Jamal Speaks put on his pads, grabbed his helmet and got dressed in his new gray Ballou High School jersey on Saturday, readying himself for his first game in nearly two years. But just as the 18-year old student, who says he is homeless, was about to step onto the field for the Knights, he was told that principal Willie Jackson was not allowing him to play.
Speaks, who is a student at Ballou STAY Opportunity Academy — an alternative school on Ballou’s campus that allows students to get their high school diplomas — had been deemed eligible to play for the Ballou High School team by the D.C. State Athletics Association (DCSAA). But Jackson insisted on Saturday that Speaks couldn’t play due to a ruling of ineligibility by the District of Columbia Interscholastic Athletic Association (DCIAA) in August, according to Speaks.
This confusion over the hierarchy of the two D.C. athletic bodies with nearly identical acronyms appeared to be at the center of Speaks being held off the field. The decision caused an uproar among students, coaches and fans, and led to Ballou players refusing to take the field for the first 45 minutes of the game in protest. Speaks said college recruiters who had come to watch him play weren’t able to do so, and several people said Jackson threatened to fire Coach Minoso Rodgers if he allowed Speaks to play.
The District of Columbia Public Schools released an updated statement on Wednesday that said they are further investigating the matter and are working with DCSAA to resolve it as quickly as possible. In the meantime, Speaks “is allowed to practice and play with his team.” Speaks’ godmother, Mia Young, said Wednesday afternoon that they are still unsure if Jackson will allow Speaks to play in Ballou’s next game.
Jackson and Rodgers did not respond to requests for comment.
“I was upset at first, because I had so many people come to see me play,” said Speaks, who is without a permanent residence and currently is sleeping on couches at various friends’ homes. “I worked so hard on and off the field. Have a good GPA, work in the classroom and outside of school … I’m homeless. So me just trying to stay in the area to get back and forth from school, it’s already tough.”
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After being away from football for nearly two years due to a previous residency question, Speaks said he sent a waiver to the DCIAA (which is the city’s public high school athletic league) to let him play football this season at Ballou, but DCIAA denied him eligibility in August. Speaks then appealed the eligibility decision to DCSAA (the state association that oversees all high school sporting events in the District), which reviewed his case and informed him on Aug. 29 he was eligible to participate in athletics at any DCSAA member school — including Ballou.
Both DCIAA and DCSAA claimed to be the ruling authority in matters of player eligibility, but Jackson appeared to be listening to the DCIAA, the athletics wing of the DCPS, over the DCSAA on Saturday.
Speaks, whose father is deceased and whose mother is not an active participant in his life, was not able to play in Ballou’s second game because he still needed to meet the school’s minimum practice requirement. But, according to Speaks, he had met them in time for the third game on Saturday. DCSAA Director Clark Ray said that to his knowledge, there were no rules or guidelines Speaks had broken that would have changed Speaks’ eligibility.
Speaks said he had his first face-to-face conversation with Jackson Tuesday morning. The principal told Speaks he supported him and that he wants him to play. Speaks said Jackson wanted the next step to be an official document from the DCPS or the DCIAA stating he is eligible. Jackson did not respond to requests for comment on Wednesday after DCPS released its updated statement, and it’s unclear if Speaks will be able to play in Ballou’s next game on Sept. 28.
“I just want people to know that he said he wasn’t out to get me,” Speaks said of Jackson. “He wasn’t against me. I don’t think that he was on my side, but, I mean, I don’t know what to think about what he had to do about stuff. It’s a lot of funny stuff going on. It’s just crazy. I should have been playing football.”
Speaks’ teammates rallied around him on Saturday before the game, refusing to play without him for 45 minutes before eventually taking the field and winning, 48-0, over Anacostia. Multiple former and current Ballou players have said Jackson threatened to fire Rodgers if the coach let Speaks play. Speaks said that coaches from Temple University had traveled to see him play on Saturday, but instead saw him ride the bench.
In an email forwarded to Speaks on Tuesday, the Office of the State Superintendent of Education Office of Enrollment and Residency for D.C. said Speaks is a resident of the District and remained eligible to attend any city school tuition-free — which would also make him eligible to participate in athletics. The office, which reports to the Mayor but is independent of DCPS, had been reviewing Speaks’ residency after a tip about his living situation came to the office on Aug. 24.
D.C. Councilmember Trayon White Sr. released a statement Monday which said, in part, that he is trying to help Speaks secure housing. Young, Speaks’ godmother, confirmed that Speaks was going to meet with the Covenant House in Ward 8, with White’s help, to discuss housing options.
“Jamal, he is a good kid,” said Donnell Milligan, a former Ballou football player. “All he wants to do is play football and get out of Southeast [D.C.] . . . He always worries about other people and making sure they are straight before him.”
Speaks played for Ballou his freshman and sophomore seasons. He was removed from the team during the 2016-17 school year after DCPS ruled him ineligible to attend school in the District following a residency investigation. Speaks later enrolled at Ballou STAY Opportunity Academy, he said, during the third quarter of his junior year, after DCPS cleared him to be a student there.
“With Mal coming back, everyone was happy,” said Ray Yarborough, a Ballou alum. “For the team, it’s more than just football, it’s a brotherhood. Everybody wants everyone to make it out. It is a family.”
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