The Salem Wildcats football team has been forced to forfeit all of its wins from the 2025 season and will not be able to compete in the playoffs due to it rostering an ineligible player.
School Principal Jason Frazier has since released a statement that was also signed off by head coach William Frazier and Athletic Director Chris McCallum:
"Dear Salem Community,
We received notice from the MHSAA this morning that we were in violation of one of the rules concerning eligibility of one of our players. Though we had not intention of breaking the rule, we simply misinterpreted the stated rules. Players are allowed eligibility for four years once they enter 9th grade. The player in question met all other eligibility requirement, age grades, etc. He did not play for five years! Our mistakes was in allowing the player his fourth year of eligibility even though his seasons did not run consecutively. The rule states that a player has four consecutive years of eligibility.
As a result of this violation, the immediate action is thus: our football team must forfeit the playoff game scheduled for Friday, 11/7/2025 against Lumberton. We await further implications from MHSAA when they release the official violation letter.
We acknowledge our mistake in interpreting the rules, and consider this a learning opportunity. We also want to express to our players, fans and supporters our appreciation for your understanding. The player in question did nothing wrong. He wanted to play football, and we believed we were in compliance in allowing him this opportunity."
Salem (6-3) will be forced to forfeit all of its wins from this season, with this being the school's best campaign since it went 7-4 in 2014.
The second-seeded Wildcats were also set to host Lumberton for their first round playoff matchup on Friday. The Panthers will now automatically advance to the second round.
