GHSA bans Milton basketball from postseason
By Todd Holcomb and David Purdum
For the AJC
The Georgia High School Association on Tuesday banned reigning boys basketball state champion Milton from region and state playoffs for the 2012-13 season because of illegally influencing student-athletes to transfer to the north Fulton County school.
Milton’s former coach, David Boyd, resigned Sept. 10 after Milton and Fulton County Schools reported to the GHSA allegations of undue influence.
Under Boyd, Milton won state titles in 2010 and 2012 with several major college recruits, most of whom transferred from other schools. It follows a trend that many find disturbing: No boys basketball team has won Georgia’s highest classification in more than a decade without participating with a high-profile transfer.
The Fulton County investigation that led to Boyd’s resignation — obtained by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution under Georgia’s open records act – revealed that:
- Boyd recommended rental properties to parents and students who were interested in transferring into the district. Several Milton players have lived in the same apartment complex within the school district.
- Boyd invited multiple basketball players, not enrolled at Milton, to open practices in the offseason and evaluated them as potential transfers.
- None of Milton’s former players were part of the investigation or implicated in illegal recruiting.
The report also stated that Roswell basketball coach Ty Phillips filed the initial complaints about Boyd in August. One of Phillips’ former players sought to transfer to Milton.
GHSA Bylaw 1.70 states that it is illegal to influence or induce a student to transfer from one school to another for competitive purposes.
In addition to the postseason ban, the GHSA placed Milton on Severe Warning Status for the 2013-14 and fined the school an undisclosed amount, no greater than $2,500. The GHSA can discipline member schools, but not coaches.
Boyd came to Milton in 2007, when the school had made the state playoffs only three times since 1960. In Boyd’s five seasons, Milton advanced to the state finals four consecutive times and traveled nationally to prestigious showcase tournaments with the state’s top prospects, including Julian Royal (now at Georgia Tech), Evan Nolte (Virginia), Charles Mann (Georgia), Shaquille Johnson (Auburn), Shannon Scott (Ohio State) and Dai-Jon Parker (Vanderbilt). Except for Royal and Nolte, the most prominent players were transfers.
The investigation identified the Lexington Farm Apartments in Alpharetta as home to several Milton basketball players. The report states that “it has been alleged, and not yet confirmed or denied, that some of these students are living there alone and the addresses are only used to allow residence verification.”
Although Milton lost Mann and three other college-bound seniors to graduation, Boyd expected to have a team that could defend its title. He had emailed Milton boosters and national and local media during the summer and mentioned as many as five transfers for the 2012-13 season. Each was a college prospect.
One was former Roswell player Shawn O’Connell. According to the report, O’Connell has two younger brothers who, because of redistricting of the Milton and Roswell school zones, would be forced to attend Milton.
Another was Johnnie Vassar from Indiana. According to the investigation, Vassar has withdrawn from the Fulton County School System and is enrolling at a school in California.
Boyd indicated to Vassar’s mother when summer practices began and the days of the week they were held, according to the investigation. Boyd confirmed that Vassar visited the school and worked out four or five additional times. Boyd stated to investigators that he did evaluate Vassar during the practices, according to the report.
The third player was Zach Hodskins from Tennessee. On June 9, Boyd emailed Tennessee AAU coach Markus Gibbs, inquiring about the skill set of Hodskins, the investigation said.
Boyd said that Hodskins’ father wanted to make sure his son could play with Milton before moving the student into the district. Hodskins practiced two or three times with Milton before enrolling, according to the report.
While these are three primary instances, the report indicated that several other students were invited by Boyd to practice with Milton during this past summer. The investigation contains at least a dozen emails between Boyd and parents and coaches. Boyd assessed the players who were not enrolled at Milton in several emails.
Fulton County athletics director Steven Craft said the investigation found examples of undue influence on multiple occasions.
Supplying real estate information to possible transfers is considered undue influence, Craft said. Boyd admitted in a Sept. 6 interview that he offers recommendations and locations for rental properties to students transferring into the Milton district.
Craft said that was undue influence. “You tell people you have a great community and great programs and that they have a chance to be a part of a great situation, and leave at that,’’ Craft said.
Craft considered these practices to be tryouts to see how players would fit into Boyd’s program. Regarding invitations to players to attend practices or games: “He used those sessions to assess players and comment about their abilities.”
Craft wanted to be clear that the investigation did not find evidence of what Craft called recruiting, which suggests a teacher or coach reached out to a player first.
The GHSA’s Swearngin acknowledged that this was a key distinction.
“Sometimes they go hand-in-hand, and sometimes they don’t,’’ Swearngin said. “Undue influence is what you do to induce or facilitate a transfer even if you didn’t make the initial contact.’’
Boyd saw no wrongdoing with any of it. “I had at least 20 sets of parents contact me with interest in coming to Milton,” he said Tuesday. “They didn’t all come to Milton, but they went somewhere. I don’t know what you’re supposed to do. … I’m disappointed that the players who came on their own to participate aren’t going to be allowed to play in the postseason. I’m very sorry about that. But as far as doing something illegal or unethical, all I’m trying to help kids.”
Social media was mentioned extensively in the investigation, including multiple negative posts by Boyd, when referring to Phillips.
“Make sure to know that Ty Phillips at Roswell started this by crying to his AD that one of his players who lives in our district [and had a choice] came to Milton,” a Sept. 11 post read. “That was a family decision. One thing about it; his record against us is 0-11. Good luck down the road Ty. I am thankful for people like you; you make me realize how much we have done that is good.”
The post has since been deleted.
Phillips declined to elaborate on anything involving the investigation into Boyd.
“My focus is on our team and what’s relevant to our program,’’ Phillips said. “All that other stuff that involves other people is not what we’re focusing on.”
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165 comments Add your comment
Paul Bryant, JR
October 9th, 2012
3:44 pm
Can you guess why Milton High isn’t actively trying to recruit any “student-athletes” from South Fulton, Clayton or SW DeKalb?
GUNGA DIN
October 9th, 2012
3:44 pm
GHSA needs to take a hard look at Buford. lots of this plus grade inflation going one there !!!
Single A
October 9th, 2012
3:45 pm
Blue Storm (Wilikinson County) Dr. Jeter you’re next !
The T
October 9th, 2012
3:45 pm
It’s simple….look at all of the powerhouse programs and you will find that the key players on any team most likely did not attend the middle school programs that feed into those high school programs. Parents make decisions that they think will benefit their children and in many cases paying apartment rent for a few years is a lot cheaper than a full college scholarhip to a great college or university!
Brian
October 9th, 2012
3:49 pm
It was Boyd who has been penalizing the kids….the kids who lived here in Alpharetta/Milton all their lives and never got to play basketball for their high school because Boyd loaded Milton’s teams with out-of-area ringers. It is about time this was stopped. Most of those kids were thugs and never fit in well at Milton anyway. Ty Phillips – Everyone knew he was doing this for years. It calls into question your character that you only acted now, when it involved one of your players. I guess better late than never though.
Other Sports Too!
October 9th, 2012
3:49 pm
While we’re at it . . .how about those soccer teams at Parkview and Brookwood! Something is fishy with those two schools!
Other Sports Too!
October 9th, 2012
3:50 pm
While we’re at it . . . how about those soccer teams at Brookwood and Parkview?! Something is fishy with those two schools!
Dalton's 50+ years of questionable history
October 9th, 2012
3:51 pm
What about Dalton?
THEX
October 9th, 2012
3:54 pm
It’s sad high school athletics has come to this.
But, it’s just a microcosm of our world today-ugh.
qb/db
October 9th, 2012
4:00 pm
I blame the H.S. Assoiciation, they should be sued because this goes on all thje time in football, basketball, baseball, track, tennis even Band. All you don’t be crazy, how does ALABAMA, UGA, AUBURN, OREGON, USC etc. get all those players??? Well I’ll tell you $$$$$ don’t get it twisted. So that is the way it goes but you can’t stop a parent who wants to do better for his kid. It happens academically too. Parents transfer kids to put them in a better academic situation but you want to slam basketball???
Cherokee
October 9th, 2012
4:02 pm
GHSA listen up —- unless the parents can prove they are moving “into” a new district for legitimate reasons(job relocation, monetary reason,etc…) then the new kid should be penalized from participating in any region games for a year. This will stop the moving from district to district to get on a winning team. Personally, I thought this used to be the rule. Not always fair and I’m sure a few kids would get penalized fairly, but overall would stop alot of this and/or prove costly for a “rising star” if he had to sit out for a year. It would give some of these lesser schools a chance to compete as well. It won’t stop the coaches from “cheating” because I doubt they care about the impact a kid experiences from sitting out for a year. They only care about the championship. It will be difficult to manage the coaches, but this problem can be controlled via the kids. They are the ones working on getting scholarships and they cannot afford to sit out for a year.
Stud muffin
October 9th, 2012
4:05 pm
Well then to look into Pope HS wrestling team. They have multiple wrestlers doin the same thing that is going on at Milton.
South Georgia B-ball
October 9th, 2012
4:05 pm
why is everyone saying tift county?
Heisenberg
October 9th, 2012
4:05 pm
Maybe the high schools just build athletic dorms next door to their facilities.
Upsetum
October 9th, 2012
4:06 pm
The man can coach. He won at Campbell when the shorts were nut huggers
David Boyd is a Sleazy Loser
October 9th, 2012
4:08 pm
Boyd has no coaching skills so he had to illegally recruit…congrats and thanks to Ty Phillips for taking the time to get the ball rolling. If Boyd is a fraction of the coach he thinks he is, someone will hire him at a private high school or maybe in college where he can recruit all he wants in a competitive environment.
MiltonFan
October 9th, 2012
4:11 pm
@ SOAAME – Read carefully…GHSA was careful to say that the only allegation came after the 2011-12 championship and the investigation covered activities from after the 2011-12 championship. That’s why the title stays in place (at least for now). There would have to be evidence and a finding of cheating during the prior season to sanction that season.
@RT – Nobody at Milton needs to be ashamed. Both the Principal and AD who hired Boyd are gone. I believe the new leadership at Milton has been waiting for a misstep on Boyd’s part or a complaint with evidence because I think they all suspected but couldn’t prove what was happening with the basketball program. The current Principal and at least the last two ADs have been fine individuals who are not interested in tainted success.
jw
October 9th, 2012
4:11 pm
don’t see how you could be in support of this kind of stuff – sorry, it’s not right and can’t justify it in any way – creating athletic programs that are bigger than the school itself – I’m all for athletics, it has its place – but it can’t be the driving force of the education institution – and in the great state of Georgia, more times than not, athletics drives education at a school. Sorry, that’s wrong. The only benefit is pretty gyms and football fields, deals with the devil that benefit the program, not the school – sorry.
Tell me how one non-athlete gets any benefit from having this stuff go on at their school – moving in players prevents a marginal player from getting an opportunity to play – bringing in personal coaching staffs limit staff hires for qualified teachers – athletic facilities improve at the expense of the moral responsibility of the school and district – thousands and thousands of dollars pumping through athletic booster clubs paying these coaches under the table money – seems perfect for public education – and yes, that’s sarcasm –
It isn’t right.
CHS '72
October 9th, 2012
4:12 pm
Campbell High class of ‘72 will always love David “Hotdog” Boyd. He was the best student, friend, athlete, and teammate anyone could ever have.
Hope he wins 6 more and helps many more deserving kids get to the next level.
Lavell Edwards
October 9th, 2012
4:13 pm
The boundaries for Milton and Roswell changed when Cambridge came on-line. The Roswell player had the option to move to Milton or stay at Roswell. Don’t think it was improper for Boyd to try to get him to come to Milton. But the others appear to be bad behavior on his part.
Metro Ref
October 9th, 2012
4:18 pm
I think GHSA did the right thing about banning them from post season play. If they really wanted to come down hard they can removed the championships for the time period those illegal players played at Milton. I agree that people knew what Boyd was doing and in a sense Boyd felt he was inferior. Its a shame that he couldn’t rely on the talent in the Milton community like a Miller Grove or Columbia. I reffed the preseason game against Milton\ Miller Grove and transfers or not Milton couldn’t compete because they were out played. The basketball talent in the Dekalb area outweighs any of the teams in the North Fulton area. So I can see why Boyd needs to recruit because the talent is just not there at Milton. If he was that good of a coach he could develop and mold the kids into winners. Since he’s not he rather take the easy road.
Rose
October 9th, 2012
4:18 pm
This has always gone on, everywhere. Why now? Who did Milton piss off? And you think that private schools don’t “recruit” – give me a break.
Heisenberg
October 9th, 2012
4:19 pm
“GHSA listen up —- unless the parents can prove they are moving “into” a new district for legitimate reasons”
——————————————
There are more than a few transfers in the state each year. Where does the money come from to add the enforcement staff necessary for all that validation work? Every school system in the state has had budget cuts and are looking at more cuts if the charter amendment passes as money would be re-directed there. The idea sounds good in theory.
Harry Callahan
October 9th, 2012
4:20 pm
“It was Boyd who has been penalizing the kids….the kids who lived here in Alpharetta/Milton all their lives and never got to play basketball for their high school because Boyd loaded Milton’s teams with out-of-area ringers. It is about time this was stopped.”
Thank you. I’m glad at least one person gets it.
Whodat
October 9th, 2012
4:22 pm
It seems like there are a lot of parents on this board with kids that lack athletic ability and are mad! If a kid goes to a school that would increase his chances for success than I don’t see a problem. Let’s not act like it wasn’t the schools decision to hire these coaches that would bring school pride into the gymnasium. If there were more quality coaches out here this would not be a problem!
Uh huh
October 9th, 2012
4:30 pm
True enough. #1 Norcross guy used to be at Tucker in DeKalb. I have proof athletes lived in mailbox centers, IN the mailboxes according to the “official proof of residency”; mailbox number served as apartment number. Also, cheating on standardized tests and grade changing is common. Sad, but the biggest cheaters seem to win the greatest prizes. For what? School systems, public and private, are no different than Washongton, D.C. We have lost our ever-loving minds for the sake of a check in the “W” column. No reason to even consider colleges here.
Shannana
October 9th, 2012
4:31 pm
Why penalize the kids? Some kids may have simply been got caught up in this but somekids were willing to do something they had to know was not right. Natural consequences….the kids need to see that the consequences of cheating usually turn out badly.
I dropped my fried twinkie
October 9th, 2012
4:32 pm
qb/db
October 9th, 2012
4:00 pm
So that is the way it goes but you can’t stop a parent who wants to do better for his kid. It happens academically too. Parents transfer kids to put them in a better academic situation but you want to slam basketball??
==================================================
A parent doing if for their child’s academic reasons will make the US as a whole better. What the hell does another NFL or NBA player do for the US. An NBA player probably will not discover a cure for cancer or create a new technology to get the US off foreign oil.
FireBill
October 9th, 2012
4:35 pm
Buford has been doing this for years. Mention Charlton County and it brings fear into them.
AA and A GIRLS
October 9th, 2012
4:40 pm
WHAT about Wesleyan Girls Basketball poor girls in AA dont even have a chance……This year
camille
October 9th, 2012
4:40 pm
GHSA listen up —- unless the parents can prove they are moving “into” a new district for legitimate reasons(job relocation, monetary reason,etc…)
______________________________________________
As an adult and a parent, I don’t have to prove that I am moving for any legitimate reason that would satisfy you or any other person. The reason I give is my reason.
The GHSA does have guidelines surrounding moves and the eligibility of players. If asked, the reason is between the family and the GHSA.
83jacket
October 9th, 2012
4:44 pm
The sister of kid from Roswell who transferred to Milton still goes to Roswell High School. Boyd convince him that if he would not make it to college ball if he played for Roswell. He also insinuated the same thing to the dad of another kid who plays for the Roswell
Who cares?
October 9th, 2012
4:45 pm
Keeps em off the streets
drew
October 9th, 2012
4:49 pm
We’re in the Walton high district. I’d rather never win a championship than have to deal with low life apartment dwelling predator rapper wannabe thugs.
CKT
October 9th, 2012
4:49 pm
THis has been going on for years and not just basketball. We were at the state Cross Country finals over a decade ago and my husband overheard two coached talking about a kid they were recruiting from out of the COUNTRY. Milton just got caught is all.
spider
October 9th, 2012
4:49 pm
when are they going after the youth programs that are cheating/
Smyrna Boy
October 9th, 2012
4:50 pm
If this is the same Coach Boyd that was at Campbell HS in Smyrna back in the late 80’s and early 90’s he has always bent the rules and has gotten away with it. You would think that a coach bending/breaking the rules over 20 years would not get hired. Guess it goes to show everyone that HS administrators talk is more than there walk.
that guy
October 9th, 2012
4:55 pm
Graduated from berkmar in the late 90’s and we had a kid living in the apartments across the street for residency and was one of the best players so this is no surprise to me but on another note when they did win state all the starters played middleschool ball locally so you never know.
Marietta fan
October 9th, 2012
4:59 pm
I knew this was happening as early as 2008. Dai’jon Parker and Jordan Loyd played at Marietta in 2007-2008 as freshmen. The next year they mysteriously moved to Milton and beat us in the playoffs and made the finals as 10th graders losing to Wheeler who does the same thing Milton does
Milton Resident
October 9th, 2012
5:00 pm
Get over it, ever good scholl recruits kids! Ty Phillips is a putz. The AD at Roswell, Mike Power, is also a putz and a horrible judge of baseball talent BTW. Wha wha wha Roswell gets their ash kicked and they go crying to the AD. How embarrassing. I’m glad my kids go to Milton and not Roswell. Also to note, it seems the AD at Milton also has no backbone and is surcoming to the other Milton parents in the Milton district who don’t get to play basketball because they stink. Another life lesson, if you aren’t good enough get better and stop whinning.
Ishts and Giggles
October 9th, 2012
5:01 pm
Getting lots of laughs at the expense of these whinning parents!!! How about you guys get off the couch, go outside and teach your kids how to play ball so that they will be able to COMPETE against the better players….Then, and only then will your sorry a** kids be able to get into the game and not just ride the pine!!!!!!
BasketballKing
October 9th, 2012
5:03 pm
83jacket you are correct, who ever got recruited from Roswell in basketball?
Naismith
October 9th, 2012
5:06 pm
OK, GHSA has really got it right now. The kids at Milton who grew up here, haven’t gotten to play for the past 5 years because of the travelling circus called Milton. Now, the transfers will all leave, and the REAL Milton kids will get to play some, and what does the state association do??????? BAN THEM from postseason play!!!!! Brilliant!!!!!!!! Ban the kids who have had to either sit on the bench or in the stands and now that they actually get to play for their NEIGHBORHOOD school, BAN them!!!!!!!!! UNBE …..well you get the drift.
Ishts and Giggles
October 9th, 2012
5:11 pm
Naismith,
Those kids are GARBAGE anyway!!!! They do not have a chance to win so what difference does it make??? The will never make state anyway!
I know him
October 9th, 2012
5:14 pm
Congratulations to Coach Ty Phillips for doing the GHSA’s job and finally putting an end to Mr. Cheat. Also, I would like to know, what was the principal and the AD doing during this time? I mean come on, as an administrator your going to not notice that all of a sudden, since Mr. Cheat (I will not refer to him as a coach because he is nothing but a cheater) came to Milton, we now have 6 to 7 Division I basketball players. In case the administrators are so dumb, let me give them a little help…the D I players are the 6′6″ + guys that suddenly appeared on your campus…duh!! The GHSAA should wake up and get their head out of the sand and start a enforcement committee to put a stop to the obvious ones like, Norcross, Wheeler, Buford, and the other cheaters out there.
Mr. Cheat says he was just helping kids. How about all the kids that grew up in the Milton district that never got a chance to play basketball for Milton, because of Mr. Cheat and his bringing in nothing but Division I players. Those kids are the ones who got punished because of Mr. Cheat.
The bottom line is that Mr. Cheat was to chicken to play with his own players. Mr. Cheat has done this at three different high schools, and he finally got caught.
The end of Mr. Cheat, thanks Coach Phillips.
Stuart
October 9th, 2012
5:17 pm
While Boyd is not clean in this thing, what was Phillips agenda? Also, a lot of you have pointed out that this stuff happens in other sports in this state and others.
While I love sports and have been involved with high school athletes for a number of years, the whole thing is as disgusting as what happens in the college ranks.
However, there are other worlds where there isn’t total cleanliness.
Guess we continue to enjoy despite the efforts of others to sully it all.
83jacket
October 9th, 2012
5:17 pm
BasketballKing – Its has been a while but the Kessler brothers went to Ga and Scott Pollard went to Auburn. I think, Jody Meeks was at Roswell when he was a freshman but his AAU coach convince his parents to transfer to Norcross.
Troy knows Sports
October 9th, 2012
5:28 pm
Brian, Stevie Wonder saw that Boyd was cheating, and you’re worried about Ty Phillips character. Everyone at Milton knew they were cheating. Go back to winning at Girls Lacrosse, you don’t have to cheat to beat the 6 other rich kid teams.
Bill
October 9th, 2012
5:44 pm
Its amazing he was able to get away with it this long. He did the same thing at Berkmar 10 years ago. He is one quality human being…
Fred
October 9th, 2012
5:53 pm
@Other Sports Too! – Go to Google maps and look at Parkview High School. Do you see the 14 soccer fields for all ages across the street run by the Gwinnett Soccer Association? Don’t you think that might have a little affect on the quality of soccer in the area?
Here, I’ll make it easy for you – https://maps.google.com/maps?oe=utf-8&client=firefox-a&ie=UTF-8&q=parkview+high+school&fb=1&gl=us&hq=parkview+high+school&hnear=parkview+high+school&cid=0,0,13926281959495794986&ei=w5p0UJ2WJ4qA9QSCkIDwDw&ved=0CIABEPwSMAA