Another negative recruiting article

It's important to highlight that there are also many respectable club team coaches who take advising their players with the best interests of the kids in mind as well as parents who perform admirably in that role.

The dark side will always be there and it's important to document such but it's just as necessary to offer features on parents/coaches, advisers, et al who selflessly give of themselves throughout the coaching and recruiting processes.

Actions of Third Parties Can Muddy Basketball Recruiting Waters
Steve Yanda and Eric Prisbell
Washington Post
August 18, 2009

In wooing high school prospects to join their programs, college basketball coaches seek to convince players that they can provide the best place to continue their athletic and academic development. Doing so requires building relationships and trust with players, their parents and often a high school or summer league coach.

Increasingly over the past two decades, however, college coaches have lamented the proliferation of additional participants in the recruiting process. These third parties -- who collectively fall under such labels as "handlers," "middlemen" or "advisers" -- latch on to prospects at young ages and then attempt to broker access to the players in exchange for benefits from college coaches or their schools.

Previously a factor for only the most elite high school prospects, third-party recruiting is becoming much more widespread. LuAnn Humphrey, the NCAA's associate director of enforcement who oversees the organization's basketball focus group, said one of her sector's biggest concerns is that the presence of third-party handlers is trickling down to less-heralded recruits.

Several prominent figures in the summer basketball circuit noted a rise in the population of small-time handlers in recent years...

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