Time to Remove Alcohol From Recruiting Process

A college recruiting trip is supposed to be a fun experience for a high school athlete.

It’s an all-expenses-paid, 48-hour extravaganza. You are fussed over, chauffeured, escorted and fed until your stomach is content. You are introduced to important people and given a sneak preview of college life.

But parents be warned: When a recruiting trip becomes too fun, trouble is brewing. And when a high school recruit is taken to a fraternity party that has beer cans piling up like dirty laundry, warning bells should go off.

What happened to baseball player Matt Fisher of Chatsworth High during his recruiting trip to San Diego State two weeks ago is straight out of a raunchy, R-rated movie.

After attending an alcohol-filled fraternity party, he ended up early Sunday at an off-campus residence, where a 20-year-old female student lives with several San Diego State baseball players.

Fisher, 18, was later arrested when the student alleged she had been sexually assaulted. Fisher denied the charge. The San Diego County district attorney decided not to file charges after independent witnesses corroborated Fisher’s account that there was no assault.

Fisher must accept some responsibility for poor judgment by putting himself in a situation that tarnished his reputation and jeopardized his future.

But San Diego State is truly to blame. When parents send off their teenage sons and daughters on recruiting trips, they are placing trust in the school to take care of young, impressionable athletes. The school chooses the recruiting hosts. The school designs the recruiting itinerary.

San Diego State flunked on its responsibility.

Fisher is hardly the first recruit who attended a party where alcohol was served. But that doesn’t make it right and maybe it’s about time the dirty, little secret was exposed.

“Whatever it takes to get the kid to go to the school, that’s what they’re going to do,” said one college recruiter.

Everyone laughs about the tales from Southern colleges, how a football recruit opens his hotel room and finds a female student on the bed wearing a sash, “Courtesy of State University.”

Who knows what’s fact and what’s fiction. But for almost a week, Fisher and his family were badly shaken by the incident. It was made worse by the tabloid news judgment of Channel 4. Anyone who watched “ER” Thursday night saw repeated promos for the 11 p.m. news--”High school star athlete accused of rape.”

Forget that the arrest was four days old. Forget that Fisher was not a professional or college athlete. He was the lead story, complete with a live report from Chatsworth High.

The next night, after the district attorney decided to end its investigation with no charges filed against Fisher, do you think Channel 4 led its 11 p.m. newscast with the same story? Not a chance. The station did provide an update later in the broadcast and interviewed Fisher’s father.

Friends of Fisher never stopped offering support. College coaches who had met him during the recruiting process and knew his character refused to abandon him.

Among those was Coach Gary Adams of UCLA. He called Fisher’s mother, Vicki, to lend his support.

“I was never more moved,” she said. “I’ll never forget it.”

Fisher’s nightmare is a lesson for others.

Parents inexperienced in the recruiting process need to ask specific questions of college coaches about a trip’s itinerary and remind their teenage son or daughter to make good decisions.

Schools must enforce a zero-tolerance policy when it comes to alcohol and recruits. Athletic Director Rick Bay of San Diego State said his department’s policy is firm: Recruits are not supposed to be taken to parties where alcohol is served.

“We’re going to reinforce our own rules with our coaching staff and student hosts so that everybody again is clear,” Bay said.

Last weekend, shortstop Jonathon Brewster of Notre Dame took a recruiting visit to USC. His parents told him, “Be careful.”

What happened to Fisher was clearly on their minds. USC Coach Mike Gillespie sensed it, for he reassured Brewster’s mother, Karen, that the players hosting her son were “very nice kids” and would take good care of him.

“He put our minds at ease,” Karen said.

Brewster ended up committing to USC, proving you don’t have to take recruits to a wild party to convince them they had a positive campus visit.

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Eric Sondheimer’s local column appears Wednesday and Sunday. He can be reached at (818) 772-3422 or eric.sondheimer@latimes.com