PORTLAND

The Maine Principals’ Association stripped Cheverus High School of the 2010 Class A boys’ basketball state championship on Monday.

Edward Little, which lost to Cheverus in the state title game, will likely remain the runner-up.

The MPA’s Interscholastic Management Committee voted unanimously, 11-0, to vacate the Stags’ 2010 Western Class A and state championships due to the use of an ineligible player.

The player, Indiana Faithfull, was an Australian exchange student and a senior guard.

According to the MPA, Cheverus first discovered that Faithfull’s eligibility might be in jeopardy just prior to the end of the first semester in January of 2010 and self-reported to the MPA.

The MPA ruled the school had violated the Four Seasons of Competition Rule for the entire 2009-2010 season as well as the Eight Consecutive Semester Rule for the postseason. The MPA said Faithfull should have been ineligible for the entire season, and had to sit out the final five games of the regular season.

In June, 2010, Faithfull filed a complaint with the Maine Human Rights Commission that the MPA had discriminated against him when it didn’t let him play. An MHRC investigator’s report said Faithfull had reasonable grounds to claim discrimination, but the commission split, 2-2, reverting the case back to the court.

Last spring, a Cumberland County Superior Court judge reversed the previous ruling and lifted the temporary restraining order, opening the door for the MPA to take the action it did on Monday.

“It’s unfortunate that it took this long to get there through really no fault of the school or through no fault of our own,” MPA executive director Dick Durost said.

Durost said this is the first time the MPA has had to vacate a championship in a team sport after the title game was played. He stressed that Cheverus did nothing wrong at any point during the process.