UPDATE — Seattle Times prep recruiting scandal

[Lester Bangs]

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2003042215_sealth06.html


Too bad the Times unfairly tarnished the good name of this coach and his program. :

 

[ServeItUp]

The photo that accompanies that story is very telling to me. The cutline says they're celebrating, but while the girls celebrate with each other he's looking in another direction. Not quite over his shoulder but looking somewhere else — very Nixon-like.

 

[luckyducky]

Serve...

That has been their standard "sealth" photo since about mid-April. And it's not only representative of the entire issue, but also of that week. Rarely did the coach smile...it was more like stern, more stern or ticked off.

In fairness, the direction he's looking was to his team's fans. But, really, who knows.

 

[Starman]

Blatant, flagrant recruiting and payment of players is the nationwide high school sports equivalent of the steroid scandal in MLB.

Everybody knows what's going on, and everybody knows who's doing it, but most of the time, nobody really cares enough to do anything about it.

Plus, the idiotic taboo against "ratting out" the guilty parties. If they're guilty, screw 'em. Torch 'em with glee.

 

[JME]

Well, from a practicality standpoint: MLB can test its players for steroids. Reporters can't test coaches for recruiting.

Even if you know it's going on, neither the coaches nor the rceruited players are going to admit it. Then you're on the slippery slope of trying to find out where kids live, if their listed addresses are actually those of relatives, etc. And lots of times the coaches use their school's special academic programs to legitimize bringing in kids.

There is just a ton of gray area.

 

[Lester Bangs]

Well, from a practicality standpoint: MLB can test its players for steroids. Reporters can't test coaches for recruiting.

Even if you know it's going on, neither the coaches nor the rceruited players are going to admit it. Then you're on the slippery slope of trying to find out where kids live, if their listed addresses are actually those of relatives, etc. And lots of times the coaches use their school's special academic programs to legitimize bringing in kids.

There is just a ton of gray area.

Yup, but all this eventually leads to the kind of arrogance this guy displayed and that's what got him caught. He also made the mistake of winning just a touch too often for the good folks of Seattle and he also did it at a have-not school which started dominating the haves. He was playing with all sorts of fire. But you're right ... hard to catch otherwise.

 

[Starman]

Well, from a practicality standpoint: MLB can test its players for steroids. Reporters can't test coaches for recruiting.

Even if you know it's going on, neither the coaches nor the rceruited players are going to admit it. Then you're on the slippery slope of trying to find out where kids live, if their listed addresses are actually those of relatives, etc. And lots of times the coaches use their school's special academic programs to legitimize bringing in kids.

There is just a ton of gray area.

Well, the Times attacked the story the way you'd have to do it -- develop lots of sources, tail people, check addresses, lease information, vehicle registrations, etc etc., you know, just like a real investigative news story.

A lot of papers could do something very similar about a lot of schools, but it requires a lot of time and a lot of people, two things many papers don't seem inclined to devote to stories of this type these days.

 

[WazzuGrad00]

More developments:

State governing body has stripped team of two state titles.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/sports/2003151322_websealth25.html

 

[Herbert Anchovy]

That won't stop the recruiting. It never has.

 

[Chi City 81]

They won a game 87-to ****ing-3??!! That coach can suck my balls.

 

[novelist_wannabe]

G_D, I don't know if you'd want him do. From the looks of him in that picture, you'd wind up scrotally challenged.

 

[TheSportsPredictor]

The photo that accompanies that story is very telling to me. The cutline says they're celebrating, but while the girls celebrate with each other he's looking in another direction. Not quite over his shoulder but looking somewhere else — very Nixon-like.

He's looking out for snakes on the plane.

 

[Cosmo]

Well, from a practicality standpoint: MLB can test its players for steroids. Reporters can't test coaches for recruiting.

Even if you know it's going on, neither the coaches nor the rceruited players are going to admit it. Then you're on the slippery slope of trying to find out where kids live, if their listed addresses are actually those of relatives, etc. And lots of times the coaches use their school's special academic programs to legitimize bringing in kids.

There is just a ton of gray area.

Well, the Times attacked the story the way you'd have to do it -- develop lots of sources, tail people, check addresses, lease information, vehicle registrations, etc etc., you know, just like a real investigative news story.

A lot of papers could do something very similar about a lot of schools, but it requires a lot of time and a lot of people, two things many papers don't seem inclined to devote to stories of this type these days.

Yep. Yep. Yep. Even the bigger metros seem reticent to devote someone for one or two months to a story. If you're on staff, you better produce daily copy. That's the problem with bare-boning a staff (hi DMN).