Crenshaw Christian Academy will miss the playoffs this season after the AISA banned the Cougars from postseason play because of an ineligible player.

CCA finished its season with a 34-0 win over Chambers Academy last Friday night. Chambers will take the Cougars place in the Class A state playoffs, which starts Friday night.

CCA head coach Roland Jones said he reported the violation himself to the AISA office in Montgomery. The AISA’s ruling stems from a recent amendment to the organization’s athletic handbook concerning how a player is considered a bona-fide student of the school.

“I self-reported it and told the AISA I didn’t think he (the player) had made a bona-fide move,” said Jones.

Jones said he notified his players prior to Friday’s game against Chambers. The public announcers at Chambers also addressed the issue over the school’s loudspeakers, even though CCA could have appealed the AISA’s ruling on Saturday following the game.

“I’m the type of person that I wanted it to hear them from me,” said Jones. “It’s not a good thing to tell a kid. But our kids went out and played great for me in the last game. I couldn’t ask for a better bunch. They laid it on the line.”

Jones said ignoring the rules was out of the question.

“We could have made the playoffs, but later on I wouldn’t have felt right about it,” he said. “It wouldn’t have been the right thing to do.”

After a few on-again, off-again performances during the regular season, the Cougars won their final three games to become playoff eligible and finished the year 5-5.

Chambers will face Southern Academy in the first round on Friday night.