Legal issues are a big challenge in recruiting

When highly regarded football recruit Dennis Godfrey arrived at Wake Forest this month to join the reigning Atlantic Coast Conference champion, his future was suddenly much brighter than a year ago.

Godfrey, who was a tight end at Lee County High in Sanford, N.C., had signed last year with Wake Forest, but the school deferred his admission because he had been charged with kidnapping and raping a 16-year-old girl in an incident from October 2005.

Those felony charges were dropped Jan. 12 in exchange for what amounted to a no-contest plea to simple assault and obstruction of justice. Godfrey did not admit guilt but acknowledged evidence that could lead to his conviction on the two misdemeanors. He was placed on probation for a year and required to perform community service. And he enrolled in school for this semester.

The Wake Forest case points out struggles schools face when recruiting or admitting athletes who are facing charges or have been in trouble with the law. In recent years football programs including Miami (Fla.), Oregon, Louisville, Hawaii and Southern Mississippi enrolled such players.

The change of heart by Wake Forest reflected the change in charges, school President Nathan Hatch said.

“We told Dennis and his family last year they needed to get this resolved,” Hatch said. “The prosecutor substantially changed the terms of the case, and the felony charges were dropped. (Godfrey) has vigorously asserted his innocence.”

But at least one Wake Forest professor is openly questioning that decision. “The second chance is a good rationale,” said Earl Smith, a professor of sociology. “If Godfrey weren’t a football player, he wouldn’t be getting a second chance. They don’t give these kinds of second chances to kids who want to come to play piano.”

Under NCAA rules, coaches are not permitted to talk about specific recruits until they have signed, but some players and schools are dealing with legal issues now as the Feb. 7 signing day for high school football recruits approaches.

One of the more highly profiled recruits dealing with recent legal issues is linebacker Pat Lazear of Wheaton (Md.) High. Lazear served 10 days in jail last month for his role in the robbery of a smoothie store last March while at Whitman High in Bethesda, Md., his lawyer, Paul Kemp, said.

Lazear, who has graduated from high school, had pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit simple robbery and remains on probation, Kemp said.

Some major schools have stopped recruiting him, including national runner-up Ohio State, Buckeyes spokesperson Steve Snapp confirmed.

West Virginia, however, is recruiting Lazear. “We always handle these situations on a case-by-case, fact-finding basis,” WVU spokesperson Shelly Poe said.

That’s the way many schools seem to approach the issue.

Said Oklahoma athletics director Joe Castiglione: “Most campuses, if not all, have policies related to student-athletes’ conduct and punitive measures. … So one would have to think that each institution would evaluate the situation and the information that is available and the way the charge is going to be adjudicated … and then they could have a better confidence level in determining whether to enroll the student.”

Oklahoma has instituted a program to check the background of athletes before signing letters of intent, Castiglione said.

“We have found various levels of mischievousness. Generally it’s nothing serious: lapses of judgment, hanging out with the wrong people, most of it settled by community service,” he said.

The pressure to win can influence the schools’ decision-making process in such situations, said former Syracuse All-America quarterback Don McPherson, founder and executive director of the Sports Leadership Institute at Adelphi (N.Y.) University.

The institute promotes the use of sports as an educational tool and works with community organizations to create self-esteem, substance-abuse and violence-prevention programs for high school and college students.

“Whether they’re academic compromises or they’re social compromises, there are going to be compromises to compete athletically,” McPherson said.

“And when you’re a school that’s in an (athletics) arms race like some schools are, even some of the smaller programs, where you’re investing millions and millions of dollars in facilities, you’d better put a product on the field that justifies the millions.”