With its postseason beginning today at Plymouth, the Warsaw boys soccer team learned some devastating news Tuesday. Due to a clerical mistake by the Warsaw Community High School Athletic Department, a student/athlete was allowed to play this season prior to the IHSAA giving him clearance. “It was a deal with a student transfering from another country,” Warsaw Athletic Director Dave Anson said. “It was a procedural error that caused the breakdown.” According to a press release sent out by Warsaw Community Schools Tuesday, the transfer request “had not been completed in its entirety by the athletic department and finalized by the Indiana High School Athletic Association.” After the athletic department discovered the error, it informed the IHSAA of the mistake. The student/athlete was then approved for play at this week’s sectional, but because he had already played in games before the actual approval, those games would have to be forfeited. Initially, the total number of wins to be forfeited by the Class 2A No. 3 Warsaw Tigers was nine, but it could come down for the team, that went 14-1-2 on the season and 5-0-2 in the Northern Lakes Conference. “At first, we thought it was nine, but (Warsaw Community High School teacher) Charlie Wappes does our stats and goes to every game,” Anson said. “Using (high school stats website) Varvee.com, he records each player that goes into the game. We’re currently going through that, and the number of games the player played in could be less (than nine). It could be between seven or nine games, but it does affect the conference outcome.” On the field, Warsaw won the NLC title outright with its 5-0-2 mark, but the forfeiture of games, may result in Concord getting the title, after ending its conference season at 5-1-1. With the NLC title potentially being taken away from them, the Tigers must now focus on the postseason, which begins today at Plymouth against Wawasee. “They’re a mature group, which has two seasons – the regular season and the postseason,” Anson said about how the team reacted when he informed it of the bad news. “They know what they did on the field.”
