Maize South girls start four players to pay tribute to ineligible senior teammate
Senior Lauren Johnson asked all day.
She begged Ben Hamilton, the Maize South girls basketball coach, to roll four players onto the court at the start of the Mavericks’ sub-state opener against Arkansas City on Wednesday night. That was just one of the many tributes to Zayda Perez.
Perez was ruled ineligible Wednesday after an anonymous tip was sent to the Kansas State High School Activities Association. Perez transferred from Valley Center to Maize South over the summer and did not sit out the first six games of the season, which was before her 18-week ineligibility was up.
She moved from living with her mother to her father, who has lived in the same house across the street from Maize South for 11 years. Because her father didn’t change addresses, the move was not bona fide, under KSHSAA rules.
Maize South’s first six wins have been revoked, and Perez will sit the rest of the 2018-19 season unless an appeal is approved.
Perez wasn’t on the court Wednesday, so the Mavericks held her spot and played with four until the first dead ball.
Before the game, Johnson put Perez’s jersey in her waistband and revealed it as her name was announced in the starting lineup.
Maize South students printed off dozens of tweets and letters regarding Perez, and Valley Center students made the drive to support their former classmate.
And hours before the game, Johnson and fellow senior Alexis Snodgrass bought T-shirts at Wal-Mart and printed Perez’s name and number on the back with the phrase, “We may not have it all together, but together, we have it all,” on the front.
“It means a lot that all these people around me that I’ve only known for about eight months are supporting me through this because they know how much I love the game of basketball,” Perez said. “It really hurts knowing someone can do this, but I’m proud of my girls. And I want them to go far with or without me.”
Johnson said it’s impossible to not allow Perez’s ruling affect them. The Mavericks will play Salina Central on Friday for a chance to go to state. They beat Arkansas City by 57 points.
“I think it’s going to affect us positively,” Johnson said. “We are just going to use this as motivation to win games in the future. We basically had to come up with two game plans: No. 1 — How do we get her back? No. 2 — How do we win without her?”
The past 48 hours have been a whirlwind for the Maize South program. Hamilton was pulled aside Tuesday. Practice was canceled, and Perez was called into the front office.
When the players learned about the ruling, the tears starting running, junior Katie Wagner said.
“And it quickly went to anger,” she said. “I just think it’s messed up that someone would try to sabotage us like that because they’re scared they wouldn’t beat us.”
The Mavericks maintain Perez is not at fault. Hamilton said he doesn’t know how he would change the KSHSAA transfer rule if given the opportunity but knows he doesn’t like seeing Perez the way she has been since the ruling.
But Wednesday showed Maize South is still a state title contender without Perez on the floor, Johnson said.
“We’re really rallying around Zayda right now; this is a pretty self-motivated group, and to add this to it, they’re extremely motivated to continue taking care of business,” Hamilton said. “It’s a very unfortunate situation. We’re punishing a kid that had absolutely nothing to do with it.”
This story was originally published February 28, 2019 at 2:48 PM.