DUNCANVILLE, Texas — The top-ranked Duncanville boys basketball team had its 2022 state championship stripped, and the girls team was banned from this season’s playoffs, in a ruling by the University Interscholastic League on Monday.
The UIL’s state executive committee also suspended both the boys coach, David Peavy, and the girls coach, LeJeanna Howard, a year each over the violations.
Peavy and Howard additionally received three years of probation, and they each were reprimanded by the executive committee.
The boys team’s Class 6A title, which was the school’s third such championship in a row, was also stripped after the UIL ruled that Duncanville had to forfeit all games in which then-senior point guard Anthony Black played.
Those games included the Class 6A state championship game, in which Black was named most valuable player and Duncanville beat McKinney 69-49.
As result of Duncanville’s forfeit, McKinney was named the new state champion by the UIL. The game will be recorded as a 2-0 victory for McKinney.
McKinney school district officials in a statement Tuesday morning said they were made aware of the UIL ruling and will “acknowledge this honor” for the 2021-2022 McKinney boys team.
“Regardless of the title, we could not have been more proud of this team’s effort and accomplishments,” McKinney officials said.
The Duncanville boys team is the top-ranked team in 6A in Texas heading into this season, according to Texas Association of Basketball Coaches poll.
Black was a five-star recruit who signed with the University of Arkansas. A 6-foot-7 point guard, he was the No. 2-ranked player in Texas and the 15th-ranked player nationally last year, according 247 Sports.
In October 2021, the UIL’s executive committee ruled Black ineligible to compete after he transferred from Coppell to Duncanville. The decision stemmed from rules that prohibit players changing schools for athletic purposes.
Black’s mother, Jennifer Black, had filed a restraining order against the UIL’s ruling, which allowed her son to play last season. But the Texas Supreme Court on Sept. 30 vacated that order, siding with the UIL’s executive committee.
Black’s mother was dating Peavy at the time the senior was first ruled ineligible.
The controversy over if he would be allowed to play was fueled by Black’s biological father who provided evidence to the UIL that Peavy was wanting to speak with him about moving Black to Duncanville.
Peavy and Black’s mother are now engaged, however.
Former Duncanville Mayor and Panthers fanatic, Cliff Boyd, told WFAA Monday night that he knows Peavy and Black’s mother personally.
He added that the move was about becoming a family and not about adding to a win column.
“It was hard watching Black endure all of this last season,” Boyd said. “I know the coach and his fiance’s efforts to become a family. This was not a sham of any sort. It was about putting two families together for the betterment of the kids and the spouses.”
During the UIL meeting, Duncanville ISD’s legal team even pointed out that Peavy only played Black when the TRO was upheld in the courts and sat him when it wasn’t.
Howard, the girls coach, was suspended over a recruiting and “school practice and game restrictions” violations, according to a UIL news release.
In a statement, Duncanville ISD said it had already decided to issue a “substantial and appropriate disciplinary suspension” for Howard before the UIL’s decision.
“We believe our internal disciplinary measure was both substantial and appropriate,” the district said. “However, we respect the Committee’s decision that a longer suspension was appropriate.”
More information was not released. Duncanville High School’s athletic director, Dwight Weaver, was reprimanded over the girls team’s violations.
The Duncanville girls team is currently ranked No. 4 in the coaches’ rankings.
“These are significant and unprecedented consequences for both programs, and students will suffer the most from today’s decisions,” Duncanville ISD Superintendent Dr. Marc Smith said in a statement.
Both Peavy and Howard didn’t comment regarding their situations and wouldn’t reveal who would take over during their suspensions.
In 2019, longtime Duncanville girls coach Cathy Self Morgan was suspended by the UIL over allegations of recruiting violations.
Self Morgan, who retired two months before the violations were announced, denied the allegations.