Updated: Dec. 17, 2024
The Cross Schools girls basketball team returned to the court Monday, albeit without coach Matthew Fisher-Davis and three of the team’s top players, in a lopsided loss at Beaufort High, ending a string of three consecutive games sitting out in protest of Fisher’s abrupt firing.
The defending SCISA 1A champions were off to a hot start, sitting at 5-2 despite a tough early-season schedule, when their season was turned upside-down. A short-handed Stingrays team took the court Monday at Beaufort with boys coach Doc Archibald at the helm, but they were out of sorts without point guard P.J. Benson, lone senior Genesis Wilson, and leading scorer and rebounder Ryan Mayers. The Eagles raced out to a 23-8 lead after one quarter and outscored Cross 20-1 in the fourth quarter of a 69-41 win.
Fisher told LowcoSports he was relieved as his duties as the school’s assistant athletics director on Dec. 9, and subsequently stripped of his coaching role a short time later.
The school announced the postponement of last Tuesday’s game against Hilton Head Christian Academy, and when the team refused to play without their coach again Thursday, the Stingrays forfeited their scheduled game against Bluffton. The Stingrays were scheduled to play at Curtis Baptist in Aiken on Friday in a rematch of last year’s SCISA 1A state championship game, but only the boys team made the trip.
Fisher-Davis was elevated to the head coaching role early last season and led the Stingrays to the SCISA 1A state title. Cross returned all of its top talent from that squad and was off to an impressive 5-2 start against a strong early-season schedule when the wheels came off this week.
According to multiple sources, the situation arose from a disagreement regarding a student-athlete’s academic performance and the appropriate course of action to improve it. On Monday, the dispute came to a head and Fisher-Davis was informed that he would no longer serve in his administrative role but was asked to finish the season as the team’s head coach.
At that time, Fisher-Davis says he asked for time to talk with his wife and pray about the decision. He was informed less than hour later that he had been fired his coaching role, as well.
One of the team’s star players promptly asked where to turn in her uniform after hearing the news, and her teammates followed suit by saying they would only play for Fisher-Davis.
In a meeting with the team Wednesday, Cross Schools athletics director Ken Shaw likened the relationship to a marriage ending in divorce or a friendship that had dissolved beyond repair. He told the team in no uncertain terms that Fisher-Davis would not return to the school.