Macomb Dakota HS & MHSAA collab to keep top hooper ineligible for senior year

Submitted by chuck bass on

I guess the coach and admins at Dakota HS in Macomb County felt entitled to this kid's athletic glory. Sad we entrust our children with vindictive dopes who think they "own" our kids.

-- Thomas Kithier, 6-8 225lb PF c/o 2018. Signed with Sparty. #7 player overall in Michigan.
 
-- Dakota lost to Clarkston 2 of last 3 years in class A playoffs. Clarkston 2017 state champs.
 
-- Dakota's coach made his 11th grade son starting PG and football QB.
 
-- With 3,000 students, Dakota is largest high school in Michigan, an athletic power benefiting from countless uncontested incoming athlete transfers.
 
-- Kithier, age 18, says school environment "toxic", wanted out for senior year, considered out of state prep school, Izzo encouraged him to stay in-state. Family advised at age 18 he can live on his own and qualify for athletics at different district. Gets a condo in August in Oakland County's Clarkston, which happens to be home of a hoops coaching legend & his AAU point guard and future MSU teammate, Foster Loyer, #2 overall in Michigan.
 
-- MHSAA Associate Director Tom Rashid allegedly told Clarkston's AD "if Dakota had any balls they won't sign Kithier's transfer release."
 
-- Tom Rashid and Dakota AD Mike Fusco are long-time friends.
 
-- "MHSAA investigation came as a result of complaints filed by Dakota Athletic Director Mike Fusco Dakota head coach Paul Tocco and the school refused to sign Kithier’s educational transfer form, which would have granted immediate eligibility."
 
-- MHSAA tells kid in October he has to sit out until January 15, 2018, 90 days.
 
-- Family and Clarkston challenge the ruling because they did everything as advised for him to gain immediate eligibility. MHSAA drops the hammer and says okay, now it's the entire year, 180 days!

Everyone Murders

December 8th, 2017 at 10:43 AM ^

Maybe on topic as Kithier is an MSU commit?  That aside, I feel bad for the kid because obviously athletics are a big part of his life.  

That stated, I don't know enough about the facts to tell whether the Kithier family was gaming the system.  If somehow MSU's coaching staff encouraged the move behind the scenes and it blew up, I'd find that kind of funny (while still feeling bad for Kithier).

1989 UM GRAD

December 8th, 2017 at 2:21 PM ^

...with any regularity, you invariably know more about WD than pretty much anyone else in your life.  

Other than my immediate family and my wife's cousin's crazy wife (who posts on Facebook 10+ times per day), I probably know more about WD than just about anyone.

Double-D

December 8th, 2017 at 12:30 PM ^

Fair play for all of the neighborhood kids and programs that follow the rules with dreams to compete for Championships. It’s a rule violated all too often.

I have mixed feelings and don’t know all of the circumstances. You always hate to see a kid get hosed.

stephenrjking

December 8th, 2017 at 2:22 PM ^

Yeah, no joke. Things are just as wild here in Northern Minnesota. There's a reason that in my immediate local area of five high schools with hockey teams two are state title contenders, one (the private school) is perennially good, and two are awful. And it's not because the good players all happen to live on one side of a street.

APBlue

December 8th, 2017 at 3:13 PM ^

They did not move.  They (the parents) remained in Macomb.  He got an apartment in Clarkston.  

I'm split on this.  It sounds like it was athletically motivated.  It sounds like he was going to Clarkston to play with the PG that's also committed to MSU.  

However, if the kid legitimately moves, why can't he play.  

I'd have to know more about his living arrangement before making a final decision, though.  What exactly is his rent?  Who is his landlord?  Did he actually, on his own, find an apartment or is he renting from the PG's family or from an MSU booster?  

Need more facts, man.  Lol.  Either way, sucks for the kid. 

Never rely on the MHSAA to do the right thing.  That is one of the worst run organizations ever.

Arb lover

December 8th, 2017 at 9:36 PM ^

Yeah the more I read on this the more I think maybe there's some booster money in the back of this. However it really stinks for the kid. Should just let kids play high school sports, I mean, really. It's not like Dakota is a bad school that will suffer from this loss of a player. 

Yeoman

December 13th, 2017 at 5:34 PM ^

But in Ohio, if the facts are as you state, he'd be ineligible without question. He'd only be eligible at the new school if his parents or legal guardian relocated into the new district.

Ohio's regs add another wrinkle: recruiting doesn't have to be by a person connected to the school. Anyone using influence to try to get an athlete enrolled at a particular high school for athletic purposes is recruiting and it becomes a violation. If, as it sounds, Izzo tried to influence the kid's decision on where to attend, that violates the recruiting bylaw and he'd be ineligible for that too.

Again, I don't know how Michigan's bylaws might differ.

 

chuck bass

December 9th, 2017 at 11:24 AM ^

Our kids are in not in Clarkston Community Schools. I just have empathy for the kid and his family after reading grown men, paid by the public to elevate kids, conspired to harm a random teen. No doubt the secondary education "professionals" involved in this took joy out of what they've done to this young man and his family. It's disgraceful.

Don

December 8th, 2017 at 11:47 AM ^

I was in junior high and high school with a number of supposed mob family kids back in Grosse Pointe. One of them was rumored to have been involved with Hoffa's disappearance after I graduated. I was on good terms with them and they never bothered me, but I certainly wasn't inclined to get in their grill about what their dads and uncles allegedly did for a living.

A couple of them were on varsity sports teams with me, and they were good guys, excellent students, never gave me or anybody else any grief, and one of them came to U-M a year or so after I did.

Activity with the mob crosses many national and ethnic borders. The Irish John F. Kennedy family history during the prohibition years was pretty lurid. The infamous and vicious Purple Gang in Detroit that was active during Prohibition was largely Jewish. Now Russians and East Europeans are running many criminal enterprises in the northeast, and Mexicans and Central Americans are active in many parts of the country.

Blue in Paradise

December 8th, 2017 at 12:39 PM ^

Italian mob gets about 90% of their income from legit sources these days.  The funny thing is that those business lines started off as "fronts" in order to launder the funds from illicit activities and now they are the vast majority of the business.

The remaining activities are the white collar stuff like gambling and corruption / skimming from gov't contracts...

Like you said, the Italian families have been happy to let the new immigrant groups to do the dirty work (drugs, prostitution, "protection" rackets, etc...)

Matt EM

December 8th, 2017 at 10:45 AM ^

MHSAA has a transfer exception (meaning you don't have to sit a full semester after transferring) with respect to full family housing moves into another school district. Assuming the alleged Kithier move did not meet exception criteria, not allowing eligibility for the full year is quite suspect in my opinion.

Goggles Paisano

December 8th, 2017 at 10:46 AM ^

Just from reading your summarization of this situation and as a baseball coach of young kids, sports and winning often and unfortunately seem to matter more to the adults than the kids.  

Naked Bootlegger

December 8th, 2017 at 10:46 AM ^

Just moved back to Michigan after a long hiatus, so I'm not terribly familiar with things.  But I'm so confused since Michigan is now a school of choice state, correct?   Can't students move to different schools on their own whim, but probably subject to some transfer rules (like the 90 days you refer to)?  Why would Dakota have to sign off on a transfer release if school of choice is the law of the land?

ToledoWolverine

December 8th, 2017 at 10:48 AM ^

Moved into the district, outside of the new school paying for the move, it should not be any of MHSAA business the reason behind their move. They made a decision as a family. This is the type of shit that will give birth to more and more IMG academies and when all the best athletes leave the state then MHSAA can look only as far as this bullshit.