St. Louis team fires coaching staff over suspended player

ST. LOUIS - Cardinal Ritter, a college prep school in St. Louis, has suspended its football program for the remainder of the season and has relieved the entire coaching staff of its duties after the school was forced to forfeit its 7-0 record earlier this month after using an ineligible player.

Junior running back Bill Jackson was ejected from the school's Class 3 state championship game in 2018. Rules state he must sit out the next game, even if that game occurs the next season.

In this season's opening game, Jackson, who usually wears No. 4, was spotted wearing a No. 24 jersey, but was identified on the roster as freshman Marvin Burks.

Conversely, when Washington used an ineligible player this season, it called timeout, took the player out and self-reported the incident, forfeiting the game.

Jackson played in the next game in his No. 4 jersey. The St. Louis Dispatch published photographs from both games in which Jackson played. According to the newspaper, Jackson has unique tattoos on his right arm, which helped them identify that the running back played in each of the team's first two games.

A school must forfeit all games in which an ineligible player played, meaning Cardinal Ritter had to forfeit the first game of the season. However, the school made the decision to forfeit all seven of its 2019 games.

Shortly afterward reporting the incident, Cardinal Ritter fired the program's head coach Brandon Gregory.

Friday, the school announced that the football team is forfeiting the remainder of its season and dismissing its entire coaching staff.

Before the scandal, the school was ranked the No. 1 small school football team in the country by MaxPreps.