William FordDaily Egyptian
The improprieties that took place at a small community college in Kansas has had a far reaching impact to numerous NCAA basketball programs, as the former coaches had settled elsewhere.
One of those programs is Southern Illinois.
The coaching career of Shane Hawkins, a former Saluki great and current assistant coach for the SIU men's basketball program, remains in limbo after he was indicted Oct. 19. He was charged with allegedly lying to a federal grand jury about his involvement in the scandals at Barton County Community in Kansas.
Since February 2004, Hawkins has become one of five individuals who have been indicted by the United States District Court in Kansas for alleged involvement in a recruiting scandal at the community college in Great Bend, Kan. There, athletes received federal grants for which they did not qualify, had transcripts were falsified and were paid for work they did not perform.
Former Barton County basketball coaches Ryan Wolf, David Campbell, Matt Skillman and Hawkins and current Barton County cross country coach Lyles Lashley have all been indicted and face criminal charges stemming from the incident.
The genesis of the controversy
Barton County Athletic Director Neil Elliot said the scandal took form after the NCAA started investigating student athletes that had attended Barton, whose transcripts appeared to be falsified.
Upon investigating the situation with the student's transcripts, Elliot said the school began an internal investigation of the program and started running into several improprieties.
"At that point, once we discovered some concerns at the institution, we made the decision to turn it over to the authorities," Elliot said.
Much of the scandal can be traced back to Wolf, who was head coach of the basketball program in 1999. Wolf was indicted in February 2004 and faces 38 counts of criminal action including embezzlement, bank fraud, mail fraud and theft of federal funds.
Documents from the U.S. District Court in Kansas allege Wolf helped student athletes complete forms for financial aid that they were not eligible to receive. Also, he was alleged to have helped some of the athletes fill out timecards for student work jobs when the individuals had not actually performed any work.
Charges against the other four coaches followed soon after Wolf was indicted.
According to a press release from United States Attorney Eric Melgren, none of the student athletes involved in the scandal have been implicated of any wrongdoing.
"The crimes of which Mr. Wolf is accused represent not only a transgression against the federal government, but a wrong done to student athletes who deserve to receive a quality education," Melgren wrote in the release. "This case provides a disturbing insight into what can happen when coaches or educators fail to adhere to the highest principles of ethical behavior and fail to put the educational interests of student athletes first."
Wolf isn't the only one involved in the misappropriation of the financial aid and the undeserved payments, however. Campbell and Skillman also face charges of helping falsify timesheets, and Hawkins faces a charge for lying to a grand jury about the student workers not completing the work for which they were paid.
Wolf, Campbell and Hawkins have all plead not guilty, while Skillman admitted to his involvement.
Elliot said the onset of the scandal was frustrating because some of the basketball coaches charged were hired against his recommendation.
"It's been a nightmare. It's been a difficult situation for me personally because the primary individuals that have been involved have been our basketball coaches and those have been individuals that I was not in favor of hiring," Elliot said. "I was forced to work with some individuals that I was not necessarily in favor of."
Elliot declined to name any specific coaches that he recommended the school not hire.
While he said he was not in favor of hiring some of the coaches, Elliot maintained that he did not foresee actions taking place that would result the way they have.
"You can sometimes anticipate that there may be some violations of your governing body, but you can never anticipate that there is going to be problems involving breaking laws," Elliot said.
Lashley is the only coach still employed by the school. Wolf, Skillman and Hawkins left to coach for other schools, and Campbell resigned. The situation also resulted in the firing of the school's president Veldon Law.
The spread
While much of the scandal dealt solely with Barton County, the impact spread to other schools across the nation in a variety of ways.
Wolf allegedly sent false transcripts to San Jose State University and Louisville University on behalf of student athletes, which resulted in the athletes receiving athletic scholarships.
Additionally, Wolf allegedly was largely involved in helping Ricky Clemons and Randy Pulley get athletic scholarships at the University of Missouri for which they were not eligible.
Both Lashley and Skillman also face charges involving the situation with Clemons and Pulley.
Lashley allegedly signed cover sheets saying he proctored five exams taken by Clemons, when in fact he did not. The exams were for correspondence courses at Brigham Young University.
One of the charges for which Skillman pleaded guilty included writing an astronomy paper for Pulley.
Wolf was allegedly involved in sending false transcripts to Missouri for both athletes.
The Missouri athletic program is under probation with the NCAA, but the university's assistant compliance director Mitzi Clayton said the probation has no connection with the situation at Barton County.
According to the Daily Kansan, however, the violation did involve Clemmons receiving a meal from a coach. Clemmons has been through several legal troubles while at Missouri, including a charge for assaulting a woman he was dating, which was documented in a report by Sports Illustrated.
Sports Illustrated also reported that Clemons was kicked off the team at Missouri for violating his parole and attending a party at the residence of the university's president.
In all, Wolf's indictments allege he provided false information to Barton County, University of Missouri, San Jose State University, University of Louisville and Brigham Young University.
"You never know once something like that begins how far reaching it can become," Elliot said. "I didn't really know at the time, but when we got further into it, you could see it could have effects on other institutions."
Its reach to Carbondale
On Oct. 19, SIU became the newest university to be affected by the scandals at Barton County after Hawkins was indicted for allegedly lying to a federal grand jury.
Hawkins was a high school basketball standout on at nearby Pinckneyville High School and later played for SIU between 1995-1998. His career was stellar, as Hawkins ended as the school's career leader for 3-point field goals made in a career with 314. His fit as an assistant coach at the University seemed natural.
According to documents from the U.S. District Court in Kansas, Hawkins allegedly testified in court that he did not know athletes were being paid for work they did not do, when in fact he knew they were.
On Nov. 9, Hawkins entered a plea of not guilty. No court date has yet been set for Hawkins.
Although no implications have been made of any wrongdoing in the SIU program, the University has been thrust into the spotlight because of Hawkins' alleged involvement at Barton County, deserved or not.
Hawkins has been on paid administrative leave from SIU since Oct. 21.
SIU Athletic Director Paul Kowalczyk said he and Hawkins decided on the absence. Kowalczyk said it was the best thing to do until the Barton County situation is cleared up. Jim Cross, a public affairs officer for Melgren, said there is no definitive timeline for how long Hawkins could be tied up in legal proceedings.
"We thought it was the best course of action right now," Kowalczyk said. "We don't know everything there is to know. The kids don't need the distraction of this hovering over the program."
According to Melgren's Web site, Hawkins could face as much as five years in a federal prison and a $250,000 fine if convicted.
Before the decision for the leave was reached, SIU head basketball coach Chris Lowery said the program has not suspended Hawkins, and they remain in support of him until the matter is cleared up.
Kowalczyk remained positive that the Barton County situation would have no major effect on SIU, as the school has had a historically clean record of any problems with recruiting.
"I don't think this will leave a bad mark against the University," Kowalczyk said after Hawkins' leave had been decided. "All this transpired before Shane's arrival here. This all deals with Barton Community College and the problems they had there.
"Σ We don't have anything that resembles a similar situation in our program,"
With the absence of Hawkins, the SIU staff has been hamstringed, leaving only two assistants and a graduate assistant to help Lowery.
Hawkins was involved in recruiting, working with perimeter players and monitoring academic progress of student athletes at Barton County. At SIU, his duties included recruiting, organizing offseason events for the team and player development.
Since Hawkins was first indicted, SIU athletics' administrative staff, as well as the basketball coaching staff, has declined further comments on the situation.
Cleaning up Barton County
SIU will have little trouble recovering from the effects the scandal had, but for Barton County Community College, the healing process will be significantly longer.
Elliot said, though the last incident happened in 2003, the basketball program is still feeling the effects of the scandal.
"As far as our men's basketball program, I don't think there is any question that it has still had some long-term effect on the recruiting end of that program," Elliot said. "I don't think that it has been anything that has been dramatic or anything."
Elliot said the school was hit with a media storm when the allegations first started in 2003. Numerous newspapers across the country featured stories outlining the scandal, including an investigative piece by Sports Illustrated.
The basketball team has been on probation with the National Junior College Athletics Association for the past two seasons, which eliminates the team from making the postseason or winning a conference championship.
Barton County sports information director Mike Marzolf said the team will not find out if the probation will be dropped until next season.
Regardless of the probation, Barton County's men's basketball team is off to a 5-1 start under new head coach Craig Fletchall. Elliot said he is confident that the program will not suffer any more violations under Fletchall.
"We've got a really quality men's basketball coach now, and he is doing things the right way," Elliot said.
Other than hiring a new head coach, Elliot said Barton County has also made changes in the way coaches interact with the athletes. He said coaches are no longer allowed to supervise student employees or proctor exams for student athletes.
Elliot said the school hopes it is able to use the situation as an example, but he hopes the scandal will not be the only thing for which Barton County is remembered.
"It's going to take time for it to get behind us," Elliot said. "I don't think there is any doubt if some of these legal issues get finalized that we'll get this stuff behind us."
