Article in the Wash. Post this a.m. discussing allegations that college recruiters use rumors of rival coach's sexual orientation to discourage players from going to that school -- particularly in women's sports.

Case in point: the mother of a star California high school player was lead to believe that Stanford's Coach Tara VanDerveer is lesbian -- and her daughter wouldn't fit in there.

The article claims that "But because so few men's coaches are thought to be gay the tactic isn't used."

At a class called Sports and Gender at the Univ. of Georgia, an assistant coach said that
Georgia's basketball team adhered to an "unwritten policy" not to offer athletic scholarships to players they believed were homosexual.

Read the article here.

there were rumors for several years that teams were negative recruiting against the lady longhorns and alleging that jody conradt (and assistant kathy harston) is a lesbian.

in light of texas' recruiting in the last few years, it appears that the innuendos have stopped or at least they have not been as successful.

if memory serves, rene portland (penn st.) got into some hot water several years back due to some comments that she wouldn't recruit or play against lesbians. (i don't remember the exact details)

I just finished reading that article. I would like to know who the gay mens coaches are. That is an area that I have not heard much whispesrs/talk on. All in all it was a good article.
Along these same lines. A friend of mine and his partner have son, who is a star high school athlete. The son is starting to be higly recruited by a number of top notch colleges. It has not gotten to the point yet where the college coaches have come to the house. That is somewaht further the road. We are all waiting with baited breath what the coaches reaction will be when he finds out what the. domestic situation is. Any comments?

Well, cynical mofo that I am I imagine, if your friend's son is good enough, that most coaches wouldn't care if he was The Spawn of Satan, if the kid could help his/her program (i.e. help him/her keep his job for another year).

Plus, it's a good litmus test: if the coach, who sets the tone for a program, is an ass**** about the issue, it's not a good sign is it?

It would be cool Billybob (great handle BTW) if you could keep us updated on how this story plays out.

In another thread, SteveIN posted:

Hi, all. I intermittently write columns for a Purdue women's bball fan site, complete with forums/message boards. One of the posters to the board found a link to a Washington Post.com article about the increase of negative recruiting in women's basketball. Some programs, it seems, are trying to affect recruits' choices by bringing up the issue of lesbianism (real? perceived?) within other programs.

This issue may become a hot topic on the Purdue board because the Boilermakers had been recruiting a 6'6" in-state player named Reicina Russell for a while. Just when the recruiting should have been at a fever pitch and receiving a lot of press, Purdue stopped recruiting her. I guess a number of programs did. Russell ended up verballing to Penn State and coach Rene Portland. With Russell's father or grandfather being a minister (according to a different poster), one wonders if Russell had issues about playing for programs that had either players or coaches who are lesbians or bisexual. *shrug*

Anyway, here's a link to the original post on the Purdue board. That post provides a link to the Washington Post.com article, which requires a brief registration (age, gender, zip code). You'll get to the article directly after the registration.
Original post w/link to the WashingtonPost.com article.

The prime example used in the article is that of Stanford's Chelsea Trotter & some of her and her family's experiences during recruiting. It's disgusting that negative recruiting occurs at all in college, even worse when it comes to disparaging opposing coaches. I could care less about the individual circumstances revolving around Russell's choices, but it has led to this topic on the Purdue board. Hope the link works properly.

Steve

It is very unfortunate that this happens. The two coaches I have actually heard specific issues about in the past are Rene Portland (PSU) and Sylvia Hatchell (UNC). They both have been verbal about not wanting lesbians to be part of their programs, and touting this as a reason why parents should want their children to play for the schools. (Funny, since UNC has had some major butch players on the team throughout the past decade.)

I have never heard specific discussions about coaches trying to use this as a recruiting tool against other coaches. I have heard some issues about Tara V while she was at Ohio State (prior to her taking the job at Stanford). Some of her players actually felt if they were not lesbians they were not treated as well. Kind of interesting reverse discrimination.

It would be nice to think that coaches could set aside the incessant need to be the best, and actually treat their peers with some respect and dignity. However, more and more anything goes in love and war. And recruiting the best and the brightest is war when it comes to winning games, getting exposure, and gaining political power at your institution. Kind of a shame.