TSSAA CORRUPTION!

[phil24]

TSSAA CORRUPTION! MUST READ

 

 

Photo: Eric England

 

Read our interview with MBA headmaster Bradford Gioia here.

 

Next week, for the first time in five years, Montgomery Bell Academy's football team returns to the state finals. It's an impressive achievement for a school whose motto — "gentleman, scholar, athlete" — implies the kind of well-rounded excellence expected at one of the nation's top prep schools.

 

It's all the more impressive because just three years ago, the school was embroiled in a financial aid scandal with the Tennessee Secondary School Athletic Association, the state's governing body for high school athletics. At the end of both the school's and the TSSAA's investigations, MBA was fined and put on two years' probation. But while the school was fined and forced to vacate two state titles and wins, MBA never missed a postseason.

 

Concurrent to those investigations in 2011, The City Paper was examining allegations of improper recruiting and financial aid problems at the school. Numerous sources told the paper that the problems were systemic, reaching throughout the administration, the athletic staff and the school's board of trustees.

 

As neither the school nor the TSSAA would comment, The City Paper filed an open records request with the organization. The TSSAA denied the request, saying through its counsel that the body, a non-profit association, was not subject to the state Public Records Law. That dispute resulted in a court battle that would go on for two-and-a-half years and cost thousands of dollars to the now-defunct paper and its parent company SouthComm (also owner of the Nashville Scene).

 

But the Tennessee Court of Appeals ruled that the TSSAA is the functional equivalent of a government agency and therefore obligated to turn over the records. The Tennessee Supreme Court refused to hear the TSSAA's appeal of the lower court's decision. The organization finally provided the requested records earlier this month.

 

What those records show is a culture at the elite private school where TSSAA rules on assistance to athletes were largely ignored for decades; where prominent board members and coaching staff covered some or all of the tuition of some athletes; and where the administration had an apparent lack of institutional control.

 

At issue isn't the kind of corruption that's often alleged in big-money college athletics. Indeed, when patrons (including church congregations) overstepped the TSSAA's stated bounds, it appears in most cases to have been for the best of intentions: to help students whose families had fallen on hard times or met with emergency needs. The issue lies more with the lack of transparency at the TSSAA itself — a body that governs almost all high school athletics in the state with little accountability or oversight. Its workings remain largely out of view.

 

And as these documents show, its rules apparently go unenforced — until someone throws a flag.

 

The allegations at MBA might never have gone public if an athlete's parent hadn't been mad over his son's lack of playing time.

 

In an April 1, 2011, memo to MBA headmaster Bradford Gioia, Chris Simonis detailed two pages worth of grievances against head coach Daniel McGugin. Simonis' son Aaron was played inconsistently; another kid took his starting cornerback position after being kicked out of school and then returning; the coach, the father claimed, had destroyed Aaron's confidence.

 

But the most serious was the allegation that McGugin gave him a check for $1,500 in 2008 to help with MBA's steep tuition. The money came from McGugin's father George, an alumnus and lifetime MBA trustee.

 

As described, it was a charitable act. It was also a violation of TSSAA rules, however, which ban anyone who is not a family member from paying the tuition of an athlete at a private school.

 

Gioia responded by reaching an agreement with McGugin to leave. He then self-reported the violation to the TSSAA. At a meeting of the school's board of trustees April 21, according to the minutes, Gioia mentioned the TSSAA would not impose sanctions "on MBA since the issue had been dealt with through self-reporting and the dismissal of Daniel as the Head Football Coach." Gioia explained he felt that the TSSAA would "find a violation if they investigated, which they were not planning to do since MBA had taken the action of reporting and dismissing the coach."

 

Yet numerous other questionable financial aid cases soon came to light in meetings between administration and board members. From the documents obtained by The City Paper and the Scene, the problems appeared to result from a fundamental clash between the school's culture of loyalty and self-sufficience and the TSSAA rulebook.

 

It's a tradition going back decades that MBA families help their own, stepping in to provide assistance when boys in need cannot cover the cost of attending. But if a hardship exists for a student-athlete, it is the responsibility of the school to request a waiver in order to provide aid. Otherwise, the athlete is ineligible.

 

In that spirit, records show, in many cases people in positions of authority at MBA — coaches, staff, administration and board members — stepped up to help on numerous occasions:

 

• Joe Davis, the brother-in-law of Mayor Karl Dean and a local restauranteur and philanthropist, paid some or all of the tuition of two players. The first, who was a longtime friend of the Davis family, also had use of a car. The second student's father, a former collegiate all-American and all-pro football player, was recruited from out of state to work for Davis' charity, Backfield in Motion, which paid the MBA tuition as a term of his employment. In addition to being an alumnus, Davis served as an assistant football coach.

 

• Former Tennessee Supreme Court Justice Frank Drowota, an MBA board member, led an effort to financially assist a player whose father had lost his job.

 

• Athletic director Scott O'Neal and another family financially assisted with two other players. Additionally, O'Neal handed out gift cards to some students.

 

• The late David "Pat" Wilson, former chairman of the Vanderbilt University Board of Trust, paid the tuition of his housekeeper's grandson. (This was not in the records but has been independently verified by the Scene.)

 

• Billy Ray Caldwell, a Vanderbilt University board member, and his wife Maria paid the tuition of a player, a longtime family friend, for all six years at MBA. Though Gioia regarded the Caldwells as the player's guardians, as they also provided a home for him, the school never submitted a hardship waiver.

 

• As far back as 1997, board member Varina Buntin aided a player financially.

 

• Members of Woodmont Christian Church paid the tuition of a church employee whose son played a sport as part of an employment package.

 

All of these instances allowed students to remain at MBA. Yet every instance also made the players ineligible to compete athletically under the TSSAA's Rule 16, which outlines how schools handle matters of tuition and student athletics. It reads:

 

"If tuition is charged, it must be paid by parent, bona fide guardian or other family member. If a parent, guardian or other family member secures a loan for payment of tuition, it must remain an obligation of the parents, guardian or other family member to repay the principal and interest in full with no exceptions. Any loan program, grant program, educational foundation or similar program that is established and/or administered, in whole or in part, by a school or official of a school is considered financial aid," which is allowed only under strict, need-based guidelines.

 

On May 23, 2011, the MBA board directed its then-chairman, real estate mogul and Freeman Webb Companies co-founder James A. Webb III, to "appoint a Special Committee of three persons, made up of disinterested Board members or other appropriate individuals, to conduct a review of past financial aid policies and practices primarily concerning MBA student-athletes." Webb chose longtime Sun Trust Bank executive R. Walter Hale III to lead.

 

The committee found multiple violations of Rule 16. It made a number of recommendations that the board ultimately adopted, including the appointment of a compliance officer and changes to the financial aid office.

 

But absent from the committee's report was any evaluation of the role MBA board members or headmaster Gioia had played in the incident. What's more, in the exhibit of potential cases that accompanied the committee's findings, no board members were mentioned.

 

One review committee member strongly objected to this limited reporting. In a dissenting letter, D. Tate Rich, president of Delta Coals and an MBA alumnus, argued that it would be "disingenuous" to report unrelated violations and not note Gioia's role — especially since the TSSAA rules place ultimate responsibility for awareness of the regulations on the headmaster.

 

"While I do endorse the Committee Report as far as it goes," Rich wrote, "it fails, in my view, to place our findings in perspective and it omits facts that lead to the conclusion that the Headmaster and/or Administration: 1) failed to meet its responsibilities to supervise and monitor compliance with TSSAA Rules; 2) either had direct knowledge of, or turned a blind eye to, the possibility of TSSAA Rule infractions; and 3) in the face of known facts, failed to seek guidance, take corrective action or to report what it knew. ... I did not find the headmaster ignorant of the rules."

 

Rich referenced the matter of Knoxville's Grace Christian Academy in 2010 — a benevolence case where the church associated with the school paid the tuition of a player after his single mother died. For that single act, Grace received a $24,000 fine (later reduced) and received a post-season ban for one year in all sports and two years in football and basketball.

 

"This Board should have information that might lead it to ask: why didn't our Headmaster stand up and volunteer that he knew of these other payments and that they were possible rule violations; and why did he sit quietly and allow the Board to discuss and ultimately pass with objections a Resolution commending him for his handling of the Daniel McGugin dismissal," Rich wrote.

 

The dissenting member concluded by making a number of judgments on past actions and recommendations for next steps. McGugin's dismissal was appropriate, he wrote; Gioia should be censured or dismissed by the board "for failure to properly monitor, supervise and/or abide by TSSAA rules"; MBA's letter of self-report should be made public, before the start of the upcoming football season.

 

To Rich's complaints, committee chairman Hale responded with a letter of his own. He said the dissenting member's "conclusions, opinions and arguments are inappropriate to the committee's charge." In August 2011, the committee submitted its report along with Rich's letter, Hale's response and some follow-up emails to MBA counsel Bob Walker.

 

Walker turned over the findings to the TSSAA and to MBA's board. The latter approved the report and its recommendations at a Sept. 15 meeting.

 

Throughout the fall, TSSAA counsel Rick Colbert investigated the findings of the report. Colbert told The City Paper in 2012 that he had been assigned the task instead of a staff member, due to the overwhelming number of lawyers involved by all parties at MBA. (His involvement would be critical, as the TSSAA would later try to claim attorney-client privilege over the records The City Paper sought.) Colbert wrapped up his work in late fall 2011 and met with MBA officials in December.

 

The City Paper published its investigation into the MBA allegations on Jan. 8, 2012. On Jan. 12, the TSSAA released its findings and punishment in a seven-page letter to headmaster Gioia. In the letter, TSSAA executive director Bernard Childress mentioned only in passing the widespread nature of the problem and instead focused on the school's financial office. Even though head coach McGugin's departure had set off the round of investigations the previous spring, and he and his father were mentioned anonymously in the letter, there was virtually no mention of the wide-ranging problems with both the staff and board.

 

The ultimate penalty for MBA? Two years of probation, fines, lost titles and the threat of more severe action if it broke the rules again — but unlike Grace Christian, which had a single violation of the financial aid rule, there was no postseason ban for any sport. And unlike all other disciplinary decisions the body has handed down, the TSSAA never published an official notice of MBA's punishment in its internal publication TSSAA News.

 

Nor was there any mention of Gioia having any culpability in the TSSAA's letter, only an admonition to the finance office and a paragraph about Daniel McGugin's role. In particular, there was no mention of Joe Davis, who covered two players' tuitions personally and, as a coach, would have been aware of the TSSAA's rules.

 

For George McGugin, Daniel's father, the school's actions were insufficient. For more than a half-century, he had been involved with the school as a student, parent, coach and member of the board of trustees. He resigned shortly after the board accepted the findings of the review committee.

 

"It is common knowledge within the MBA community that a pattern and practice of extra financial assistance to student athletes has existed at MBA for decades," he wrote in a letter to chairman Webb. "Active board of trustee members, an assistant football coach on the current staff, and many other MBA supporters have solicited and/or provided this assistance in a variety of ways. Daniel McGugin was not involved in any of these other cases, but the headmaster and his staff have been well aware of and have approved numerous cases of such assistance. Within this history of extra financial aid to MBA student athletes, to date Daniel McGugin is the only person who has been held accountable."

 

Daniel McGugin declined to talk to the Scene for this article.

 

MBA headmaster Brad Gioia spoke to the Scene as this story was going to press. His comments are contained in full in the accompanying sidebar here.

 

Joe Davis remains a part of MBA's coaching staff, though he is no longer listed on the school's website.

 

TSSAA executive director Bernard Childress, through assistant executive director Matthew Gillespie, said the organization's attorneys advised him not to comment on any facet of the MBA case indefinitely.

 

On Feb. 15, 2012, after the TSSAA declined to hand over requested documents, The City Paper filed suit against the association under the Tennessee Public Records Act, seeking records, emails and correspondence regarding Montgomery Bell Academy and any other TSSAA member school's possible violations of financial aid rules during the 2011 calendar year. The requested records were finally provided two years and nine months later, in a thick stack of occasionally redacted printouts.

 

Some may argue the findings are old news best left in the past. Others may claim the suit is evidence of some sort of vendetta against the school. When The City Paper's original story by Ken Whitehouse ran, the publication was accused of being in the tank for Ensworth, the city's other tony private athletic power.

 

But the court fight has opened a window onto the TSSAA's practices that it fought to keep closed — and it has ramifications beyond student athletics.

 

In 2002, the Tennessee Supreme Court ruled in the case of Memphis Publishing v. Cherokee Children & Family Services that a body providing privatized services to the government is subject to the Tennessee Public Records Act. Justice Adolpho A. Birch explained the rationale behind the ruling in the court's opinion:

 

"Only recently, however, has attention focused upon the ways in which public access to information may be obstructed when governmental functions are transferred to the private sector. As one commentator states, 'Privatization may be desirable in itself, but it should not come without . . . leaving public accountability intact. Not only should the public be able to monitor the private company's activities, but the monitoring should be on the same terms as when the public agency was the information vendor.' Others note that the government may, intentionally or unintentionally, shield records from the public by shifting them to private entities. Indeed, by maintaining and controlling previously public records, private companies may control public access to such records in ways that are 'at odds with the very purpose of public records laws.' "

 

The TSSAA has seen the application of this case coming for years, ever since being named a "state actor" in a fight with Brentwood Academy that went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. The association has even gone so far as to file amicus briefs — "friend of the court" papers meant to lobby a judge — in support of Corrections Corporation of America in the private prison giant's losing battle to avoid public records laws. In the City Paper case, the association argued that "schools are free to choose whether to include sports in its after-school programs and whether to participate in interscholastic sports competition," Judge Frank Clement noted in the Court of Appeals' opinion.

 

Even so, that choice is belied by the fact that when it comes to student athletics, the TSSAA is largely the only game in town. For almost every public and private school in Tennessee, if it wants to play sports, it must do so through the TSSAA. In 1972, the state board of education "officially designated the TSSAA as the organization to regulate interscholastic athletics in Tennessee." When the TSSAA got an adverse opinion in federal court in 1996, it lobbied the state Board of Education to change the language of the board's rule to make it sound as though participation is voluntary. It got its way, as the board's wording shows:

 

"The State Board of Education recognizes the value of participation in interscholastic athletics and the role of the Tennessee Secondary School Athletic Association in coordinating interscholastic athletic competition. The State Board of Education authorizes the public schools of the state to voluntarily maintain membership in the Tennessee Secondary School Athletic Association."

 

But the courts have recognized this as window dressing, as Clement noted in the Tennessee Court of Appeals ruling. "Although the new rule modified the 'official' relationship between the Board of Education and the TSSAA, it had no practical effect on the realities of the relationship in the context of the TSSAA's control of interscholastic athletics in Tennessee," Clement wrote.

 

With such control comes the public's need to be able to scrutinize and hold accountable the TSSAA's actions. One way is through the Public Records Act. In 1913, Justice Louis Brandeis famously wrote that "[p]ublicity is justly commended as a remedy for social and industrial diseases. Sunlight is said to be the best of disinfectants; electric light the most efficient policeman."

 

That remains true today.

 

"The courts have consistently recognized that when a government entity delegates or contracts out a government function, records associated with that government function remain public," says Deborah Fisher, a longtime Tennessean senior editor and executive director of the First Amendment watchdog group Tennessee Coalition for Open Government. "To do anything else would essentially remove an important mechanism of accountability citizens have over their own government. When public dollars are involved, when government services are involved, transparency is a must.

 

"We'd like to see local and state governments voluntarily write into such contracts with private entities a requirement for transparency, so that citizens or media do not have to sue to get access to what they should have access to already."

 

If nothing else, however, the records of this case and almost every other financial aid case highlight the difficulty in enforcing the TSSAA's rules.

 

These punishments never would have happened without the Simonis incident forcing MBA to grapple with decades of improper activity, however well-intentioned in most cases. The TSSAA, with a staff of 20, doesn't have the manpower or the resources to actively police every Division 2 school in Tennessee that provides financial aid to students who need it.

 

Some schools will look at this case and wonder if a neighbor school or a competitor in a tournament is cheating. In 2012, Scene sports columnst J.R. Lind painted a pretty clear picture of the landscape:

 

"Spend two hours at any game pitting a Division 1 school against a Division 2 school. The finger-pointing about pay-for-play is part of the atmosphere. When two Division 2 schools square off, it doesn't get any better — the pot calls the kettle black, while the kettle says no, the pot is darker than we are."

 

Comparing the relative harshness of Grace Christian's punishment to MBA's, it's hard to understand why the punishments were different. This type of atmosphere only breeds enmity among TSSAA member schools. We asked the TSSAA for clarification, but it won't respond. It doesn't have to.

 

And therein lies the problem.

 

David Boclair contributed to this story.

 

'We always want to do things appropriately'

 

In the aftermath of the document handover, MBA headmaster Bradford Gioia spoke briefly to the Scene's Steve Cavendish about the financial-aid investigation, the TSSAA's framework and enforcement of financial-aid issues, and his impression of the coverage to date.

 

What do you think the school learned over the course of the investigation? Do you think the school had a lack of institutional control in regards to financial aid and athletes?

 

I think we learned that we always want to do things appropriately. And I think that, as you said, we made some mistakes of omission and not commission, in that we never actually tried to recruit people. And we could have a done a much better job in understanding how payments should be made. So, yes, we've certainly learned some things, and we value doing things the right way. We've admitted that.

 

One of the outgrowths of the investigation was that you had said MBA would like to share with other Division 2 schools what you had learned from this process and that you would lead an education process.

 

We went to the state meetings with the TSSAA, and I've made some talks at events and said that anyone who wants clarified for them the things we have learned and how we can all make sure to do things appropriately, we'd be glad to talk about that.

 

Has anybody taken you up on that offer?

 

Well, they did that day and we've had several calls afterwards.

 

One of the things that's striking about this case and indeed most of the financial aid cases is that it seems like the rules that are in place for Division 2 schools are nearly impossible to enforce. Is that fair? It appears to be a completely voluntary set of enforcements.

 

I think it's like a lot of laws and rules, like perhaps our speeding laws. You know what the rules are. You're supposed to do things a certain way. All of our schools that are independents that you're pointing out, the TSSAA has tried to do their best in communicating the policies. As you well know, we self-reported everything, and we did our own investigation as well as opened up our records to the TSSAA. Because we knew something was wrong in what had occurred in the process of financial aid. And I think that's a hard thing for anybody to do. And it's a hard thing for us. We think we did the right thing in opening ourselves up and being open about it all.

 

Do you think Division 2 schools that offer financial aid are compatible with the TSSAA framework? Several other states have seen a split where those schools form their own association. Is that more viable?

 

I think my hope is that it will not split the two, although it is certainly hard to marry independents and all of the desires of independent schools, as you would know. There are problems in the public arena just as there are problems in the independent arena. And so I don't think it's fair to paint it the way you're painting it. I think it's a very one-sided perspective. We will have a better city and state if people know each other on playing fields and they know each other as individuals who do not play separately.

 

Holistically, how that works out, I cannot predict. And I would be dishonest if I didn't tell you that I'm frustrated sometimes about the issues. And that's separate from the financial aid issues: the practicality where we play state championships, whether that makes the most sense for the independent schools; where the lines are drawn; why we're required to play on certain test days like the SATs. There are a lot of compromises in any sort of membership in an organization.

 

But I hope you hear my comment that the city and the state are ultimately better off. I think it's very unfair the way you're arguing it, to be honest. It's not just about financial aid. That's one of many, many topics. I think you're being much too limiting in bringing that up as the major issue.

 

What is the major issue?

 

I articulated it. And I think you can look at transfer issues; why certain public and independent schools have certain advantages. It's a huge topic. If you look at the financial aid issue, MBA was founded on financial aid — that is to say, the request for the school was originally for boys who could not afford to come here. And you have thoroughly vetted this as I've read your writings. I think you should see that what we did was not so intentionally trying to find students. We were a little sloppy about how we did things.

 

I think that's a fair reading of the issue.

 

Your articles have been very slanted, so you're not talking to a friendly.

 

Anybody who reads these records walks away with the impression that MBA, in most cases, was trying to help kids whose situations had changed and couldn't be at MBA without help.

 

It wasn't as though there was institutional lack of control, which you said; it's that we weren't paying attention to every "T" and "I," and I agree with that. This stuff is pretty complicated, and it's just like any story: You can't quite get to the bottom of it so easily. But I appreciate you calling about it. It's very old news, as you know.

 

Well, the courts move a little slowly.

 

This would have never come to the attention of the TSSAA unless they look through every school's records.

 

Is Joe Davis still a member of the coaching staff?

 

Yes. He's a volunteer coach, yeah. And I understand from what I've been told, that you're going to attack him a little bit.

 

I'm just pointing out what the records say.

 

What do you think the records say?

 

It says that he helped one kid who couldn't afford to be at MBA and had another situation where, as terms of his employment, his father got his son's tuition paid.

 

I suspect if you did your journalism more carefully, you'd see that at a number of independent and private schools in this state. Which is only to point out your general question, that it's hard to track a lot of these financial aid issues. And I'm not excusing any of this, given I know what the rules are. We didn't hide that particular issue, incidentally. We looked at it like a business.

 

But I can see ... I've been through all of this with TSSAA, and I know these problems. I mention that because Joe's not a vicious offender and somebody who went out to buy people. I'm just telling you my own personal opinion. He's not somebody that I'm particularly close to, so I'm not trying to protect anybody. He doesn't work here in the sense that he's an employee of the school.

 

Email editor@nashvillescene.com.

[EastTnVol]

TL;dr

[Kevin38]

I read 1 paragraph b/4 realizing how long it was and decided there was no way.....lol

 

Also, I have never been crazy about private schools either, but hey they have their own division come play-off time so problem solved in my eyes.....

 

Lastly, do you have to bring this crap up the week of the state title games, I am pretty sure the majority of the people here will be more interested in the title games than this political mess, just saying.....

[FBfan26]

Eye opening

[phil24]

Say that to the teams that faced MBA over the years. If a team your school played was cheating you would care too.

[AllRegion]

Say that to the teams that faced MBA over the years. If a team your school played was cheating you would care too.

 

Every school plays teams who are cheating

[Kevin38]

Say that to the teams that faced MBA over the years. If a team your school played was cheating you would care too.

 

So they were recruiting?; thats not news, if my team played in that division, that is what I would expect.....

[STARSNBARS]

Kliff Noats vershun pleese.....

[phil24]

So they were recruiting?; thats not news, if my team played in that division, that is what I would expect.....

Read the article. They were paying kids tuition for them. That's not recruiting. That's breaking TSSAA rules, then TSSAA tried to cover it up.

[MathNerd]

TSSAA is a joke! Catholic HS in Knoxville has been reported multiple times and has yet to be investigated. I guess Mr. Childress is not man enough to hold schools accountable like Ronnic Carter. Where is all our $$$ going anyway? The T$$AA sure is getting a ton from football playoffs to sit in Nashville and collec a salary without working to control schools and making them adhere to the rules.

[QBall]

The bigger issue is not the cheating from any particular school.  It is the blatant lack of tranparency on the part of TSSAA.  THEY are the ones who should be held more accountable for their lack of enforcing the rules across the board.  How about putting them on probation and fining them for their part in this whole mess?  I know of some small schools that could use the revenue boost from the fines.

[pepvol]

Kliff Noats vershun pleese.....

 

 I nodded off 3 times and couldn't get past the first Paragraph .... I may keep this handy and read it to my Grandson the next time he can't go to sleep .