22-year-old fakes transcript to play high school basketball

A 22-year-old Tennessee man suited up for a title-contending high school basketball team, causing the team to be disqualified from the state playoffs for using an illegal player, reports the Memphis Commercial Appeal.

The man, whose name was not released, used a fake transcript to enroll at Ridgeway High School in Memphis.

After getting into disciplinary trouble at school, the student was found to be living in the Ridgeway district with a woman who was either his live-in girlfriend or wife and not his mother as originally thought, according to a  Tennessee Secondary Schools Athletic Association letter sent to Ridgeway principal Jim Long. The TSSAA also determined that the student had received a General Equivalency Diploma from the Shreveport Job Corps and had also falsified a transcript from Peabody Magnet High School in Louisiana.

Ridgeway had a 25-4 record and was on a six-game winning streak. The player in question played in the closing minute of Tuesday’s 90-71 victory over Whitehaven in the Region semifinals.

“It has come to our attention that an ineligible player played in the closing minutes of the Region 8-AAA semi-finals against Whitehaven High School. Ridgeway High School reported this information to the Tennessee Secondary School Athletic Association (TSSAA). Ridgeway HS has forfeited that game and has been removed from the tournament playoffs," a statement from the Memphis school district said.