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No 'Play Ball': Father sues over son's eligibility to play varsity baseball

His son was told he could not play this baseball season for Deering High School. Now, the Falmouth resident is taking legal action.

FALMOUTH (NEWS CENTER Maine) -- The father of a high school baseball student-athlete is suing the principal of Portland’s Deering High School, who according to claims made in court documents banned the boy from playing for the varsity team.

According to the Portland Press Herald, Howard Yee and his son, PrinceHoward Yee, are residents of Falmouth. Currently, Yee is registered as a full-time student at Deering High School. For several years Yee, who is said to have an 85 mile per hour fastball, was homeschooled. During that time he also took some classes at Falmouth High School.

Principal Gregg Palmer was formerly the principal of Falmouth High School. His time as principal there overlapped with the boy taking supplemental classes at Falmouth High.

According to the federal lawsuit filed this week, the boy was not having a good experience and was overwhelmed by the large classes. His father withdrew him from FHS in the fall of 2016. By spring of 2017, the boy, who was homeschooled at the time, started taking two classes at Deering High School and made the varsity baseball team.

By the fall of 2017, he was enrolled full time. However, the day before the 2018 baseball season began, the Deering principal informed the boy he was not eligible to play varsity baseball at DHS. The father and boy claim they were given no explanation for the decision.

According to the Maine Principals' Association, there are rules in place regarding students transferring from one school to another, without a corresponding change of residence. Executive Director Dick Durost of the MPA says superintendents of two school districts can sign off an agreement to allow a student to transfer, but that just gets a student in the classroom, and athletic eligibility is an entirely different issue.

“One of the tenets of those rules is that we don’t want students transferring in the phrases primarily for athletic purposes," says Durost. "Because we don’t want schools forming all-star teams for lack of a better term."

While that lawsuit is pending, the Yee family lawyer is trying to force the school to play PrinceHoward with an emergency court filing. That document has not been approved by a judge at this time.

The Yee family attorney, Michael Waxman, could not be reached for comment.

Melissa Hewey, the attorney representing the school system, would not comment Wednesday.

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