Softball: Benet appealing Rowan McGuire’s eligibility
By Bill Harrison For Sun-Times Media March 13, 2013 6:14PM
Updated: March 14, 2013 8:24PM
Rowan McGuire wants one season with her sister.
McGuire is a junior at Benet and a sister of 2011 and 2012 Naperville Sun Softball Player of the Year Maeve McGuire, a senior for the Redwings.
The younger McGuire hopes to play for Benet this spring after transferring from Downers Grove North last fall. She was initially ruled ineligible by the Illinois High School Association, whose bylaws require students moving from public to private schools to sit out one season before becoming eligible.
McGuire and her parents will meet with IHSA executive director Marty Hickman Saturday in East Peoria to make their case for immediate eligibility.
“I think Rowan has a legitimate appeal,” Benet coach Jerry Schiff said. “She wanted to come here [initially], but couldn’t get in. She got her grades up and now she’s here. She came here understanding the situation.”
McGuire, who has committed to Georgia Southern, transferred from Downers Grove North last fall. Another older sister, Nora, now a sophomore at the University of Buffalo, attended Benet. Maeve, who transferred to Benet during her freshman year, is heading to Georgia on a softball scholarship.
IHSA by-laws allow the executive director to grant public-to-private transfers immediate eligibility if the transfer was beyond the control of the student, parent, guardian, or the school from which the student transferred.
“I really hope it all goes through,” Maeve McGuire said. “Rowan really wanted to go to Benet, but she didn’t make it in. She worked really hard on her grades to make it in.”
