Riverside doings being looked into?

[lifeishoops]

I know two SPSL coaches who say they have been contacted by the Riverside AD regarding out of season coaching from the Riverside staff. Anyone else hearing anything?

[skiverdu]

Isn't it odd that 2 international players, one from Germany on the German National Basketball Team and one from Slovakia on the Jr. National Volleyball Team both just "fall into the laps" of their respective coaches. In fact the Seattle Times notes that the placement agency called the coach to see if he wanted her (VB) even before finding a host family. And the agency states that the "student" was interested in a school with a good VB program. How is this a cultural or educational exchange?? Sounds like a major recruiting loophole to me.....

[lifeishoops]

I totally agree!

[skiverdu]

I hope there is an in-depth look. Also, the WIAA will only investigate a school if a parent writes a letter to the school as the first step: this also seems like a screwy way to oversee sports.
So if any disgruntled parents from the league that AR plays in have concerns they best be writing to the Principal of AR to begin the process.

[lifeishoops]

Don't count on the principal there, he is so in the back pocket of the bball coach. He has shot two possible violations in the past regarding basketball.

[skiverdu]

If Ireti came to the US to be seen for colleges, has anyone heard if she's signed?? and she is still listed on the AR roster for this season...I thought WIAA only allows one season as an exchange student? Maybe she is really back in Germany?

[runrun]

Is a junior in germany!

Not sure if this is a subject for this message board, What would other spsl coaches have anything to do with amojo playing for AR for 1 season?

[skiverdu]

Well, if Amojo is playing for more than one season, then the league coaches have a gripe, it is clearly a violation of WIAA rules, she is an awesome player but should only play for a team fair and square as an exchange student, namely one season.

If she is playing in Germany, then best wishes...still why didn't she sign with anyone, she is a dominant player eligible for 2008 class I would think?

I think the initial post was not regarding Amojo at all, it was about coaching players during off season by the AR coach. I just read it and wondered about her since past hoopgurlz articles stated she was playing here to be seen by US colleges and with recent signing period I wondered if she signed!

[runrun]

Amojo is a 2009 player in germany and a 2008 player in the US.

She is in Germany and not at AR....So I think we can let that rest.

The problem is why would the AR Ad call other coaches about AR coaching staff
doing anything? Maybe returning the coaches calls, I have never heard of a school ad calling other coaches about a wrong doing ??? How does that make any sense?

[Narrowsminded]

Why is it that when people break the rules, those who blow the whistle are "haters" or "are just jealous"? There is a lot of smoke around the Riverside program with most of the roster coming from outside the school boundries, if someone has proof then they need to step forward. If the allegations are false then you can call people jealous. Besides, Riverside has been good for about a minute so let's not pull out the envy card just yet.

[skiverdu]

Very well said, I agree that anyone who has proof of indiscretions really does need to step up otherwise the rumor mill goes berserk! Jealousy is ugly and vicious, but foul play is worse and the way the WIAA works (school must self-report before any investigation begins) really offers no incentive for any program to be forthright barring the integrity of the individuals concerned. We all know that some programs have questionable ethics.

I hope any issues around the AR program are resolved before season ends.

[runrun]

Very well said, I agree that anyone who has proof of indiscretions really does need to step up otherwise the rumor mill goes berserk! Jealousy is ugly and vicious, but foul play is worse and the way the WIAA works (school must self-report before any investigation begins) really offers no incentive for any program to be forthright barring the integrity of the individuals concerned. We all know that some programs have questionable ethics.)


____________

Did you really say that? So you have no proof just rumors, that are usually wrong...

There is no rule against families moving, Zero.....None....

[riversidedirector]

It isn't anywhere near the sensational level that some people insist on trying to take it to to contribute to the next CS-type scandal exposure but I am aware of a majority of the goings-on surrounding the Riverside program as I am right there in the middle of almost everything on a daily basis.

The issues that are being brought up have been or are being looked into so no one at the school or in the district is trying to bury their head in the sand and just let things go on contrary to the rules. They are following up on the concerns that are being brought before them.

Nothing notable will come out of these accusations and investigations because things are in order within the Riverside program. The "smoke" that some people see around the program is a result of the little fires that some from outside of the program are trying to start.

Out of season coaching by the coaching staff - Not happening at Riverside. I oversee all offseason open gyms and games that the girls participate in as Riverside players and I am not on the HS coaching staff.

Parallels being drawn between the bball and vball programs as far as the process of including exchange students in the program - Someone is really reaching on this "issue". One has nothing to do with the other as far as Ireti Amojo coming to play with the bball team last year.

"...most of the roster coming from outside the school boundaries..." - First of all, what constitutes "most" of the roster? Again, this issue has been looked into and verified to be accurate and according to the rules. There is more to this process than where you heard someone lives or where a family may have lived before they moved within the Riverside boundary.

We dealt with this last year when several people thought they knew that something was going on at Riverside. Issues and accusations were followed up on and nothing was found to be inappropriate and that will prove to be true again this year.

[skiverdu]

Well, if all is in order then you have nothing to worry about.
Still, don't you find it interesting that the exchange students both wound up at AR considering how many other HS's with good programs are out there, just an odd coincidence I guess.....

[runrun]

LIke i said a witch hunt!

Just because AR has a great outsider that devotes all his time, Doesnt make it against the rules.

Honestly if you really are interested in wrong doings try going after the Bethel and Curtis
Mens programs, For all their illegal players over the last 30 years. For awhile there you would think Kitsap County was in the Curtis School District. Spanaway Lake was pretty much Bethels JV team, When you were good enough you got to move over to the varsity at Bethel.

Where was all the WIAA during those periords?

[Narrowsminded]

there is usually fire, yet this started because everyone is accusing people of being jealous of Riverside when they question the smoke. Even the Riverside director acknowledges the smoke. The high school system in Washington is in need of an overhaul or it is going to turn into glorified AAU (or even worse Oregon). Sure their are loopholes and ways around the system and other teams have exploited that; does that mean we shouldn't question the influx of talent to Riverside? Moving into the district is one thing, but using someone else's address or claiming hardship to enroll in a program that you are never actually enrolled is quite another.

The fact that you need to self report before an investigation makes it a flawed system. That is what should be addressed.

[runrun]

Honestly if you are so interested in fixing the WIAA why don't you start with football or boys basketball. There are 10 times as many players moving and transfering in those sports.

No this whole post started because Lifehoops posted something about AR ad contacting other coaches.

I am not sure I would use Oregon as an example when the biggest example is Sealth. Oregon city never did the things Sealth did and Southridge is mostly home grown kids.

Why not use Lewis and Clark or Praire as an example, talk about kids moving in!!

[Narrowsminded]

Oregon has open enrollment throught the state, that is why Oregon City has dominated for so long (if I recall the Riverside coach claimed he was going to turn Riverside into the Oregon City of Washington when he was hired) it is not cheating down there.

Why do you keep bringing up other sports? Does that make it right? And for me the post started when you accused everyone of being jealous when answering these allegations. "Me thinks thou dost protest to much."

[runrun]

Oregon does not have open enrollment!!

Oregon Rules are the same as Washington, It is up to the District to either allow or not allow and out of
district student to attend their HS. It rarely happens because the funds for the student go to the original school.

Every coach in Washington would be happy to get any good player moving in. Ask them?

The rules are saying that you are allowed to play sports if you live out of the school district, every large HS in Washington has
at least 1 student living out of the district

[Narrowsminded]

"A student is eligible to participate at a school other than the high school in the high school attendance boundary within which Joint Residence of the student and the student’s parents is located when the student first enters the ninth grade.'

sounds like open enrollment to me. And when Oregon City was dominating in the 80's I am sure most of those kids were raised in homes, but pretty sure most of them were not in Oregon city.

The topic is Riverside so L/C and Prairie breaking the rules does not excuse Riverside from doing it. Most coaches probably would welcome a great player moving in, the difference is that most coaches don't encourage the move prior to it happening.

[skiverdu]

I agree that bringing up other sports' programs to validate AR's alleged inappropriate tactics is ridiculous. Two wrongs do not make a right duh! And the international pipeline is a questionable recruiting (yes, I did say recruiting) method that really deserves some investigation and oversight. Self-reporting is a joke and I wish the WIAA would get some b---s and make some rules with teeth.

[dtrain34]

Where this question becomes muddled is in the thin line between out and out recruiting and the natural tendency of the pushier sports mom or dad to angle their kid into the best possible program. Does a kid jump boundaries because they were asked to by the coaching staff or because their parents compare the success of their neighborhood school with that of the "big-time" program and send their kid there unbidden? This is why De La Salle (Concord, CA) won those 152 football games in a row before Bellevue stopped its streak in 2004. They are a Catholic school, so anyone can come, but CIF rules bar any school, private or public, from recruiting. Still, for example, right now two of their quarterbacks are Joe Montana's sons. A few years back, the Montanas were living in Woodside, fifty miles through Bay Area traffic from DLS. But the family wanted De La Salle, had the dough and the flexibilty to move or pick up a second home and voila....

What of the students who live within the boundaries of the big-time school and choose to go elsewhere because they know they will get more playing time earlier in their high school years than they would at the championship school?

Also, who is defined as a recruiter? In the NCAA, you have that catch-all "representative of the university's athletic interests," which makes the school responsible for every person who speaks on its behalf, whether the athletic department knew about it or not. One very successful high school I am aware of -- not ARHS by the way -- does a lot of encouraging of kids outside its boundaries through parents of current players... "So, ha ha ha, you're going to come to Not Your Assigned High School, right Janey?" This school has kids from every one of its district's middle schools playing on its AAU feeder team, but I doubt they are technically cheating by WIAA rules.

So, for every Chief Sealth, where blatant actions of the hired coaching staff are documented and proven to be illegal recruitment, there are dozens who make it plain they wouldn't mind having player X or Y who, after all, would supposedly be dumb to waste their high school careers playing for their mediocre neighborhood school. How do you thresh out those cases that straddle the borderline between the two?

[lifeishoops]

Narrowsminded
You seem to know what's been looked into at AR; those are the same things I heard. They still have a player living out of district who never did go thru the WCD eligibility committee. It's too bad the Principal squashes everything there.
You are correct in saying the coach wanted AR to be the OC of Washington.
.

[glenn]

Here's what I'm going to do: The next person who posts allegations against AR without signing their real name and without any backing will get their email posted on this thread. Then you can feel what it's like to get bashed like this.