Check-in with Jerry

Spoke with Jerry about my meeting with Pete and some of the additional information I had been researching after. Discussing his time at the Ohio High School Association, he noted that the association has always had a difficult time controlling recruiting. He cited the example of the Welsh Jesuit Women’s soccer team. The team not only won four straight state titles, they had never lost even a regular season game during that time. Three years ago, the headmaster discovered that soccer coach had been paying the athletes tuition using outside resources. The school had to forfeit the championships. I noted the situation of the Pennsylvania basketball coach who used twitter to direct message parents of an athlete at a competing school. While the state association found her communication violated recruiting restrictions, a court stepped-in and concluded that simply following the coach amounted to the expressing interest in the school. Therefore, even associations that are proactive can have their hands tied by the courts when trying to prevent cheating in recruiting.  This could potentially be exacerbated by the introduction of NIL payments.  Interested parties that are not associated with a school and/or their booster organization, could potentially find a similarly minute loophole and attempt to use NIL agreements to gain a recruiting advantage over competing schools.