Alex Anzalone: Ohio State LB recruit de-commits after pic with sex offender
This is a bizarre story out of the recruiting world:
One of the nation’s top college football prospects de-committed from Ohio State after a convicted sex offender took a photo of him at last month’s spring game and posted it online, according to ESPN’s Mitch Sherman.
The prospect is linebacker Alex Anzalone of Wyomissing, Pa., who is ranked No. 65 in the ESPN 150 and committed to Ohio State while attending the spring game. After that game, Anzalone and a few other prospects were asked to take a group photo by Charles Waugh, a 31-year-old who is listed on Kentucky’s list of sex offenders, according to multiple media outlets. Waugh also took pictures with a couple of Ohio State’s current players, and posted them all on his Twitter account.
Anzalone was advised to de-commit to Ohio State by his father. “You don’t want your son to go to a place where there’s a potential issue,” Sal Anzalone told the Reading Eagle. “You expect the staff to have some sort of control on how things are handled with recruits when they visit. This is ridiculous.”
Ohio State issued a statement on late Friday.
“The issue surrounding the individual from Kentucky is being treated by the Department of Athletics as a student-athlete welfare issue. When the University became aware that this individual had been seen in pictures – taken in public places – with student-athletes, proactive precautions were taken and the Department of Athletics alerted more than 1,000 Ohio State student-athletes about this person.
“The email message also reminded them of the negative implications that can be realized through simple associations on social networking sites. This individual is not associated with Ohio State. He is not a booster. He has not engaged in any activities on behalf of the University. The Department of Athletics will continue to monitor this issue and it will remain proactive in its efforts with regard to precautions for its student-athletes.”
Lots of issues here: Would you advise your son to de-commit under these circumstances? How much is Ohio State to blame? What can Ohio State do, if anything, to keep the situation from happening again? What can any college do to avoid this situation? Also, is this an NCAA secondary violation for Ohio State to allow fans to take a photo with prospective student-athletes while on campus? Maybe not, but it’s clearly against NCAA rules for a college to publicize the visit of unsigned recruit. Now if a college promotes, encourages or “knowingly” allows prospective student-athletes to take pictures with fans while on campus, then that may fall into some gray areas within NCAA rules. I haven’t seen any evidence of Ohio State doing that. And, in Ohio State’s defense, Waugh did take photos with Ohio State football players, therefore maybe he thought the recruits played for the Buckeyes, too? If anything, I do expect either the NCAA or conferences to remind member schools to do their best in keeping fans and the general public away from prospective student-athletes while they are making on-campus visits.
Tell us what you think about the site
Customer Care »
Vacation stops, manage subscriptions and more
AJC Services
Sections
Other Editions
Visitor Agreement | Privacy Statement
© 2013 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
86 comments Add your comment
GtDawg
May 5th, 2012
12:58 pm
First
GtDawg
May 5th, 2012
12:59 pm
Yeah baby!!!!!!
GtDawg
May 5th, 2012
1:01 pm
Good decision. Good to see a kid doing the right thing. If I was him I would demand all those photos and evidence of be destroyed.
George P
May 5th, 2012
1:07 pm
So what should Ohio State do? Run a background check on every person that steps onto the campus?
Michael Carvell
May 5th, 2012
1:22 pm
@George P, no that would be impossible. However, I do think Ohio State will make a concentrated effort (even if it’s an impossible task in reality) to keep prospective student-athletes away from fans while they’re making on-campus visits.
Gorilla Biscuit
May 5th, 2012
1:24 pm
Hate to say it, but surely sex offenders have had pictures taken with Bulldog players at picture day and the such.
George P
May 5th, 2012
1:34 pm
Gorilla Biscuit, I think that would be unavoidable around Georgia fans.
Urban Meyer
May 5th, 2012
1:36 pm
I blame the lack of institutional control at Florida and the endzone dance of the 2007 Georgia-Florida game. I am Urban Meyer, a genuine control freak and this is clearly not my fault.
bigtime
May 5th, 2012
1:42 pm
This sounds like something that would happen at UGA on a recruiting trip.
TROTTINGHOME
May 5th, 2012
1:50 pm
@Gorilla Bytch and George P***Y…speculators is what caused the housing market to collapse and food prices to rise…and oh yea…You don’t spell Georgia with OHIOST.
Gorilla Biscuit
May 5th, 2012
1:55 pm
Of course, George P, but there is undoubtably more preverts per square foot around North Ave.
Rick James
May 5th, 2012
2:31 pm
I just cant see where Ohio St is at fault but the kid’s parent have probably talked to Morgan and Morgan it wouldnt surprise me if they didnt sue.The one’s with the deepest pockets always get blamed.Its the fault of the guy who snapped and uploaded the pictures.Plain and simple..
Paddy
May 5th, 2012
2:51 pm
I can understand the father and his outrage. He might have acted in haste with this decision. Can’t see where OSU can take the blame for this. Maybe they will reconsider their commit to OSU when everyone cools down.
doddworley
May 5th, 2012
2:57 pm
This is a non-issue.
Beast from the East
May 5th, 2012
3:16 pm
Dad overreacted. If any of you don’t think there are registered sex offenders that are attending fans of every program in the country, then you are living a sheltered life.
Vinning Dawgs
May 5th, 2012
3:17 pm
Good for him.
tiger
May 5th, 2012
3:37 pm
the father needs to wake up, this could happen anywhere. no where as serious as what happened at pa state.
Rowdey_Red_Pachyderm
May 5th, 2012
3:46 pm
I am sorry but “Gorillia Biscuit” stole all the thunder from the article and slid one under the table at the same time.
LMAO!!!
Come on people the students were twice the size of peter puffer jr…
The Bear
May 5th, 2012
3:52 pm
The issue I see is the guy posting the pictures on facebook. That is what I found upsetting, not the act of taking the picture. No way to control everybody that shows up to these events.
Really?
May 5th, 2012
4:26 pm
The B1G is a sex offenders dream conference. Their fan base would be non existant without pervs.
Wet Willie...keep on smiling
May 5th, 2012
4:35 pm
I hope Ohio State will stick it to that guy…wait…
Rick James
May 5th, 2012
5:08 pm
Maybe the father was molested a a child..
Big Crimson 75
May 5th, 2012
5:14 pm
As usual, the Big 10 look like fools!!
They constantly parade around the Country claiming to represent whats best about College Athletics, but as always, their big, fat, slow shoe gets stuck in their mouth.
For decades, The Big 10 did everything in their power to make the SEC Schools look like a bunch of red-neck, un-educated cheaters!!
Karma is a mean girl!!
Rationale
May 5th, 2012
5:23 pm
GeorgeP and Gorilla biscuit, you both should both be banned. You are very evidently beyond naive when it comes to these type of matters.
slydog
May 5th, 2012
5:30 pm
OSU’s response states that this guy has no connection or association with the football program. My question is, does this mean that anybody, and I mean anybody, who attends spring practice can get on the field and take pictures with both current and potential players? I don’t think so. Now MAYBE OSU does have such a policy. I they do, then the father is right: There should be some kind of controls put in place. However, sex offenders = college students has NEVER hit anyone’s radar until the Penn St. issue. On the other side of the coin, I do not see how a heterosexual male above the age of 12 will “allow” himself to be abused. Just my opinion. But as I stated before, whether my son/daughter is an ‘adult” or not, I can’t have them attending a place that has no controls put in place for morally bankrupt individuals. Statutory rape being the only exception, with the further exception that it occurred while you were under 21.
Flo-Ri-Duh
May 5th, 2012
5:36 pm
Anzalone is from Pennsylvania and probably would have gone to Penn State but didn’t because of the disgusting pervert that was allowed to run loose there. UGA is recruiting him and to answer your question – he should come to UGA of course! Besides the odds of Urban Meyer quitting again are 3 to 1 in Vegas.
George P
May 5th, 2012
5:47 pm
Is this not a daily issue at Georgia Tech? I mean really!
Paul in NH
May 5th, 2012
5:52 pm
From reading some of the posts you’d think that Waugh was standing on the sidelines during the OSU spring game.
From the ESPN article:
“No Ohio State coaches or staff members were present when the recruits met Waugh. The encounter occurred at night on campus, according to Sal Anzalone.”
ted
May 5th, 2012
6:47 pm
Mr. Anzalone is a hypocrite. Blame the school or don’t, but don’t play both ends. Regardless, it’s a bogus excuse for decommitment. Just be a man and say you want to go somewhere else.
Mark (another one)
May 5th, 2012
7:10 pm
Most schools have rules against sex offenders coming on campus without at least notifying campus police. It is a very difficult rule to enforce but violators are trespassing. OSU should look into its options vs. Mr. Waugh.
Also, the Father over reacted. Campuses are designed to be open, and Waugh exercised that openness. It may have been an innocent action but his past makes his actions suspect.
PaulieOldSchool
May 5th, 2012
7:49 pm
Sounds to me like the dad running his own agenda. I can’t imagine how any school could keep this from happening, short of running background checks on everyone attending a Spring Game. And that would be silly.
Freak me out too
May 5th, 2012
7:55 pm
The kid is freaked out and who wouldn’t be. Waugh was everywhere including the spring game. The kid is assigned to someone and that person had no problem with Waugh being around. If I was the parent and my 16 or 17 year was around a perv on a visit-I remove him from the situation and be pissed of the photos that show the perv everywhere. Most parents would do the same. No one knows what else happened on the visit or if the kid was lied too. Remember this is Meyer’s crew we are talking about. The circus is now in Columbus.
Freak me out too
May 5th, 2012
7:56 pm
I’d pull my kid
Tdawg
May 5th, 2012
9:07 pm
This it total BS. What the heck was the man gonna do? Offer that 6′ what ever and 2 hundred and however many pounds the kid weighs a peace of candy if he would go over to the van with him, so he could see some baby puppies. You Buckeye fans are a lot better off without the kid. Crap if the kid is that big of a wuss that he could let some perv drag him off, what could he do when confronted by a 300 lb lineman? Mr Anzalone, maybe you should, never mind.
Gorilla Biscuit
May 5th, 2012
9:31 pm
Rationale 5:23 pm
“GeorgeP and Gorilla biscuit, you both should both be banned. You are very evidently beyond naive when it comes to these type of matters.”
My man, I can’t speak for George, but I’m 52 years old. I’ve worked with the public for 32 years. I’ve worked in jobs where I’ve been in people’s houses, in their private spaces. I’ve worked in jobs where people tell me more about their private lives than I care to know. I’ve seen stuff that would make your hair stand on end.
I was only stating a fact, and the fact is, it’s a big world out there….and very, very bad. We’ve got registered (and future) sex offenders living across from Day Care, children disappearing left and right, and you don’t think they show up to get their picture made with UGA?
Who’s being naive?
Delbert D.
May 5th, 2012
9:38 pm
I never expected to be creeped out reading a recruiting blog.
Hmmm
May 5th, 2012
10:35 pm
He should go to Penn State. They’ve cleaned house. These creepers are everywhere, but they’ve implemented new rules and security there. Nothing like that’s ever happening again at PSU. OSU obviously didn’t learn anything from the situation and has implemented nothing to safeguard recruits. I could see how Anzalone’s father would be bothered about having some sex offender given access his kid on a recruiting visit in columbus. If this guy had no contact with the school, how did he have so much contact with the players, coaches, and recruits? I think there’s more to this story. Anazlone’s father said it well, “something is just not right at Ohio State. It’s not for him.”
Blackoutanyone?
May 5th, 2012
10:47 pm
May not be an NCAA violation for a grown man to take a pic with an 18 year old psa, but it sure is creepy as hell. This very blog has been guilty of ncaa violations in the past for posting pics of prospects with UGA coaches. I think lately MC has skirted the issue with the disclaimer that the photos were from the prospect’s parents not UGA. Still serves the same purpose to advertise a psa’s visit. AJC working in that “gray” area.
Blackoutanyone?
May 5th, 2012
10:52 pm
Tdawg sympathetic toward registered sex offenders uh. Shocker!
Crimson Crush
May 5th, 2012
10:57 pm
I don’t really get the hysteria over what Gorilla said . I thought it was just stating the obvious . You get a crowd of several thousand people together for ANYTHING ANYWHERE and you can find multiple people in the crowd with a “sex offender” record .
Of course the pictures were only one part of this story . People freaked out because he tweeted like 130 people that included underage recruits . People went into freak out mode over that too . Funny enough what the man tweeted was not salacious in nature … just some random rah rah motivational garbage he ripped off from someone else .
In my opinion … if your brat is so tender and feeble minded that a random tweet from a stranger using plagiarized material scarred them for life… you have FAILED miserably as a parent …
Crimson Crush
May 5th, 2012
11:05 pm
Hehehe … I see what you did Blackout .
Now that you mentioned it … I do sort of see things your way . grown men calling up saying they work for the AJC and would like to ask some questions about a recruits favorite schools is REALLY the creepiest thing of all .
Kickdaddy
May 6th, 2012
12:25 am
Maybe he should quit football all together and go out for the band?
Terry
May 6th, 2012
1:28 am
Blackoutanyone?, And all your cry babying want change one thing, you have no control of what MC does, so worry about something you can change, just like a slow-witted Gump! Find another blog that caters to your likes, idiot!
Crimson Crush
May 6th, 2012
2:04 am
Who said Blackout wanted to “change” anything Terry ? Oh … you did . Assumption City with you again .
Maybe he just wanted to call attention to it . Add a comment . File it for future reference . Put a Sticky Note on it ….
No real need to “change” anything right now any way … AJC or otherwise. The way things are looking when you reach your great grandpappies age you will be sitting around and telling children about witnessing Saban’s Second March Through Georgia To The Sea
RugbyDawg
May 6th, 2012
3:30 am
Couple of things, regardless of who is to blame, if the man felt his 17 or 18yr old son wasn’t safe during a recruiting visit to a college he was planning on going to he has every right to pull his child from the school. These recruiting visits are supposed to be highly supervised, I know mine was, and OSU should never have allowed a psa to have his photo taken with some unknown person during the visit. I, for one, wouldn’t feel great about sending my child to a school where he has his pic taken with a sex offender on a recruiting visit and then have those pictures plastered all over the bathroom wall that is the internet. Good on the man for being a responsible parent. Obviously OSU wasn’t supervising these guys properly and with Urban Meyer leading the program I can’t say I’m surprised. With all the info coming out about what was going on at UF during his stint there it actually makes perfect sense. You Buckeye homers need to stop thinking about these kids as a stat line and get real. 18yr olds now days are kids, unlike past generations, they are very rarely young men, and many of them act like spoiled children. Trust me, I have been coaching young people for 12 years and the current generation as a whole is way behind in the maturity department, although there are always exceptions.
Mr. Anzalone was presented with a tough situation and he did what he felt was best for his son’s future. If it happened at UGA, I’d be unhappy with how the recruits were being supervised. I’m not naive, the fact is they should never have been allowed by their chaparones to take the pics. Apparently to some on this blog it should be common knowledge that sex offenders prowl every college sporting event, and if so, then Universities themselves should have a no photography policy concerning psa’s and non-university staff. At many amature sporting events nowdays, if someone is caught taking pictures without clearance by event officials before hand , they can be instructed to leave the premesis or even arrested. I know that is the case with USA Gymnastics, USA Swimming and I believe USA Tennis as well, although I may be wrong about the latter.
Secondly, if you have any knowledge about or passion for UGA football and regularly read the AJC, you know full well that anything they can write that will put UGA football in a negative light is front page news. Trust me if MC put up photos of UGA psa with coaches he did it knowing it was a violation and probably with the hope that Georgia would have to report it a secondary violation. That way in a few months we will see a huge bold headline on the front of the AJC… UGA, RICHT TO REPORT VIOLATIONS DUE TO IMPROPER PHOTOS… Every Georgia fan worth thier salt knows that anything the AJC can write that leads to the detriment of Mark Richt and Bulldogs football is given #1 priority. They’d much rather them go elsewhere so they can write about how Georgia missed on another recruit or how some other school pulled off a “Recruiting Coup” and snatched a top UGA target from Richt and Co. The AJC is the only state “newspaper” I know of that loves to see its flagship university raked through the mud as often as possible. It’s a running joke on every UGA Football blog and fansite out there.
Thomas Brown
May 6th, 2012
4:02 am
As for Georgia Bulldogs’ Football, well, sir, we’ve made our own bad headlines on the AJ-C, and every other single newspaper, not only in this great state but nationally. Perhaps you think not ? The facts are that Ohio State has made its own bad headlines on every newspaper nationally, and as Michael Carver notes in this blog, this is bizarre. This is not good news for Ohio State, nor for their coaching staff.
As for us, we’ve put together 2 of the easiest schedules nationally and the dead last easiest schedule in The SEC 2011 and now, once again, for 2012. There are 14 SEC teams 2012, and we play the softest schedule according to every single source, sir. For these schedules, we continue to not beat the top teams we play every single year nowadays.
And, with the attrition level around our program where it is, and all the bad press our recruits have brought to us off the field whom we did sign to Scholarships here, we are simply left with nationally bad press for having only 79 remaining on Scholarship although we signed 109 to the 85-man limit. 3 of those are walk-ons who have contributed only to our # 80 ranking for special teams, not on offense or defense.
We need to beat top teams. Even one would be an improvement. When we look at the polls published for each season and see we lost to every opponent listed who made any top 25 poll last year and the year before, and have racked up a 3 wins 13 loss record vs teams who made the top 10 polls, just what did you expect to find opening up the AJ-C, sir ?
That Georgia is doing well in recruiting ?
The AJ-C has an obligation to report the news. You seem to feel that the AJ-C should not report the same news found on every blog and found on every other newspaper ?
What’s so positive about our football program right now ? That we are ranked pre-season # 6 in the nation, playing 1 opponent who made any top 25 poll, South Carolina and playing 2 others who so-far have shown up in pre-season polls – Florida who made a top 25 poll preseason at # 25 and Georgia tek who made 1 preseason poll. It’s a 14-game season, with 12 regular seasons’ games.
What’s so positive here for us ? That we have an entire defense playing its last season for us this 2012 season ? That we cannot beat the top teams ? That Alabama by all accounts out-recruited our coaching staff in-state 2012 ?
I’m open to discussing what you feel the AJ-C should not have reported, and will be only too happy to show you at least 25 other URL Links to each and every statement the AJ-C reported which you feel should be CENSORED.
You cannot censor everything, nor should you want to.
We’re not on the national stage in football. It should offend you that this is the case, not that someone has the temerity to admit it.
Neutral
May 6th, 2012
7:19 am
OMG……Thomas Brown, you are so negative it is scary!!!
Freak me out too
May 6th, 2012
7:27 am
Run Alex Run!
gt4ever
May 6th, 2012
7:59 am
Oh, Good Grief…. Why is this a story……
Neutral
May 6th, 2012
8:02 am
I agree with you gt4ever!!!