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Harmony between competing programs a rare commodity

By VINCENT THOMAS
Published March 12, 2006

Last week, I sat in a meeting room, across the table from Tizzy Schoelles and Joy Greene, discussing the recruiting allegations against Nature Coast.

Schoelles and Greene, Nature Coast's principal and athletic director, spoke with an air of confidence, rarely flustered. They called the claims baseless. They demanded evidence for the accusations and there wasn't much to speak of. It's hard to tell which side is telling the truth - the administrators, coaches, players and parents at the other schools or Nature Coast.

I was convinced, however, Nature Coast feels persecuted. Schoelles said the other schools won't stop until they have a chunk of flesh. It got me thinking that maybe this is the plight of all magnet schools. That in every Tampa-area county, the blood-thirsty, jealous, zoned schools gang up on the poor magnet schools and carelessly hurl accusations, seeking to besmirch the program.

What I found is recruiting accusations abound everywhere, specifically Pasco, Citrus, Pinellas and Hillsborough counties. But it's not just a zoning schools against magnet schools thing. In fact, Pasco, Hillsborough and Pinellas counties have admission processes that don't resemble Hernando's.

Pinellas has a system called school choice; so does Pasco. Hillsborough is governed by Hillsborough choice. All three offer students varying degrees of freedom when selecting a school. Pinellas allows students to apply to any school in the county. In Pasco a student can do the same, but neighborhood kids get the preference. In Hillsborough, students can choose between magnet schools or one of three to four schools in their region.

So, no, magnet schools aren't exactly whipping boys in neighboring counties. In other counties the accusations are hurled in every direction. It's a food fight and the whole cafeteria is involved.

"I get a lot of rumors," said Hillsborough County athletic director Vernon Korhn, stressing the rumors. "My standard answer is, "Put it in writing.' I'd be happy to investigate once it's in writing, but otherwise I'd be chasing rumors all day."

I guess some things never change. It's probably just human nature. We're a lot more confident and forthright when we can operate under anonymity. That's why we have secret-admirer letters, screen names for online chat rooms and Mark Felt operating as Deep Throat.

There are serious consequences for wrongful claims and the accuser could experience considerable, at times detrimental, backlash from the accused. The problem is sometimes accusers aren't just carelessly condemning another based on a hunch. Sometimes it's straight-up whistle-blowing, which is always needed.

Kip Broadbelt, Pasco's supervisor of athletic programs, says he's not naive, he knows recruiting goes on in Pasco. He said he never wants to push the allegations aside and ignore them.

"But," he added,"when you ask them to put it down on paper ... "

This situation in Hernando is not new and it won't go away. Broadbelt, Korhn and Pinellas County athletic director Walt Weller sympathize with Hernando County school official Sonya Jackson's predicament - one of the obligation to investigate and demand adequate evidence.

Weller said he was at a Bucs seminar on youth football where a good portion of the conversation dealt with recruiting. He said one Hillsborough coach talked about how some promising middle school football players were going to a certain school to study culinary arts.

"So you have all these young football players that are supposed to want to be chefs," he said, chuckling a bit at the insinuation.

So, yeah, magnet schools get picked on in other counties. But so do most of the other schools. Do Springstead, Central and Hernando have it out for Nature Coast? Do they want to see blood, just for the gore? I don't think so.

If there is something unique about this county's situation, it's that Springstead, Central and Hernando are neighborhood high schools in the truest sense of the word. A student living outside their zones cannot attend one of those schools. Then you have Nature Coast, which is subject to no zoning and has a human element to admissions with its "portfolio" process. Does that breed skepticism and distrust among the other schools? Absolutely.

Which side do I believe? I'm not sure yet.

Vincent Thomas can be reached at vthomas@sptimes.com or 352 848-1430.

[Last modified March 12, 2006, 01:18:21]