New York Times: Questions Abound About the Recruit Who Wasn't Recruited

By MICHAEL BRICK

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Before an assembly of his high school classmates last week, with all the fervor and high dudgeon only a pep rally can conjure, a football player from Nevada announced his commitment to play for the University of California. Then the university announced it had made no such offer.  Now the player, his coach, the schools and a shadowy recruiting figure are the focus of investigations concerning two main questions: Who duped whom? And how did it get this far?  “I’ve heard of kids committing to schools that didn’t have an offer, but never in my life calling a press conference” said Jamie Newberg, national editor of the Web site Scout.com.

Students, high school officials and reporters from local television stations and newspapers were convinced of the authenticity of the scholarship offer.   The player, Kevin Hart, is a 6-foot-4, 305-pound senior lineman for Fernley High School, about 30 miles east of Reno. His name had appeared in online and print recruiting news accounts about being a potential recruit. On Friday, he appeared in the school gym to make his announcement in dramatic fashion.  Sitting behind a selection of caps representing his choices, Hart took the one with the Golden Bears logo, according to a report in The Reno Gazette-Journal. He told his assembled classmates, “They really sold me.”  Then his football coach, Mark Hodges, proclaimed the announcement “a great day for Fernley High School.”  Over the weekend, officials from the University of California announced that they had not offered Hart a scholarship. Officials from the University of Oregon and other universities named as the losers in the competition to sign Hart denied making efforts to recruit him.

Hodges did not return a telephone call and an e-mail message seeking comment. Reached by telephone, Hart declined to discuss the case.  On Saturday, Hart gave a lengthy statement to the Lyon County Sheriff’s Office, said Lt. Mike Lange. “The kid says he met some guy who was supposedly recruiting him for a college,” Lange said. “There was some money exchanged. And then it turns out to all be a con.”  Hart told investigators he had met the so-called recruiter at a football camp and agreed to accept a loan of hundreds of dollars. But no witnesses had seen the recruiter, and Hart had destroyed his contact information, Lange said.  “We have no way of figuring out who this is, who it is, and does he even exist,” Lange said. The Lyon County School District is pursuing a separate investigation, said an assistant superintendent, Teresa White.

In a statement, she said the district “has been unable to verify that Kevin Hart was ever offered an athletic scholarship or letter of intent to play football by the University of California, University of Oregon, University of Nevada, Washington University or Oklahoma State University.”  An N.C.A.A. spokeswoman, Stacy Osburn, said a separate investigation may examine whether the universities or Hart had violated recruiting rules.

The deadline for high school players to sign national letters of intent committing to college programs expires Wednesday.