Bonner-Prendie transfer Devon Nelson, mother consider options after PIAA ruling

A local mother is confused, frustrated, and angry this week after a PIAA appeal hearing ruled her son ineligible to play basketball at Bonner-Prendergast this season.

Christine Clark says her son, Devon Nelson, 16, was devastated to learn that the administration at Upper Merion had challenged his transfer in November, alleging that it was motivated by athletic reasons in a violation of PIAA rules.

Reached via email this week, Upper Merion principal Jonathan Bauer said the school would not address individual student matters and that “the PIAA has handled this matter.”

Clark says her desire to buy a home, her growing concern with the environment at Upper Merion, and Nelson’s desire to attend a Catholic school determined his transfer. She has retained counsel and plans to seek further remedies.

After Wednesday’s hearing, which was held via Zoom, PIAA members voted, 5-0, to deem Nelson ineligible. A regional hearing in November ended with a 3-3 vote, which led to this week’s appeal.

Last year, Nelson helped Upper Merion win the Pioneer Athletic Conference Frontier Division championship and was a first-team all-PAC selection.

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Now the junior at Bonner-Prendie must sit out a full calendar year from the date of his September transfer.

“I’m a single parent, and I try to make the best decisions I can for my kids,” Clark said. “But I make the decisions. Devon can’t come to me and tell me to buy a house and move somewhere so [he] can play basketball at a certain school. That’s not how things work in my house. You go where I go and you do what I say. For them to punish my child because I made the decision to move is crazy. And [Upper Merion and Bonner-Prendie] would never play each other. So I just don’t get what the motivation is except to be petty, because that’s what this seems like to me. It seems like it’s petty.”

Clark told The Inquirer that she had inherited money after a recent death in her family. She previously had rented a home for more than a decade near Upper Merion, where her older daughter and twin boys also had attended high school.

Instead of paying rent, Clark said she recently decided to purchase a home outright.

The home she recently purchased is a few miles from Bonner-Prendie.

Clark added that she had grown concerned that her son had witnessed a number of fights during his time at Upper Merion.

Several videos supplied by Clark appear to show fistfights between students on the grounds of Upper Merion. Nelson attended Pope John Paul II as a freshman but didn’t feel like he fit in and struggled with the sometimes long commute. Clark said Nelson enjoyed the structure of a Catholic school.

So when the decision was made, Clark urged her son to call Upper Merion coach Jason Quenzer in July and advise him of their intentions.

According to Clark, Upper Merion contended at Wednesday’s hearing that Nelson suggested in that conversation that the move was motivated by the opportunity for more exposure in the Catholic League.

Clark, who says she was standing next to her son when the phone call occurred, denies he made such a comment.

Upper Merion, she added, also said social media posts from media outlets declaring Nelson’s intention to transfer also suggested athletic motivations.

“I can’t control what other people tweet,” Clark said. “And kids will retweet things if they see their names.”

Clark added that her son had been recruited by private schools in the area, but that she chose Bonner-Prendie in part because of its proximity to the new home, given that she is his sole means of transportation. The Friars finished 4-9 last season and ranked near the bottom of the Catholic League.

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Billy Cassidy, now in his second season as the Friars coach, said many inside the school were upset by the PIAA ruling.

“The messed up thing is nobody did anything wrong,” Cassidy said in a phone interview. “Devon didn’t do anything wrong; his mom didn’t do anything wrong. They just moved, and that’s nobody’s business to even question.

“He’s already made an impact in our school in his first three months. He’s a good kid, a great student, and he’s liked by everybody. He had a ton of people in his corner as he was going through this. It’s just very upsetting for everybody involved.”

Last week, Clark started a petition titled “Let Devon play,” which now has more than 3,500 signatures, including, she says, many of Nelson’s former teammates at Upper Merion.

“The adults in this situation could take a lesson from the kids, because if anyone should be resentful it would be the [Upper Merion] players,” she said. “And they’re not. One of them sent me a message that said, ‘I hope he gets to play because we already had a game picked out that we would come and watch.’”