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

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Has anyone asked them?

The SJC administration must be well aware of what is going on in these programs. 5 students left in the middle of the year because they were not being allowed to play on the school baseball team because they did not pay to play in the coach’s travel program. These 5 are now all at other schools. At our school you have to sign a contract obligating you to pay tuition for the entire year even if your student leaves mid year. I’d think in the case at SJC, the school had to let the parents out of the contract, or the parents refused to pay given the circumstances. HOS’s know about these kinds of things. I’d like to know what kind of response these parents got from the HOS/administration.

I wanted to know the answer to that question too so I called one of the parents involved. They told me the following:

The school did, in fact, try to hold the parents to the tuition contract and withheld the kids transcripts. Because this hindered their ability to transfer, the parents quickly lawyered up. Their lawyer accused the school of breaching the contract (didn’t let the kids participate on the baseball team because they refused to pay the coach’s personal business). The lawyer also informed the school that they were violating IRS laws that threatened their non-profit status. Evidently it’s against the law for an employee of a non-profit to leverage that entity for personal gain, which seems rather obvious to me.

The parent said the school’s lawyer quickly capitulated so they must know they are in the wrong. My question on this subject now is will the school continue to allow the coach to violate the law or will they just hope these five go away quietly and keep allowing the coach to run his business through the school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Sounds like a no brainer to me. If you don’t like the way things are done, avoid the school and the program.

What if you like everything about the school other than the one corrupt program, where the coach is doing unethical and illegal things that harm kids. Seems like it would be worthwhile to see if that problem could be fixed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sounds like a no brainer to me. If you don’t like the way things are done, avoid the school and the program.

What if you like everything about the school other than the one corrupt program, where the coach is doing unethical and illegal things that harm kids. Seems like it would be worthwhile to see if that problem could be fixed.

Ok.. so this parent is supposedly clean up a problem while figuring where their son should go? Jesus threw the moneychangers out of the temple, STJ AD can do the same with their coach.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Has anyone asked them?

The SJC administration must be well aware of what is going on in these programs. 5 students left in the middle of the year because they were not being allowed to play on the school baseball team because they did not pay to play in the coach’s travel program. These 5 are now all at other schools. At our school you have to sign a contract obligating you to pay tuition for the entire year even if your student leaves mid year. I’d think in the case at SJC, the school had to let the parents out of the contract, or the parents refused to pay given the circumstances. HOS’s know about these kinds of things. I’d like to know what kind of response these parents got from the HOS/administration.

I wanted to know the answer to that question too so I called one of the parents involved. They told me the following:

The school did, in fact, try to hold the parents to the tuition contract and withheld the kids transcripts. Because this hindered their ability to transfer, the parents quickly lawyered up. Their lawyer accused the school of breaching the contract (didn’t let the kids participate on the baseball team because they refused to pay the coach’s personal business). The lawyer also informed the school that they were violating IRS laws that threatened their non-profit status. Evidently it’s against the law for an employee of a non-profit to leverage that entity for personal gain, which seems rather obvious to me.

The parent said the school’s lawyer quickly capitulated so they must know they are in the wrong. My question on this subject now is will the school continue to allow the coach to violate the law or will they just hope these five go away quietly and keep allowing the coach to run his business through the school.

I hope they went past the school and also made the LaSallian order aware of what is going on.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sounds like a no brainer to me. If you don’t like the way things are done, avoid the school and the program.

What if you like everything about the school other than the one corrupt program, where the coach is doing unethical and illegal things that harm kids. Seems like it would be worthwhile to see if that problem could be fixed.

If the HOS and others in the administration are complicit in “the one corrupt program,” how much about the school could you like? If the school allows corrupt behavior in one program, you should assume they allow it in others. You’re naive if you think otherwise. If they allow a coach to treat students like chattel, why would you entrust your kid to them?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sounds like a no brainer to me. If you don’t like the way things are done, avoid the school and the program.

What if you like everything about the school other than the one corrupt program, where the coach is doing unethical and illegal things that harm kids. Seems like it would be worthwhile to see if that problem could be fixed.

If the HOS and others in the administration are complicit in “the one corrupt program,” how much about the school could you like? If the school allows corrupt behavior in one program, you should assume they allow it in others. You’re naive if you think otherwise. If they allow a coach to treat students like chattel, why would you entrust your kid to them?

There are lots of things to like, including the location, good school spirit, and the fact that it’s co-Ed. I definitely think the baseball situation sounds terrible, and I agree it reflects extremely poorly on the school administration. My hope is that the publicity this issue is receiving might lead to some changes. Other issues first covered on DCUM have made it into the Washington Post. I’d love to see them pick this story up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sounds like a no brainer to me. If you don’t like the way things are done, avoid the school and the program.

What if you like everything about the school other than the one corrupt program, where the coach is doing unethical and illegal things that harm kids. Seems like it would be worthwhile to see if that problem could be fixed.

If the HOS and others in the administration are complicit in “the one corrupt program,” how much about the school could you like? If the school allows corrupt behavior in one program, you should assume they allow it in others. You’re naive if you think otherwise. If they allow a coach to treat students like chattel, why would you entrust your kid to them?

There are lots of things to like, including the location, good school spirit, and the fact that it’s co-Ed. I definitely think the baseball situation sounds terrible, and I agree it reflects extremely poorly on the school administration. My hope is that the publicity this issue is receiving might lead to some changes. Other issues first covered on DCUM have made it into the Washington Post. I’d love to see them pick this story up.

If I didn’t read DCUM, I don’t think I’d ever know about this. I don’t think many people visit this site, so I don’t expect this issue to become very public.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sounds like a no brainer to me. If you don’t like the way things are done, avoid the school and the program.

What if you like everything about the school other than the one corrupt program, where the coach is doing unethical and illegal things that harm kids. Seems like it would be worthwhile to see if that problem could be fixed.

If the HOS and others in the administration are complicit in “the one corrupt program,” how much about the school could you like? If the school allows corrupt behavior in one program, you should assume they allow it in others. You’re naive if you think otherwise. If they allow a coach to treat students like chattel, why would you entrust your kid to them?

There are lots of things to like, including the location, good school spirit, and the fact that it’s co-Ed. I definitely think the baseball situation sounds terrible, and I agree it reflects extremely poorly on the school administration. My hope is that the publicity this issue is receiving might lead to some changes. Other issues first covered on DCUM have made it into the Washington Post. I’d love to see them pick this story up.

If I didn’t read DCUM, I don’t think I’d ever know about this. I don’t think many people visit this site, so I don’t expect this issue to become very public.

It’s not just on this site. There’s a NoVa baseball site that has reported on it as well. There are links earlier in the thread. Maybe elsewhere as well.

[Anonymous]

The pay to play is a feature, not a bug. Systemic to the school and the administration is complicit. They all know about it and have known about it for years. They aren't going to do anything about unless forced to.

[Anonymous]

Is the HOS at SJC a Christian Brother? It’s just hard for me to believe that a Brother or other religious would allow a coach to financially benefit off of mistreating students like this. I always thought the Brothers had a good reputation with respect to educating/caring for youth.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Is the HOS at SJC a Christian Brother? It’s just hard for me to believe that a Brother or other religious would allow a coach to financially benefit off of mistreating students like this. I always thought the Brothers had a good reputation with respect to educating/caring for youth.

The President and Principal (two different positions) are not Christian brothers.

[Anonymous]

With recent scandals involving pay for play in college admissions, quid pro quo at the highest levels of our government, etc., I can’t believe the school administration would want to fool with stuff like this. It’s a toxic time bomb waiting to go off. Somebody else mentioned that the Washington Post has picked up stories from DCUM before,. I think someone should tip off someone at the Post – they would love this story. Especially given the under armor connection, this is about the problems that come with big money in high school sports. It’s about breaking tax laws. It’s about an administration that supports a corrupt coach at the expense of students. And it’s about a high school dynasty that has been built on cheating. The fact that the school is Catholic is just another layer of icing on the cake. This is the type of story that sells papers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sounds like a no brainer to me. If you don’t like the way things are done, avoid the school and the program.

What if you like everything about the school other than the one corrupt program, where the coach is doing unethical and illegal things that harm kids. Seems like it would be worthwhile to see if that problem could be fixed.

If the HOS and others in the administration are complicit in “the one corrupt program,” how much about the school could you like? If the school allows corrupt behavior in one program, you should assume they allow it in others. You’re naive if you think otherwise. If they allow a coach to treat students like chattel, why would you entrust your kid to them?

Are people forgetting this thread started as a discussion about the corruption in the soccer program at SJC and has morphed into a discussion about the corruption in their baseball program? This is not corruption in one program. It's a systemic problem and the administration is happy to allow coaches to extort parents and sacrifice the well being of students if it means more trophies. Athlete or not, you shouldn't fool yourself into thinking the school will do what's in the best interest of your kid. Their priorities are elsewhere.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sounds like a no brainer to me. If you don’t like the way things are done, avoid the school and the program.

What if you like everything about the school other than the one corrupt program, where the coach is doing unethical and illegal things that harm kids. Seems like it would be worthwhile to see if that problem could be fixed.

If the HOS and others in the administration are complicit in “the one corrupt program,” how much about the school could you like? If the school allows corrupt behavior in one program, you should assume they allow it in others. You’re naive if you think otherwise. If they allow a coach to treat students like chattel, why would you entrust your kid to them?

Are people forgetting this thread started as a discussion about the corruption in the soccer program at SJC and has morphed into a discussion about the corruption in their baseball program? This is not corruption in one program. It's a systemic problem and the administration is happy to allow coaches to extort parents and sacrifice the well being of students if it means more trophies. Athlete or not, you shouldn't fool yourself into thinking the school will do what's in the best interest of your kid. Their priorities are elsewhere.

I disagree, the basketball and football programs which are the money makers for the school do not operate like this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sounds like a no brainer to me. If you don’t like the way things are done, avoid the school and the program.

What if you like everything about the school other than the one corrupt program, where the coach is doing unethical and illegal things that harm kids. Seems like it would be worthwhile to see if that problem could be fixed.

If the HOS and others in the administration are complicit in “the one corrupt program,” how much about the school could you like? If the school allows corrupt behavior in one program, you should assume they allow it in others. You’re naive if you think otherwise. If they allow a coach to treat students like chattel, why would you entrust your kid to them?

Are people forgetting this thread started as a discussion about the corruption in the soccer program at SJC and has morphed into a discussion about the corruption in their baseball program? This is not corruption in one program. It's a systemic problem and the administration is happy to allow coaches to extort parents and sacrifice the well being of students if it means more trophies. Athlete or not, you shouldn't fool yourself into thinking the school will do what's in the best interest of your kid. Their priorities are elsewhere.

I disagree, the basketball and football programs which are the money makers for the school do not operate like this.

I also wouldn't call the situation with the soccer coach corrupt, at least as I understand it from this thread. Lots of coaches have private training or club teams on the side, given that you can't make enough for a reasonable living otherwise. If you are not requiring kids to attend your side business in order to play on the school team, and you are playing school kids whether or not they participate in the side business, that's a completely different scenario than what is described in the baseball program. It is true that coaches often end up favoring the kids they know from their club teams, and if they do so at the expense of more talented school players, then I think it's unethical, but it's probably hard for coaches to be objective in that scenario.