Mike Colbrese: Dick.

The good Mr. Colbrese is the executive director of the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association (WIAA), the governing body for prep sports, debate, and the like here in Washington State.

Ferris High School in Spokane has a player by the name of DeAngelo Casto, a definite next-level prospect who helped them to win the 4A basketball championship last year. He transferred to Seattle, then came back, but was declared ineligible because of the WIAA regulations. He appealed, lost, appealed to a higher level, and was reinstated on December 18th because his lawyer got him declared homeless.

Where this story turns ridiculous, though, is the quote from Colbrese that appeared in the December 18th edition of the Spokesman-Review:

“The most I can say is that he demonstrated a hardship that was unique to him,” Colbrese said.

.........

Nevertheless, Colbrese didn’t even consider the McKinney-Vento argument. In his eyes, Casto’s hardship was enough to approve the appeal, Colbrese said.

“We felt that there was enough of a unique situation here,” he said.

Awww. Contrast that even-handed, level-headed approach with the Mike Colbrese who tossed out Archbishop Murphy’s entire football season and kicked them out of the playoffs because a second-string player had a physical that was more than a year old. A mistake that wasn’t caught at the school because the head coach/athletic director had died of cancer at the beginning of the season; Sound Politics has more.

Double standard? Piss-poor judgment? Both?