Deborah Colon of Columbus remembers when her son and his friends lost their spots on a Georgia Blazers travel basketball team — to out-of-town players — this spring.
Her son, Robert, had been in the Columbus Parks and Recreation Department program since the fifth- or sixth-grade and had been with the same group of core players for several years. He had made the Carver High School varsity team as a freshman, and now planned to play on the city’s top under-15 travel team.
But Robert was placed on the secondary team, not the main one that would travel and play in more select tournaments, while some of his peers failed to make either team.
Meanwhile, five of the 10 players on the elite team were from outside Columbus, each of them traveling at least 50 miles to practice and play with the Blazers.
Colon expressed her concern to Parks and Recreation Director Tony Adams, who coaches the elite 17-under team and oversees the Blazers program.
She says Adams told her he needed spots for out-of town players. “He told me to worry about my child and he would worry about the other folks,” Colon recalled. “He said, ‘This is bigger than what you think — it’s all about business.’”
She added: “He said I was the only parent complaining. But I knew that wasn’t right.”
Today, none of the Blazers boys teams are playing. The program was put on hold in late May after a city audit raised concerns about the Parks and Recreation Department’s financial management and organization.
Mayor Jim Wetherington called for a police investigation into Parks and Recreation on May 28 and it continues. An attorney representing Adams and Herman Porter, a Parks and Recreation employee who also works with the Blazers boys teams, said the investigation is centered on alleged misappropriation of funds. Police Chief Ricky Boren will not comment on the progress of the investigation.
Highest-profile Blazer
Parents and players have been given little information about the status of the program, which usually plays a full schedule of tournaments in July, many of them watched by college coaches from across the country.
But one of the Blazers was playing last week.
Kentavious Caldwell of Greenville, Ga., is one of the nation’s top prospects. ESPN ranks him No. 11 among all the rising high school seniors in the nation, and he was one of about 80 prep players who attended LeBron James’ invitation-only Nike camp last week in Akron, Ohio.
The 6-foot-4 shooting guard was the centerpiece of this year’s elite Blazers team that played in Nike-sponsored events this spring. The team has been in limbo since playing Memorial Day weekend in Los Angeles, failing to win enough games in the Nike Elite Youth Basketball League to qualify for the season-ending Peach Jam beginning Monday in North Augusta, S.C.
“Since L.A., we haven’t been doing anything,” Caldwell said last week by phone from Ohio.
He said he had not talked to Adams or Porter in a “couple of days.”
“They haven’t told us anything,” Caldwell said.
Drawing attention
Quality players like Caldwell are the key to an AAU program’s success. Adams’ and Porter’s city cell phone records, reviewed under the Georgia Open Records Act, show numerous calls to college towns such as Auburn, Knoxville, Tuscaloosa, Oxford and Statesboro, as well as Amherst, Mass., and El Paso, Texas.
One of Adams’ contacts is University of Tennessee men’s assistant coach Jason Shay.
“We can’t talk to the young kids — that is where Tony and the high school coaches come into play,” Shay said. “I have a good relationship with Tony. And, obviously, they have good players.”
In addition to Caldwell, the Blazers featured Nick Marshall, a two-sport star from Wilcox County, more than 100 miles from Columbus. Marshall has committed to play football for Georgia but got his first taste of travel ball with the Blazers, said his high school basketball coach George Kennedy. Marshall and high school teammate Quez Mahogany both played for Adams.
“Tony and Herman have done a lot for these guys,” Kennedy said. “They are seeing another world that they would not see in rural Georgia.”
This year, thanks to the Nike sponsorship, that world has included AAU tournaments in Houston, Los Angeles and Hampton, Va.
AAU is the governing organization for summer teams like the Blazers.
“AAU is misleading,” said Don Jackson, a Montgomery, Ala., sports attorney who represents Adams and Porter. “What you are taking about is summer league. From my perspective, I have seen kids who have never been in a restaurant or order off a menu go to Michael Jordan’s restaurant in Chapel Hill. I have seen kids who have never visited a college campus — kids who come from intergenerational poverty — use basketball and grades to get into a great university.”
Jackson also said too much has been made of the fact the city has funded a travel program where many of the players are from outside Columbus.
“What if they have provided an opportunity for high-profile kids from outside of Columbus to get exposure?” he asked. “Does that mean it is wrong for the city of Columbus to provide this exposure? The city of Columbus doesn’t turn down gas taxes or lodging taxes from out of town.”
Adams and Porter have done nothing wrong, Jackson said. He pointed to the fact that the money for the program was in city budgets — though not in a line-item expense — approved by the Columbus Council.
“Now, if the city of Columbus wants to have a debate on allocation of resources, that might be appropriate,” Jackson said. “But this should not be a police investigation.”
College scholarships
Many of the Blazers have gone from Comer Auditorium — the Blazers home court — to high profile college basketball and football programs over the last few years.
This year, four former Blazers signed football scholarships. Central’s Darren Daniel signed with Stanford, Brookstone’s Brian Vogler with Alabama, Hardaway’s Marcus Smith with Louisville and Wilcox County’s Lonnie Outlaw with Georgia.
In 2009, the three Blazers who landed scholarships were also products of Columbus high schools. Northside’s Torin Walker and James Vincent signed basketball scholarships with Oklahoma State and Georgia State, respectively, and Carver’s Jarvis Jones signed a football scholarship with USC. Jones has since transferred to Georgia and Walker has transferred to Middle Tennessee State.
In 2008, two Blazers signed basketball scholarships — Albany’s Andre Young with Clemson and Dothan’s Xavier Gibson with Florida State — while two more signed football scholarships — Carver’s Jarmon Fortson with Florida State and Pacelli’s Jarquise Terry with Kent State.
“The program was run good up to a certain point a couple of years ago,” said Jamal Jackson, whose son, Brandon, has been in and out of the program for about five years and is currently on one of the under-15 teams. “They were recruiting more kids instead of looking around here. You can find some talent right here in Columbus. Give them a chance. Not everybody is cut out to be a Division I prospect.”
The problem with exposure
Jamal Jackson said the trips to places like Orlando for what are called exposure tournaments — where top prospects are put on display for college coaches and scouts — is part of the problem.
“That’s where this whole thing blows up, right there,” he said.
Deborah Colon wants to see the program resurrected, and that is her message to the city officials who will ultimately make the decisions about the fate of the Georgia Blazers.
“Do not mess up the program; our kids need something to do,” she said. “If you have to have somebody else run it, that is well and good. But don’t mess up the players — and it is not just my child, it’s all the local ones I am concerned about.”
The city manager’s office has made a recommendation that the Blazers travel program be broken away from the city and run under a nonprofit organization similar to what is done in other communities. There has been no action from council on that proposal.
As the Blazers program is mothballed, Robert Colon has been looking for a place to play. He wanted to play with the Georgia Jaguars, another AAU program based out of Columbus that receives no public funding and has a mostly Columbus roster.
Michael Woods, coach of the Jaguars, said the release of the Parks & Rec audit has made the always difficult task of fundraising even tougher, which has cut down on the opportunities he can offer displaced players like Robert Colon.
“Just because we are AAU, a lot of people are painting us with the same brush,” Woods said. “A lot of people are putting all of us in the same situation, and that is hard for the kids.”
Two Jaguars teams — the 12-under girls and 13-under boys — qualified for the national tournament in Orlando next week. The teams will make the trip, but the fundraising hasn’t been easy, Woods said.
“The parents have been making the push to get it done,” he said. “They have been selling raffle tickets and gift cards to make it work.”
A Phenix City boys 14-under team, the Southeastern Hornets, is also making the trip to Orlando for the national tournament.But the Blazers boys teams are not playing this month, leaving players like Robert Colon looking for games.
“He goes down and plays some at the Boys Club,” Deborah Colon said.
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