Barnett Denies Sex Used as Recruiting Tool

[Blackshirt]

Appears the Chi paper is still a little bitter that Barnett jumped ship from NW so abruptly.. B)

 

Facing a firestorm

Coach Gary Barnett denies that Colorado uses sex parties as a recruiting tool

 

By Neil Milbert

Tribune staff reporter

 

February 5, 2004

 

 

BOULDER, Colo. -- Nearly a week after the Boulder County district attorney charged that "sex is used as a bargaining tool" in recruiting Colorado football players, coach Gary Barnett sought to defend the integrity of his program Wednesday when he announced the signing of 19 players for 2004.

 

"At no time did any head coach, assistant coach or graduate assistant take part in arranging, creating a party of any sort or provide transportation for it," said Barnett, who coached at Northwestern from 1992-98 before making a controversial move to Colorado. "The word `party' would never have been mentioned.

 

"You're obligated, you're responsible, you're a surrogate parent for a weekend [recruiting visit]. You eliminate all the risks you can. But you don't arrange free time. I don't think [coaches] being with them for 24 hours a day is part of the college experience [for recruits].

 

"You hurt your chances tremendously exposing somebody to something as tawdry as what happened in 2001. You want to make sure those things don't happen. But other than being with them 24 hours a day I don't know how that you can."

 

District Atty. Mary Keenan's unexpected accusation that "sex is used as a bargaining tool" was contained in a deposition filed in conjunction with a civil suit former student Lisa Simpson has brought, alleging two recruits raped her at her Dec. 7, 2001, off-campus party that Colorado football player hosts and visiting recruits crashed.

 

In April 2002, prosecutors announced they had insufficient evidence to press criminal charges.

 

In May 2002 four football players--Corey Alexander, Marques Harris, Allen Mackey Jr. and Clyde Surrell--pleaded guilty to charges they had provided alcohol to minors at the party. After they were convicted, Barnett suspended the players' scholarships for one semester.

 

The Simpson vs. University of Colorado suit was filed in December, 2002 under federal Title IX, claiming that an atmosphere of discrimination based on sex led to her being raped.

 

Colorado student Anne Gilmore in December 2003 filed an identical suit that recently was joined with Simpson's and in January soccer player Monique Gillaspie also filed a civil suit, charging she was raped by two football players in her dorm room after she left the party in Simpson's apartment.

 

Depositions and police reports indicate several players had consensual sex--not connected to the rape allegations--at two parties.

 

In addition to the three Title IX lawsuits, football players allegedly have been involved in two other sexual episodes:

 

- According to a deposition by Colorado University police detective Tim DeLaria, the night before Simpson's party recruits were taken to a hotel party and shown films of players and women engaging in sexual activity. DeLaria said one of the recruits told him a player said: "This is what you get when you come to Colorado."

 

- Colt Brennan, a redshirt freshman walk-on, is accused of exposing himself and sexually groping the body of a student in her dorm room last Wednesday. He was kicked off the team by Barnett on Saturday and was arrested Monday. The police report alleged unlawful sexual contact, second-degree burglary for entering a room without permission and false imprisonment for restraining the victim on her bed.

 

Compounding the current scandals is a 1997 episode when Rick Neuheisel was Colorado's head coach. A teenager alleged she was raped at a recruiting party in a hotel but no charges were filed.

 

That incident prompted former Boulder County district attorney Alex Hunter and Keenan to meet with university officials. In the deposition released last week Keenan said she put the officials "on notice" because she believed the football program was using female students to lure recruits.

 

Regarding the assertions by Simpson, Gilmore and Gillaspie that they were raped by players and recruits, Keenan blamed Barnett for "lack of supervision." In her deposition, she stated: "I don't think anyone [on the coaching staff] said: `Get them [sex].' I think it's an understanding that rose up through the culture. It's an expectation."

 

In 2002, a 1 a.m. curfew was imposed on visiting recruits at Colorado, a relatively stringent measure because most college parties begin late at night and continue long into the morning. Barnett also now informs players and recruits in writing of visit rules in a handbook that addresses the use of alcohol and date rape. Hosts must sign statements agreeing not to make alcohol available to anyone younger than 21, forbidding them to expose recruits to inappropriate behavior and requiring them not to condone inappropriate behavior by recruits.

 

When the recruits return to their hotel an assistant coach checks to make certain they have complied with the curfew and haven't been drinking.

 

School President Elizabeth Hoffman has asked the school's nine regents to appoint an independent panel to investigate the school's policies on athletic recruiting and sexual harassment. The regents are scheduled to meet Friday.

 

The consensus among students and faculty is that Keenan's assertion that sex is part and parcel of the football program is false.

 

"I work at a bar and all the football guys who come in are really nice guys," said Jim Murphy, a senior from Woodstock, Ill. " The allegation that they're lining up [women] for recruits is asinine. Sure there are girls there. The whole point of recruiting trips is to show recruits what it's like to live on campus."

 

Said professor Charlie Bowen: "The thought that coaches are supportive of off-campus parties where there is underage alcohol and sexual encounters occur is ludicrous. I think this something of a tempest in a teapot."

 

Matt Meeks, a junior from Littleton, Colo., said there was a slight backlash when he solicited alumni during a fundraising phone-athon.

 

Only a few alumni he talked to declined to donate because of the current situation, he said. In Barnett's opinion, even though "a handful" of other coaches were using the scandal as a weapon, it didn't have a negative impact on his recruiting endeavors.

 

The Denver Post reported, however, that two players who had committed orally to Colorado changed their minds as a result of the scandal.

 

Offensive lineman Tavika Thompson of Honolulu said late Tuesday he had chosen Oregon State because he has family in Oregon. Defensive lineman Remi Ayodele of Northeast Oklahoma A&M reneged and signed with Oklahoma.

 

"The decisions you make in 33 years of coaching determine who you are," Barnett said. "I don't know if you can just be a bad person in one thing. If you're a bad person [and condoned the sexual episodes] those sort of things would permeate everything you do. We do not break rules at the University of Colorado--anytime, anywhere, under any circumstances."

 

 

Copyright © 2004, The Chicago Tribune

[DaveH]

Well duh. Like anyone would admit that they did use sex as a recruiting tool!

[HuskerBob]

I used sex as a recruiting tool.

bill clinton

[DaveH]

I used sex as a recruiting tool.

bill clinton

hahahahaha.

 

[HuskerBob]

or maybe I used my tool to recruit sex..... hmm. deep. huh uh huh.

bubba