OPERATION VARSITY BLUES 2?

"Operation Varsity Blues" was the code name for the federal investigation into a college admissions bribery scheme that involved bribing exam administrators, coaches, and administrators to facilitate the admission of unqualified applicants to elite universities, and it was made public on March 12, 2019.

Rick Singer was the mastermind behind the scheme, a college consultant. Lori Loughlin and Mossimo Giannulli were actors who pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit fraud in connection with the scandal.

In January 2023, Singer was sentenced to three and a half years in prison plus forfeiture of over $10 million.

Singer also bribed college athletics staff and coaches. At certain colleges, these personnel can submit a certain number of sports recruit names to the admissions office, which then views those applications more favorably. Singer used his Key Worldwide Foundation as a money-laundering operation to pay coaches a bribe for labeling applicants as athletic recruits. He also fabricated profiles highlighting each applicant's purported athletic prowess.

In one such incident, Michael Center, the men's tennis coach at the University of Texas (UT), accepted about $100,000 to designate an applicant as a recruit for the Texas Longhorns tennis team. University Southern Calaifornia's senior associate athletic director Donna Heinel and water polo coach Jovan Vavic allegedly received $1.3 million and $250,000, respectively, for similar frauds.

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37 parents and eight NCAA coaches were caught up in the mess, with many forced to serve federal prison sentences.

The above information came from Wikipedia with various news sources.

Now, what does all this have to do with junior hockey?

Numerous sources that spent last week at the North American 3 Hockey League’s Fraser Cup near St. Louis contributed to our Monday story regarding the Colorado Grit and Michael Beavis. Various accounts claim that the new Grit team president was bragging about what he had done to secure Grit owner Bob Bowden’s son a spot on Utica University’s powerful NCAA Division III hockey team for next season.

Beavis was heard saying that Bowden was making a sizable donation to secure the son’s opportunity. It’s unclear if that donation was to be paid directly to the coach or to the school.

Regardless, coaches from around the NAHL, and other leagues, are all in agreement that the son is nowhere near the caliber of player that will be able to compete for a roster spot on Utica’s team.

This is especially the case considering all the players from the Canadian Hockey League becoming eligible for the NCAA Division I level of play.

We already know that it’s not the first time the wealthy team owner/father has used the wallet to help move his son up the ladder of development.

The son was playing at the elite level of the United States Premier Hockey League the season before the Grit was formed. Astonishingly, the young man was able to leap from that level to play his next 111 games in the NAHL, amassing two goals and five assists from his forward position.

Two serious questions remain. Is Bowden making this “donation” to the Utica coach or the school itself? The other question could be more sinister; is Beavis getting the job with the Grit the benefit of the owner’s son getting onto Utica’s team? Beavis has bragged about his connection to Utica men's hockey coach Gary Heenan for years, even describing Heenan as a former business partner.

Those are questions for the school to track down. Unfortunately, the Grit are already feeling the consequences. Head Coach Kevin Holmstrom resigned on Monday. It remains unclear who will be coaching the Grit this weekend when they visit Odessa. The reality is that we are not even sure what players will be available for the trip to Odessa.

We do know this, there are some folks in Utica that will be asked some hard questions over the next few weeks. Will it be the school or the Federal Bureau of Investigations asking those questions…or both?

OPERATION VARSITY BLUES 2? We’ve seen this story before, rich parent buys their kid an underserved spot on an NCAA team

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