Recruitment a rarity in high school

Recruitment of students or attempted recruitment of students for athletic purposes is prohibited, regardless of their residence -- IHSA athletic by-law 3.070 The Illinois High School Association's recruiting by-law has three subsections and 44 illustrations detailing what is -- and what is not -- recruiting. The rule applies to every member high school of the IHSA, public and private.

Both types of high schools are allowed to recruit students at the junior high level, yet there is a perception that private high schools illegally recruit athletes.

"If you're a (private-school) coach at a really successful sport, the first perception is that we recruit," Rosary and Marmion swim coach Bill Schalz said. "You don't hear it about the schools that are struggling in sports. It's always out there."

Since the IHSA began listing eligibility decisions in the announcements section of its web site in 1996, the numbers indicate that while illegal athletic recruiting does occur, the perception dwarfs the reality. Only nine high schools have been disciplined for outright recruiting violations, just two of which were private ( see box 1 ).

The IHSA did not respond to several information and interview requests, so it is unknown if there have been other unpublished recruiting violations.

In terms of drawing students, the main differences between the two high schools are that private schools have the ability to pull from within a 30-mile radius and can offer different forms of financial assistance. According athletic by-law 3.070 however, private and public school administrators can "initiate contact" with a potential student, as long as there is a "understanding that the young person is a prospective student, not a prospective athlete."

School coaches and officials can also distribute information and answer questions, and a coach can talk about his or her specific sport if a family approaches them.

Private schools also have entrance requirements -- something public schools do not have -- though some are stricter than others.

"As a tuition school, we offer academic scholarships," Marmion headmaster John Milroy said. "And these are competitive based academic scholarships that everybody is eligible for. But bottom line, I don't think we do a whole lot different than public schools."

Those differences often lead to whispers that private schools recruit specific athletes or push financial aid packages supposedly open to all students towards athletes.

"This is a political hotbed," said Bob Williams, who coached football at Aurora Central Catholic, Yorkville and West Aurora and is now the principal at Minooka High School. "Sometimes we may formulate our opinions based on what we think, (which) isn't really true. The perception may be different from what the actual fact is." ( see box 3 )

Williams said that while at ACC he never recruited an athlete and while coaching at Yorkville, he never lost a player because of recruitment.

"You hear all sorts of stuff and hearsay is hearsay, you take it at the value you want," he said. "My responsibility would be to follow whatever IHSA guidelines if we felt there was recruiting taking place. You hear stuff all the time, especially when you lose that tough game in the playoffs against certain schools, but hey, they were the better football team that day."

When former Oswego wrestler Joey Benefiel transferred to Montini Catholic after his sophomore year in 2001, the IHSA ruled him ineligible for violating transfer sub-section 3.043, which is a residency sub-section. He had to sit out until Feb. 24, 2002, the day after the wrestling season ended.

The rumor was that he was recruited, in part to create access to his younger brother Mike, who went on to win four state titles with the Broncos. Joey, now a senior at Elmhurst College, steadfastly denies being recruited. He and his father, Dan, said personal problems at Oswego caused him to look for a change of scenery, but he does acknowledge one of the reasons he picked Montini was because of the wrestling program.

Benefiel's ineligibility had nothing to do with transfer sub-section 3.046, which is often thought of by private school administrators as a way to prevent the recruitment of students already in high school. While every other type of transfer (and its rules for eligibility) are spelled out, a student moving from public to private is always "ineligible pending a ruling by the executive director." This was not the case with Benefiel.

Mike Benefiel, now a Northwestern University freshman, also said he was never recruited and never approached by the Montini coaching staff until his family approached them -- which is allowed by IHSA rules for both public and private schools.

Yet Benefiel and his Broncos teammates, which won team wrestling titles in 2004 and 2005, heard the accusations.

"It's not true," Mike Benefiel said. "I kind of think a lot of public schools who weren't as good or who we were beating were trying to make excuses and trying to be like 'Oh, they recruit and that's why they're so good.' They don't realize that we actually work hard and that we give it our all and pour our hearts into the sport."

Schalz experienced first hand the power of perception as well. He was hit with recruiting allegations as soon as he stepped in the door at Marmion after a neighboring public school accused him of coaxing a transfer. The IHSA subsequently cleared him of any wrongdoing.

"It's automatic," he said. "For us, any time a team does well, 'Oh, they must be cheating.' It's not looked at like our coaching staff has put together a good program, we have a school that supports what we're doing and that's why we're successful.

"When you're 2-20, nobody cares. But when you're 20-2, now all of a sudden people are looking at you."

Tim Cederblad, who coached football at Benet Academy in Lisle and at West Aurora, is now a dean at Plainfield South. He said that this perception is driven largely by private schools in football ( see box 2 ).

"You have so far fewer of those power programs in the 'off sports,'" Cederblad said. "Football is the main kicker there."

But not one private school that won a state football championship since 1974 has had it vacated because of recruitment or any other reason. In fact, no private school has had to vacate its title because of recruitment specifically. Hales Franciscan, which lost its 2005 Class A championship in boys basketball, had to vacate it because the school was not recognized by the Illinois State Board of Education since June, 2003, which is a requirement of IHSA membership.

"I think that's the misperception on some of those schools," said Mark Lindo, the current boys basketball coach at Naperville North who led Aurora Central Catholic to a Class A state baseball title in 1983. "They're a drawing card for superior athletes in those disciplines. People are looking for something that probably, most of the time, isn't there. But people are looking for that. For a lack of a better word, I think there is a jealousy issue."

It is legal for families to shop for a high school, and they can visit with school administrators and make first contacts with coaches. If a public school has shown dominance in a sport, it is not uncommon for a family to move or keep a second residence within the district.

"Parents relocate," Schalz said. "If you have a good athlete in a particular sport you're going to relocate."

Schalz recalled a time in the early 1990's when St. Charles High School had families with young swimmers move into the district to be a part of a girls team that won six straight state titles from 1994-1999. The Naperville Central girls basketball teams that won state titles in 2003 and 2004 also had several highly publicized transfers in.

Families can shop for private schools and its programs as well, but they would not need to move within a district.

It's a situation where coaches feel if the public school in the area can offer the same educational, social and athletic atmosphere as a private school, families would not send their children elsewhere.

"It becomes a simple question, 'Why would someone want to leave your program to go somewhere else?,'" Williams said. "Obviously they're lacking something."

Familial preferences are often dismissed when it comes to why a student attends a private school. Sometimes that child attended a private grade school. Other times a greater academic challenge is sought out, or smaller class sizes or a perceived safer environment.

"Many of our families want the Christian environment, want the Catholic environment and we provide that," Marmion director of guidance and head football coach Dan Thorpe said. "Are they coming for athletics? No. That's part of the puzzle, but they're coming to Marmion because they want a great college prep education where they can participate in two to three sports and then they know their child is going to be very organized and disciplined to take on the pressures of the college environment."

In 2005 Milroy submitted a proposal to the IHSA in response to the multiplier, which often bumps private schools into larger classes of competition during the postseason. Milroy's proposal stated that the multiplier "will not address the real or perceived concern of illegal or inappropriate recruiting of student-athletes."

He proposed a separate office within the IHSA that deals only with recruiting, like the compliance officers found at every level of the NCAA. Currently, superintendents, principals and coaches are responsible for making sure recruiting is discovered and reported.

"Which principal?," Cederblad said with a laugh. "What principal, or any administrator, has got time to do that?"

Most coaches contacted for this story agree that some forms of recruiting does take place, but many times that recruiting occurs along the edges of the IHSA by-laws.

For instance, it is acceptable for members of any high school to address an entire eighth grade class and talk about their school, but it is against the rules to pull aside the team's star point guard and talk basketball. Yet a situation like that occurs in a setting where people are working together with a common interest. Who would report such a meeting?

"That goes back to the school districts (and) administration of that district and how they want to have their own self-institutional control," Lindo said. "I don't think that is the IHSA's job to be the 'bad guy.'"

So when illegal athletic recruiting or undue influence does occur, it oftentimes does not come with a paper trail, leading to questions as to how it really can be controlled or even if it happens at all.

But because of the multiplier and the transfer by-law ( see box 4 ), some feel the IHSA is endorsing the perception of recruiting.

"The perception on the part of the average person, because of what the IHSA has done, is we're recruiting athletes or going around trying to do measurements of students and that's just not the reality," Milroy said. "That's not reality. It may occur, and I'm not saying it doesn't occur because I'm not that naive, but the multiplier, which people thought was going to level the playing field doesn't address the issue of recruitment for athletics, or scholarship money for athletics, or whatever."

Most agree, however, that there is no happy medium and no way to make any school believe their counterparts aren't recruiting illegally. Some have issues with the fact that private schools can draw from a bigger pool of families, others don't. Some believe the transfer rules are equitable, others do not.

One thing all agree on though, and that is self-policing.

"If you take high school athletics and what it's supposed to be, it's supposed to be an extension of the classroom, it's supposed to be a learning experience, it's supposed to be a participation experience," Lindo said. "If you're that concerned about wins and losses that you are basically putting your reputation, your character and your value system on the line for a 12 or 13 year old that may or may not ever help you get to the promised land, I think that's a really poor choice."

jowczarski@scn1.com