Monday, November 5, 2012

West Meck QB Jalan McClendon cleared to play at Olympic

West Mecklenburg High quarterback Jalan McClendon has been cleared by the N.C. High School Athletic Association to play in Friday’s N.C. 4AA second round playoff game at Olympic.

Officials removed McClendon from Friday’s 45-10 upset at Hough after he scored a touchdown and imitated Carolina Panther QB Cam Newton’s “Superman” touchdown celebration.

NCHSAA supervisor of officials Mark Dreibelbis told the Observer Monday that officials did not eject McClendon for taunting, which would’ve triggered a two-game suspension. Drebelbis said McClendon was disqualified for an unsportsmanlike act, which just meant he had to sit out the remainder of the game.

Butler All-American receiver Uriah LeMay was ejected from the Bulldogs’ 33-14 win over Independence Oct. 26 for taunting. LeMay sat out the Bulldogs 49-0 win over West Forsyth Friday, and he’ll serve the second of his two-game suspension when Butler plays Independence at Memorial Stadium in a second round playoff this week.
West Meck coach Jeff Caldwell said he was elated to be able to use his quarterback this week.

“It’s a good learning experience for him,” Caldwell said. “With him being in the position he’s in, he should know better. He’s a young kid. My kids have never been in a situation like this before. I’m just happy for Jalan and that it came it out alright. I’m glad he wasn’t severely punished for something where he was just having fun. He’s not the taunting type. At Tennessee (team camp) this summer, they were always asking ‘Why don’t you get excited?’”

McClendon, a 6-foot-4, 194-pound junior has scholarship offers from North Carolina, Duke and Wake Forest, Caldwell said. South Carolina has invited McClendon and Hawks’ tailback Shaun Wilson to campus for unofficial visits. Tennessee is also recruiting McClendon, who has thrown for 1,235 yards and nine touchdowns this season. He’s led West Meck to a 9-3 record, its best since 1988. Friday was West Meck’s first playoff win since 1989.

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

Great news for this kida and West Meck. This rule needs to be looked at again. I saw what he did and it was nothing. A high school kids should be able to show some emotion when they score a TD!!

Anonymous said...

Great news for this kid and West Meck. This rule needs to be looked at again. I saw what he did and it was nothing. A high school kid should be able to show some emotion when they score a TD!!

Anonymous said...

Not sure whose decision it was, but it was the right one!

Anonymous said...

Even the refs could not take this victory from West Meck.Glad the young man gets to play on Friday!! #YOTTO

Wiley Coyote said...

If you want to emulate someone, try Marcus Lattimore instead of a cry baby who blames his ills on others.

Anonymous said...

I am glad the young man will be able to play for his team but this distinction of Disqualified and Ejected has a lot of gray area in it to enable an official to punish based on his interpretation... This needs to be clarified.

Anonymous said...

Happy the young man can play Friday!

Anonymous said...

If Hough has been winning, the call would have never been made. #YOTTO

hrj1971 said...

What about the Butler receiver? Superman and showing the ball are the same thing. CMS can make this right if they wanted to.

Anonymous said...

Has he already stayed out the one game the state requires? If so the school system can allow him to play. Senior, could be his last game. Might be the right thing to do. How about it Langston?

College Recruiting said...

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