Pinkman Baseball Academy October 2009 The Pressures of Off Season Training  John Pinkman This is a very sensitive subject; a subject that can and has been misunderstood. We are only addressing this letter to our student families and no other entities. There are many fine men coaching in public school for very little compensation. They are passionate about doing the right thing. However, each fall (for more than 10 years) parents who have brought their children to us for years and whose children have reached or who are approaching high school age, come to us and say the high school coach requires that they send their child to where the coach is working in the winter. They are upset and conflicted. It happens every year. The conversations, even the words, do not vary from year to year. It is remarkable how similar the stories are shared by people who do not even know each other. For just as many years all coaches adamantly deny that this policy exists in their program. Some are right; some are obviously not. I want to express our opinion. I want to do it in a fair way, recognizing that we have both a  responsibility to our student athlete families and a responsibility as a business. You should by now completely understand our business values. If not, please refer to our Mission Statement and Core Values posted on our web site. We are also very secure in our teaching performance and professional credibility. We have been comfortable with business competition as long as the playing field is level. For a long time this has not been the case; players have been coerced in many subtle and overt ways by some high school coaches to attend specific academies with varying personal motivations. A reasonable person would conclude that a player should go to a teacher who can provide the best results, thereby helping the team. Although some might disagree, we believe that personal skill development in the off season is a higher priority than “esprit de corps,” especially when you have to pay for the experience. The subject of winter training has become more complicated and volatile in the past few years. Parents have echoed the term “coaching conflict of interest”. In the past parents would cover themselves politically and send the players to the high school workout and ours as well. These days money is a bit tighter. The combination of travel team expenses and two winter training sessions makes that decision financially more difficult to impossible. There are several issues here. First, players often misunderstand the coach’s meaning when he says that he wants the player to workout with the team. A young man who desperately wants to make the team can easily interpret compliance with coaching options as a mandatory request. Some coaches know this and leverage that pressure. Others go out of their way to remove that pressure from the student. Next, there are those coaches who have a very good reason to bring the players together in the off season; they want to build a better team. The problem is that the Virginia League, the governing body of public school sports rules, says coaches cannot do that. While we disagree with this rule, as businessmen we recognize it. It should come as no surprise that there are those who seek to circumvent the rule. If the rules were different allowing coaches to work with their players all year long, we would operate our school in a much different manner, but they are not. However, there are coaches who, for personal benefit, require players to attend practice sessions at locations where they are employed. I doubt there is a coach who would actually instruct you (the parent) to attend certain training. There are some however, who would say that to your child when you are not present, directly or by innuendo. Either way your child will feel the pressure. Fairfax County Public Schools has fired coaches who have violated the rules. They have recently hired outside consultants to investigate this behavior, but parents tell us that administrative pressure has done little to change some coaching behavior. After all these years this has become is an institutionalized culture and will not likely change; some coaches will always coerce players to attend their personal workout sessions. Fairfax County Public Schools apparently cannot or will not do what is necessary to change the culture they have allowed to perpetuate. It would be futile (for us) to try to effect change. However, in the long run this plan has not served them well. Many schools who previously had dozens of students trying out now find themselves with more uniforms than applicants. But there is a much bigger issue here than who trains your child. It is embodied in the simple phrase “the end does not justify the means”. Every year nervous parents call us pleading for advice. We have tried to remain politically correct. Obliviously that hasn’t worked.  Each year we witness dozens of our loyal students forced to attend training that they themselves describe as “a complete waste of time”. You may now (or someday in the future) have to confront the belief -real, subtle, or imagined - that if you do not submit to the pressure to send your child to a particular location he will not make the team. Quotes like: “We have to stay under the coach’s nose” and “If he doesn’t go to the coach’s workout he will get cut” are legendary at this time of year. If you submit to this kind of thinking you are very definitely teaching your child that the end justifies the means. In some manner you will have to say, “I know this is not right, the values are wrong, but we have to do this anyway”. With the exception of this letter, we have always taken the high road and told parents to do what they think is in the best interest of their son or daughter. I personally believe that the best plan is to send the student to a school that is dedicated to teaching new information, not practicing last year’s skill. Playing politics by staying under the  coach nose and continuing to demonstrate a lack of skill is pointless. The primary goal of high school sports should focus on learning and improving. Great coaches recognize that. Here Are Some Guidelines: Choose to attend the school in which you are confident that your child will receive excellent training and the best athletic education for the money spent. That is all that matters. If you think there is a misunderstanding, you - not your child - should ask the coach for clarification. If you believe that pressure is being placed on your family to attend a specific school for the wrong reason, ignore it. If you feel that you are being coerced to attend off season training you should have the moral courage to walk into the office and inform the principal. We realize that this circumstance is at best uncomfortable and not of your choosing. It is however one of the toughest decisions we as parents must face. We must have the courage to do what we know is right or basically by our actions tell our children that the end does justify the means.

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Fairfax Teachers, principals caught in fraud case

By: Leah Fabel and Scott McCabe
Washington Examiner
October 18, 2009

Fairfax educators sue over alleged land scam

Two Fairfax County public school principals and dozens of teachers they recruited into a North Carolina land deal have been caught up in what could be the largest mortgage fraud case in state history, according to court documents.

A federal grand jury in North Carolina has been probing the massive fraud case. Teachers were left with worthless land and gaping holes in their bank accounts, according to lawsuits growing out of the case.

Daniel Meier, principal at Fairfax’s Robinson Secondary School, and his brother Thomas Meier, principal at McLean’s Langley High School, worked with a former student, Mark Dain, to motivate investors to pay artificially inflated prices for land in coastal North Carolina at the height of the housing boom, according to a lawsuit brought by the investors. Dain was a co-founder of the now defunct Total Realty Management, based out of Woodbridge.

The company purchased subdivisions worth approximately $150,000 before turning around and selling them for double and sometimes triple that figure, according to the complaint. The Meier brothers allegedly offered “testimonials” on the scheme’s success before crowds that often included teachers and colleagues. The sales were manipulated through “sham transactions” and multiple misrepresentations, according to the complaint filed in January in a Virginia federal court.

A lawyer for the plaintiffs in the lawsuit said the FBI had begun a criminal probe into the deals. FBI spokespersons in D.C. and North Carolina could not confirm whether the case has expanded to TRM.

Both Meiers are still administrators in Fairfax schools. Daniel Meier was named in the original lawsuit brought by the teachers. Thomas Meier was not named as a defendant in the lawsuit, but was depicted as involved in recruiting teachers.

“[Total Realty Management’s] scheme was lent an air of legitimacy by the involvement of Daniel Meier and Tommy Meier,” said the civil complaint on behalf of about 130 Virginia residents, including about 40 Fairfax teachers.

The company allegedly “paid Daniel Meier $25,000 for each lot purchased from TRM in the [s]ubdivisions by any individual referred by [him],” although “[t]eachers were not aware that [he] received commissions based on their purchases.”

Daniel Meier denied all charges in a response to the complaint filed in March.

Both Meier brothers recently filed for bankruptcy in federal court. Daniel Meier listed more than $100 million in liabilities on account of the lawsuits pending against him.

Jill Pisner, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, said her clients have stopped pursuing claims against Daniel Meier.

“He is in bankruptcy and his debts exceed his assets,” Pisner said. “What money he made, and he earned referral fees of $10,000 to $25,000 per lot on about 35 to 50 sales, plus speaker fees of $1,000 per seminar, is gone now.”

Both Pisner and Daniel Meier’s lawyer, Alan Shachter, said the FBI was likely not investigating Meier.

Calls and e-mails to the Meier brothers were not returned. Teachers referred questions to Pisner.

Dain could not be reached for comment. The teachers are still pursuing his company, TRM.

The case has garnered huge headlines in North Carolina as a federal grand jury investigated various allegations including whether former North Carolina Gov. Mike Easley got a sweetheart deal on waterfront property and helped green-light permits for the project.

www.fairnessinschoolsports.org/

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ALERT!           ALERT!           ALERT!           ALERT!           ALERT!           FISS has received several reports that high school coaches are pressuring their baseball players to play on their feeder teams when the March through June high school baseball season is completed.  Obviously, the players’ parents are reluctant to complain openly about this pressure because they don’t want to hurt their sons’ chances to play on the high school team the following spring.  Ironically, those same high school baseball coaches are themselves upset when a coach of an elite travel team attempts to recruit players from the coaches’ feeder teams.  However, recruitment of players by coaches of elite travel teams and pressure placed on players by their high school coaches are two quite different situations.  The elite travel team coach is offering players a choice, and that coach has no leverage to pressure players to make one decision over another.  However, high school baseball coaches have a weapon—retaliation—which they can use against a player if he doesn’t join the feeder team of the coach’s choosing.

Players and their parents should be on the lookout for attempts by coaches to inappropriately influence players to play on specific feeder teams. This influence may be subtle.  If your son experiences this kind of pressure, report the incident to the principal or athletic director of the high school.  In addition, you may share the information with FISS. 

Mike Grasso,

www.fairnessinschoolsports.org/

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