Three Upson-Lee basketball players, including one starter, are not likely to play in Saturday’s Class AAAA boys championship game against St. Pius at Georgia Tech because of their arrests on misdemeanor charges of possession of marijuana and criminal trespassing, several media outlets are reporting.
The players are Ja’Corey Smith, Otis Traveon Walker and Rodney Raines. A fourth arrested Upson-Lee student, Hamilton Harrison, is not a basketball team member.
The four posted bond of $982 and were released from the Upson County jail, according to a news release from the Thomaston Police Department.
The school’s code of conduct says that student athletes are ineligible for extracurricular activities until an investigation is complete, according to WMAZ-TV in Macon, among the first to report the story.
Ja’Corey Smith, a starter, averages 6.5 points and three rebounds, according to the team’s statistics on MaxPreps. Walker has played in 16 games. Raines has appeared in two.
Upson-Lee is the defending AAAA champion and holds a 62-game winning streak, fourth-longest in state history for boys teams.
