MELVINDALE, Mich. — A suburban Detroit high school has been stripped of its Class C state basketball championship because a player had exhausted his eligibility.

Melvindale Academy for Business and Technology defeated Schoolcraft on March 28. But the Michigan High School Athletic Association has determined that one of the boys was in his fifth year of school.

Melvindale Academy coach Michael Talley Jr. tells the Detroit Free Press he's "pretty upset." He says school records show the transfer student was a freshman in 2005.

But the MHSAA says the boy actually began high school in 2004, making him ineligible.

Schoolcraft will not be declared the Class C champion.

___

Information from: Detroit Free Press, http://www.freep.com