Football Recruit Commits to Cal/ Yet Cal says no offer existed, police investigating

[OLDLCOACH111]

I know this is a 1aa board but I had to post this to see what you guys think really happened in this story???http://news.rgj.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080203/SPORTS/80203018/1018
http://footballrecruiting.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=769948
An offensive lineman from Nevada named Kevin Hart committed to California Friday, staging a big announcing ceremony in front of his entire high school. Problem is, Cal apparently hasn't offered the kid or even contacted him.

"The Cal staff has had no contact whatsoever with Coach Hodges or Hart, and that they have not visited him; nor has Hart been on a recruiting trip to any school," recruiting Web site rivals.com reported.

Now, law enforcement is involved (fraud, we presume?) in investigating what happened. Further muddying the waters, Hart claims to have visited Oklahoma State, even though Rivals.com says he has yet to make an official visit anywhere. Hart also claims to have spoken extensively with Cal's coach Jeff Tedford, another of his handful of claims in dispute.

Looks like either the kid's got an active imagination or someone took him for a ride.

The Nevada Interscholastic Athletics Association is looking into the matter as well, and executive director Eddie Bonine told the Gazette-Journal, "It could be that someone was impersonating those schools."

Unfortunately things remain unclear because law enforcement isn't talking, the NCAA prohibits schools from speaking about recruits and his coach can only elaborate so much on what happened.

[danefan]

Weird story.

Could really suck for this kid if he did get taken for a ride.

[schmofstra]

If someone is impersonating college athletics officials and having discussions with kids, that's HUUUUUUUGGGGEEEE.xeekx

You have to wonder how many other students have been contacted. And you have to wonder if someone at some real football program is trying to divert kids away from another rival program.

If the kid staged the whole thing, that's sad.

[ButlerGSU]

If someone is impersonating college athletics officials and having discussions with kids, that's HUUUUUUUGGGGEEEE.xeekx

You have to wonder how many other students have been contacted. And you have to wonder if someone at some real football program is trying to divert kids away from another rival program.

If the kid staged the whole thing, that's sad.

No kidding, the whole thing looks elaborate - especially if he simply made it up.

http://cmsimg.rgj.com/apps/pbcsi.dll/bilde?Dato=20080203&Kategori=SPORTS&Lopenr=80203018&Ref=AR&MaxW=800&MaxH=600&Site=J7&Q=100&Border=0&Title=0

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“Coach Tedford and I talked a lot, and the fact that the head coach did most of the recruiting of me kind of gave me that real personal experience,” Hart said in meeting with the media that attended the announcement ceremony.

[Coach] Hodges, Fernley athletic director Jay Salter and other district administrators were in meetings most of Saturday “peeling back the layers of the onion,” Hodges said.

“We have a young student-athlete and a program to protect,” Assistant Superintendent Teri White told Rivals. “Our investigation has just begun. There’s certainly no evidence that any school knew anything about this.”

If there is an offer out there, Hart would be the first Fernley athlete to receive a full scholarship to a Division I school directly out of high school.omigosh

[Cocky]

At least he is big enough to play.

[813Jag]

This is a wild story. xeekx

[schmofstra]

My god, it looks like the kid may have IMAGINED the whole thing. There's going to be some kind of announcement to the press in a couple of hours. That's really sad. You'd think the high school coach would have wondered why he didn't receive any phone calls from any of these college coaches, but let's see what gets announced today ...

[AZGrizFan]

The Griz'll take him! xlolx xlolx xlolx

[schmofstra]

Here's the school district's statement. It clears up nothing.

It hints at a couple of things. For one, "serious allegations." No one has made any serious allegations that have been specified publicly. Absent any explanation from officials, it's all just fans' theories.

The statement hints, however, that the school district possibly may not be able to comment in the future. That could mean we're talking mental health of a student. I would think any misconduct/negligence by a coach here isn't just a personnel matter, and they'd be able to comment publicly because it would come before the school board. An AGSer in Nevada may know that state's law better than I.

Anyway, the statement:

"The Lyon County School District has been in the process of conducting an internal investigation concerning the alleged recruiting of Kevin Hart, a senior at Fernley High School, by various Division 1 Football Programs. Although only in a preliminary stage, the District’s investigation to date has been unable to verify that Kevin Hart was ever offered an athletic scholarship or letter of intent to play football by the University of California, University of Oregon, University of Nevada, Washington University or Oklahoma State University.

The District understands the importance of the National Letter of Intent signing date, February 6, 2008, to these fine institutions and their football programs and issues this statement in order to clear up any concerns prospective recruits to those universities might have as a result of the events that have unfolded at Fernley High School since last Friday, February 1, 2008.

The District will continue its investigation into these serious allegations and will provide additional details, to the extent it is permitted to do so by law, in the future.

Lyon County School District
Nat Lommori, Superintendent
Teri White, Assistant Superintendent"

[danefan]

Somebody got some splainin' to do!
http://www.greatexpectations07.com/files/image/cu1satullo22a.JPG

[schmofstra]

Look at this story I found from BEFORE all this shiite hit the fan:

http://news.rgj.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080123/FERNLEY05/801230351/1307/FERNLEY

Apparently his fellow students are going around chattering on the Internet that the kid's a victim of somebody who's been impersonating these college coaches. But if he's saying he visited all these campuses, and he never did, then he's not the victim. Apparently some of the reporters are being told privately that officials think he didn't intentionally pull a hoax either. Instead, the theory is he has had delusions of grandeur and believes he's had conversations with these coaches and basically is DREAMING the whole thing up (including the campus visits!) and believed it was real.

Because the coach has never had a Division I athlete before, the coach didn't know the routine and never became suspicious.

If that's true, that's tremendously sad. Probably all of us knows someone who has suffered a bout with mental illness -- but how many of these people have their trouble play out in front of an entire school assembly, community, and eventually a nation of sports fans who are on the edge of their seats wondering how this happened.

Let's hope his classmates know something the press doesn't know. Let's hope there is some idiot out there who played a dirty trick on the kid and will be punished severely. Then the kid will get tons of sympathy from everyone -- and may even score a football scholarship because he'll get a second look from some people who want to help him.

I'm pulling for the kid. Let's hope he didn't do it on purpose.

[Dane96]

Look at this story I found from BEFORE all this shiite hit the fan:

http://news.rgj.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080123/FERNLEY05/801230351/1307/FERNLEY

Apparently his fellow students are going around chattering on the Internet that the kid's a victim of somebody who's been impersonating these college coaches. But if he's saying he visited all these campuses, and he never did, then he's not the victim. Apparently some of the reporters are being told privately that officials think he didn't intentionally pull a hoax either. Instead, the theory is he has had delusions of grandeur and believes he's had conversations with these coaches and basically is DREAMING the whole thing up (including the campus visits!) and believed it was real.

Because the coach has never had a Division I athlete before, the coach didn't know the routine and never became suspicious.

If that's true, that's tremendously sad. Probably all of us knows someone who has suffered a bout with mental illness -- but how many of these people have their trouble play out in front of an entire school assembly, community, and eventually a nation of sports fans who are on the edge of their seats wondering how this happened.

Let's hope his classmates know something the press doesn't know. Let's hope there is some idiot out there who played a dirty trick on the kid and will be punished severely. Then the kid will get tons of sympathy from everyone -- and may even score a football scholarship because he'll get a second look from some people who want to help him.

I'm pulling for the kid. Let's hope he didn't do it on purpose.

The coach has had three DI players...so I am not buying that part. Plus, he coached at a JUCO where DI players were recruited.

[schmofstra]

Well, the plot thickens. Here's a story about this coach getting hired in 2005:

http://www.rgj.com/news/printstory.php?id=97489

Although he did coach at small-college level, looks like this was his first head coaching job, so you wonder how much experience he would have had interfacing with Division I recruiters.

At this high school in '05, he replaced a coach by the name of Hart (same surname as the kid we're talking about here). Coach Hart was fired as coach and then appealed his firing, and then resigned. Hmm, sounds like that might have been pretty nasty.

You don't think ... no! .... No way! Right?

[schmofstra]

OK now it's becoming clearer as to why the school district and the police aren't just coming right out and saying the kid made up the whole thing. Apparently the story the kid is telling them is so elaborately crazy that they're having to check out a lot of data to see if ANY of the details is even close to being true. It's a police matter because the kid is saying a "recruiter" at a football camp gave him money. Nobody thinks this alleged recruiter exists, but of course it's prudent to try to check it out to the bitter end. That's why nobody is putting a stop to this story, even after three or four days of all of this speculation. I'm sure the school district and the cops would like to just hold one press conference and give out the basic fact that it's a made-up tale, to get the press and everybody off their back, but they can't because they still need to try to turn over every stone to find any evidence of this recruiter, etc. What a mess.

The best outcome for the kid's credibility is they do find SOME contact from SOMEBODY who has ANYTHING to do with a college football program and the grandiose kid misunderstood it and started getting ready for letter-of-intent day. Sighhhhh......

[Appstate29]

this makes me laugh a little, sorry, the kid has balls though, he will make a good politician one day. If your first lie doesn't work, come up with a second bigger lie. Nice.

[Dane96]

This is why you don't jump to conclusions-- especially about a kid's mental state.

The fact that the police are still investigating leads me to presume that they have evidence of a money withdrawal in a large sum that can be shown on bank records. Probably NOT a check because it was a con. Also, I would almost guarantee that there are some phone records...and the phone is a disposable type.

If not...this would be case closed already:

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncaa/recruiting/football/news/story?id=3233483

[spelunker64]

Maybe he meant Cal-Poly???


:D

[danefan]

So they are saying there is potentially someone out there who cooked up this elaborate scheme, which includes having people make "fake" phone calls acting as head football coaches?

[BlueHen86]

This story is incredibly strange.

xdizzyx

[Dane96]

So they are saying there is potentially someone out there who cooked up this elaborate scheme, which includes having people make "fake" phone calls acting as head football coaches?

Crazy if true- hey...many ways to make a buck as a con artist. What better than a podunk town with a big kid who can be urged into signing so with the con so he can get him looks because "kid...you are in the boonies and you arent a skill position player...you need someone to getcha out there...get your name known."

Then yeah...have someone else in the con act as TEDFORD.

Not shocking...but scary.

[schmofstra]

Realize this. They're not doing the thing you would normally expect if they really suspected that a con artist did this, which would be asking the public PRONTO if anybody else was approached by this character and issuing warnings. It has been five days since this broke, and they still haven't done that.

They have no description. Nobody from the football camp remembers anyone like this guy. Apparently, too, there aren't any phone records to support the story. There aren't any campus visits the kid has mentioned. The coach never mentioned speaking with anyone on the phone or getting anything in the mail.

Best case scenario for the kid here is that the family truly paid money to this middle-man, and the authorities didn't get prompt cooperation from the family at first, because they were afraid they had also broken the rules. Now, after a few days, the family is finally sharing and there is indeed some evidence.

Again, I'm holding out hope that there is a bad guy out there who gets caught and then becomes the schmuck, and the kid is a victim and gets sympathy and maybe even a scholarship offer.

Sadly, it's not adding up to that.

[Dane96]

Ummmm...I have been involved in a ton of fraud investigations-- You dont publicly ask people to step up pn day 5. Furthermore, a smart con-artist doesnt go to the coach. That being said, this coach was not the smartest tack in the box; He had issues with the league because of ineligible players being used that he was apparently aware of.

Where do you see that there aren't phone records?

I have seen nothing to indicate that.

In fact, that is precisely what they are most likely doing now-- checking phone records and the like. No way can a parent say-- we spoke to the guy on the phone...or the coaches and it not be true that on this date...we were on the phone this long.

What they can do is research the incoming or outgoing call...and if it is a number not ordinarily used by the family...bingo...you have the number.

Not rocket science but time consuming.

[spelunker64]

SUU needs a big guy, and little guys for that matter...

[813Jag]

This story gets crazier as time goes by. If this kid was tricked then that's horrible. If he was behind all of this (or a part of it) he should be ashamed of himself.

[schmofstra]

They have examined phone and bank records, of course. So far, nothing is panning out. They haven't been able to corroborate anything the kid has said.

If the fuzz eventually announces that, yes, there was a series of calls from an untraceable prepaid cell phone, and, yes, the kid or the family withdrew an usually large wad of cash, then I'm a believer.

[hebmskebm]

http://news.rgj.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080206/PREPSPORTS/802060440/1018

Hart told investigators a middleman contacted him and took his money, telling him he knew the big time coaches and could get him a scholarship. No proof that the middleman actually exists as of now. Hart was rated as a two star recruit on Rivals.

UPDATE: http://news.rgj.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080206/PREPSPORTS/80206037&theme=

Hart now admits he made it all up, sad.

[Appstate29]

thats kind of awesome. Kind of like the movie "accepted" when the kid just makes up a college. Kids got some balls, like I said, and he has a politicians knack for telling a second bigger lie to cover up the first. Ballsy.

[slycat]

i bet he gets ragged on the rest of his senior year. i wonder if the school will punish him. the embarrassment should be enough.

[ButlerGSU]

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncaa/recruiting/football/news/story?id=3234302

The kid made the whole thing up.

[Peems]

He's not that bad of a ball player, wonder if he'll land on a FCS squad.

[schmofstra]

I'm just curious to know what everybody thinks they should do with this kid.

I'm leaning toward a slap on the wrist, with mandatory mental-health evaluation and counseling. Maybe someone could tally up a total cost of staging the assembly and investigating the complaint and send his family a bill.

I hope he doesn't get charged with filing a false police report, but certainly that's a possibility. Technically, I bet he's not the one who originally filed the report -- but he did give false statements. Any law-enforcement officers here who can suggest what usually is done with a wayward kid telling the cops a bunch of bull?

As an earlier person said here, the humiliation is probably punishment enough.

One ironic part of this is he says his dream was to play D-I ball. He's probably good enough to play college ball at some lower level and eventually would have figured out that's where he belongs. I wonder if he enrolls at college, would some coach give him a chance to play at the risk of having an erratic guy in his organization. I actually hope someone does.

[ButlerGSU]

It will be interesting to see what laws he has broken. Essentially, he just pulled a huge prank.

[Seahawks Fan]

Hopefully the kid gets the counselling he needs and moves on with his life.

[schmofstra]

Luckily, his name, Kevin Hart, is relatively common and won't be all that memorable. People may see his name on a football roster or job application in the future and not remember it's the same kid who did this deed.

[danefan]

That really sucks. I was hoping for some other ending to this story.

[BisonBabe]

It saddens me that this young man pulled such a stunt. Did he think that the school would feel sorry for him and let him in with a full ride? What is this world coming to. I hope there are ramifications for his actions and not just a slap on the wrist. We need to start teaching our youth about personal responsibility.

Shame on him for his behavior.

[AZGrizFan]

I'm just curious to know what everybody thinks they should do with this kid.

I'm leaning toward a slap on the wrist, with mandatory mental-health evaluation and counseling. Maybe someone could tally up a total cost of staging the assembly and investigating the complaint and send his family a bill.

I hope he doesn't get charged with filing a false police report, but certainly that's a possibility. Technically, I bet he's not the one who originally filed the report -- but he did give false statements. Any law-enforcement officers here who can suggest what usually is done with a wayward kid telling the cops a bunch of bull?

As an earlier person said here, the humiliation is probably punishment enough.

One ironic part of this is he says his dream was to play D-I ball. He's probably good enough to play college ball at some lower level and eventually would have figured out that's where he belongs. I wonder if he enrolls at college, would some coach give him a chance to play at the risk of having an erratic guy in his organization. I actually hope someone does.

Dude obviously has some serious issues to address. I feel for him and his family and what they will now have to endure in the small town of Fernley, but he brought down the wrath upon himself....he needs to GTFO and go be anonymous somewhere for a while...xsmhx xeyebrowx

[813Jag]

Send him to Southern, after a few sessions on the levee, he'll be OK. Besides an extra lineman can't hurt.

He needs to be held accountable for his actions.

[OLDLCOACH111]

I kind of feel for the kid..... Going into your senior year, recruiting could either be the best or most stressful experience as a football player. Living up to the expectations of your friends, teammates, coaches, and parents, and the community, you almost feel like a failure if you do not succeed and get that one prestigious offer. But on the other-hand, I don't know how you could pull this off, Saying you have a bogus offer is one thing( plenty of kids have tried to do this to get interest from other schools) but committing on a bogus offer in front of the media makes me wonder about his mental state xchinscratchx

[Dane96]

I just want to say that I will eat my crow. I wanted to give the benefit of the doubt to the kid based on the type of investigation...but man oh man...what a disaster.

Shmofstra-- My apologies!

[BisonBabe]

I kind of feel for the kid..... Going into your senior year, recruiting could either be the best or most stressful experience as a football player. Living up to the expectations of your friends, teammates, coaches, and parents, and the community, you almost feel like a failure if you do not succeed and get that one prestigious offer. But on the other-hand, I don't know how you could pull this off, Saying you have a bogus offer is one thing( plenty of kids have tried to do this to get interest from other schools) but committing on a bogus offer in front of the media makes me wonder about his mental state xchinscratchx


This is what bothers me is he will claim he wasn't himself. Way to often when someone does something bad/wrong they can't/won't accept responsibility. It must be someone else's fault or I wasn't myself. Please feel sorry for me.

Guess what I don't feel sorry for him at all. Possibly for his parents and friends but not him.

Maybe I am a bit hard but I am who I am with no appoligies.

[schmofstra]

I just want to say that I will eat my crow. I wanted to give the benefit of the doubt to the kid based on the type of investigation...but man oh man...what a disaster.

Shmofstra-- My apologies!

No apology necessary, my friend!

Sounds like you might have a law-enforcement or investigative background. What do you think will (should) happen to him? Maybe charge him with making false statements to the police but make the punishment not too severe?xreadx

[Dane96]

Well...probably no charges. It wasnt like he caused the police to spend HUGE amounts of dollars in an investigation (e.g.- That crazy bride who went "missing" from Atlanta).

His punishment: HAVING TO LOOK HIS SCHOOLMATES AND CLASSMATES IN THE EYE FOR THE NEXT 4 months.

That has got to be tough.

[813Jag]

This is what bothers me is he will claim he wasn't himself. Way to often when someone does something bad/wrong they can't/won't accept responsibility. It must be someone else's fault or I wasn't myself. Please feel sorry for me.

Guess what I don't feel sorry for him at all. Possibly for his parents and friends but not him.

Maybe I am a bit hard but I am who I am with no appoligies.
I agree! He got caught in a lie, plain and simple. There are thousands of kids who don't ever get to play football after high school, yet you don't see them going on TV commiting to schools that have never recruited them. xnonono2x

[Seahawks Fan]

Well...probably no charges. It wasnt like he caused the police to spend HUGE amounts of dollars in an investigation (e.g.- That crazy bride who went "missing" from Atlanta).

His punishment: HAVING TO LOOK HIS SCHOOLMATES AND CLASSMATES IN THE EYE FOR THE NEXT 4 months.

That has got to be tough.

I agree. He is a young man who got carried away. But he didn't hurt anyone other than himself and his family. Hopefully he learns a valuable lesson from this.

[andy7171]

Well...probably no charges. It wasnt like he caused the police to spend HUGE amounts of dollars in an investigation (e.g.- That crazy bride who went "missing" from Atlanta).

His punishment: HAVING TO LOOK HIS SCHOOLMATES AND CLASSMATES IN THE EYE FOR THE NEXT 4 months.

That has got to be tough.

Perhaps the worst thing he'll have to go through. xwhistlex