GREENSBORO -- Kenny Drummond, who runs a Greensboro-based academy for basketball players with college hoop dreams, faces arrest for trying to raise money online without a license.
In December, the N.C. Secretary of State's office issued a cease-and-desist order for Drummond, founder of Future Academy. The citation seeks to stop Drummond from using his Web site to ask for money for a new project, which, until recently, he was promoting on a Web site.
Officials haven't served the warrant, because they have been unable to find Drummond.
He did not return telephone calls from the News & Record.
In 2007, Drummond created Future Academy, a full-time basketball and college preparatory training program for teenage boys who want to play college ball. It's unclear whether the school is still operating, how many students are enrolled and whether they are receiving an education. A few players, whose families paid thousands of dollars to train with Drummond, are now enrolled at Grimsley High School but are not playing basketball for the Whirlies.
Last year, Future Academy canceled three games because it didn't have enough players.
In November, Future Academy participated in a three-day tournament at Louisburg College and dressed only six players, said John Meeks, Louisburg's coach. Meeks said Drummond failed to appear for one of the weekend's games and sent an understudy.
"They showed up and it was like they had never practiced," Meeks said. "Shabbily done to the point where even if you knew they existed and knew they were legit, we wouldn't invite them back."
But it is Drummond's most recent project, also called Future Academy, that is receiving attention from the Secretary of State's office. Until recently, he was using the Future Academy Web site to urge parents to pay him $10,000 now and $10,000 upon enrollment. The money, the site said, would cover travel costs, uniforms and other expenses for players.
Drummond's descriptions of Future Academy's educational components have varied during the past three years, but nothing under that name is accredited as a school, business or charity in North Carolina. State and federal laws say such an entity must be registered as one of the three if it takes in money.
By continuing to seek funding without going through proper channels, Drummond violated a cease-and-desist order, said Detective Stephanie Mardis, the investigator on the case.
The Future Academy Web site has been dismantled and the front page contains a message, purportedly from the site designer, warning people that Drummond's program is "not what it appears to be."
Drummond, an Illinois native, began his college basketball career at a California junior college and transferred to N.C. State in 1986. He played part of the 1986-87 season for the Wolfpack, but quit the team, which won the ACC tournament without him a few weeks later.
He then spent two years at High Point University and was named a NAIA All-American as a 25-year-old senior in 1990, and he attended classes at the University of Northern Iowa.
Drummond's detractors -- parents of students involved with the previous incarnation of Future Academy -- say the fund-raising charge is among the least of his offenses.
"You lure someone in, you get what you need and then you don't live up to your promises," said Harold Young, whose son, Johnell Young, came to Greensboro from New York but has since left Drummond's program and is enrolled at Grimsley.
The Youngs' allegations of fraud are complicated by the lack of certified, notarized paperwork. Drummond didn't provide any.
Contact Rob Daniels at sports@news-record.com
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