By GEORGE MAHL

RESERVE – The Reserve Christian School girls basketball program is facing the possiblity of forfeiting 24 games previously played this year.

Officials with the Louisiana High School Athletic Association notified the school this week that Krystin Johansen had been ruled inelligible to play for the remainder of the season, and that all games won by RCS in which she played in this school year would be forfeited.

The LHSAA also ruled she would be inelligible to play during the first 24 games during the 2003-04 season. The ruling was based on an LHSAA inquiry into the transfer of Johansen to RCS and the LHSAA’S rules that govern change of residence from one school attendance zone to another.

LHSAA officials are scheduled to hear the RCS appeal Wednesday in Baton Rouge.

“The RCS administration is in disagreement with the LHSAA ruling in this matter and will appeal the ruling to the body’s executive committee. RCS maintains that some of the facts and circumstances of the move were not fully considered by the LHSAA,” Principal Philip Brown said. “More specifically, RCS believes that in making its ruling, the LHSAA ignored certain portions of its by-laws in the manner of interpreting whether a bona fide change of residence has occurred.”

In the summer of 2002, the Johansen family moved to LaPlace and placed their residence in Maurepas on the market. The family decided to move because of a doctor’s recommendation that a sibling of Krystin Johansen be removed from a “bullying” situation. According to Brown, the information was made available to the LHSAA. While the Maurepas residence is on the market with no one living there, Johansen’s mother does continue to operate her business there until the property is sold and the kennel can be moved to the LaPlace area.

“If the LHSAA had conducted a thorough inquiry, they would have discovered that the ‘so-called’ second home in LaPlace is truly their only residence and is less than half the size of the house in Maurepas,” Brown said. “The phone was disconnected and the family changed its mailing address, both actions being in compliance with the applicable LHSAA by-laws.”

Brown added, “It is the contention of Reserve Christian School that this move is a bona fide change of residence and all conditions of the move were and are ‘appropriate to the circumstances,’ which is the exact wording in the LHSAA by-laws.”