Prep school glories take bad bounce

FITCHBURG -- In the realm of New England prep schools, Notre Dame of Fitchburg looks like a lost soul. No leafy campus. No first-rate library, arts, or athletic facility. No rich endowment. No accreditation.

But in six seasons since the once-traditional parochial school dodged financial peril by launching a postgraduate basketball program, tiny Notre Dame (enrollment: 50) has made a big name for itself by mastering the art of helping struggling students meet the National Collegiate Athletic Association's academic eligibility standards and reap millions of dollars in basketball scholarships.

By its own count, Notre Dame has funneled no fewer than 47 players -- nearly eight a year -- to Division 1 basketball programs. And the school's system seems nearly foolproof. Despite challenges posed by the likes of Iowa State star Will Blalock, who skipped 100 days in his junior year at East Boston High School, and Northeastern phenom Shawn James, an academic flop at a failing high school in Brooklyn, N.Y., Notre Dame officials said they have succeeded in grooming all but one of their last 30 or more basketball players to gain NCAA eligibility.

But to what end?

In an era when the NCAA has made improving the academic performance of student-athletes a top priority, particularly in the high-stakes hotbed of big-time college basketball, at least 18 of the 47 players (38.3 percent) who vaulted to the Division 1 stage from Notre Dame stumbled. They ran into problems ranging from losing academic eligibility to facing criminal charges for embezzlement, rioting, and rape. In many cases, they squandered lucrative scholarships, leaving them with little more than Notre Dame diplomas and frayed dreams of basketball glory.

While Notre Dame can claim numerous success stories and favorable endorsements from alumni, parents, coaches, and benefactors, the school's role as a pipeline to major college basketball teams has thrust the little prep powerhouse into the thorny debate over who should take credit _ or blame _ for a student-athlete's performance in higher education. The most recent NCAA study indicated that 44 percent of Division 1 basketball players failed to graduate on time.

University of Hartford president Walter Harrison, chairman of the NCAA committee on academic performance, called the rate of problems among Notre Dame graduates in Division 1 schools ``way too high." He said institutions that accept higher-risk students bear a responsibility to support them.

``That's exactly the kind of problem we are hoping to make universities and colleges accountable for in the academic reform movement at the NCAA level," Harrison said. ``Nearly 40 percent of any group of students in a university should not be leaving."

So, who gets the blame for Brandon Robinson, an honors student at Notre Dame in 2001, leaving Auburn after he became academically ineligible to play his senior season?

Or for Mauricio Branwell, Robinson's classmate at Notre Dame, leaving Seton Hall after he was suspended from the basketball team his freshman year for fighting?

Or for La Salle star Mike Cleaves, who graduated with Robinson and Branwell from Notre Dame, awaiting trial on numerous charges, including rape, involving an attack last year on a 19-year-old woman in a La Salle dormitory?

Bill Barton, the principal, admissions officer, athletic director, basketball coach, and English teacher at Notre Dame, said the school cuts no corners and responsibly fulfills its mission of "getting kids a high school diploma and getting them into college."

High-risk gamble
Unlike the other New England prep schools with postgraduate basketball programs, Notre Dame has a high enrollment rate of students with academic and developmental needs, according to Barton and educators at other prep schools. Notre Dame carved its niche in 1997 by tapping the increased demand for postgraduate help after the NCAA raised the minimum standard for combined SAT scores to 820 from 700.

"Bill helps kids who are in more dire straits academically and financially," said Jere Quinn, the basketball coach at St. Thomas More in Connecticut. Notre Dame and St. Thomas More compete in Class A of the New England Prep School Athletic Council, widely considered the most talent-rich prep basketball league in the country.

The league also includes Brewster, Bridgton, Maine Central, New Hampton, South Kent, and Winchendon, none of whose basketball players have run into problems at Division 1 colleges at a rate faintly approaching Notre Dame's.

"A lot of the kids Bill takes may not have the strong support systems at home that would increase their chances of success," Quinn said. "You're talking about kids who are more at-risk."

As a result, Barton said, they need more attention. Even though Notre Dame represents the last chance for many of its students, school officials regularly have to awaken a number of players and lead them to classes from their dormitory, a 17-bedroom renovated Victorian next to the school.

"I tell the [college] coaches, 'You have to ride herd on the kids and hold them accountable,' " Barton said. "But a lot of coaches only care about what the kids do on the basketball court. They don't care about the rest of their lives, which I think is a crime."

A number of Notre Dame players have hurt their chances of succeeding, Barton said, by choosing the wrong college. Nate Daniels, for example, a 6-foot-7-inch forward from San Diego, signed with Fresno State despite Barton's warning that the basketball program was too "laissez faire" to safeguard his educational needs.

Daniels quickly flunked out, launching an odyssey in which he has played for four colleges in five years.

Barton said marginal players who join high-powered basketball programs may not receive the personal attention and educational support they would command as stars of less competitive teams.

"I always advise the kid to go to the appropriate level," he said. " tell them, 'Go where you're going to play and get a degree. At some of these factories, you're not going to get a degree. They're just going to forget about you.' But too many kids put an emphasis on wanting to play at the highest possible level."

Branwell may have remained in school, Barton suggested, if he had signed with a school smaller than Seton Hall.

"He was averaging about 1 point and 1 rebound a game when he got into the fight and they kicked him out," Barton said. "If he had been averaging a double-double, one fight wouldn't have gotten him kicked out."

For Cleaves, Notre Dame was his third high school in three years. A point guard from Paterson, N.J., he spent about a month at Notre Dame on "house arrest" for narrowly breaking curfew, according to headmaster Jeffrey Hammond.

"I remember talking to him when his house arrest was almost complete,' " Hammond recalled.

"Mike said, 'Actually, I kind of like it. If I have the opportunity to go out, I can get in trouble.' "

Trouble visited Cleaves after his third season at La Salle, when he and teammate Gary Neal were arrested after a woman reported the players took turns sexually assaulting her while she was visiting the school as a basketball camp counselor. The players were dismissed from the La Salle team and are free on $50,000 bail awaiting trial in July.

While the case contributed to the resignation of La Salle's coach, the fallout hardly affected Notre Dame. Barton enrolled his usual complement of 14 players last fall, including four from the Cecil Kirk Recreation Center in Baltimore.

Among them was Chester Frazier, a 6-2 point guard who has signed to play next year for Illinois, the top-ranked team in the country.

"Bill came highly recommended," said Anthony Lewis, the rec center's director and AAU coach. "He's no-nonsense. He prepares the kids for the next level."

Pay as you play
Since Notre Dame offers no frills, the annual tuition for the basketball program, including room and board, is $15,000 (tuition at many other New England prep schools tops $32,000 a year).

But in an unusual twist, Notre Dame tends to charge based on the players' basketball skills, with the best player paying about $1,500, the 14th-best paying full tuition, and the rest charged on a graduated scale.

Barton said the program helps cover the school's expenses. Notre Dame also serves 26 day students in grades 7 through 12 (full tuition:

$4,500) and 10 international students (full tuition: $15,000), creating an unusual mix.

"The reason it works is that the basketball players are so much bigger and older than the rest of the students that they don't feel threatened by anyone," Hammond said. "They are the kindest people here."

The school's gym is so small that the team rents a practice court and plays only a few of its 36 games a year at "home" -- Fitchburg State College. Notre Dame's library is so limited that students receive cards for the public library.

The school, founded in 1952, has 3½years remaining to become accredited by the New England Association of Schools and Colleges, the only accrediting agency for secondary schools in New England.

(Notre Dame asked to become a candidate for accreditation 18 months ago, opening a five-year window of opportunity.) Yet despite its bare bones, Notre Dame continues to work eligibility wonders with students who previously failed to achieve the SAT scores or course credits to meet NCAA standards. Consider Blalock, who managed to graduate on schedule from Notre Dame despite the 100 days he didn't commute from his Dorchester home to East Boston High School his junior year. A sophomore at Iowa State, Blalock leads the team in assists and ranks second in scoring.

"We woke him up every morning and he only missed one day of school the whole year, when he was in the hospital with asthma," Barton said. "He was far from the worst student we've had here."

James posed a greater challenge.

College recruiters described his initial high school transcript as "a mess." A 6-9 underachiever, James wound up at the High School of Redirection in Brooklyn, which closed last year, partly because of a 3.7 percent graduation rate.

"He needed a lot of work, but he could read and write," Barton said. "Some kids are way below grade level."

A Brooklyn benefactor, Norm Ostrin, paid for James to attend Notre Dame last year. Ostrin, who described himself as a ladies' clothing salesman and recovering alcoholic, said he was doing "God's work" in sending James and three other students from NewYork City to Fitchburg.

"I'm not an agent and I have no ulterior motive," he said. "God gave me a second chance and I feel a need to give back."

Ostrin, who captained the 1954 basketball team at Lincoln High School, said James seemed destined for "sweeping floors" before Notre Dame helped him improve his basketball skills, receive his diploma, and land a scholarship at Northeastern at age 21.

"In a lot of ways, they saved this young man in terms of teaching him how to study and concentrate on his academics," said Northeastern coach Ron Everhart.

"Bill Barton holds his players accountable."

Eligibility standards Still, James had to sit out the first two games of the season and the first four games of the second semester to resolve his eligibility status. Once James cleared the initial hurdle, he ran into trouble by failing to complete two courses his first semester. That left him short of passing the six credit hours he needed to remain eligible.

Everhart said he was curious why James fared well in two courses he took last summer at Northeastern but struggled with a heavier course load in the fall.

When tests showed that James was coping with attention deficit disorder and dyslexia, he was classified as learning disabled, clearing the way for him to regain his eligibility.

"His professors were willing to be more helpful," Everhart said, noting that James receives tutoring and regular help from the school's resource center for the learning disabled.

With his eligibility intact, James became the America East Rookie of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year.

"It's like something out of a movie," Ostrin said.

Not for Jamal Dart, who also attended Notre Dame last year thanks to Ostrin. Dart played at Lincoln High School with Sebastian Telfair, who was selected in the first round of last year's NBA draft by the Portland Trail Blazers.

While Telfair began his NBA career with basketball and shoe deals worth more than $17 million, Dart labored at Notre Dame.

The transition was particularly tough, since Dart's parents died while he was attending Lincoln.

So it was a poignant moment when Northeastern offered Dart a basketball scholarship.

"It was the happiest day of the kid's life," Barton said. "He and Shawn were going to Northeastern.

He was so thrilled."

Then the NCAA denied Dart's eligibility. Without realizing the implications, Dart had received a diploma from Lincoln before he enrolled at Notre Dame as a fifth year senior. Because Dart did not satisfy New York's requirements for a Regents diploma, which generally is required for admission to a four-year college, Lincoln gave him a lower-tier certificate known as a local diploma.

As a result, his year of work at Notre Dame effectively went for naught. The NCAA does not grant eligibility based on a second high school diploma.

"From looking at his transcript, I was under the impression he had not graduated," Barton said. "His high school coach had spent all his time with Sebastian and told Jamal, 'Go ahead and graduate, you're all set.' He sure didn't help the kid. I lost a lot of respect for that coach."

Northeastern appealed the NCAA's ruling, to no avail. Crestfallen, Dart enrolled in a two-year program at Broward Community College in Florida with no guarantee he can return to Northeastern.

"The option will be open to Jamal," Everhart said, "but he'll probably be recruited very heavily."

Academic judgments
College scouts flocked last week to the Class A prep playoffs at Endicott College in Beverly, where Notre Dame topped St.

Thomas More Wednesday and was eliminated in the semifinals Friday by Bridgton. But even though Notre Dame's season officially ended, Barton planned to continue holding practices to showcase his players. By the end of the school year, more than 200 coaches will have scouted Notre Dame.

"A lot of their kids come from tough homes and tough backgrounds," said Steve DeMeo, an assistant coach at Providence.

"But the school does a phenomenal job of making sure they do the work to become eligible for Division 1."

Perhaps the school's finest success story was Modibo Diarra, who spoke only one word of English ("yes") when he arrived from Mali, in West Africa, in 1997. Under Barton's tutelage, the 6-10 Diarra learned the language well enough in three years at Notre Dame that he signed with Memphis and played four seasons there before he joined a pro team in Germany.

Barton's current class of hopefuls includes two players from suburban Boston -- 6-8 Zack Mitzan of Wilmington and 6-1 Matt Zinck of Amesbury -- who reflect Notre Dame's recent ability to draw a wider range of players.

"We looked at some other prep schools, but we're not that traditional," said Mike Mitzan, Zack's father. "We weren't going to send him to a place where you have to wear a tie and sport jacket and have a house mother give you demerits.

We've had a great experience at Notre Dame."

Unlike the Mitzans, Harvey Perry chose Brewster Academy for his son, Harvey Perry Jr., who has committed to play next year for the University of Washington. But Perry, president of the I Care Youth Foundation in Las Vegas, said he is considering steering some players to Notre Dame because they may fare better there than at more traditional prep schools. Perry said he was less concerned about the number of Notre Dame graduates who have run into trouble at Division 1 schools than he was about the reasons for it.

"Everyone's at fault: the parents, the coaches, the schools," he said. "It's a domino effect. Everyone is exploiting these kids at a young age. This has turned into a business and kids need to be educated about the sharks who are out there."

One group of advocates for overhauling college athletics blamed the problem in part on admissions practices.

"Institutions should not take students who show no or very little likelihood of ever graduating," said Gary Engstrand, an administrator at the University of Minnesota and leader of the Coalition on Intercollegiate Athletics.

Harrison, at the University of Hartford, took a different view.

Harrison has helped launch the academic progress report, which the NCAA will begin using in the 2006-07 school year to penalize teams with low graduation rates.

And his school has accepted two basketball players in recent years from Notre Dame, both of whom remain in school.

"We believe in access and opportunity," Harrison said. "There is no problem with taking risks with individual students. But once we admit students, we have a responsibility to do everything we can to make sure we support them so they can succeed."