A final decision on North Stanly’s appeal regarding the forfeiture of volleyball games last week has playoff implications for the Comets and others in the Yadkin Valley Conference.

In a press release published to the Stanly County Schools’ website, SCS confirmed North forfeited 11 volleyball games along with forfeits in cross-country, JV football and JV volleyball.

The statement said the paperwork of five transfer student-athletes had not been submitted properly by North Stanly and the players had not cleared based on North Carolina High School Athletic Association (NCHSAA) transfer policies.

North Athletic Director Bryan Mills reported the violations Sept. 20.

“NSHS administration takes full responsibility for the error and players have been cleared to participate in all future games,” SCS Assistant Athletic Director Sean Whitley said in the statement.

New verbiage on the transfer forms which ask if a student has attended or played sports for another local education agency (LEA) has been added to the form each Stanly student-athlete must fill out.

Only the varsity volleyball is affected by the forfeits in terms of the state playoffs. The Comets dropped from 22-1 overall and 16-0 in the YVC to 11-12 and 9-7, tied for fourth in the standings with Chatham Central.

JV sports do not compete in a state playoff while cross-country regular-season results do not affect the team’s participation in the playoffs.

Uwharrie Charter won the volleyball regular-season title with a 15-1 conference mark, two games ahead of Gray Stone.

North went from being one of the top seeds in the 1A state playoffs and having at least one guaranteed home playoff game to needing to win this week’s conference tournament to secure one of the three guaranteed bids from the YVC.

With the volleyball bracket taking 64 teams this season, North has a strong chance to earn at at-large bid. Last season, the last team into the state playoffs in the West region, North Moore, had a 9-14 record when seeded.

In this week’s YVC bracket, the Comets were scheduled to host Chatham Central in the opening round of the tourney.

The semifinals and finals of the YVC volleyball tournament will be hosted by the Comets starting with Tuesday’s semifinals at 5 p.m. The YVC finals will be Wednesday at 6.

The opening round of the state tournament will be Saturday, with the brackets to be announced Thursday.

Sports Editor Charles Curcio can be reached at 704-983-1361 or via Twitter (@charles_curcio).