The Federal Way school district has retained a lawyer to complete an independent investigation into whether the Federal Way High School boys basketball team used an academically ineligible player during their run to the 2009 Class 4A state championship.

The investigation arose after current senior J.T. Koontz transferred from Federal Way to Decatur High School during the summer break and Gator head coach Kevin Olson reviewed his transcripts. Olson found that he failed to meet the district’s requirements in two classes during the second semester of the 2008-09 school year, according to Diane Turner, the school district’s chief communications officer.

In the Federal Way school district, student-athletes are not allowed to have a D in any classes to be academically eligible to play sports. It’s one of the highest grade-point average requirements in the state, according to Turner.

Those failing grades were changed earlier in the school year after Federal Way High School athletic director Miguel Perez spoke with the teachers involved in the situation, Turner said. Periodic grade checks also revealed that Koontz had high enough grades during the basketball season to be eligible, Turner said.

Both of the Federal Way teachers have stated that they just forgot to submit grade forms with the corrected information on them after Koontz completed the makeup work. According to Turner, the corrected versions have since been submitted and Koontz’ transcript has passing grades in those two classes.

“He had some failing grades, however he had made arrangements to make assignments up, which he did,” she said. “Grades are changed all the time. Students make up work and the teachers forget to change them. It’s a common occurrence with all students.”

Just to make sure all the procedures were followed, the Federal Way school district is paying for an independent investigation to look at the findings made by Perez, Turner said.

According to district athletic liaison Greg Flynn, independent assessor Jeff Ganson, a lawyer from the Seattle firm Dionne & Rorick, has been retained by the school district to look into the situation.

“He’s worked for the school district before,” Flynn said. “I imagine he’s going to sit down and figure out what happened.”

It’s still up in the air whether Ganson’s investigation will be completed before a meeting of the South Puget Sound League athletic directors, which is scheduled for Oct. 15 in Sumner.

But Perez will be on hand at the meeting to present his findings regarding the situation to the other athletic directors around the 28-school league.

“We are utilizing the services or an independent observer to take a look at the athletic director of Federal Way’s report,” Turner said. “We will make a determination from there. We take this very seriously and want to determine what happened. We want to clear the air and be transparent.”

Koontz was a rarely-used reserve player last year during the Eagles’ run to the state title. The 6-foot-9 forward averaged around two points a game and didn’t play during the state championship game win over Garfield inside the Tacoma Dome.