Wheeling Park Wrestler In Court for State Tourney Spot

Hearing is set for 10 a.m. today

WHEELING -- One of Wheeling Park High School's top wrestlers will spend this morning in front of a Wood County judge fighting to reclaim his spot in next week's Class AAA state tournament.

The family of 106-pound freshman Adam Carman, along with WPHS and Ohio County Schools, have filed an injunction against the West Virginia Secondary School Activities Commission. They claim that Carman is being unfairly left out of the state tournament after going through a process they were told would allow him to compete.

According to Carman's father Mike, Adam spent Easter Weekend with his family, then went to stay with his grandparents. On Monday, Adam's mother Allison fell ill. She was tested for COVID-19 on Tuesday and was told she was positive for the virus Thursday. At no point during that time, Mike Carman said, was Adam around his mother.

Yet, out of an abundance of caution, the Carmans told WPHS wrestling coach Brian Leggett about Allison's positive test.

"Our first reaction was, 'Hey, look. He's been exposed and he's not going to be able to wrestle this weekend at regionals,'" Mike Carman said. "We just figured he was out of the tournament and wasn't going to be able to do it because of contact tracing."

Later in the week before the Class AAA Region 1 tournament, Mike Carman said Leggett contacted him and that they would hold a "quarantine weigh-in" for Adam at the event. He was the region's top seed at 106 pounds and there were only five wrestlers in the bracket. Because of that, he had a first-round bye.

By weighing in that day, he would keep his name in the field, advance to the semifinals with the bye and default his two other regional matches, leaving him as the region's No. 4 seed.

Mike Carman said that decision came from Regional Director Roger Simmons, also John Marshall High Athletics Director; SSAC Assistant Executive Director Wayne Ryan, who oversees wrestling; Jeremy Callen, rules interpreter for the state for wrestling; Wheeling Park Athletics Director Dwaine Rodgers and Leggett.

"That was initiated by those parties. We didn't ask for any special treatment. It was offered, so we took it, basically," Mike Carman said.

Mike Carman said Adam went to the tournament site, weighed in and left the building.

With that, he advanced to the state tournament as the fourth-place finisher, eligible to wrestle in Huntington because his quarantine would have ended.

Then he received a call later in the week from Rodgers, who told the Carmans the SSAC wanted a letter from the family stating that Adam was not in quarantine.

"He was in quarantine," Mike Carman said. "Now the SSAC is saying we weren't honest and they're not allowing him to go based on the fact we wouldn't write this letter. Which doesn't make sense because they called it a quarantine weigh-in."

Mike Carman said that an official was supposed to give Adam a skin check and weigh him in, while keeping six feet away due to COVID concerns.

"For the SSAC to say they didn't know it was a quarantine situation, they were certainly taking all the quarantine protocols to go along with it," Mike Carman said. "In that regard to me, they're trying to change the story.

"I keep going back to, if you tell us he's out, he's out," he continued. "I can deal with that. But, don't dangle the carrot in front of him and pull it away and keep doing it. They just keep doing that over and over again to our kids. It's not just mine they're doing it to."

Simmons said that, as regional tournament director, he approved Adam weighing in. He added that he assumed the SSAC was giving Adam "the benefit of the doubt" in qualifying for the state tournament.

"Probably if I was a coach of the other team, I would hope someone would let me do the same thing," Simmons said. "I'm not privy to all the information, just the information that I got from (Rodgers) and (Leggett)."

Mike Carman said the SSAC did not inform him of the situation, and he learned of the issue from Rodgers and Leggett. He hired Wood County attorney Steve Brake to help with the injunction.

Brake said they will challenge the SSAC on two main grounds. They claim this procedure was suggested and implemented by the SSAC.

"They were the ones that said they were allowed to do this and we think it's inappropriate at this point to say that we can't," Brake said. "(Adam) did everything he was told to do by them. The circumstances and the facts haven't changed since the beginning of the issue."

Secondly, Adam tested negative for COVID-19.

"Hopefully the court will be inclined to rule in his favor," Brake said. "An injunction is a difficult remedy to obtain. You have a steep burden, but we think we can argue, he should be given that opportunity because he was the No. 1 seed going in and probably above other No. 1 seeds in other regions as I understand it."

SSAC Executive Director Bernie Dolan declined comment when contacted by the Intelligencer.