Moon’s Donovan Johnson Ruled Ineligible for Senior Season

Moon senior and Pitt target Donovan Johnson will not be eligible to play during his senior year of high school, the WPIAL ruled on Monday.

Johnson, who led the Moon Tigers to a PIAA Class 5-A state championship earlier this spring, played just one season at Moon after transferring from OLSH in 2018.

The transfer was not the issue with his eligibility, as so often is the case. Instead, an issue arose because Johnson repeated eighth grade.

PIAA rules state that a player can only participate in six school years of athletics after sixth grade. Because Johnson repeated eighth grade, he has already used all six of his seasons, despite just finishing his junior year at Moon.

Monday’s hearing was due to Johnson’s request for a waiver of the rule, which was denied after being once rescheduled.

“The WPIAL board denied it because they did not feel it met the criteria established for them to grant it,” WPIAL executive director Tim O’Malley said to Trib HSSN.

Johnson is the younger brother of former Pitt and North Carolina guard Cameron Johnson and the son of former Pitt player Gil Johnson.

Neither Johnson nor his father returned a request for comment for this story.