Groome attended Barnegat H.S., in New Jersey as a freshman and sophomore. He spent his junior year at IMG Academy in Florida, and returned home to complete his high school career back at Barnegat H.S., among his friends and family.
Despite this seemingly innocuous action, Groome was temporarily suspended for violating a transfer rule.
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The New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association necessitates that any athlete who transfers schools without changing addresses must be non-participatory during the first 30 days of the season or half of the team’s entire amount of contests. The NJSIAA found that Groome violated said rule when he transferred back to Barnegat for his senior year of high school after spending the second half of his junior year of high school at IMG Academy in Florida.
To clarify, because his home address, that of his parents’, did not change upon said transfer, it was incumbent upon him, via the NJSIAA’s bylaws, to report such a transfer, and serve as a non-participant in his team’s first 30 days of the season. His failure to report such an action to the NJSIAA, resulted in a retroactive 30-game suspension, and Barnegat’s forfeiture of the two games in which Groome pitched, including a 19-strikeout no-hitter thrown in mid-April.
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