Harmon's attorney, Chip Adams, filed for an injunction Monday, and a hearing at U.S. District Court in Paducah is scheduled for 1:30 pm on Thursday, Jan. 3.
The Kentucky High School Athletic Association has ruled Harmon ineligible to play this season at Marshall County. The KHSAA denied Harmon’s final appeal on Nov. 15. Harmon took his case to Marshall County Circuit Court seeking an injunction that would allow him to play immediately. But a hearing scheduled for last Friday was canceled when the KHSAA requested the case be moved to federal court.
Harmon's father Mike, filed a complaint in Marshall Circuit Court earlier this month, asking for a stay on Zion's ineligibility, and that he be allowed to play basketball immediately at Marshall County.
Harmon has been ruled ineligible for the 2018-19 season, based on the KHSAA's Bylaw 6, which states all varsity athletes must sit out one year after transferring. The bylaw provides exceptions, the most common being “a bona fide change of residence” in which the athlete moves or a divorce by the athlete's parents that leads to a change of residence. Bylaw 6 also states that the KHSAA may still require an athlete to sit out a year if “the change in schools is motivated in whole or part by a desire to participate in athletics at the new school.”
In the complaint, the Harmons argue that Bylaw 6 is unconstitutional, lends itself to erroneous arbitrary and capricious interpretation by the KHSAA and infringes on the constitutional right of Mike Harmon to parent his child.
The complaint also states that while Mike Harmon was provided with an opportunity to be heard, he was not provided with a Notice of Evidence to be utilized by the KHSAA against him, thus violating Due Process Rules.
Marshall County is the fourth stop in four years for Harmon. He played at Antioch (TN) Lighthouse Christian as a seventh-grader, Bowling Green as an eighth-grader, where he won a state title, and Adair County as a freshman. He enrolled at MCHS earlier this summer.
Harmon, a 5'10" sophomore guard and five-star recruit, currently has offers to play college basketball at several big-time schools including Alabama, Auburn, Creighton, Jacksonville State, Missouri, New Mexico State, Saint Louis, SMU, Stephen F. Austin, Tennessee, Vanderbilt and Western Kentucky.
