Pay-to-Play Sport at Private HS employing club coach - what's normal?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have a kid at SJC now. Not in the baseball program but knows one of the boys who transferred out. The story going around, apparently fueled by the coach is that the players kicked out of the program were selfish, not loyal or dedicated to the team, not willing to put in the hard work, not SJC material. If its true they were kicked out because they wouldn't pay the coach for his side business, then his comments are slanderous. These are kids and a former coach painting them like this is not just unfair but also could hurt their futures.

My daughter is good friends with one of the players mentioned in the article. He also happens to be a talented basketball player. I can only speak about him but he's a quiet, funny all around nice kid who has good friends on both the basketball team and baseball team. Any student who plays two sports at SJC is putting in the hard work and then some. He was never disloyal. From what my daughter says he just wanted flexibility to play in a few important high profile summer baseball events and that made a huge difference in his college options. It sickens me to hear that the story going around is that he's selfish or not willing to work. Even worse if the coach is fueling it. These are still children. How is that getting lost in all of this?

I agree with you - this is terrible. High school, especially when you pay for a private high school, should be about preparing you for college and getting you into the best college for you. If this kid went outside the school program to improve his college options and was punished for it, then the school clearly has it all wrong. I'd ask for a refund. My only question is that I've heard baseball players at St. Johns could not play other sports. This kid plays both baseball and basketball?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is this going on in the SJC football program too? Just curious. Is this the result of Kevin Plank's desire to have a sports powerhouse at SJC? Wow, this school really has its priorities backwards. So so so so so glad we decided to send our child elsewhere.

Baseball around here is full of rich kids from McLean or Bethesda. They are prime targets for the pay-to-play gang. Same with lax, and to a lesser degree soccer. Football is a very different demographic, as is basketball. There the sleazy coaches make money being gatekeepers to scouts and schools and shoe companies.

None of that should affect your high school. High school is for education and playing on the school team. All the travel team and pay to be play and seen stuff should be completely unrelated to your high school experience.

Written by a parent with a non-athletic child.

[Anonymous]

In the coach's own words from - https://www.nvtblbaseball.org/news_article/show/979353

“It is very unique for a high school team to stay together and play all year around, especially around here,” Gibbs said. “It’s all happening here. For them, they don’t have to do as much on their own and the schedule is set so much they can become better baseball players everyday.”

“We are able to watch our guys all year around to evaluate and to make sure they are doing things to get better,” Gibbs said. “That is why we started what we did. I was seeing players go off in the summer and was not sure what they were doing. You were never sure if they were getting any better.”

So its a year round program, in the coach's own words. Of course it's unique - it's against the rules!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:In the coach's own words from - https://www.nvtblbaseball.org/news_article/show/979353

So its a year round program, in the coach's own words. Of course it's unique - it's against the rules!

Not questioning whether what is going on is right or wrong (I think it's atrocious), but I'm not sure what rules are being broken.

[Anonymous]

I agree with you - this is terrible. High school, especially when you pay for a private high school, should be about preparing you for college and getting you into the best college for you. If this kid went outside the school program to improve his college options and was punished for it, then the school clearly has it all wrong. I'd ask for a refund. My only question is that I've heard baseball players at St. Johns could not play other sports. This kid plays both baseball and basketball?


Yes, he played both. I don't know if anyone else did. And I'm guessing based on everything else I'm reading that the coach didn't like that very much.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have a kid at SJC now. Not in the baseball program but knows one of the boys who transferred out. The story going around, apparently fueled by the coach is that the players kicked out of the program were selfish, not loyal or dedicated to the team, not willing to put in the hard work, not SJC material. If its true they were kicked out because they wouldn't pay the coach for his side business, then his comments are slanderous. These are kids and a former coach painting them like this is not just unfair but also could hurt their futures.

My daughter is good friends with one of the players mentioned in the article. He also happens to be a talented basketball player. I can only speak about him but he's a quiet, funny all around nice kid who has good friends on both the basketball team and baseball team. Any student who plays two sports at SJC is putting in the hard work and then some. He was never disloyal. From what my daughter says he just wanted flexibility to play in a few important high profile summer baseball events and that made a huge difference in his college options. It sickens me to hear that the story going around is that he's selfish or not willing to work. Even worse if the coach is fueling it. These are still children. How is that getting lost in all of this?

Grrr. This makes me so furious. How dare these coaches trash kids who have done absolutely nothing wrong? This would have been a perfect story to pitch to the Deadspin writers as a follow up to the Hey Ungrateful Quitter story. Unfortunately, the site has basically folded over the last couple of weeks due to the actions of their greedy and clueless owners (https://slate.com/business/2019/11/deadspin-roundtable-barry-petchesky-megan-greenwell-tom-ley.html).

[Anonymous]

From someone with no affiliation to SJC>>so what does the principal and the Board think about this situation with baseball and soccer?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In the coach's own words from - https://www.nvtblbaseball.org/news_article/show/979353

So its a year round program, in the coach's own words. Of course it's unique - it's against the rules!

Not questioning whether what is going on is right or wrong (I think it's atrocious), but I'm not sure what rules are being broken.

For example, many schools have rules against teachers actively tutoring students in their classes to eliminate favoritism / corruption. Athletics though must be a different rule.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Hear, hear on coaches being teachers. My son is at Gonzaga and it makes an enormous difference to have Gonzaga teachers as coaches throughout the athletic program. They are truly invested in these kids and in the school community.

Yeah, that seems like a better model. But in defense of St. Johns, it's not as if the baseball coach isn't an employee there. The school website says he is also Director of Development. My guess is he raises a ton of dough for the school so they let him do pretty much whatever he wants with the baseball program. Probably a bit shady but I could see it. The baseball page lists 4 other coaches but it doesn't look like any of them teach or work at the school, although 2 of them share the same last name as the head coach. Looks like father and brother.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hear, hear on coaches being teachers. My son is at Gonzaga and it makes an enormous difference to have Gonzaga teachers as coaches throughout the athletic program. They are truly invested in these kids and in the school community.

Yeah, that seems like a better model. But in defense of St. Johns, it's not as if the baseball coach isn't an employee there. The school website says he is also Director of Development. My guess is he raises a ton of dough for the school so they let him do pretty much whatever he wants with the baseball program. Probably a bit shady but I could see it. The baseball page lists 4 other coaches but it doesn't look like any of them teach or work at the school, although 2 of them share the same last name as the head coach. Looks like father and brother.

Baseball Coach is a hereditary position - like the Dear Leader.

[Anonymous]

This whole thread just disgusts me. So glad we didn't have our DS enroll at SJC. Seems like the school has sold out to athletics and letting academics suffer. That explains the lack of data on college matriculations.

[Anonymous]

I have heard Stone Ridge has a head coach for field hockey he was also a club coach and has at least half the team who starts on her club roster .

[Anonymous]

Back to the title of this thread - is this normal? The situation at SJC with baseball and soccer - is it going on elsewhere or does SJC just have a different view of high school athletics and their obligations toward tuition paying student athletes?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Back to the title of this thread - is this normal? The situation at SJC with baseball and soccer - is it going on elsewhere or does SJC just have a different view of high school athletics and their obligations toward tuition paying student athletes?

Not normal at Gonzaga.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Back to the title of this thread - is this normal? The situation at SJC with baseball and soccer - is it going on elsewhere or does SJC just have a different view of high school athletics and their obligations toward tuition paying student athletes?

Not normal at Gonzaga.

Didn’t Gonzaga’s previous baseball coach have his own travel program? Are all the coaches there really teachers? Turner, the basketball coach? Carroll, the new baseball coach?