Street Agents

[SC"U"Mbuster]

This is most likely a result of recruiting practices being used by Fat Phil at Tennessee (and possibly other "dirty" Southern schools). There was a story in the Miami Herald(?) a few months ago about Tenn. using "independent third parties" to influence recruits from South Florida to go to school in Knoxville. Around the same time there was also a story on D. Morley (the CB from Miami) who had just decommitted from Florida, and was leaning towards Tenn. When asked about his college choices, one of the things he mentioned was going somewhere where that's big time and where he will be taken care of. One can speculate that he wasn't talking about being helped with homesickness. There was also a related article that said the reason Miami didn't offer him was because he was hanging around the wrong people (the aforementioned "street agents") and looking for some kind of payout from the school he would attend.

A "street agent" is someone who channels money to recruits without declaring his connection to a school. That way the buying school can never be directly tied to a recruit. This is probably how renegade schools have adapted in the post-Albert Means/Alabama/Tennessee era.

Interesting that Miami's Coker is now the person raising the subject of "street agents" while Fat Phil is suddenly in on an unusual amount of recruits, especially from South Florida (Kenny Phillips is now seriously considering Tenn. as well), and is completely silent about all this.

[ohiobuck94]

NCAA: schools should sue

As clouds hover over the Michigan men's basketball program and elsewhere, NCAA is advocating taking players involved to court

Sunday, May, 23, 1999

By RICH THOMASELLI
NEWS SPORTS REPORTER

TThe NCAA is encouraging its member schools to get even if they lose money because their players break the rules and take money from boosters.

That scenario could apply at the University of Michigan if the FBI concludes that Ed Martin gave cash payments or cars to several former Wolverines, and the NCAA penalizes U-M.

"We have suggested to our institutions that they consider taking action against athletes that break the rules and infringe upon the institution," said Bill Saum, who oversees agents and gambling issues for the NCAA.

Only then, experts say, would another scandal produce enduring, positive ripple effects for college basketball.

"How many times have we seen a scandal come down, and everybody shakes their head and sits on their high horse, and then after a while it goes right back to the way it was? Too often," says Art Taylor, director of urban and youth studies for Northeastern University's Center for the Study of Sports and Society, located in Boston.

"There's been scandal after scandal after scandal, and not much seems to change. It's hard for a school to go after one of its own, but maybe if it did, you might see some change."

College basketball has been hit again this spring by two storm clouds, both in the Big Ten. At Minnesota, claims of academic fraud in which term papers were allegedly written for players has put the Gopher program in the spotlight. And at Michigan, the FBI is interested in former U-M players' links to Martin, who is under investigation for his involvement in a gambling ring at Detroit-area Ford plants.

Scandals dot the history of college basketball, beginning with the City College of New York game-fixing episode in the early 1950s. Now, 40 years later, not much has changed. Two players from Northwestern were found guilty last summer of sports bribery charges for fixing basketball games.

But now there exists a new layer of behavior, along with the specter of gambling.

"What we've seen across the board is that what makes up ethical behavior is different from what we've seen 10-15 years ago," said Richard Lapchick, who heads up Northeastern's Center for the Study of Sports and Society.

Lapchick says that gambling scandals are rare compared to incidents of players taking money against NCAA rules. Point-shaving is "rarely at the crux of these things," he says, adding that the root of college basketball's problems may be more sociological.

"Kids are going to school whose families are poor, but the kid himself may or may not be so poor because other feeder institutions - and I'm not talking about high schools here - have been taking care of these kids for a long time," Taylor said. "(Street) agents take care of these kids, and then when colleges bring them in these kids are expecting a certain lifestyle. That's a problem that goes a little bit deeper."

That's why Taylor, among others, says he believes that all it would take is one school setting the precedent.

In the book "Bo," written by Bo Schembechler and Mitch Albom, the former University of Michigan football coach writes about his former defensive back, Garland Rivers.

Rivers and fullback Bob Perryman were two U-M players who took money from agents Norby Walters and Lloyd Bloom in the mid-1980s before their eligibility expired - something Schembechler says he did not find out about until after the athletes had played their final season. The coach, who says he repeatedly warned Rivers about agents, calls the incident "the biggest off-field disappointment of my football career."

Walters and Bloom were eventually convicted in federal court on fraud charges.

Rivers, Schembechler wrote, was ordered by the courts to pay back his free tuition after he accepted money from the agents. But U-M itself did not pursue any legal action against Rivers. The NCAA would advocate doing so today, based on Saum's statements.

Through history, many players have walked away - to the pros or away from campus - unscathed. Coaches have walked away to new jobs unscathed. The program gets punished.

For every Rick Kuhn, there is a John "Hot Rod" Williams. Kuhn served two years in prison for his role in the Boston College point-shaving scandal in the 1970s. Williams was acquitted of charges of point-shaving at Tulane in the 1980s, but the school shut down the basketball program for four years nonetheless.

For every Jim Boeheim, there is an Eddie Sutton. Boeheim was, and is, the coach at Syracuse who had to pay the price when the Orangemen were deemed guilty by the NCAA of dealing with a street agent. Sutton was the coach in charge at Kentucky when the $1,000 Emory packet from an assistant coach to a recruit mysteriously opened. Kentucky was nailed with probation; Sutton went on to coach at Oklahoma State.

Saum says the coaches, the schools and even the NCAA must do a better job of educating the players about money that is available before they make a fateful decision.

"I don't think anyone wakes up one day and says, 'I'm going to change the outcome of the game tonight,'" Saum said. "So many poor decisions have been made that they get to the point where they feel there's no way out."

That's why, Saum said, student-athletes need to know about the NCAA's Needy Student Assistance Fund, a multi-million dollar account that helps needy athletes get a pair of glasses, or a jacket or a flight home, if need be.

Saum says they also should know about the federally funded Pell Grant. If athletes qualify financially for it, the grant goes along with scholarship money for room, board and tuition.

Still, Saum says, such awareness alone won't prevent scandals.

"At some point," he said, "it comes down to personal integrity. It comes down to agreeing to play by the rules."

[osugrad21]

Originally Posted by Loganbuck

Is HH a "street agent"?

No because he does not guide recruits to a certain school and at no benefit of his own.

[Helpinghand]

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald...s/10793300.htm

This is the guy involved with Morley and some Tenn. violations.

[OSUBasketballJunkie]

HH...very interesting article....sounds shady in my opinion...he is walking around in the gray areas of NCAA rules......he has alot of influence in that part of the country it seems.

[goodguy]

Originally Posted by Helpinghand

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald...s/10793300.htm

This is the guy involved with Morley and some Tenn. violations.

Interesting article. How does he earn any money if he's volunteering his time?

I don't give this guy much more time. Tenn and other schools will shy away from him due to all the recent attention like this article. Where there's smoke, there's fire.

[osugrad21]

HH what is your personal take on this as far as lines the advocates must not cross? I've seen small-time guys looking for a cut ruin kids...we had a kid a few years back who could possibly be in the NFL draft this April...instead he is at his 3rd school with a bum knee and a bad attitude becuase the advocates turned him against the advice of the coaches.

What is your philosophy in this? Is it a supplemental service or a mainline guidance service?

BTW, I'll still take one of those ELY shirts if you still want to trade.

[BB73]

I think the fact that he's in Dade County, but Coker stays away from him, says a lot.

[jimotis4heisman]

so he says.....
they have a TON of kids from that school (killian or whatever its called, it is making me register for the article now)

[Helpinghand]

<TABLE cellSpacing=1 cellPadding=2 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR><TD class=v1>Posted on Wed, Feb. 02, 2005</TD></TR><TR><TD colSpan=2><TABLE cellSpacing=5 cellPadding=0 align=right border=0><TBODY><TR><TD><TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width=250 border=0><TBODY><TR><TD><TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR><TD class=adlabel align=left><SCRIPT ********************1.1>_krdDartInc++;document.writ e('<SCRIPT **********\"**********1.1\" SRC="http://ad.doubleclick.net/adj/miamiherald.sports/sports;kw=center6;c2=sports_homepage;pos=center6;g roup=rectangle;tile='+_krdDartInc+';ord='+_krdDart Ord+'?"><\/SCRIPT>');</SCRIPT><SCRIPT ********************1.1 src="http://ad.doubleclick.net/adj/miamiherald.sports/sports;kw=center6;c2=sports_homepage;pos=center6;g roup=rectangle;tile=3;ord=1107467614651?"></SCRIPT><!--AdRevolver code begin--><!--AdRevolver code end--><NOSCRIPT>http://[img]http://ad.doubleclic...869?[/img]</NOSCRIPT></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></TD></TR><TR><TD> </TD></TR><TR><TD class=relatedstoryborder><TABLE cellSpacing=1 cellPadding=2 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR><TD class=relatedstorytitlebkg align=middle> R E L A T E D C O N T E N T </TD></TR><TR><TD class=relatedstoryborder align=middle><TABLE align=center><TBODY><TR><TD align=middle></TD></TR><TR><TD align=right width=300></TD></TR><TR><TD class=v1 align=left width=300>THIRD PARTY: Antron Wright is influential in recruiting. TIM CHAPMAN/HERALD STAFF</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE><SCRIPT ********************>function showResults(siteSurveyKey) {var url="/mld/templates/contentModules/poll-results-popup.jsp"+ "?siteSurveyKey=" + siteSurveyKey;window.open(url, 'Title');}function openWin(URL) {aWindow = window.open(URL,'thewindow','width=500,height=400, resizable=yes,scrollbars=yes');}function getSite(){foundSite = false;site=document.location.hostname;endPos=site. indexOf(".com");if (endPos>= 1) {foundSite = true;site = site.substr(0, endPos);startPos = site.lastIndexOf(".");site = site.substr(startPos + 1);}return site;}function getPublication(){publication=document.location.pat hname;startPos=publication.indexOf("/mld/");publication=publication.substr(startPos+5);endP os=publication.indexOf("/");publication=publication.substr(0,endPos);re turn publication;}function openSlideshow(url,width,height) {y=Math.floor((screen.availHeight-height)/2);x=Math.floor((screen.width-width)/2);window.open(url,'slideshow','width='+width+',he ight='+height+',top='+y+',left='+x+',scrollbars=ye s,resizable=yes').focus();}</SCRIPT></TD></TR><TR><TD class=relatedstoryborder><TABLE cellSpacing=1 cellPadding=2 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR><TD class=relatedstorytitlebkg align=middle> R E L A T E D L I N K S </TD></TR><TR><TD class=relatedstorybkg> • Toeing line on NCAA rules </TD></TR><TR><TD class=relatedstorybkg> • UM awaits word from two key recruits </TD></TR><TR><TD class=relatedstorybkg> • FIU looking for some steals </TD></TR><TR><TD class=relatedstorybkg> • Broward boosts FAU '05 class </TD></TR><TR><TD class=relatedstorybkg> • FSU focusing in on defense </TD></TR><TR><TD class=relatedstorybkg> • Meyer making recruiting strides for UF </TD></TR><TR><TD class=relatedstorybkg> • The Herald's Top 20 recruits </TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
RECRUITING

Former football star's "big brother" role draws criticism


Former All-Dade linebacker Antron Wright has guided dozens of high school football players to colleges, but there is skepticism.

By MANNY NAVARRO AND SUSAN MILLER DEGNAN

mnavarro@herald.com


<!-- begin body-content -->Antron Wright views himself as the high school football community's ''big brother.''

The former Miami Killian High assistant coach and 29-year-old former pro linebacker has been a central figure in recruiting in South Dade the past few years.

With national signing day here, Wright will have helped dozens of high school football players find a college to play for in the fall, sometimes through something as simple as a phone call to a recruiter or helping a student learn how to deal with the NCAA's Initial-Eligibility Clearinghouse.

And the question some are asking: Who is this man entrenched in South Florida college recruiting?

''They [college coaches] call me to ask me about kids because they know everybody knows me here,'' Wright said.

Wright said he has dealt with coaches such as Rutgers' Greg Schiano, Colorado State's Sonny Lubick, South Carolina's retired Lou Holtz, Auburn's Tommy Tuberville, former LSU and current Dolphins head coach Nick Saban -- among others.

''I'm like a direct end,'' Wright said. ''If you bought cheese or you like cheese and I was down here in the cheese grove, they would say, 'Come talk to Antron, he'll tell you where to get some cheese from.'

''I want every kid -- white, black, blue, whatever -- to have an opportunity, not because of their economic status, but to have an opportunity at life and to get an education in college, to be exposed to things. If I can expose kids to things and give them opportunities, I'm going to keep doing it, and I'm going to do it the right way. Just like my last name, I'm going to do it the right way.''

However, some coaches feel that dealing with people outside of the high school system who are advocates of the student-athlete but haven't been closely linked with their families for years is not the preferred method.

''From what I know of Antron, he is a good person,'' said Brad Bertani, Tennessee associate athletic director for compliance. ''And I think what he is trying to do is admirable. I don't know in the long run if third-party people fit into the NCAA system of recruiting.''

University of Miami coach Larry Coker acknowledged he knows of Wright. Coker raised a concern about the emergence of independent third parties in college recruiting at the American Football Coaches Association's meeting in Louisville, Ky., last month.

''Yeah, I do know who he is,'' Coker said recently. ''I don't deal with him, so there's really nothing for me to say. I deal with parents, coaches and players.

''As a coach, you want to deal with the people who are influential in a young man's life. If somebody is recruiting my son, they're not going to deal with somebody down the street. They're going to deal with me, my wife, my son and the proper people -- the coach.''

Wright, unemployed since December, was an assistant football coach at Miami Killian in charge of college recruiting in 2003. Before his last job from April 26 to Dec. 14 as a stay-in-school counselor through a grant by Jobs for Miami (based at Miami Central High), Wright was a juvenile detention officer for two years at the Miami-Dade County juvenile regional detention center.

According to Bill Saum, NCAA director of agent, gambling and amateurism activities, it is not against NCAA rules for a college coach to communicate with a person who is a friend or advocate of the recruit, even if that person is not a relative or legal guardian.

Wright says he is a friend.

''Legitimate mentors are a healthy component in young people's lives,'' Saum said. ''Coach Coker, I'm sure, and others are not speaking of legitimate mentors. They're speaking of hanger-oners, they're speaking of people who are associating with these kids merely because they are great athletes. They're speaking of individuals who want to follow the young man or develop a relationship with him as he enters the professional ranks.''

Trooper Taylor, Tennessee's running backs coach, said Wright has been a tremendous help since Taylor first began recruiting Miami-Dade this past summer.

Taylor, however, said he understands why some would question Wright's intentions as well as those of other community members involved with student-athletes.

''I think people have a hard time believing somebody can do something for somebody else without getting something in return,'' Taylor said. ''Most of the time you find somebody like that, [those] people have their hand out or have something personal to gain where they want the kid to make it to the pros and then come back and take care of them -- or promise them a job or whatever. Usually, you try to keep 1,000 feet or 100 feet between that person and you.

''Antron has never asked me for anything.''

FATHER FIGURE

Carol City's Kenny Phillips and Demetrice Morley, who played at Miami Killian in the fall, are both highly sought senior defensive backs who know Wright. Morley played with Phillips in the U.S. Army All-American Game and said he had been trying to convince Phillips to go with him to Tennessee.

''I got a father, but he [Wright] is my father figure,'' said Morley, who said he changed his commitment from Florida to Tennessee after Ron Zook was fired.

''Any college I said I wanted to go to, [Wright and I] would go and look at [the Internet] together and see the depth charts and see if I had an opportunity to come in and play. He just helped me out -- not choosing a college -- but helping me format the college and check out the colleges.''

Morley said his father, who lives in the Bahamas, approved of Wright accompanying Demetrice on his trip to Tennessee in October because he had helped him throughout the recruiting process. Wright said he paid for his own airline ticket out of Fort Lauderdale. He said he sent his debit-card statement last Wednesday or Thursday to Bertani to verify that no one associated with Tennessee had funded the trip.

Bertani said he asked Wright for the documentation last week and hadn't received it as of Tuesday.

Phillips did not take any trips with Wright and claims he barely knows him.

''I've spoken to [Wright] for all of about five minutes my entire life. All [Wright] told me was that he thought Demetrice [Morley] and I could be a great combination if we went to Tennessee together, but he's never told me I had to go there,'' said Phillips, who will choose today between Tennessee and Miami. ''I was thinking about Tennessee because I know they need safeties and because coach Trooper [Taylor] had called me.''

Another player Wright has guided is former Killian running back Bobby Washington, who originally signed a letter of intent with UM but now plays for North Carolina State. Washington's mother, Leslie Washington Mortimer, called Wright a family friend in August and said she agreed to have him accompany her during a meeting on Aug. 2 with UM compliance director Tony Hernandez and other UM officials.

Bobby Washington and his mother told The Herald in August that UM officials had heard from an outside source that an impostor had attempted to take an ACT for Washington, a claim that infuriated Washington, his mother and Wright.

''Yes, [Wright] got very upset,'' Washington Mortimer said. 'He said, 'You guys are screwing the kid.' ''

When asked why Washington Mortimer brought Wright to the meeting, she said, 'Antron Wright showed so much interest in our boy when it comes to education. He was a good friend not only to Bobby but to a lot of the kids. But he never had a say for [where Bobby should go to college]. He never told me or Bobby, 'I want you to go here or there.' ''

ON THE PULSE

In Miami-Dade County, if college coaches are looking for a possible player to fill a need on their roster, Wright is a person they call for help.

''He has given me three or four names of kids that if I hadn't run into him or been in contact with him, I wouldn't have known little things in terms of their family background or character issues or getability for us,'' said Central Michigan coach Mike Elston.

Auburn running backs coach Eddie Gran said Wright helped him with former Southridge safety Lorenzo Ferguson last year by sending him a tape and Ferguson's transcripts. Ferguson later signed with Auburn.

Illinois linebackers coach Thomas Thigpen said Wright sent him a list of defensive backs.

Said Rutgers coach Greg Schiano: ''I met Tron when he was an assistant coach at Killian High School. At that time, he seemed to have a good understanding of recruiting.''

Taylor, who met Wright six months ago, might have one of the better relationships with Wright. He said Wright drove him around South Dade in his car and introduced him to coaches and players.

''I can tell by his personality, his passion for it, [Wright] is deep-rooted about the kids making it -- I'm talking about Bethune-Cookman to Florida A&M to everything,'' Taylor said. 'He'd even tell me, 'Look I've got some guys who are mediocre guys.' If you have some friends in this business -- because he knows it's who you know -- at some smaller Division I schools, give them my number and have them give me a call.

''And that's the thing I like about him. He's always trying to help kids, period, and not just the stars.''

COMMUNITY SERVICE

Wright said he first began helping young football players through various community programs and camps in South Dade. He expanded his work when he founded the Wright Task program during the years he starred as a Bethune-Cookman College linebacker and invited kids from the South Dade area to watch his games.

Currently, Wright shares a modest two-bedroom South Dade apartment with his cousin. He uses office space in the building his uncle owns on 98th Court in South Dade to help recruits register for the NCAA Initial-Eligibility Clearinghouse. The space was provided by his cousin, who has a not-for-profit association, Abstinence Between Strong Teens, Inc., that works with children in the Miami-Dade County Schools, as well as throughout the community.

''The fact of the matter is he has a passion to make sure kids don't go through the struggles he went through,'' said Miami-Dade police officer and Wright's cousin, Mark Beckford, whose mother, the late Ethel Beckford, has an elementary school in west Perrine named after her. ''A lot of parents call me, and I refer them to him. He has spoken at a lot of our Police Athletic League football camps. . . . All he does is encourage kids to take the right classes.''

ROUGH LIFE

Wright, who graduated from Palmetto High in 1994, said much of what he does stems from missing out on similar guidance when he was growing up in South Miami and then west Perrine.

Eventually, he says, it cost him two years -- one he spent at Chaffey College in California before transferring to Santa Fe Community College in Gainesville -- and a chance at playing Division I football.

Wright, who said he has two young daughters who live near Gainesville, left Bethune-Cookman early for the NFL, where he signed as an undrafted free agent with the Baltimore Ravens.

Wright was cut before the season began and eventually played with the XFL's Chicago Enforcers two years later. When the league folded, Wright moved back to South Dade and the same streets that had been so tough for him as a child.

''I lived with my mom,'' Wright said. 'My dad was murdered when I was 8. The guy was [16] years old who killed my dad. He got shot about seven, eight times. My aunt came up to me when I was in South Miami and she said, 'Your dad has been killed. Come on. Let's go.' I went down to Perrine, a place called Circle Plaza. And I peeked around the corner, and all I remember is my dad laying up under a yellow blanket.''

Wright said one of his three brothers was shot to death on the brother's 18th birthday. Wright said his mother, Valerie King, ''went to prison for 18 months when I was in middle school -- for drug trafficking. At that point, I was really introduced to the streets. I'm talking about feeding yourself sometimes.''

When Wright's mom returned from prison, he said ''she wouldn't accept no money from nobody in the family. She went straight to an emergency home -- [a women's shelter] when you have nowhere to stay. It's an apartment with steel furniture that don't move. You have about five plates, five spoons, five forks. You have some hard cotton beds to lay on and sleep on. That was in Florida City off Palm Drive. I'll never forget that, man.''

High school took Wright to Southridge for two years, where he won a state championship in 1991 and then to Palmetto, where he transferred after he said he got into an argument with an assistant coach at a basketball game he attended.

''[At Palmetto], I was All-Dade, first-team All-State.'' Wright said. ''I didn't know anything about high school requirements. I didn't know about the NCAA. Didn't know about the Clearinghouse. Never took a test until the end of my senior year -- SAT or anything. Nobody took me into depth or came to my mom and said, 'Your son has done a good job for us, but this is what he needs to do. And this is what we need to do with him.'

''I had a destination, but I didn't have a road map. So, that's what I'm trying to do with these kids out there.''

<!-- end body-content --></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>

[wadc45]

I must admit I have mixed feelings after reading that article. It seems like his heart is in the right place, but it is awfully difficult to stay 100% objective when you are serving such an important role to these recruits, especially when it begins to appear as if only a few schools are benefiting from his efforts.

[MililaniBuckeye]

BuckeyeBill73 brought up a very good point about Coker avoiding him even though they are in close proximity to each other. The article is showing the rosey side of the story, and you know what they say about stories...

[goodguy]

HH or anyone, I've heard bad rumors about Tenn and this guy. Is there any talk by the local media in Florida of an NCAA investigation regarding this guy? What are the locals saying, because you can tell Coker may have some info.