catholic’s Greer ruled ineligible for state playoffs

The 2019 PIAA Class 6A tournament will take place without one of the stars of the 2018 postseason.

Roman Catholic guard Lynn Greer III is ineligible for the tournament after an application for a hardship waiver was rejected, according to several officials with the PIAA.

Though Roman Catholic is still exploring legal avenues around the ruling, the PIAA’s stance is that the star guard is ineligible for district and inter-district competition. He can play for the Cahillites as they pursue a second straight Philadelphia Catholic League title, in which they open play as the top seed Friday. But he is ineligible for the District 12 placement game and for the PIAA tournament.

The 6-3 junior point guard transferred last spring to Oak Hill Academy, a national basketball power and boarding school in Virginia. But he never settled in there and returned to Roman before the 2018-19 season began without playing a game for Oak Hill.

“It was about wanting to play on the highest stage possible,” Greer told Philly.com in November upon his return. “… But even early on, I was thinking about going back to Roman. I told the coach where my head was at then, but he asked me to wait a month before making a final decision.”

Meanwhile, the PIAA overwhelmingly approved a postseason ban for players transferring after the completion of their sophomore seasons in each sport. While Greer was granted immediate eligibility to play for Roman, his application for a hardship waiver for the postseason was denied. That provision requires demonstration of “exceptional and unusual circumstances beyond the reasonable control of the student’s family,” per PIAA’s July ruling. School changes for “academic, developmental, spiritual or social reasons,” which are enough to prove non-athletic motivation for regular-season eligibility, are insufficient to waive the postseason ban.

District 12 held two hearings with Greer, one in December and one in January to submit additional paperwork. The committee voted against the waiver by a narrow margin. The decision was appealed to the PIAA’s headquarters in Mechanicsburg, where the district committee ruling was upheld by a 5-0 margin.

“It was a close decision, but he didn’t have enough votes to carry them over to his position,” said District 12 commissioner Michael Hawkins. “Everyone has an opportunity to appeal to Mechanicsburg, and he took his opportunity.”

Hawkins added that as far as he’s concerned, the matter is officially closed from a PIAA perspective.

Roman Catholic athletic director Daniel DiBernardinis said last week that the school is exploring legal options, but declined to elaborate. Attempts to contact Greer were referred to DiBernardinis.

Greer was this week named an All-Catholic selection. He scored 20 points in the PIAA final last year, helping Roman finish a 24-6 season by beating Lincoln, 92-80, in the Class 6A final. Greer, a four-star recruit, holds offers from Florida, Iowa, Miami, Oregon, Penn State, Saint Joseph’s, Wake Forest and Temple, his father’s alma mater.

By returning to Roman for what he termed to Philly.com as “unfinished business,” he joined four veterans from last year’s squad, including fellow All-Catholic picks Seth Lundy (Penn State commit) and Hakim Hart (Saint Joseph’s).

The postseason ban, a mandatory 21-day sit-down for in-season transfers and the 50 percent rule – which blocks eligibility for athletes that change schools after already having played 50 percent or more of the maximum number of games in a season – all owe part of their inspiration to incidents involving the Catholic League. Those rules sought to strike a balance, not impinging on athletes’ participation in sports of their choice while also not benefiting programs that traffic in transfers by letting it translate to postseason success.

As such, Greer loses a relatively small portion of his season. He’s played 22 games and can add as many as three PCL playoff contests. He’s ineligible for one District 12 placement game and up to five states games. At the least, he’s retaining 80 percent of his season.

Greer is one of the first high-profile tests of the transfer rule’s fortitude. While it was close, District 12 seems to have adhered to the letter of the law.

“We followed the rules,” Hawkins said. “We did everything by the book, and the kid was not eligible.”