Will recruiting allegations at Milton slow the trend of transfers?
Milton boys basketball coach David Boyd on Monday became the fifth head coach since February to resign or be fired amid allegations of illegal recruiting. Georgia has never seen so many allegations result in coaching changes in this short of a time.
Why? In March, the AJC shed a critical light on the impact of transfers on the high school landscape on its Sports Extra page in the Sunday sports section. The coverage was much discussed on the following day at a GHSA executive committee meeting. And then last month, the AJC, through an open records request, reported that the GHSA is dealing with more than 6,000 transfers a year who seek eligibility to play sports at their new schools. Some of the larger schools in metro Atlanta had more than 40 athletic transfers.
The Boyd resignation is dramatic because of his status as a six-time state champion at four Georgia high schools, including 2010 and 2012 Class AAAAA champion Milton.
It also leaves open to debate about whether this will stop, or even slow, the transfer process. Here are answers to some questions worth considering:
1. So why, after all these years of kids transferring all over the state, are we seeing all these firings now?
A number of things. What happened in Troup County – where a popular and successful coach in Charlie Flowers was let go in February over recruiting allegations – emboldened coaches and parents to complain and schools to act. Then at Shiloh, a player innocently makes a statement in a newspaper article that he was asked to come play at a new school by his former coach. The player and the coach later denied it, but Shiloh had no choice but to act. So now, there’s a precedent, and the domino effect comes into play. Parents and fans and rival coaches have complained enough now that principals and superintendents are starting to make this a priority. Not saying that school administrators looked the other way in the past, but allegations of recruiting are difficult to prove, and educators are more interested in academics and budget than sports. But the concern about recruiting has begun to boil over. Administrators are being pressed, and they are responding.
2. Will this stop the process?
Once coaches begin losing jobs over recruiting allegations, other coaches will take note. There is not a coach in the state that won’t soon know about the events at Milton and four other high schools this year. It will make them think about what they’re doing and whether it’s legal, whether it could get them fired.
3. Why is it important to try to stop the process?
Recruiting is cheating. It’s against GHSA’s bylaws. There’s nothing wrong with a student-athlete transferring from one school to another, but coaches have no business trying to persuade students to make those choices for athletic purposes. Their job is to coach what is in the building. This is not college sports. Recruiting, which is illegal for coaches or anyone else who is even indirectly related to the school, undermines the integrity of the competition.
4. Does this indicate that high school administrators, much like college presidents, are trying to take control of the sports?
It’s an indication that administrators are trying to take control of athletic programs in their own school districts. Notice that all of the coaches who are out of jobs this year over recruiting allegations come from school systems with multiple high schools. These schools know each others’ business, especially in north Fulton County, where schools are opening quickly, and their faculties are being hired largely from one another. School administrators are being forced to handle these accusations and feuds that occur between schools in their own districts. Fulton County is about to hire a county-wide athletics director, and I’ve got to believe that these inter-school feuds and accusations are reasons for that.
5. Are there other coaches out there who should be concerned?
If you’re a coach with a history of getting high-profile transfers, then be worried. That doesn’t mean those coaches are recruiting. If you build a successful program nowadays, parents will bring their kids to be a part of it. But if you coach at a school known for getting a lot of student-athlete transfers, then the spotlight is going to be on you and your program.
6. The GHSA says it cannot be an investigative arm. But for this to work, don’t they have to investigate?
The GHSA investigates, but it puts the burden of proof on the accuser, or the school system that is investigating the allegations. The GHSA has only about 10 employees, and none of those is an investigator. The reason the GHSA doesn’t have a full-time investigator is because member schools have not pressed the GHSA hard enough to get one, and because the GHSA doesn’t get many official complaints of recruiting. There were only about a half-dozen last academic year. It’s not been a priority to school superintendents in the state. Perhaps this is beginning to change.
7. Was David Boyd the big fish in this pond and are there others?
The boys basketball program at Milton has been the most controversial athletic program in the state in regard to the issue of transfers. It was the program most commonly accused of recruiting. Three of its five starters last season were high-profile transfers who were major D-1 recruits. That doesn’t mean they were there illegally. All we know is that Fulton County Schools believes the allegations have enough merit to report them to the GHSA. Are there programs that have recruited illegally in Georgia? Yes. Most every coach I’ve asked about this says that his or her school does not recruit, but others do. Everyone knows those programs that get transfers, but it’s not fair to point them out because it’s recruiting that is illegal, not transfers.
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69 comments Add your comment
Zane Smith's Teeth
September 11th, 2012
9:30 pm
Charles Mann’s family still lived in Henry County and his brother attended Middle School in Henry County…while he was playing for Milton. It got to be so blatent, I guess he thought they would never enforce the rules. Good riddance. They should strip his last two state titles.
Karma
September 11th, 2012
10:09 pm
Enter your comments hear. Dead horse once again..level playing means fun…..cheaters end up getting beat…….Milton, wheeler,”"……….etc.go home aau homies trying to makr$$$$$$ for yourself. Too many of you have been in my gym. And I had to say…..SEE YA DONOT COMEBACK…. Get a real job because you have an education……not”……….
Ann
September 11th, 2012
10:40 pm
I totally agree that “level playing field” means fun. I live in Roswell, but used to also go to Milton games when they had other opponents besides Roswell. But, the more I “saw” and learned, the less fun it became to simply watch a game. It is not fun for fans, whether you are a Milton fan or not, to watch a game where your team wins 84 to 39, and to do this over and over again. It is actually quite boring. Give me a close scoring game. Give me suspense. That is what is fun and exciting to watch. There became no suspense in any Milton basketball game, except for one or two exceptions.
At a Roswell/Milton game last season, after one particular “show off” type play, Boyd stared at the Roswell coach and did a leaping, funky “shove this” type dance move, toward the Roswell coach. It seemed quite odd and unsportsmanlike. I have seen coaches get animated many times, but I have never seen anything as pompous as that move. I was beginning to wonder why the city of Milton would tolerate and celebrate a coach so obviously acting unethically, particularly during the same year of the criminal investigation of the abuse of special education students at Hopewell Middle School in Milton. In that situation, a principal and teacher were guilty of inappropriate behavior and resigned. Milton is a new, beautiful city. They should demand better leaders at their schools. Boyd and the Hopewell principal and teacher have tarnished the image of the Milton schools.
toofunny
September 11th, 2012
11:04 pm
This is sad feel what you feel about recruiting but please do not place a kids name in a comment post on a blog. Also I’m not saying it’s right or wrong but I look around in every aspect of life recruiting is going but it only becomes a problem when it comes to “High School Athletics”. The school system your child attends tries to recruit the best teachers, administrators, and supportive staff and so on to be competitive with all the schools in the state academically and artistically. In the business world corporations recruit the best and the brightest they can find to stay ahead. yet when it comes to “High School Athletics” it is a problem. Only because someone child was passed over for a spot they thought was all but theirs.
Also one answer as to why the GHSA doesn’t investigate recruiting heavily it would hurt their image. Right now Georgia is one of the premiere states when it comes to putting the top collegiate talent in all of the big three major sports four if you include track. We have at least 4 or 5 teams in the top 50 nationally in all four, put out hundreds of D1 athletes each year and your crazy if you think that the GHSA would do anything to damage that. That like asking Pete Carroll if he should have investigated the real reasons why R. Bush chose USC. I’m sure his thoughts were “he plays hard, represent the University well helps me win games, and at the end of the day I have plausible deniability”. and you can’t beat that.
will jones
September 11th, 2012
11:51 pm
well i guess they will get Lucy c. Laney High of Augusta Ga. netxt, got a complete starting five middle school team from langford, place them in the AP program. Check the grades of all these students theyare c students are below but in a AP progam. Tell me how this could happen, the county AD just turn his head and look the other way will not talk about the subject.
Hubert Green
September 12th, 2012
12:00 am
So there is no chance that the players/parents want to go to a great school and play in a great program on their own? Have u seen all these players play? If u “recruit” wouldn’t u go after four and five star players? Last time i checked a coach’s supplement was next to nothing. What did Milton offer? A chance to play? Is undue influence allowing two aau programs a place to practice every day in the summer like some schools do?
Milton Mom
September 12th, 2012
1:25 am
no secret what our basket ball coach has been doing for some years now .
finally the principal did something about it Rah Rah.
all the kids at the school know whats going on and therefore that the school is cheating .
outstanding example to our children how adults conduct themselves to win some ball games. its makes me sick
over at Centennial they have a basebal coach who was caught cheating by playing bunch of kids more than the ghssa rules permit him to :: that cost the teenage boys who show up every day 6 wins to forfeits and then a trip to the state playoffs on a overachieving low skill team.
and of course ya know he said it was all a mistake , yeah right it was just a mistake
no one believes that lye even the adults at Centennial know better ,one is my sister in law .
Kids now are quit the team one is reportedly an all – state type of player and when all the dust cleared the principal let the coach beg and kiss rear for his job back and he is still the coach .
so so so sad that The teenage players all see that all happening .
my advice to other posters who say ghssa gets abused by “fudging principals” is this :
REPORT THE COACHES VIOLATIONS TO THEM LIKE CENTENNIAL WAS REPORTED !
That should stop the principals and coaches in there tracks right quick and maybe just a maybe we can get these extra curricular sports programs back to being about the students not the adults who never grew up
Chip
September 12th, 2012
1:52 am
@another comment: Interesting story about Justin Seymour, except that he transferred to Wheeler for his senior year, and he’s a freshman at the University of Utah now (http://utahutes.cstv.com/sports/m-baskbl/mtt/utah-m-baskbl-mtt.html). So your story doesn’t add up.
Karma
September 12th, 2012
6:46 am
Kudos to Milton mom comments. It is about the students and not the coaches and their self-inflated EGO’S
I dropped my fried twinkie
September 12th, 2012
6:51 am
SportsFan
September 11th, 2012
3:12 pm
Is it a recuriting violation when a teacher at Wheeler teacher gets a kid in the middle school robotics program to go to Wheeler Magnet school. Sounds dumb doesn’t it.
———————————————————————–
Dumb is what you said………..Getting a kid in an EDUCATIONAL program that will benefit the US as a whole is much more important than another Stupid over paid Pro Athlete who does little to nothing for the US.
SWDplayers gone
September 12th, 2012
8:51 am
We lost 4 football players to MLK this year cause their coach came and got them. King also got a few from McNair and Redan and Stephenson. It is like this every year at King.
HardHat
September 12th, 2012
9:09 am
As the AJC reported there were 6,000 transfer requests this year dealing with high school sports. GHSA does not have the budget to look into all of them. Do you think they look into maybe 1% of them? Probably not even that many. So get the mandatory 1 year sit out rule or the osmosis to better programs will continue.
Tiger4Life
September 12th, 2012
9:40 am
@HardHat
So if my family had to move from Dekalb to Gwinnett for economic reasons I would have to sit out a year? Even if it was my senior year? You can’t punish everyone. I f a kid wants to transfer let it be. As adults we leave one company for another for better opportunies or we don’t get along with our boss/co-workers. So you would force you child to play the game he loves at a place he dooesn’t want to be.
rammerjammer14
September 12th, 2012
12:15 pm
Just a couple of thoughts…
First, Milton knew exactly what they were getting when they hired David Boyd. His track record shows that yes you will win big time but, he is going to recruit. Shame on Milton for firing him when he came in and did exactly what you asked him to do.
Second, the GHSA has rules to put (in theory) everyone on an even playing field. Follow the rules and you won’t loose your job or credibility.
Third, if you want your child to play for a school or coach it’s really very simple…sell the house you live in and move into an apartment or house in that school district. Now you are a legal transfer. Happens all the time.
Cry Me a River
September 12th, 2012
12:21 pm
@Tiger4Life, I totally agree with you!!! Once again, most folks make assumptions about the reasons for transfers. So, they blast off negatively. It’s a shame because if I were in the situation of having to move for economic reasons of if the school/program was not a fit for my kid, I DEFINITELY would make the move. Why make my kid suffer? That’s stupid. Who doesn’t want the best opportunity for their kid? Give me a break. Thanks for making sense Tiger4Life.
dekalbcounty1
September 12th, 2012
1:28 pm
@SWDplayers gone why are you crying! No one mentioned this before now. How many championships do SWD, McNair (Gordon, Walker) and Stephenson have combined? Remember King is only 10 years! We didn’t start playing a varsity schedule until 2003. Please upgrade until then stop complaining. Also look at Tucker how many of their player STAY in Tucker district?
Will
September 12th, 2012
1:34 pm
Well what is the hold up on ML King and Stephenson in DeKalb putting 20 kids in school a year, Barrow, nor Jarvis put those kind of numbers up.
HardHat
September 12th, 2012
3:30 pm
@Tiger4Life, you had me there until you said the child didn’t want to be there…Ok really does it take until your senior year until you realize you don’t want to be there? I am ok with transfers if you really have to move. Don’t give me that it is not the right offense transfer because GT with its wing T has at least 4 WR in the NFL right now….Cone/Falcons, Thomas/Broncos, Hill/Jets and Johnson/Lions..The economical situation we are all in with forclosures,plant closings,and downsizing etc etc. there are reasons to move.
Then lets fund the GHSA let them hire folks to look into them. @Cry me a River check out the Tucker (3-0) RB that came from Dunwoody (0-3). Of course that child doesnt want to be there because he knows they won’t be 500 so he goes. These are the ones I am talking about. How do you think the Dunwoody DC feels about now having to defend this kid this season who should be on his side?
And how bout the Sandy Creek kid his 4th school in 4 years? Is someone in his family changing jobs every year? You do have a transfer rule in place when going to a private from public school you have to sit out so why not for everybody? But if you want to have your eyes open drive down to Hallford Stadium and watch a Dekalb Middle school game and look at all the hs coaches there running up to kids asking them dont stay in your district come to my school it is really disgusting !
It is not just FB its girls BB, volleyball and such. I will still stick to 1% transfers are for a legit reasons. Get to know some HS coaches and they will give you the 411.
No district lines
September 12th, 2012
3:36 pm
Dekalb has no rules you can play anywhere you want to if you can get to that school.