The Pioneer Regional School District’s boys and girls athletic teams will have the scores of their Western Mass Tournament games recorded as played and accurately count towards their state tournament ranking under a court ruling Thursday. 

Pioneer was among the more than a dozen western Massachusetts schools whose athletic directors did not input their schedules correctly to Arbiter.com, the website the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association (MIAA) uses for rankings its teams in the state tournament. Schools were required to have TBD games as placeholders in the schedule for Western Mass. Tournament games by Sept. 13.

The PVIAC and the MIAA came to a decision that the schools that did not have those TBD games on the schedule by the deadline would still be able to play in the Western Mass. tournament, but each game would count as a forfeit loss no matter the outcome of the game.

Earlier this week, Hampden County Superior Court Judge Tracy E. Duncan upheld an injunction brought by the Hampden-Wilbraham Regional School District and individuals from Monson High School regarding sectional tournament contests being ruled as forfeits. Pioneer Valley Regional District filed its own emergency motion for a temporary restraining order or preliminary injunction on Thursday in Franklin County Superior Court.

Franklin County Superior Court held a hearing on the preliminary junction on Thursday afternoon, with plaintiff Elizabeth S. Zuckerman, representing the Pioneer Valley School District, and defendant John M. Simon representing the MIAA.

Franklin Superior Court Judge James M. Manitsas issued a preliminary injunction, stating “It is ordered and adjudged that Defendant(s) Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association and their various attorneys and agents are: Temporarily restrained from recording the outcome of athletic games played by Pioneer Valley Regional School's boys and girls soccer teams in any way other than as the scores actually occur/occurred and shall maintain and issue standings and determine state MIAA tournament eligibility based upon correct and accurate game results, unaffected by any penalty from MIAA for non-conforming schedule submissions.”

The Pioneer boys soccer team was the No. 13 ranked team in the MIAA Div. 5 state tournament prior to the Western Mass. tournament but after beating Mount Everett, 5-1, in the quarterfinals of the Western Mass. Class D tournament, the Panthers dropped to the No. 27 ranking. Pioneer’s win over Smith Academy in the Class D semifinals would also have counted as a forfeit loss toward its state tournament ranking, likely dropping Pioneer even further down. 

The Pioneer girls soccer team fell to Hopkins in the Western Mass. Class D quarterfinals, but since Hopkins was one of the schools that did not have its schedule correctly imputed by the deadline, the game counts as a 1-0 loss for the Panthers. Pioneer’s win over Mount Everett in a non-playoff game counted as a 3-0 forfeit loss, however. 

Now, all games will be recorded based on the accurate game result. 

With the MIAA boys and girls soccer brackets set to be released on Friday, the Pioneer Valley school committee held an emergency meeting in open session last night, where the School Committee unanimously approved funds to hire Zuckerman to represent the district in a dispute with the MIAA. Zuckerman filed on behalf on the district on Thursday in Franklin County Superior Court. 

“We respect that the MIAA, like all governing bodies in athletics, needs its member districts to adhere to established processes and timelines, and we do note that the scheduling error that took place with pioneer is one that occurred with more than a quarter of the schools in the MIAA’s District One,” Pioneer Valley Regional School District superintendent Patricia Kinsella told the Recorder on Thursday before filing the injunction. “When 17 out of 61 schools make the same mistake, one has to ask, whether there is some unintended flaw in the scheduling process or the communications around that scheduling process?

“The impact on Pioneer teams is not insubstantial, for example, our boys soccer team was ranked number 13 in division 5 across the state before the MIAA penalty took effect,” Kinsella continued. “When the penalty was imposed, the team’s ranking dropped to number 28, even though they had a 5-1 win over Mt. Everett in the PVIAC tournament. We appreciate how challenging it must be for the MIAA to navigate. Executive director Bob Baldwin was generous with his time yesterday talking through the MIAA perspective with Pioneer. While the district disagrees with the MIAA’s decisions in how to manage this situation, we respect and are grateful for how hard they work to make sure the kids have a great tournament experience.” 

Northampton Public Schools filed its own emergency motion for a temporary restraining order or preliminary injunction on Wednesday in Hampshire County Superior Court. The injunction was heard on Thursday, also by Manitsas, who ruled to keep the injunction.