This month, the 15-member board of the Oklahoma Secondary School Activities Association (OSSAA), which oversees K-12 school competitions, voted to bar four teenagers from playing basketball for Glencoe after the boys used the open-transfer process to enroll in Glencoe schools.

The boys’ families have sued the OSSAA, alleging the association acted arbitrarily and in defiance of the factual record.

Of the 15 OSSAA board members, 13 are either superintendents or assistant superintendents for various districts, while the other members are an athletic director and an executive director of secondary education at two other state schools.

Public records indicate that four of the 15 board members represent school districts that could potentially face Glencoe, particularly in a playoff situation. Those four administrators represent the Okeene, Binger-Oney, Davenport, and Rock Creek districts, which are Class A schools along with Glencoe.

The vote to deny the Glencoe transfers’ eligibility was 12-0 because the OSSAA chairman does not typically vote, one board member was absent, and another chose not to vote. As a result, the four individuals representing Class A schools comprised one-fourth of the votes cast and half the number required to achieve a majority.

The fact that the boys’ eligibility could be decided by, or impacted by, the views of officials whose schools might benefit competitively from a denial of eligibility does not sit well with critics.

“There’s something seriously wrong when four of the 12 OSSAA board members who voted to ban Glencoe represent Class A schools, the very schools that compete directly with Glencoe,” said state Rep. Ty Burns, a Pawnee Republican who is a former coach. “That’s not governance; that’s a conflict of interest dressed up as oversight.”

The four teenage boys sought to transfer to Glencoe High School, saying they wanted to play basketball with their longtime friend, Maddox Schubert.

However, because Schubert’s father is Garrett Schubert, the new basketball coach at Glencoe, the OSSAA board alleged that Glencoe violated an OSSAA rule that loosely pertains to the alleged recruiting of athletes by coaches.

Garrett Schubert, Glencoe school officials, and the four youths have all denied wrongdoing.

On Aug. 13, the Oklahoma Secondary School Activities Association’s Board of Directors voted 12-0 to uphold the association’s ruling that the four boys will be ineligible to play basketball at Glencoe for the 2025 season.

The boys’ families filed a lawsuit on Aug. 14.

The lawsuit, filed in the District Court of Payne County, asks for immediate injunctive relief to reinstate the players’ eligibility and prevent further harm to their athletic and educational opportunities.

The plaintiffs’ petition alleges that OSSAA’s purported reasons for denying the four boys’ eligibility shifted repeatedly over the course of the review process.

At one point, the OSSAA claimed the boys were ineligible to play for Glencoe because they attended a sports camp where Coach Schubert was a leader. But the petition notes that one of the students “didn’t even attend the team camps this summer.”

The plaintiffs say OSSAA informed them the boys should not have attended the Glencoe camp without “unenrolling” from their prior district first. But the petition notes that “there is no written rule which lays out the process to unenroll before June 1, 2025,” and states that the plaintiffs were also told that Glencoe “cannot enroll a student until school begins” in August.

And an affidavit submitted to OSSAA by Mendy Garfield indicated that her son’s transfer to Glencoe was prompted by the abusive behavior of a coach at his prior district, Perry.

The plaintiffs’ petition states that OSSAA’s refusal to “exercise its discretionary authority and allow the Minors eligibility constitutes action which is collusive, unreasonable, arbitrary and/or capricious.”

An OSSAA spokesman said the group does not comment on pending litigation.

The Glencoe case is not the only instance in which the OSSAA has been accused of arbitrarily banning transfer students from participating in sports.

Kayleb Barnett attended Broken Arrow when he lived with his mother, but later moved to live with his father in the Jenks district in 2024. OSSAA tried to prevent Barnett from playing sports at Jenks, but relented after Barnett’s family sued on Aug. 30, 2024.

The lawsuit noted that Barnett and his father had clearly established residency in the Jenks district after having been subjected to three at-home visits, two scheduled and one unscheduled, by officials.

“The OSSAA has a long history of making unreasonable, arbitrary, and capricious decisions affecting high school students’ participation in athletics, which is a matter of public import and concern,” Barnett’s petition stated.

In 2007, the 10th Circuit of the U.S. Court of Appeals agreed with a lower-court ruling that found the OSSAA is “a state actor” because of the “persuasive entwinement of public institutions and public officials in its composition and workings.” The court noted that OSSAA’s directors were all public-school employees and that the State of Oklahoma authorized OSSAA to determine athletic eligibility and hold playoff games.

The Glencoe controversy has drawn attention statewide. Former University of Oklahoma football coach Barry Switzer recently weighed in, posting a video on social media.

“I know the importance of being involved in sports,” Switzer said. “I know what they teach you. I know the intangibles that they give you that help you the rest of your life. They’re very important, especially to the youth of America. Hey, OSSAA: Let them play.”

The Glencoe situation has also prompted several lawmakers to publicly suggest that OSSAA should face increased state oversight.

Burns attended the OSSAA board meeting on Aug. 13 and has been among the most vocal legislative critics of the association, saying it is “time to dismantle the OSSAA and build a new system.”

He said the possibility that school officials may be in a position to negatively impact their schools’ competitors is another reason that reform is needed.

“This is a prime example of why the OSSAA board made up of superintendents acting as impartial members must be restructured or dismantled entirely,” Burns said.