By Staff
Coaching Management, 13.10, December 2005, http://www.momentummedia.com/articles/cm/cm1310/bbscholarships.htm
Despite the buzz surrounding the University of South Carolina’s hiring of Head Coach Steve Spurrier, some high school coaches in the state are not enamored with the Gamecocks football program and its new coach. In a nationally publicized and criticized move, Spurrier revoked the scholarships of six players recruited by his predecessor, drawing the ire of a number of the state’s high school coaches.
The South Carolina Football Coaches’ Association Board of Directors blasted Spurrier’s move in a letter signed by 90 coaches and sent to Spurrier and South Carolina Athletic Director Eric Hyman. The complaints centered on the timing of and reasoning for Spurrier’s decision. “We understand athletic scholarships are a year commitment,” the board’s letter stated. “However, we feel that unless an athlete ‘breaks rules’ or embarrasses the institution, to revoke a scholarship because you feel an athlete cannot play at the level needed to compete in the Southeastern Conference is unethical.”
Spurrier defended his actions at the Southeastern Conference preseason football gathering. “We had some walk-on players who were actually contributing more,” Spurrier said. “So some of the high schoolers, they got mad about it. I don’t know what to say, but to me in life you put people on scholarship who deserve it the most and that’s what we tried to do.”
The high school coaches felt that the timing of the decision would make it very difficult for those athletes to transfer and find a scholarship or roster spot at another institution. “If coming out of spring practice you make that decision, that’s one thing,” said Andy Tweito, an Assistant Coach at Daniel High School in Central, S.C., and a member of the board of the South Carolina Football Coaches Association in an interview with The Associated Press. “Now, these kids are stranded, they have nowhere to go. He’s left the kids high and dry.”
The board’s letter mentioned that the coaches might recommend that the South Carolina High School League find an alternate location for its five state championship games, which are played at South Carolina’s Williams-Brice Stadium. However, according to SCHSL Executive Director Jerome Singleton, the SCFCA never made a formal change-of-venue request, and the championship games will be played in Columbia as planned.
But that doesn’t mean the coaches will forget Spurrier’s actions anytime soon. “Our group is sticking together and saying, ‘Look, if this is the way they’re going to treat our kids, then we don’t know that they’ll be welcome when they come recruiting kids in the future,’” says Keith Richardson, Executive Secretary of the South Carolina Athletic Coaches Association. “Hopefully our coaches will be sure that their kids who are recruited by South Carolina are aware that if they don’t perform, they could lose their scholarship.”