It ain’t cheating

Gene Steinmeyer

A couple of years into my college coaching career, I was stuck with an average team and a couple years of average recruiting classes at Doane College. I needed to find a way to recruit better athletes or my college coaching career would soon be over.

There were a lot of factors that helped me recruit better athletes. Cheating was never part of it since the rules in the NAIA 30 years ago were almost non-existent. No one had the money to cheat in recruiting. No coach could offer cars, great jobs, expensive housing or any other incentive to attend your university.

One day a flier came in the mail advertising a basketball camp in Louisiana. You had to pay a lot of money to attend the camp, but the top 12 players from the camp got an expense paid trip to Europe for two weeks of international basketball.

I couldn’t possibly get anyone to Doane College in Crete, Nebraska for the cost of a camp that would pay expenses for a European basketball trip. Slowly a plan was made, thanks mostly in part to a sports travel agent in Indiana.

His name was Kermit and he was an old football coach. He claimed to be the original inventor of the “Run and Shoot” offense, but I’m not sure about that.

Eventually, the plan called for 16 all-star players chosen from my high school basketball camps to spend a week in Mexico playing basketball.

They would have to pay their own expenses, but it promised five days of doubleheaders in the Mexico City area and two days of fun in Acapulco. I would pay half of the trip for two high school coaches to coach the team and I would go as the general manager.

It was bad cop, good cop, with me being the good cop and good recruiter. I was able to fool them.

This was 30 years ago, long before the busy summer schedules of club basketball teams. Almost all the talent in Nebraska was available if I could talk them into coming to my basketball camp.

It cleared all the high school rules and I thought the NAIA rules, too. I was almost right.

A coach from my conference turned me in for cheating and I had to submit a written report to the NAIA. I had to sweat for about a month.

The NAIA eventually told me I would have to take “Doane College” out of the name of my camp and I would be legal.

In response, I called the camp, “The Weekend Advantage,” and then just below it, “At Doane College.” Everyone was happy but the coach that turned me in.

I walked on the fringe of the rules and it gave me the recruiting advantage I needed. I averaged three players off these teams each year. Combine that with my normal recruiting and I never had a down year in recruiting over my final 12 years at Doane College.

The coach that turned me in decided instead of fighting me, why not join me, so she started an every other year trip to Europe. She never took the name of her college off her camp name and I never turned her in.

I tell you this long story because you are hearing about cheating by the New England Patriots in last Sunday’s AFC Championship game. The Colts claimed the Patriots deflated their footballs. It’s fortunate New England won by 38 points or this would really be a controversy.

Bill Belichick has long been accused of tip-toeing the edge of the rules. He was accused and exonerated of using illegal formations the week before against Baltimore.

Who can forget the “Spy Gate” where New England was caught filming the opposing coach. They were fined a half a million dollars and lost a first-round draft choice.

I heard one “talking head” on a sports talk show say, “If you ain’t cheating, you ain’t trying.” I apologize for his poor use of the English language. You would be surprised how much that happens in sports.

Several years ago, I heard first-hand from a junior college coach that an assistant coach from the MIAA had turned up at a top junior college recruit’s apartment in a pizza delivery outfit. He delivered a pizza and a six-pack. I don’t think he got a tip.

I had a friend in his young days of coaching lead a top-level boys’ AAU high school team. He told me everywhere they traveled, the team would get a separate hotel room for private meetings with the Division I coaches.

My friend just laughed when I asked who was cheating. His comment was they all do, or they come close to it.

The best almost cheating story was about a very famous coach who once offered his top player an education and a horse.

What that meant if the kid played at the university for four years, he would get a degree and a racehorse for a graduation present from a booster. He would even be given the name of the horse as a freshman so he could follow the horse’s racing career.

That was on the edge of the rules since graduation presents weren’t banned at that time.

I used to jokingly say to the players that came to my basketball camp, “Win if you can, lose if you must, but always cheat.” I meant it as a joke.

As a college coach, I’m not sure I should have been joking.