It's time for East St. Louis to learn its lessons

Maybe now we can put our focus back where it belongs -- on the football field.

For the second time in 10 days the IHSA has ruled that East St. Louis must forfeit five wins from the regular season, eliminating the unbeaten Flyers from playoff contention.

A judge in St. Clair County last week granted a restraining order that allowed the Flyers to play in the opening round of the Class 7A playoffs, but now that game has been forfeited after the same judge on Thursday lifted the order and allowed the IHSA to enforce its ruling.

Hopefully this brings closure to a troubling time. But I doubt it will.

The ripple effect spreads statewide for schools that either played the Flyers or were left out of the playoffs because the Flyers were in.

It's even possible that East St. Louis may try to tie things up in the courts through further litigation.

Here's a request for the Flyers: Please don't do it.

Accept the forfeits. Learn from the mistakes. And for the sake of the legacy of one of the state's most-storied football programs, make sure similar mistakes never happen again.

The issue spawns from the residency questions surrounding defensive lineman Charles Tigue. East St. Louis allowed Tigue the nephew of Flyers head coach Darren Sunkett and the son of an assistant coach to play even though records indicate that Tigue actually lives in Belleville.

How did the IHSA find out about the residency discrepancy? They traced the address registered to Tigue's electronic monitoring device. The one Tigue wears because of disturbing legal trouble.

Tigue was indicted last year on two counts of armed robbery and is free on $50,000 bond, charges to which he pleaded not guilty. One of the more interesting parts of this story is that most people are fixated on the residency question rather than East St. Louis and a disciplinary code that allowed him to remain athletically eligible.

But that's another story. One of many stories.

Like the story of the IHSA and its continuing investigation of eligibility issues involving other East St. Louis players including running back Anthony Pierson. His own father told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that his son lives in Cahokia.

Like the story of East St. Louis itself and how the administration could allow so many eligibility issues to spiral so far out of control. And the story of the IHSA, which needed to step in much earlier to marshal the high-profile program as it attracted these talented players.

East St. Louis is the first football program booted from the playoffs by the IHSA with the playoffs already under way. The effect of that trickles down to many other teams.

East St. Louis beat Belleville West in the first round of the playoffs, but now Belleville West receives a forfeit win and travels to Belleville East for a second-round Class 7A game.

What about Belleville Althoff, unlucky team No. 257 that just missed qualifying for the playoffs? If this issue had been settled weeks ago, East St. Louis would not have been playoff eligible and Belleville Althoff would have been a Class 4A qualifier.

No second chance for the Crusaders, though, just as there is no second chance for last year's No. 257 that should have been in the playoff field instead of East St. Louis.

Because the Flyers also forfeit their 10 wins from last season, that leads to questions for the playoff teams they beat en route to the 7A semifinals. Bradley-Bourbonnais, Minooka and O'Fallon all had their seasons ended by East St. Louis, and each team is now left to wonder what if?

They obviously can't go back and replay the playoffs.

They must move on.

Here's hoping East St. Louis does the same thing ... and learns a valuable lesson.