Tuesday, June 19, 2007

Something To Keep An Eye On

It might be a good idea to read and remember this story from Tuesday, June 19th's Birmingham News:
Jerry Browning resigned Monday as Hoover High School athletics director and accepted the same position at Saint James School in Montgomery.

Browning said he is leaving after three years because of "philosophical differences" with the current Hoover administration and the chance to spend more time with his family.

"There have been some changes this year that differ from my philosophical approach to education," said Browning, who declined to discuss specifics.

"My entire career, one thing that's very important to me is honesty, integrity, character development. Those are things that I cherish, and I think it's very important those things have to be maintained."

Attempts to reach Hoover Principal Richard Bishop for comment were unsuccessful.
First glance, this is a who-cares, especially if you don't live in Alabama... but a veritable flock of little birds are telling me that this won't be the last time you see the words "Hoover High," "athletics," "education" and "integrity" in the same newspaper article this summer.

Like I said, one to keep an eye on.

UPDATE: From Wednesday's News:
The superintendent for Hoover City Schools said Tuesday he is investigating concerns raised by Hoover High School's athletics director, who resigned Monday and took a job with a private school in Montgomery.

Superintendent Andy Craig said Jerry Browning, Hoover's athletics director for three years, came to him with concerns about the school's athletic programs before he resigned and took a job as athletics director at Saint James School.

Craig would not elaborate on the concerns, saying he did not want to speculate on anything that has not been confirmed.

"It's just too vague. There's nothing decisive," Craig said, adding that he is taking the concerns seriously.

When asked if the concerns related to the football program at Hoover, Craig paused and said: "It's not just football."
Not just football. Perhaps not just one recently-recruited football player, either.

6 comments:

The Mustard Man said...

Who are the Hoover recruits affected, do you think?

Unknown said...

I have a gut feeling that we're about to start at a war of accusations again between Alabama and Auburn IF something comes out of this.

Unknown said...

Kerry Murphy, Josh Chapman. Both had grades changed. Teachers who refused to change their grades were fired. So that is two bama commits and two other students (in Mobile) who were STRONG uaT leans had their grades changed. Yes I do realize the two Mobile students signed with AU, but at the time of the grade change it was STRONGLY speculated they would end up at uaT.

Unknown said...

Soooo..........if they still can't read when they get to UaT and therefore can't qualify for their sophmore season does it really matter?

The Mustard Man said...

Yeah - it's a UAT recruiting story! Still not the university's fault (probably) but now the Tahd idiots can stop connecting AU to the mobile story.

Unknown said...

Chapman? I don't believe anybody I've heard on your AU scout board is considering this to be Chapman. Murphy is more believable, even though he supposedly didn't pass his high school exit exams.

Now, if these kids were allowed to change classes before the Sugar Bowl (when no other students are allowed to do so) in order to qualify, then that would be fishy.... wait a sec.