Springbrook High School wrestler senior Armon Nettey attended his first match since he was allowed to resume wrestling on Feb. 1 after a nearly four-month-long prohibition period.
At the beginning of the 2019 to 2020 school year, Armon transferred within Montgomery County from Sherwood High School to Springbrook after being granted a Change of School Assignment due to family hardships; Nettey needed to attend Springbrook in order to be able to pick up his brother at school, since his mother was working.
However, Armon’s wrestling eligibility was held in jeopardy. Armon was not allowed to compete for Springbrook’s team until being granted an athletic waiver by Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS), a standard policy for all transfers seeking to participate in athletics during a one-year waiting period.
Armon’s mother, Neki, submitted a request for an athletic waiver to Jeffrey Sullivan, the MCPS Director of Systemwide Athletics in October. According to the Washington Post, she received a reply around three weeks later.
“The reasons you have given for transfer do not justify a waiver of the rule; therefore, I must deny your request,” the reply said.
Subsequent appeals by Neki were also denied, frustrating Armon and his family.
“There should be no problem with transferring schools with hardship,” Nettey said. “I think there needs to be new people in charge, and the response to denial or approval of a waiver should definitely be much quicker.”
On Jan. 30, MCPS determined Armon to be eligible to wrestle for Springbrook after reviewing change-of-residency paperwork Neki provided as part of her appeal of the waiver denial, according to the Washington Post.
Armon believes that the amount of press his story received acted as a catalyst to the final approval of his waiver. Many student petitions made by Nettey’s peers appeared to urge MCPS to accept Nettey’s appeals.
“I was a resident for about two or three weeks when the article came out, and they finally approved my residency,” Armon said.
Furthermore, press coverage also brought about new benefits for Armon’s wrestling career.
“More coaches are trying to help me improve as well as college interest and a lot of support from everyone,” Armon said.
Had his waiver not been approved, Armon believes that consequences for both his wrestling career and MCPS would have materialized.
“It would have made [my wrestling career] a lot worse,” Nettey said. “I would not get the opportunities I’m getting now and bad press for MCPS would have grown.”
Article by Faith Cheung of Richard Montgomery High School
Photo Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons