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Parents of Andover High students claim former boys basketball coach created ‘pay-to-play’ atmosphere

Dec. 14, 2010 @ 5:06 p.m. by Kirk Seminoff

A lawsuit was filed in Butler County district court today claiming former Andover High boys basketball coach Jason Stucky created a “pay-to-play” atmosphere by borrowing money from parents and tainting team tryouts.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 14th, 2010 at 5:06 p.m. and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

  • zzzz

    i feel this goes on at other schools around the state to

  • 9115 E. 13th Street

    At some schools it’s both “pay-to-play” and “PAID-to-play” with an emphasis on the “PAID” part.

  • inthedardk

    It is funny that none of this came out until the kid was cut. The dad or guardian was happy to loan out money when he knew the kid was going to make the team. Crazy to learn what lengths dumb parents will go to when their kids gets cut. Just because a kid makes it as a sophomore or junior doesn’t mean he will make it the following year if he doesn’t improve. Good luck finding a coach willing to work in this district. Of course the coach had financial difficulties, coaching high school basketball pays about 4-5 dollars an hour after you add up everything that the coach has to do. You don’t coach for the pay. The new coach should give the kid two days of tryouts and then cut him again. Then the kid needs to sue his parents for them not working more when he was little or not sending him to enough camps. I have an idea, take the money they are using to pay the lawyer and hire him a personal trainer who might help him make the team as a senior.

  • BobChi

    It looks like a very bad situation for the Andover administration. The fact is if any person employed by a school is asking parents or students for money for personal or business use; hiring students without pay; or in any way utilizing financial activity to favor one student or player over another, he or she must be fired. I do not know if the activities of the parents were pure or not. That isn’t really relevant to the issues at hand. It is the coach who represents the school and must abide by ethical standards. This coach’s career is over, and if anyone in the Andover administration knew about his activity and did nothing, his career should be over too.

  • ks07

    Crazy. Sounds like the coach made some bad choices but I doubt he cut the kid because of the loan. I saw on the kansas.com that somebody said that these kids had made the team the past two years. So most parents would deduct that they would make the team this year. The only problem with that is if Child A is an upperclassmen and is at the same skill level as Child B who is a lower classmen and coach can only keep one which does he keep? Child B more potential because he is younger. If you’re going to be bad, be bad young.

  • bucocatfan

    This is fairly common with basketball coaches in that they keep kids on the team as freshmen and sophmores who may be better players at the time but due to their limitations (height) will be cut later on. Not sure if that was the case here, but it happens all the time and the coaches are really are doing the kids a disservice by keeping them at the younger ages.

  • parent

    collegiate does this as well

  • FlatOut

    Bucco is spot on. Many coaches will not cut fresh or soph players. It makes perfect sense to me. Why cut a kid when there is a chance you can coach him up & make him/her a better player. On top of that, many freshman haven’t came close to stopping growing yet. By the time they’re juniors, you pretty much know what you’ve got in a player.

  • bucocatfan

    “On top of that, many freshman haven’t came close to stopping growing yet. By the time they’re juniors, you pretty much know what you’ve got in a player.”

    These coaches have access to the parents and when neither of them approach 5 and a half feet tall the coach has a good idea that junior isn’t going to be tall enough. That is why they should cut them early and let the kid move on to something else.

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  • Gregor Mendel

    Actually, you inherit 50% of your genes from your grandparents. Thus, according to the law of independent assortment, if junior has a grandpa that is 6’6″ with a dominant gene for height then junior has a 75% chance of being in the vicinity of 6’6″ just like gramps. His parents could be dwarves, it doesn’t matter.

  • bucocatfan

    Well that would explain why we see so many 6’6″ kids coming from 5′ parents.

  • Gregor Mendel

    I know several kids that were lucky enough to inherit grandpa’s(or grandma’s) gene for height. One of them is 6’5″ 290# while his parents are both sub 6′. Another one is 6’1″ 220# and was a 1st team, all-city league lineman while his parents are both about 5’7″. It happens all the time.

    I’ve also seen kids go into their sophomore year in the mid 5′ range and end up being 6′+ by their senior year.

    Obviously to suggest that a coach cut kids early based upon their parents height or the kids height before he has even started growing is idiotic. Kids aren’t cattle.

  • Gregor Mendel

    Wow! Why is this blog being moderated so heavily?

  • Huh

    Cause there are some real dorks out here running around pretending to be airplanes making dumb comments.

  • Gregor Mendel

    Huh, huh?

  • kansasfan

    parent….what exactly does collegiate do?

  • schmakey

    First the Andover district had the cheerleader hazing incident, maybe 2 years ago now, and now this pay to play. I think the school board needs to pay attention to what is going on with the kids in their district and how their coaches are treating them.

  • Huh

    Yes, School boards should be required to attend all cheer practices as well as athletic practices and games and follow both coaches and players around during the off season to make sure nothing is going on that shouldn’t be going on. Anytime there is a gathering of more than three students involved in activties outside of school a board member should be required to be present.

  • mom6

    If you read the PDF document filed in Butler Co. court, it spells out a lot of questions and clarify’s comments raised here in this blog.

  • schmakey

    Huh, way to take it to the extreme. Thanks Beck.

  • Little Giants

    I dont see where height comes into play?? Ive seen, played for and been beat by teams who dont have a kid over 6’2, especially in kansas and even more in the CTL. Height doesnt come into play until coaches start recruiting (ie next level).. These kids were juniors and have had plenty of time to develop skills for their height. No matter what height any kid can run hard, play defense, and rebound. THINGS COACHES WOULD KILL FOR THESE DAYS! COACHES DONT WANT TO COACH EFFORT… The money issue.. Just like the “Pony Excess” show on ESPN only vice-versa. Has been happening forever.

  • anonymous

    i agree with inthedardk, why did parents not complain until their kid was cut. It was wrong for the coach to ask for loans in the first place, but not wrong enough for him to resign

  • Rod Blagojevich

    I completely agree with anonymous. What’s the big deal?? Who cares if the guy was soliciting “loans” from a few people who just happened to have kids trying out for the team??? He always had the kids best interests at heart!

  • alan

    The parents are just as bad as the coach. First of all they could have said no to the loan. Anyone who doesn’t think the parents were not thinking, that this loan would assure their kids a spot on the team are kidding themselves. That’s why nothing was said until the kids were cut. I also doubt they though about how this law suit would make their kids look at school either. There is no way any high school kid (even a great player) is gonna try out again because their family sued for a Do Over! There is no way a coach should take money from a parent, but the way family handling it is a little bizzare also.

  • Rod Blagojevich

    I completely agree with alan. How dare those parents ask Stucky to repay those loans that he solicited from them? He was their kids basketball coach so the parents should have know better!! I’ll bet their kids are really catching heck at school from the kids that really deserved to make the team!!!

  • BobChi

    I’m going to reiterate what I said before. I have no idea what the motives of the parents were in the first place, and it is not relevant. The relevant fact is that the coach solicited personal/business loans from individuals with whom he had an official relationship in his role with school system. This is always wrong. Utilizing one’s role with a school to seek financial favors from students, parents or relatives of any sort is grounds for discipline, up to and including dismissal. The parents may have (and I emphasize “may” because that’s all speculation) been guilty of shameful behavior; the coach was guilty of severe job-related ethical violations. The school’s ability to discipline parents is extremely limited; its ability to discipline a person in its employ gives it the responsibility to take action when needed.