Stuck in Lodi; Recruiting scandal makes national news

Not a day goes by without an allegation of illegal recruiting getting thrown around - some jokingly, some not so much. But a recent scandal involving a high school football program in California takes the cake and has made national news.

An investigation into a football program in Lodi, California found that a Franklin High assistant illegally recruited more than a dozen players from American Samoa and offered them housing.

According to an Associated Press story, "the six-month probe alleges a Samoa-based relative of the coach began meeting with the students' parents as early as 2004, and persuaded them to send their sons from the remote South Pacific island to arid Lodi, a farming town 35 miles south of Sacramento. Once there, the coach is accused of housing the students at his home, with his brother or with other coaches."

The AP reports that "fourteen students and their families flew to California on tickets purchased by the coach's mother, and were put up in motels for a week paid for by Franklin High School personnel... The coaches helped the parents get fake utility bills to establish their sons' residency, and the Yellowjackets gained a new set of recruits to advance their standing within the league"

Check out the full story. You have to read it to believe it

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/preps/football/2007-09-27-samoan-probe_N.htm

-- JOE SMITH

joesmith@sptimes.com

Comments

You shouldn't report this, you might give the Nature Coast coaches more ideas.

Nature Coast is a magnet school, student-athletes can come from all over. Stop picking on NCT! Good athletes are attracted to its quality athletic program. NCT's coaches don't have to approach students in Samoa, Lodi, N.J., California, or anyplace else. The students come to NCT on their own.

[Belichek]

Compared to the illegal dealings at Countryside, how can this possible be wrong??