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When Helicopter Parenting Goes Wrong ...

Discussion in 'Journalism topics only' started by Uncle.Ruckus, May 31, 2013.

  1. Uncle.Ruckus

    Uncle.Ruckus Guest

    Father claims his son is signing to play baseball at University of Houston and sets up ceremony. UH has never heard of the kid.

    http://www.elpasotimes.com/news/ci_23350665/burges-athlete-had-scholarship-grades-not-baseball
     
  2. The Big Ragu

    The Big Ragu Moderator Staff Member

    I'm told the kid has a hell of a swing.

    [​IMG]
     
  3. From reading that it sounds like the (HS) baseball coach was involved in this was well.
    Good luck getting some ink in the future coach.
     
  4. doctorquant

    doctorquant Well-Known Member

    Yeah, that story's a little more convoluted than a father fabricating an athletic scholarship. I definitely think the Houston coach comes across as a bit of a dick, though ... the kid shouldn't be held to some higher standard (of play) just because of this ... even though the father might be more trouble than the kid could possibly be worth, it might be best to keep that to yourself (if you're the coach)
     
  5. Writer33

    Writer33 Member

    He'd better be the second coming of Johnny Bench. - Strong stuff.
     
  6. The kid (or adult) knew what he was doing.
     
  7. dirtybird

    dirtybird Well-Known Member

    It's funny, when I read all that, I don't really put that much blame on the dad. High School parents are by nature insane, and I tend to take every one of their words with a massive grain of salt. But the kid lied when confronted directly, and maybe there was some parental pressure, but you can't get a pass for that.

    Most importantly, I'd blame the the coaches and AD. They perpetuated the lie. They made no attempt to explain or correct things. A kid at an athletic signing picking up an academic scholarship is an anomaly. Coaches are pretty much the responsible folks in this situation (schools can't comment and players/parents are less than trustworthy), and they did some deliberate sidestepping of the truth.
     
  8. Mizzougrad96

    Mizzougrad96 Active Member

    This kind of stuff happens more often than you think... Schools set up fake signings all the time to get coverage.

    I covered a signing my first year as a journalist. The kid was "signing" with one of the service academies to play basketball. I hung out until after the other reporters left and I asked to see the letter than the kid had signed since I knew that wasn't how it works. I said, "There's no way the kid has even been accepted there yet." Even though if was common knowledge that the school was recruiting him. The coach and the parents went fucking nuts, publisher was involved.

    We ended up not writing the story. I didn't have a huge problem with that. I wasn't trying to say that the kid wasn't really going to that school. He did go there, but he sat in front of about a hundred people and signed a piece of paper when he hadn't even been accepted yet. It was just insane. We had one line in the story that said that the kid confirmed that he intended to play basketball at Air Force next year. All the other papers wrote that he had "signed" with them.
     
  9. boundforboston

    boundforboston Well-Known Member

    Kid's obviously got poor character. I'm sure coaches care about that when kid isn't good enough to even get a scholarship or recruited to be a walk-on.
     
  10. Johnny Dangerously

    Johnny Dangerously Well-Known Member

    I always wanted to pretend to be an architect.
     
  11. doctorquant

    doctorquant Well-Known Member

    Again, it's such a convoluted story ... I can't tell who actually did the mis-representing. Maybe the kid really thought he was signing something like a letter of intent.
     
  12. HanSenSE

    HanSenSE Well-Known Member

    It sounds like the kid's dad was bound and determined his spawn was gonna play baseball in college, the truth be damned. I wonder if the Houston coaches got involved as a preventative measure.
     
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