Naylor alleges athlete inducements

A Bell City High School boys basketball player was improperly enrolled in the school and lived in the home of the team's former radio broadcaster in violation of Missouri State High School Activities Association rules, Naylor School District officials allege in a formal complaint to the association.

The complaint, filed Feb. 6, also alleges that several Amateur Athletic Union summer basketball teams offered money, food and lodging to the sports announcer, Joe Bowling, and Bell City basketball coach Brian Brandtner in an effort to get the player to play for them.

The student ended up playing for a Memphis, Tenn., team that offered $10,000 to Brandtner to help coach the team, Naylor officials charge. The complaint states the high school basketball player received numerous pairs of top-of-the-line Adidas shoes and that Bowling, Brandtner, the student and the student's high school teammates were provided free tickets to a Memphis Grizzlies NBA game and "all the food the kids could eat."

The complaint also claims that the AAU team paid for hotel suites for Bowling, Brandtner and the player. Other alleged inducements included a round of golf for Bowling and Brandtner at an expensive country club and a free trip to Houston on a chartered bus.

Naylor officials said that MSHSAA's own bylaws, which govern high school sports in Missouri, state that student athletes forfeit amateur status in a sport by accepting money or gifts valued at more than $25. Such students would be ineligible to play high school sports, the complaint states.

In the complaint, Naylor superintendent Stephen Cookson asked MSHSAA to investigate allegations involving the student and other student athletes at Bell City.

Cookson contends that Bell City school officials failed to enforce association rules as required by MSHSAA.

"With so many blatant violations in the last two years, I think an investigation is required," Cookson wrote in his complaint.

Bell City school officials have denied the accusations. Bell City superintendent Rhonda Niemczyk said last week that school officials will do an internal investigation as requested by MSHSAA.

Brandtner said the allegations are "laughable."

"It is just a frivolous case," he said. "Everybody knows I am not cheating."

The allegations leveled by Naylor school officials are based largely on a lengthy letter sent to MSHSAA last spring by Bowling. In the letter, Bowling describes his efforts over a two-year period to help the student escape from a life of poverty in Charleston, Mo., and go to school.

Cookson contends those efforts violated MSHSAA rules.

Bowling wrote that the student's family agreed to let their son move in with him. "To this day, I still remember the feeling when I saw that all he owned fit into a single pillow case," Bowling wrote.

Naylor charges that Bowling, in enrolling the student in the Bell City School District, violated MSHSAA rules that prohibit "undue influence by any person or group connected directly or indirectly with a member school" in connection with student enrollment or transfer to another school.

The rules state that violations will result in students losing their eligibility to play sports, Cookson said.

Bowling's befriending of the student also amounted to "the offer or acceptance of money, room, board, clothing or other valuable considerations to a student or a student's parent or guardian" in violation of MSHSAA rules, according to Naylor's complaint.

The fact that Bowling had no legal guardianship of the student means that the student had no educational rights at Bell City and should have been listed as a nonresident tuition-paying student, the written complaint alleges.

Instead, Cookson said, the student was enrolled as a resident student in violation of MSHSAA rules.

Brandtner wouldn't respond to the specific allegations, but he said the student in question "has done nothing wrong."

According to the written complaint, the high school player in the summer of 2006 moved out of Bowling's house and into the home of another Bell City family.

"Since that time, Mr. Bowling has lost everything he had in Bell City including his house, his truck and his business," Cookson wrote in his complaint to MSHSAA. Bowling no longer broadcasts Bell City ball games.

Bowling couldn't be reached for comment. A reporter's repeated calls to Bowling's cell phone weren't answered. Cookson said he believes Bowling now lives in the Charleston area.

The complaint also alleges:

• That at least five student athletes on the high school roster were living outside the Bell City School District and didn't pay tuition to attend high school. One of those students has graduated, one has transferred to another school. The other three still attend Bell City High School, according to the complaint.
• Bell City has a transfer student on its basketball team who participated in a summer basketball league with Bell City players prior to enrolling at Bell City High School. The complaint alleges that the school district has filled out a hardship application, but that the student doesn't live at that address.
• Bell City currently has on its roster a student who transferred from Scott City High School in December after playing for the Scott City school earlier in the month. The student practiced with the Bell City basketball team before enrolling at that high school before Christmas. Naylor officials said Bell City coaches may have violated MSHSAA rules by letting the student practice with the Bell City team. MSHSAA should look at whether that move was as an illegal effort under association bylaws to persuade a student to attend a particular school, the complaint said.
• A member of the Bell City coaching staff isn't a Bell City High School faculty member. While allowed in certain situations where a school is unable to fill coaching positions, Naylor's complaint asks MSHSAA to investigate whether Bell City school officials obtained the necessary approval for hiring that coach.

Cookson said he filed the complaint because of action taken by the MSHSAA board against Naylor last month.

The board punished the tiny Naylor district near the Arkansas state line for alleged residency violations involving the girls basketball and softball teams. The board ordered Naylor to forfeit all its high school girls basketball and softball games played last year, including its girls basketball district championship. The Naylor girls basketball team also is barred from playing in the post-season district basketball tournament this spring.

Naylor school officials contend MSHSAA severely punished Naylor but ignored rules violations in other school districts, including Bell City.

"It is not so much that we want to see Bell City in trouble. We just want to see that things are done consistently and by the bylaws put in the handbook," Cookson said.

Kerwin Urhahn, executive director of MSHSAA in Columbia, Mo., refused to discuss the alleged violations concerning Bell City. Urhahn said it was important to protect students' privacy.

He said he saw a copy of Bowling's letter prior to taking over as MSHSAA's director last summer. The letter, he said, wasn't a formal complaint.

But he said he did personally look for the residency of one Bell City student whose residence was in question. Urhahn said he visited the area in December but couldn't find the home. "I was looking for a mailbox that had the address on it," he said. "I couldn't find it."

Urhahn said he also asked Scott County Central School District superintendent Joel B. Holland whether that district planned to file a complaint against Bell City. Those two schools already were in the middle of another dispute. Urhahn said Holland told him that the Scott County Central School District wouldn't file a complaint.

mbliss@semissourian.com

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