BATAVIA, Ill. (AP) -- Four young men from war-ravaged Sudan are awaiting a decision on whether they'll be able to play competitive sports for a school in suburban Chicago.

The question of how these athletes came to tiny Mooseheart High School has placed them at center court in a controversy over high school sports recruiting. The Illinois High School Association board will consider Monday whether the three basketball players and one cross-country runner are ineligible to compete.

Mooseheart school officials say they accepted the students as part of a long tradition of helping troubled and poor youth.

But the executive director of IHSA determined the school broke a prohibition on high school recruiting when it accepted the teenagers from an Indiana-based foundation that paid for the athletes to come to the United States.

AP-WF-12-08-12 1853GMT