FLEMING ISLAND – An apparent change of lease information for residential status led to former Fleming Island High point guard Bennie McDuffie who has, since a series of investigations, appeals and mediation with the Florida High School Athletic Association, left Fleming Island and transferred to Potters House Academy in Jacksonville.

It also triggered an investigation by the FHSAA that led to the Golden Eagles being fined $4,000 and forced to forfeit nine games, including the Fortegra Invitational title.

Clay County School officials cited an anonymous tip that started their own investigation.

"Once we find out that a player or student may or may not be legally enrolled, we are required to investigate," said Clay County Athletic Director John Sgromolo. "Because he was an athlete did not affect the investigation except to put a little more exposure on the situation."

McDuffie, a senior for the Golden Eagles, transferred after his junior year at Mandarin High after an encouraging summer basketball season with numerous Fleming Island players at the AAU level.

A tense interaction between Mandarin Coach George Macloud and Bennie McDuffie, Sr., the father of Bennie McDuffie and another son, Kaleb McDuffie, who was also a part of the Fleming Island junior varsity basketball team and also is now transferred to Potters House Academy, seems to be the starting point of the McDuffies choosing to find a new school.

"There was an incident between the coach and I that eventually led to him emailing me that he would advise me to find another program for Bennie to play at," said McDuffie, Sr., who has owned a small barbershop for 22 years in Jacksonville. "There was some tension based on a conversation forum that the coach set up to keep parents informed on team happenings that [were] supposed to be a positive forum for the team parents to discuss things like transportation and game preparedness stuff. An incident created a tense conversation between the coach and another player's parents and I tried to ask the coach to keep the forum on team activities only."

According to documents within the investigation, McDuffie moved into a rental house on Fleming Island with his brother and was required to submit a resident lease and another form of identification to the Clay County School District office to enroll at the school.

"We got the lease from my brother and did not think we needed anything more," said Bennie McDuffie. "When we were informed the lease needed me and my boys on it, we got the original lease amended. That's in the paperwork."

On Dec. 11, Sgromolo received an anonymous phone call questioning the eligibility status of the brothers.

In a letter to the FHSAA's Craig Damon, head of compliance, from Fleming Island Principal Tom Pittman, dated Dec. 16, Pittman confirmed the summer basketball connection, a phone call to Mandarin athletic director to determine any issues with McDuffie coming to Fleming Island, and confirmed that both McDuffies started school on Aug. 10.

A return phone call Dec. 17 from the owner of the house to Pittman, who called the prior day, clarified the living arrangements with the house having 10 bedrooms and the owner's family on the first floor and the McDuffies living on the second floor. An amended lease with all names involved on it was sent to Pittman and was part of the record package called Amendment A dated Dec. 17.

The problem was the Amendment A lease had the McDuffies added to the May 1 list that was submitted in the original document exchange. The signatures on the Amendment A lease though, have all parties signing on Aug 15, 2021.

At first glance, and, after normal review from the Clay County School District, Fleming Island High and the Fleming Island Athletics Department, Fleming Island coach Traavis Chandler was given a green light to let both McDuffies play on their respective teams.

Athletic directors in Clay County generally agree any athlete coming into a program is usually given a second look.

After the Golden Eagles started 9-0 in the regular season record, Sgromolo was tipped about living arrangements for the McDuffies.

According to investigation documents, McDuffies lease agreement submitted to the School District as well as a credit card statement were the two forms of identification Sgromolo started his investigation with. Noted was the lease agreement term start date of May 1, with the names of six tenants: McDuffies' brother and his family; a wife and four children, but no neither of the athletes or their father. The lease did mention a non-related "Landlord" as the owner of the property.

A social worker sent to the residence confirmed the six names with, according to the report, no mention of the two players or their father.

Also in the report, an electric service agreement dated May 4 was confirmed, but not with McDuffie as part of the service agreement.

Sgromolo also submitted a property records check, apparently the family home of the McDuffies in Jacksonville, still owned by McDuffie.

One of the final documents in the FHSAA package is a letter from Fleming Island Athletic Director Travis Cunningham to FHSAA’s Damon who seemed to, in his words, "have an issue with those three accusations when it comes to this situation. Those are not right or accurate assessments of this situation or how we conduct business here at Fleming Island High School."

Cunningham further wrote, "I will also add, due to this situation, there will be additional measure going forward to prevent this situation from happening again."

Cunningham's "situation" pertained to the By-Laws McDuffie apparently violated; ByLaw 9.1.2.1 Falsification of Information, ByLaw 3.5.1 Administration Control and ByLaw 3.5.2 Compliance with Rules.

Cunningham wouldn’t talk on the record about his letter to Damon.

For the season, Chandler has commended his team for forging on despite the forfeitures of games; from a 21-1 overall record to now 12-10.

"They have bucked up and continued to practice hard and win games," said Chandler. "This situation only changes the fact that we may have to play most of our games on the road in the playoffs."

Accordingly, in the FHSAA ByLaws, it reads FHSAA bylaws may not limit the competition of student-athletes prospectively for the rules violations of their own school or its coaches and their adult representatives...Contests may not be forfeited for inadvertent eligibility violations unless the coach or a school administrator should have known of the violation."

McDuffie has already enrolled and played games at Potter's House Academy in Jacksonville.

"The sad part for Bennie is that he really did not want to leave Fleming Island," the father said. "Both boys developed nice friends there, but this whole paperwork thing I decided it was best for him to get out of that situation and start new. Everybody said they would fix this and we could move on, but nobody did anything for Bennie."