Walker staying at NCH
Despite being ruled ineligible for basketball
BY TOM GROESCHEN | ENQUIRER STAFF WRITER
<!--ARTICLE BODY TEXT-->Bill Walker insists he will return to North College Hill High School for his senior year as a student, despite being declared ineligible to play basketball for the Trojans for the 2006-07 season.
Walker, in a telephone interview Tuesday with The Enquirer, also ruled out attending a prep school for the coming season.
"I'm a student at North College Hill first, and that's where I plan to be next year," Walker said. "I plan on staying and getting my 4.0 (academics) together."
Walker, ranked by Rivals.com as America's No. 2 high school player behind NCH teammate O.J. Mayo, has exhausted his Ohio eligibility despite playing only three seasons at NCH. The Ohio High School Athletic Association ruled Monday that Walker is done, based on a ninth-grade year in which he played 16 games at Rose Hill Christian (Ashland, Ky.) in the 2002-03 school year.
Walker transferred from Rose Hill to NCH in February 2003, at which time NCH put him back into the eighth grade. NCH officials at the time thought Walker, who has attended several schools over the years, had not completed eighth grade. A subsequent investigation revealed Walker was a freshman at Rose Hill in 2002-03 and that he has played eight high school semesters, which is the limit under OHSAA bylaws.
There has been much speculation about what Walker will do now, with some believing he will land at a fifth-year prep school for the 2006-07 season.
"I'm not looking at that right now," Walker said. "I'm just going to be a regular student right now, for my final year of high school. That's important to me."
There also is rampant speculation about the future of Mayo, Walker's lifelong friend and NCH teammate.
Mayo, who has teamed with Walker to lead NCH to two consecutive Ohio Division III championships, has not said what he will do. Mayo retains one year of basketball eligibility at NCH, and Mayo's mother said Monday that she believed O.J. would return to NCH this coming season.
"I really don't care what happens," Walker said, when asked what Mayo might do. "I'm not talking more about it right now ... when I do, I'll tell you the whole story."
Walker, a 6-foot-6 forward, averaged 21.7 points and 10.1 rebounds a game last season.
NBA ISSUES: Walker might seriously want to consider entering the 2007 NBA draft instead of 2008, according to sports business/marketing expert Morris Reid of Washington, D.C.
Reid, who works for public affairs firm Westin Rinehart, is familiar with the Walker situation and suggested he could petition to enter the '07 draft.
"I think he has a good case," Reid said of Walker. "If the Ohio high school folks have said this (2006) is your last year, he's got a very good case to go into the draft next year. All these things stand until someone challenges them."
NBA spokesman Tim Frank told The Enquirer that Walker won't be eligible for the draft until 2008, as the NBA collective bargaining agreement stipulates a player must be 19 years old and one year removed from his high school graduating class to be eligible for the draft.
The collective bargaining agreement language states: The player (A) is or will be at least 19 years of age during the calendar year in which the draft is held, and (B) with respect to a player who is not an international player, at least one (1) NBA season has elapsed since the player's graduation from high school (or, if the player did not graduate from high school, since the graduation of the class with which the player would have graduated had he graduated from high school).
Walker's birthdate is Oct. 9, 1987, according to a biography published on the Web site nbadraft.net.
The nbadraft.net site also has pushed Walker up from its projected 2008 mock draft to its 2007 mock draft. The Web site as of Monday had projected Walker to go No. 5 overall in the 2008 draft (to Atlanta).
Tuesday, following news of Walker's ineligibility at NCH, nbadraft.net moved Walker a year ahead to its '07 mock draft, as the No. 9 pick to Golden State.
The site lists Mayo as the No. 1 overall pick in 2008, to the Toronto Raptors.
MORE FROM NCH: NCH athletic director Joe Nickel said he has not had a chance to talk to Walker or his mother about a possible appeal of the OHSAA verdict.
"Like anybody else, I feel bad for (Walker)," Nickel said. "He can't play a year he was counting on playing."
NCH principal Kelly Hughes indicated the school would not appeal the verdict, having issued a statement supporting the OHSAA decision. OHSAA commissioner Dan Ross said Monday that Walker's mother had told him the family might appeal the ruling. No appeal had been made as of Tuesday, OHSAA assistant commissioner Bob Goldring said.
Under OHSAA procedure: "Appeals to the Commissioner may be initiated by students, parents of the student, school administrators, coaches, contest officials or any other person having a vested interest in the issue presented to the Commissioner."
A request for an appeal may be made up to 24 hours before the next OHSAA Board of Control meeting, with the next meeting scheduled for Aug. 10.
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