Hart Cleared by Inglewood, Not by Section

Inglewood High basketball player Jason Hart, who was suspended from competition last week while administrators investigated whether he was improperly enrolled at the school, was cleared to play Friday night in a league game against Palos Verdes Peninsula.

Hart, a senior who has signed a letter of intent with Syracuse, started against Peninsula and scored a team-high 16 points in a 63-51 victory at Inglewood.

Inglewood Principal Kenneth Crowe cleared Hart after an internal investigation found the student was legally enrolled.

The 6-foot-2 guard transferred from Westchester to Inglewood over the summer. According to Deborah Hart, the player’s mother, Hart moved from her home to live with his brother, Richard Hart, in Inglewood. Deborah Hart lives in South-Central Los Angeles.

To be eligible after moving, Hart would have had to receive a hardship waiver from the Southern Section and had a change in legal guardianship. According to Southern Section Commissioner Dean Crowley, neither was done.

Crowley met with Crowe on Tuesday and ordered an investigation into Hart’s eligibility. No one from Inglewood contacted the Southern Section office when Hart was cleared.

“I don’t understand why he was playing [Friday night],” Crowley told the Torrance Daily Breeze. “According to the information we have, it appears the youngster was ineligible under our current transfer rules. We have strong factual information that the address where he is living was the address where he attended Westchester High.”

Crowley said last week that if Hart was cleared to play he would ask for a hearing at the section’s office in Cerritos.

When reached Saturday, Deborah Hart hung up on a reporter.

Inglewood Coach Patrick Roy, who is also the boys’ athletic director, refused comment on the matter. Roy then issued a threat.

“You better be careful because it’s rough out there,” he told a reporter from The Times.

When asked if that was meant to be a threat, Roy said. “Like I said, you better be careful because it’s rough out there.”