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GREENSBORO — A new hotline and e-mail address are available for people to report suspected violations as Guilford County Schools tries to curb recruiting and fraud in high school athletics.

The tools are part of the Fair Play campaign, designed to make coaches and parents aware of the system’s athletics eligibility and coaching rules.

“Not everyone is going to play by the rules, but more and more people understand they need to play by the rules,” Superintendent Maurice “Mo” Green said Wednesday.

Meanwhile, the school board will consider a policy that addresses student-athlete eligibility. The board will review it tonight for a third time, but it’s unclear whether it will pass.

The new campaign is nearly identical to Play Fair, a campaign Green helped establish before leaving Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools last year.

The Charlotte system has received 425 reports of violations since putting in place its phone and e-mail reporting services. That does not include calls and letters directly sent to the athletics department. The Charlotte school system has found six ineligible players and four residency violations since implementing Play Fair in August 2008.

The campaign is the latest effort since Green closed the athletics investigation at Northern Guilford High this month. That investigation, prompted by complaints from the community and within the school system, found 12 student-athletes were enrolled at the school despite living outside the school’s district.

The findings involved 10 teams and led to the resignation of the school’s principal and athletics director, the banning of the boys basketball coach and a football coach, the firing of a custodian and several hundred dollars in fines.

Leigh Hebbard, Guilford County Schools’ director of athletics, said he expects Fair Play to inform the public about the rules and bring a heightened awareness about eligibility to the public.

“We don’t want people playing games with the process,” Hebbard said.

But a key component of the campaign remains missing, at least until possibly this evening. The school board has yet to approve a student athletics policy defining an eligible player, how eligibility will be proved and penalties.

Fair Play includes an honor code pledge that all student-athletes, parents and coaches must sign. The honor code signed by parents and students says they are providing a valid home address within the school’s attendance zone and that they haven’t provided false information.

Some parents signed another form. This form is an optional state form that includes similar language and medical information. It is not required by N.C. High School Athletic Association or Guilford County Schools but is recommended to coaches by both.

The coaches’ honor code includes language about not recruiting students, about verifying addresses that students have provided and making parents and students aware of penalties for providing false information.

“There were places that we wanted to put specific language, but without having the policy yet, we really couldn’t put it in there,” Hebbard said of the honor code.

By signing the document, all involved agree to adhere to all NCHSAA rules. Those are the same rules the school system has expected coaches and athletes to follow all along.

The proposed policy reflects the NCHSAA rules but goes a step further by establishing additional criteria and penalties.
The school board approved a policy governing coaches this summer.

Officials have revised and put out for public comment the student athletics policy twice since it was first proposed in June.
Policy highlights:

-- Students must provide documentation each year proving they live in the school’s district before playing a sport.

-- A part-time residence cannot be used for athletics eligibility.

-- Students who are found to have lied about living in a school’s district to play a sport will be banned from playing sports or participating in extracurricular activities for 365 days.

-- The policy establishes an athletic eligibility committee to investigate cases and hear appeals. The school system provided no appeals process for students found ineligible during last year’s investigation.

-- JROTC and 13 academic programs are cited as programs for which students can transfer to a school and play sports at those schools.

-- After ninth grade, students must earn a weighted 2.0 grade-point average each semester. This rule would be phased in, and students will be required to maintain a 1.5 GPA each semester during this school year.

-- Summer school credit can be used to recover eligibility.

Contact J. Brian Ewing at 373-7351 or brian.ewing@news-record.com