Posted: Oct. 2, 2009

Promising start falls apart in wake of forfeitures, coach's resignation

First-year coach Tarif Kumasi has resigned before the school board could fire him.

"I don't know how much I want to go into depth on it, but I had to step down," said Kumasi, who became head coach in March. "They did some more internal things and without going real in-depth into it, I had to step down."

The Cosmos began the season 3-2, their best start since 1998, but late last week school officials discovered that one of the players was in his ninth semester of high school, exceeding the allowable limit of eight semesters for athletic competition. The district self-reported the infraction to the Michigan High School Athletic Association, forfeiting its three victories.

But upon further investigation, at least one other player was deemed to be ineligible and Kumasi was forced to resign.

"We ended up with one we found out about and when the investigation continued there was another one," Hamtramck superintendent Tom Niczay said. "I don't want to give all of the details what the coach did, but he's suspended pending board action."

Kumasi painted himself as an innocent bystander in the ineligibilities.

"At first he was, yes," Niczay said. "I'll take him at his word that was an honest mistake. But in an on-going, self-initiated investigation, more information came to light and we can't turn our heads to it."

Assistant coach Leo Wells, who played for the Cosmos in 1995 when they won their last conference title, has stepped in and will serve as head coach for the remainder of the season.

The forfeitures and Kumasi's firing are the latest blows to a program struggling to be relevant again.

Heading into this season the Cosmos were 6-75 in this decade and began the decade with four consecutive winless seasons. In 2000 they were outscored, 408-16, and in '03 they were outscored, 379-12.

The only two Hamtramck wins since 2005 came via forfeits.

Senior quarterback Omar Thabet has played a major part in the team's improvement over last year, completing 96 of 166 passes for 1,566 yards and 12 touchdowns with only two interceptions

"I feel bad; it's a great group of kids," Niczay said. "The kids didn't do anything wrong. The kids didn't cheat. A bad decision was made by the head coach