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Punishment Announced
From the Savannah Morning News:
AUGUSTA - Lakeside High School will be fined $250 by the Georgia High School Association for the actions of the football team and head coach Jody Grooms involving a controversial play at the end of the team's final game of the season.
Dr. Ralph Swearngin, GHSA executive director, said he reviewed a written report from Lakeside and came to a final decision Friday. The punishment also included a "severe warning status" placed on Grooms until the end of the 2008 football season.
"That means any more sportsmanship problems would bring harsher penalties," Swearngin said. "We don't fine coaches in this type of situation. We fine the school."
Swearngin said he was surprised when he learned that a coach in the GHSA attempted such a play.
"Obviously, we're strongly opposed to that kind of action," he said. "This seemed like it was very out of character."
Lakeside principal Dr. Jeff Carney, who is out of town this weekend with the Lakeside cheerleading squad at the state competition in Columbus, said he hadn't seen the report from the GHSA, but an assistant told him the total fine was $250.
"We totally respect the decision from the GHSA," Carney said. "We knew we did something wrong, and we were going to be punished."
Grooms has already publicly apologized for the illegal play - a pass play where one receiver ran off the field and another receiver came from the sideline onto the field - that he called late in a game at Effingham County on Nov. 2. Carney said Thursday that Grooms will be punished but not fired by the school.
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