Monday morning, a Division I basketball coach told me, “The NCAA is always a step behind with enforcement of the rules. I wish the biggest problem we had was the street agents.” Street agents, the guys buzzing around players at summer tournaments lining up future clients for agents, are not a problem?
"Not compared to the parents," said the coach. “Mom and dad want more shots, more playing time, more this, more that.” It reminded the coach of the line from another coach. “The best team to coach,” he said, “is a team of orphans.”
That makes sense. There is no hustle from the mom and dad because there is no mom and dad. The coach could blend a team and hold them together and not worry whether a player is getting lured away. The hijacking of players happens, especially during the summer months. A kid hooks up with a summer team, a collection of players from another school, and in September he is suddenly at another school.
The Georgia High School Association has tried to curb the practice for years. The GHSA even went so far to try and block a transfer when a kid showed up with legitimate rent papers from his new school. The kid said, “I live here”, but the GHSA started checking to see if there was a primary residence somewhere else. If the player’s family was paying property taxes somewhere else, and they could prove it, the kid was ineligible.
Now, there are some examples of parents who do need to step in. I was interviewing Tim Tebow’s father about the increasing rate of transfers from one high school to another because Tim Tebow was a controversial transfer. Parents and players seek “better” opportunities, but Tebow made the point that what if the family is stuck at a school with poor coaches and poor discipline.
“Should they have to stay in that environment?” he said.
It’s a good point. What about the black baseball player who told me that while riding on a bus with white players from his high school, he had to deal with unacceptable racial comments. The parents pulled him out of that school, which was appropriate….along with calling the authorities. But too often parents are looking for the best weight room, the best gym, a travel schedule and, more important, elite players to team up with their son or daughter.
Beware the green grass on the other side of the street, mom and dad. Beware the coach who promises shots and PT.
The trapdoor could open.
