As a sports ethics and business ethics keynote speaker, consultant and author, I thought I had pretty much “heard it all.” The following case does not involve a mega-billion-dollar Ponzi scheme, bribery or stealing from the government and yet, in its own quiet way it conveyed a terrible message.
The story, broke by Sports Director Craig Loper of WAVY-TV (January 30, 2023) involves the worst elements of fraud in absolute clarity.
Churchland High School
In a way, it is ironic that the Portsmouth, Virginia high school should be called “Churchland.” For one of their assistant coaches, a 22-year-old assistant coach (Arlisha Boykins), made the unethical decision to impersonate a 13-year-old middle school player who was away. It was far from “spiritual” in its deception. The 22-year-old wore the jersey of the absent player and was allegedly cheered on by the varsity coach. It is all on video; there is no doubt about the guilt.
As a result of the deception, the parents of the absent player angrily demanded action from the school. The parents were absolutely correct in their complaint, for it talks to the integrity of the program, and misrepresented their daughter.
According to Craig Loper, shortly after the coaches were fired, “the Churchland High School administration held a meeting with parents and players for both the JV and varsity team…the players, along with parents, chose to opt out of the remainder of the season.”
The father of the 13-year-old said, “Coaches always preach to the kids about integrity and those types of things, so I was just shocked,”
The 13-year-old most likely will attend another school next year.
Why this kind of fraud really matters
In the overall scheme of things, some people might regard this bait and switch as comedy; something to laugh about at a party. As a sports ethics keynote speaker, sports ethics consultant and sports ethics book author, I can assure everyone seeing humor in this, that it is a serious and troubling matter.
As to the “how” this could happen, it might have followed most any other serious fraud. The coaches seized on an opportunity because “no one was looking.” The JV coach was young enough and unknown to the other team and officials. Who was going to challenge her?
The needs to commit fraud might have been many-fold. Maybe it was the desire to “win” or maybe it was a kind of joke.
How could they rationalize doing this? Perhaps the coaches felt it was harmless and this is where I want to explore it more deeply.
Fraud is always like ripples in a pond. It is not harmless; it affects lives far beyond the event (in this case, the game) itself. Let us begin with the coaches, both varsity and JV. They decided to commit fraud in order to win and/or deceive. It goes against any and every rule of what a good coach should be. It is, once again, what happens when there are no ethical expectations and worse, no ethical training.
However, the real damage was to the players. There were more than four JV players. It means that the coach, in her selfishness, decided to insert herself into a game when other kids were stuck sitting on the bench. This sends an awful, ego-crushing message. Even if the young women on the bench were just learning, or poor athletes, it made no difference. An honest loss was much more preferable to a fraudulent win.
There is no question the coaches should have been fired on the spot.
As to the young woman who was misrepresented, I would not blame her for leaving the school for she and her parents are reacting to an entire culture. Winning is not everything. These were JV kids. You play with the team you have on the floor. It is the law eternal. It is true of basketball and of life – and – who knows? Maybe, just maybe, one of the bench sitters might have been elevated to greatness, elevated beyond all expectations.
Beyond all of this, I worry that women’s sports as a whole are affected. I could not imagine men’s coaches would have thought to get away with this. This incident was not a joke, nothing about this fraud was harmless.
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