Top Minnesota prep football player loses senior year eligibility

Minnehaha Academy junior Craig McDonald, one of the top football recruits in Minnesota, has been declared ineligible to play in the 2019-20 school year by the Minnesota State High School League.

The 6-2, 185-pound safety played a key role in the 2018 Class 4A championship run of the SMB Wolfpack — the three-school cooperative which also includes St. Paul Academy and Blake.

McDonald is the No. 6-ranked player in Minnesota by 247Sports and No. 7 by Rivals.com. He has made a verbal commitment to play for Iowa State.

The ineligibility ruling stems from a high school league bylaw that limits student-athletes to 12 consecutive semesters of eligibility, whether the athlete participates in a sport or not, from seventh through 12th grade.

McDonald entered Minnehaha Academy after going to public schools through eighth grade. At the time, his parents decided to have him retake eighth grade at his new school to give him a chance to mature academically and socially. He started attending school when he was 4 years old.

"They didn't want me to be younger than everyone else," McDonald said. "I had to mature. I had to grow up. We weren't looking for an unfair advantage."

By repeating eighth grade, McDonald, who also played for Minnehaha Academy's Class 2A state championship basketball team, will have used up his 12 semesters of eligibility upon completion of the current school year.

High school league associate director Craig Perry didn't comment on McDonald's specific case, but said there is a narrowly defined criteria for allowing eligibility to be restored.

"They have to show a record of withdrawing from school or having an extended absence, like a lengthy illness, that resulted in a loss of opportunity," Perry said. "A family decision to hold a student back for academic or social reasons does not grant extra semesters."

McDonald said Iowa State is still firm in its scholarship offer to him and that, if his final appeal fails, he's looked into the possibility of competing at a prep school this fall.

"My first choice is to stay at Minnehaha and graduate with my classmates," he said. "It seems unfair. And it's just kind of sad."