Guilty by Association
It is Fall in southeast Connecticut and perched atop the mystique of Gardner Lake a swift breeze rustles the yellow and red autumn leaves. Nestled within the deep, thick woods of Montville, 30 minutes on back roads far, far away from anything such names as Quincy Douby, Ed Cota, Charles Minlend, and Ajou Deng have come to enhance their skills both on the court and off.
Jere Quinn, the head basketball coach at Saint Thomas More Prep, usually awakes in his cottage overlooking Gardner Lake, walks 40 yards to his office tucked inside the much-heralded gymnasium where his teams destroy opponents at will on a daily basis.
From grades 8-12 plus a post-grad program, St. Thomas More of the New England Preparatory School Athletic Conference (NEPSAC) has sent about 200 players to high-end Division I institutions. Alumni include former Pittsburgh star Carl Krauser and Douby, who was drafted 19th last month by the NBA’s Sacramento Kings after three strong years at Rutgers.
Here is a man who rejected two large Nike and Adidas sneaker contracts and who will not hesitate to deny a roster spot to the nation’s best high school player. This is a man who will roughly see 75 percent of his players graduate through Division I, II, and III programs on scholarship. His motto: Student first, athlete second.
So in light of that, some might have been surprised to see St. Thomas More Prep mentioned by the NCAA in the diploma mill investigation.
The NCAA is cracking down on high schools and prep schools admitting kids with prior negligent schooling and then graduating them with bogus credentials to get them into college. A list of schools has been compiled as part of the initial stages of the investigation. St. Thomas More is on the list of schools subject to further review from the NCAA.
“I’ve dedicated my life to helping kids grow,” said a dejected Quinn. “I’m stunned. What I do isn’t just about basketball. If I wanted college or the NBA I would’ve been there long ago.
“If we were going to give gifts, why are all of my kids Proposition 48 kids? If a kid came here and the crease in the dam was too wide we’re going to tell him. I’m not associated with any sneaker company. I’ve never left campus to scout, never left campus to recruit.”
This is the story of the kid in grade school who acted up one morning and had afternoon recess cancelled for everybody else.
The NCAA must investigate everyone, but they will now have to find a way to do so without negatively affecting the image and reputations of other schools. It has and will do damage and unsettle the stomachs of a lot of people. In addition to St. Thomas More, two other NEPSAC schools, Notre Dame Prep (MA) and Bridgton Academy (ME) are on the list. Oak Hill Academy (VA), considered by many to be a very credible academic and basketball landmark and one that does not take post-graduate students, was originally on the list until recently being removed.
Vulnerability
The objective of a prep school is to revive a kid with a checkered past and offer him a second chance. Take lemons and make lemonade. In some cases, though, it is risky business, and as is the situation with every prep school when there is fire occasionally you are going to get burned.
Schea Cotton is one case in point. The top prospect at one point in time from California, Cotton attended two high schools, one prep school, one junior college, accepted four scholarships (UCLA, NC State, Long Beach Sate, Alabama) before finishing at Alabama. He left Tuscaloosa two years early to declare for the 2000 NBA draft, only to go undrafted.
In 9th grade Cotton dunked over 6’10” UCLA product Jelani McCoy. As a high school sophomore, Cotton scored 33 points against Stephon Marbury and the Lincoln Railsplitters. He scored 22 versus Ron Mercer and Oak Hill that same season. Cotton had all the talent in the world, but learned the hard way that there are no short cuts in life.
In 1997 while at St. Thomas More, Cotton’s SAT scores were consistently insufficient but he tried on his own to accept a scholarship anyway to play for NC State. The NCAA ruled him ineligible.
Six countries later and stops in the ABA, CBA, NBDL, Cotton’s career has not amounted to much. Cotton was on the Washington Wizards roster for the NBA summer league team this month in Las Vegas, but did not play.
A more recent story is the one of Rob Thomas. Thomas began at St. Thomas More, but was not invited back partially due to similar academic problems to those Cotton had. At 6’6″, Thomas was Quinn’s trophy player and getting looks from every top-notch college program in the country. As a sophomore the Brooklyn native averaged 19.7 points, 7.4 rebounds in just 21.7 minutes per game. After leaving St. Thomas More, he enrolled at South Kent Prep (CT) and managed to turn his outlook around by graduating. Thomas is now attending St. John’s.
Every kid is different. Julian Sensley did not have the grades and Quinn, knowing it would be impossible to get Sensley into college, had to graduate Sensley as a Prop 48, meaning he’d be eligible to play for a junior college, which would be a necessary step to get him into Division I. Sensley wanted to bypass all that.
Then like a freight train plowing down the train tracks, Sensley proceeded to either attend, commit to or sign with California (committed as a junior), Iona, Southern Nevada, L.A. City College, San Francisco, Fresno St., and Hawaii.
Sensley just graduated from Hawaii, where he is originally from, after leading the Rainbow Warriors in scoring last season. He played for the Golden State Warriors in Las Vegas earlier this month.
Middle man
All too often a high school prospect can be misdirected. Reebok ABCD 2006 took place in Teaneck, New Jersey three weeks ago. Every year the campers are given a pamphlet. One of the many topics discussed in this pamphlet are suggestions for the campers on how to be careful with whom you choose to listen to or hang around with.
The influence of a third party is all too common and typically there is less concern for the kid’s well being than there is for personal gain or some sort of self gratification. Whether or not these “advisers” are from some of the high schools on the NCAA’s list or are an independent party remains to be seen. They need to be weeded out though. The question is, how? Quinn seems to be one of the good guys.
“Eddie (Cota) didn’t come from much. He wanted to go to Manhattan College,” said Quinn. “He kept saying to me he wasn’t good enough and I kept telling him fine, but what is your dream school Eddie? ‘I’ve always dreamed of playing at North Carolina Coach.’ For the first time ever I picked up the phone, called Dean Smith and told him about this kid I had and he came up and watched a few games and the rest is history.” After graduating from St. Thomas More and passing his SAT’s, Cota reached the Final Four three of his four years as a Tar Heel and went on to make a six-figure salary playing professionally overseas.
Moving Forward
For eight months out of the year, the St. Thomas More Chancellor’s will draw as many as 25 scouts per game during the season and pack a less-than 300 capacity gym with way more than 300 spectators at the highly visible school. Quinn, following in the footsteps of former Stony Brook head coach Nick Macarchuk, will enter his 29th season as head coach of the boy’s post-graduate team. There are varsity, junior varsity and freshman teams coached by other faculty members and these new allegations being made against St. Thomas More have taken a toll on everyone. Quinn’s phone will continue to ring though. Mike Krzyzewski, Paul Hewitt, Jim Calhoun, Tom Pecora and Tim Welsh will call in hopes of the next big thing to carry them through their next big moment.
If you have an impeccable record then as it goes, you have nothing to be worried about. In this investigation everyone will have to give a little in order to secure a proper looking into of these “store front” schools. But giving a little could mean hurting the image-conscious reputations of schools such as St. Thomas Prep.
So there is a slight dilemma right now at the hands and feet of the NCAA.
In a July 5th press release, the NCAA stated prudently that schools will be picked “based on irregularities in academic records, the nontraditional nature of their course content or their recent request for approval from the NCAA Initial-Eligibility Clearinghouse.” As of July 10, neither Quinn nor the headmaster of Saint Thomas More had been contacted by the NCAA.
The NCAA must look into every program and it must be done to ensure fairness. This is a careful process in which schools already cleared for Division I initial-eligibility will take offense to if their names are brought up publicly. Kevin Lennon is the vice-president for NCAA membership services. “The vast majority of high schools in the country, public and private, do a fine job of educating their students,” said Lennon in a statement. “The review of high schools in the initial eligibility process is an on-going effort.”
