High schools with big-time sports ambitions were dealt a setback Thursday when the Supreme Court upheld a rule that forbids coaches from recruiting young athletes.
In a 9-0 decision, the justices said the 1st Amendment’s guarantee of free speech does not shield coaches who ignore the rules of fair competition by contacting students and encouraging them to enroll in their schools.
“To hold otherwise would undermine the principle … that high school football is a game,” said Justice John Paul Stevens, quoting a lower court judge. “Games have rules. It is only fair that Brentwood follow them,” he added, referring to the private school near Nashville that had become a powerhouse in Tennessee sports.
Brentwood Academy’s coach, Carlton Flatt, won 10 state football championships in his 34-year career. But he triggered an investigation by the state athletic association for sending letters to some 8th-grade boys in 1997 that urged them to show up for spring practice. They were signed “Your Coach.”
Brentwood was put on probation by the Tennessee Secondary School Athletic Association and was suspended from the playoffs for two years. The school took the fight to court, arguing that the rule violated its free-speech rights, and won before a federal judge and appeals court, only to suffer a unanimous reversal Thursday.
The court’s ruling is likely to reverberate across the country because all 50 states have high school athletic associations with similar anti-recruiting rules, which apply to private and public schools.
It also comes when sports at some schools have reached an unprecedented level of media attention and competitive pressure.
The Supreme Court stressed that Brentwood Academy chose to join the state athletic association and to compete for its championship. “For that reason, the 1st Amendment does not excuse Brentwood from abiding by the same anti-recruiting rule that governs the conduct of its sister schools,” Stevens said.
For their part, the coach and headmaster at Brentwood said the letters were sent only to students who already had expressed an interest in attending the private academy.
An advocate for private schools called the ruling a disappointment. “Certainly you accept the rules on the field, but you shouldn’t have to accept a limit on free speech outside the competition,” said Washington lawyer Andrew McBride.
But officials of the state high school athletic associations said they feared a legal victory for Brentwood Academy would have undermined the enforcement of all rules of competition.
High school athletes are getting national exposure as never before, thanks to the proliferation of Internet recruiting Web sites and the willingness of cable TV channels to broadcast high school events nationally.
ESPN was one of the first to tap into the high school sports scene four years ago by broadcasting a basketball game that featured a promising teenage player, LeBron James, now a superstar with the Cleveland Cavaliers. That game opened the floodgates to national attention for high school sports.
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