CHEATING IN HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL

[GreenMan]

Yes, Mr. Football in 86 I think. What about him?

 

 

If you were around during that era you should remember all the buzz about how teachers and coaches were "helping" him academically in High School only to send him to the real world of college football where only the top atheletes get that kind of help.

[TheLivingLegend]

My opinion is that cheating happens at many places. This is so unfortunate for people to give these young ladds grades they don't deserve. Giving grades that have not been earned will not help them later in life.

[Floor_General22]

If you were around during that era you should remember all the buzz about how teachers and coaches were "helping" him academically in High School only to send him to the real world of college football where only the top atheletes get that kind of help.

 

 

 

Isn't he in prison somewhere now?

[FootballDoc]

Look at just about any school, when the kids are passing all of their classes during the Athletic Seasons but can't pass the College Entrance Exam with minimum scores you tell me. How many kids this year had their Scholarships taken back because they could pass the entrance exams? I know of three personally, it is the responsibilty of the parents and students first, the school second and the coaching staff lastly to make sure these kids are prepared to move on and have a good future. Academics before sports not the other way around.

[varybarry]

The Brentwood Academy case was a joke. You are right, the amount of recruiting that goes on here in East Tennessee is getting out of hand. However I would say most of it is done through the loop holes that exist in the current rules. But that is a topic for another thread.

 

 

 

Finding loopholes in the systems is ethically wrong. People may not be breaking the law or the rules, but it's still not the right thing to do. I think most schools have found a loophole every now and then, but the schools that continually do it should be reprimanded, or at the least be on a shorter leash.

[GreenMan]

Isn't he in prison somewhere now?

 

 

I have heard that in the past, not sure if its true. I hope its not.

[Red Rebels]

Amid the recent scandal at Hoover High School in Alabama, where coaches, teachers and administrators are being investigated for academic improprieties, are there any schools here in Tennessee that might be doing this as well?

 

Hoover has a new interim Principal, Dr. Ken Jarnigan who was the principal at Maryville High school last year.

[Floor_General22]

Hoover has a new interim Principal, Dr. Ken Jarnigan who was the principal at Maryville High school last year.

 

 

I sure hope he knows what he's getting into. I know football is big at Maryville and the tradition they have there matches any other school in this state. But football in Hoover is an animal unlike any other and can only be matched by some of the schools in Texas. You don't go to school at Hoover to get a good education. You go to Hoover to play football. You don't work year round to win a state championship at Hoover. You work to win a national championship. The Principal is not the person that runs Hoover, that job belongs to Rush Propst, the head football coach.

[RegionChamp]

True!!

[rappy]

I sure hope he knows what he's getting into. I know football is big at Maryville and the tradition they have there matches any other school in this state. But football in Hoover is an animal unlike any other and can only be matched by some of the schools in Texas. You don't go to school at Hoover to get a good education. You go to Hoover to play football. You don't work year round to win a state championship at Hoover. You work to win a national championship. The Principal is not the person that runs Hoover, that job belongs to Rush Propst, the head football coach.

 

Rush Propst is in so much hot water with the scandals and flings, I doubt he will be Coach at Hoover within the next couple of month or any other school in the future.

[Floor_General22]

Rush Propst is in so much hot water with the scandals and flings, I doubt he will be Coach at Hoover within the next couple of month or any other school in the future.

 

 

 

The trouble at Hoover right now could very well cost him his job. Especially if Paul Finebaum works his magic. However with college football season about to get underway, all eyes in the media will be focusing on Tommy Tuberville and Nick Saban. Hoover and Rush Propst is hoping that this will allow them to handle things quietly. I have to disagree on the last part of your statement though. If he does get fired at Hoover he will be coaching somewhere by next season. Probably another high school in another state.

[Rabble Rouser]

Exhibit 1A

 

TSSAA is investigating Temple

Saturday, August 11, 2007

 

By Stephen Hargis

Assistant Sports Editor

 

The Tennessee Secondary School Athletic Association is investigating potential recruiting and eligibility rules violations by Tennessee Temple Academy.

 

"We have met with members of Temple's administration to go over a number of issues that have been brought to our attention," TSSAA executive director Ronnie Carter said Friday. "We're aware there are a lot of 'he said, she said' in this case and we have to have proof. That's what we're looking into."

 

Following last season, when Temple won Region 3-1A and advanced to the state quarterfinals, co-head coaches Kevin Skogen and Steve Beard resigned and the school promoted volunteer assistant Scott Chastain to head coach. But according to first-year Temple athletic director Caleb Marcum, he received word in the spring of possible recruiting violations by Chastain.

 

Marcum spoke with several area coaches to investigate the matter.

 

"We were never able to nail down a concrete violation, but there was a lot of dishonesty from what Coach Chastain had told us," Marcum said. "I hated to do it, but that was the reason we had to fire him."

 

Before coming to Temple last fall, Chastain was an assistant at Southeast Whitfield for two years. He said allegations that he had recruited transfers Erik Larson and Kameron Ridley away from Southeast Whitfield were proven untrue.

 

"There were some serious allegations being made, and I understand it was something that had to be investigated," Chastain said. "But I was not guilty of recruiting. We didn't go out and recruit anybody, and I wasn't doing anything wrong this spring."

 

According to Chastain, while he was an unpaid assistant last season his son Ryan, then an eighth-grader, received free tuition at Temple and played in the Crusaders' final two regular-season games, both region wins, as well as a playoff win over Monterey.

 

That is one of the accusations the TSSAA is investigating. A state Division I school must forfeit any game in which a non-faculty member's child participated while receiving financial aid.

 

"Only children of full-time faculty members can receive any type of financial aid and remain eligible for athletics in Division I," Carter said. "That includes tuition reduction. If that occurred, there is an eligibility rule violation. We stripped University School of Jackson of its state baseball championship two years ago for a similar violation, so it is potentially a serious problem."

 

Also according to Chastain, he was never paid by the school while acting as Temple's head coach this spring. He said a booster paid him $350 per week for three months and that his contract with Temple would have gone into effect this month.

 

"Other than one $300 check for coaching middle school basketball, I never received any money from the school," Chastain said. "Dr. (Connie) Pearson (the principal) told the booster that he was actually paying me for teaching one Bible class because they weren't sure if that was legal. I felt like it was unethical, but it wasn't flat-out dishonest because I was teaching a Bible class.

 

"Since I left, I do feel like the Temple administration has been very dishonest about why I was fired and what really happened."

 

A coach being paid by a school booster is not a TSSAA violation, and Pearson said Chastain never signed a contract with the school.

 

"Legally, Coach Chastain was never an employee here because we never had a signed contract," she said. "We had allegations of recruiting and we investigated those. There were enough things that were on the edge, and that's not the way we wanted to start our football season, so we made a change."

 

E-mail Stephen Hargis at shargis@timesfreepress.com