At 11:18 AM 10/21/99 EDT, Cathy Hart wrote:
>This is the way the NCAA introduces itself to the student athletes.  What is
>frightening is that most high school AD's and coaches do NOT know about the
>special benefits/ admissible contact rules for the NCAA.  This creates a
>potentially damaging environment for our kids, as they are given advice or
>placed in situations fraught with NCAA sanctions.  For example:  my daughter
>as a Bangor High sophomore, track athlete, having trouble last year getting
>her "three-step" for hurdles.  Her track coach told her to go up to the
>University and get some of "those people" to help her, a clear violation.
>Just because I am suspicious by nature and was well trained by Tammy Light, I
>asked Tracey Flynn to give me a ruling.  She declared it definitely NOT
>admissible contact.  Tracey told me that part of her job is to go to the
>schools around the state and give presentations that let the coaches and AD's
>know what is legal and what is not.  She does this gladly but lamented the
>fact she needs to be invited, which naturally means there are many schools
>which don't get this information.  Now Eiranne (my daughter) is not looking
>for track to pay her way through college, so if she had gone ahead and gotten
>some college coach or athlete to help her, it probably never would have
>impacted on anyone's life.  However, think for a minute how damaging it could
>be to the hopes and asperations of some high school star athlete if this kind
>of thing is allowed by their high school, and the college recruiting isn't as
>trained as U Maine???
>
>IMHO, student athletes are pushed into second class status by NCAA rules
>which do not reflect reality in many ways.  Not being able to be on the bench
>with the teams is just one.
 
To make it even more confusing there are exceptions.  For example, if U
Maine conducts a Track Camp and an athlete goes to it, he or she can get
instructions from a college coach, be evaluated as a potential scholarship
candidate and later be offered a scholarship.
 
Bob Svec