by Sam Ford
Tuesday, October 4th 2022
Much of D.C.’s Eastern High School Football program supporters and alumni are furious with the DCPS Athletic Department’s investigation of Shaun Powell Jr. (7News)
WASHINGTON, DC (7News) — Many of D.C.’s Eastern High School football program supporters and alumni are furious with the D.C. Public Schools (DCPS) Athletic Department’s investigation of Shaun Powell Jr. He’s the junior that the team wants to be its quarterback, but an investigation of his eligibility has meant he can’t play, or even practice, with what he hoped would be his team, the Eastern Ramblers. He’s from downstate Virginia, a little town called Emporia, where he was the quarterback for Brunswick Academy — a private school. His dad, Shaun Powell Sr., decided his son would get better exposure to college coaches if they moved to Washington, D.C.
Powell Sr., a former Marine, got a security job in the city, rented an apartment and enrolled his son in Eastern High. The coach there, Roman Morris, was happy to have him. Morris has revived a moribund football program at Eastern that had declined to fewer than 20 players. He now has more than 50 players and was counting on Powell Jr. being his quarterback. Then an anonymous school filed a protest with the DCPS Athletics Department and an investigation was underway.
The senior Powell said they called his landlord at the complex where he rents to see if he really lived there. He presented his lease, he said.
Next, DCPS demanded Powell Jr.’s grade transcripts from Virginia. Eastern requires students to have a 2.0 GPA to play sports.
Derrick Brown, who’s the Eastern Rambler’s Academic Coach, insists Powell Jr.’s grades at his previous school were at or above 2.0.
“Yes, he’s more than eligible he was supposed to be on the field [a] long time ago,“ Brown said.
The dispute has left much of the Eastern High community, football supporters and alumni, furious.
Powell Sr. said he’s concerned about Powell Jr. I know someone in DCIAA (District of Columbia Interscholastic Athletic Association) made an egregious mistake. They don’t want to admit their mistake,” Brown said. We called Brunswick Academy in Lawrenceville, Va. to ask about Powell Jr.’s GPA and a secretary said the person in charge of that department was away but said she had sent transcripts of DCPS.Powell Jr. is an eleventh grader and will be eligible to play if he earns a 2.0 GPA when the next DCPS report cards come out on Nov. 7. “My son’s been playing football since he was seven years old and he’s been denied this whole year playing,” Powell Sr. said.
7News asked about the controversy around this issue, and DCPS responded, “Eligibility is a private matter. We don’t comment.”
