Yelverton, postgraduates not part of ORMA's future : News-Record.com : Greensboro & the Triad's most trusted source for local news and analysis

OAK RIDGE — Otis Yelverton resigned as football coach and athletics director at Oak Ridge Military Academy on Monday, just hours before ORMA president David Johnson for the first time acknowledged to the News & Record that the school will no longer allow postgraduate players.

Yelverton said he is leaving to pursue an opportunity that is “not football-related,” but would not provide details.

“It may lead to nowhere, it may lead to one day I may be a general manager of maybe a professional basketball or baseball team. Who knows?” Yelverton said. “I’ve got to leave immediately, and that’s that. It’s something that I’ve been working on for a while.”

Johnson said he will immediately begin looking for an athletics director and football coach.

Yelverton recruited about a dozen Division I-caliber athletes from across the country to launch Oak Ridge’s startup football program, which went 8-0 last season against a mix of regional public and private high schools and a community-based organization for at-risk teens, outscoring its opponents by a combined 329-15. Five opponents canceled games after learning of the Cadets’ use of postgraduate players, which is prohibited by the two governing bodies for high school sports in the state. Oak Ridge is a member of neither, though Johnson said the school is looking into joining the N.C. Independent Schools Athletic Association.

“The PG program, that doesn’t have a place in our future any more,” Johnson said. “It was an approved one-year look. The board decided to not continue that program. We’re going to be very conventional.”

Yelverton said Monday that he had not been informed about Oak Ridge’s intention to discontinue the use of postgraduate players next season. He said the team has “about 12 kids coming back.”

Yelverton said 18 football players from his first-year program were moving on to college programs, including 12 headed to Division I schools.

Yelverton was an assistant football coach at Northern Guilford before being hired at Oak Ridge, but was one of several Nighthawks coaches who did not return to the school after athletes were declared ineligible in 2009. He also has spent time on coaching staffs at Grimsley, Page and Eastern Guilford.

In May 2009, Oak Ridge ended the academic year a week early and laid off several employees. The school then installed a new board of trustees and bolstered its athletics program as a way of increasing enrollment.

Oak Ridge boys basketball coach Stan Kowalewski, a hedge fund manager who guided Northern Guilford to a 2009 state championship that was later forfeited for using ineligible players, donated nearly half a million dollars to help keep ORMA financially solvent.

But Kowaleweski’s assets have been frozen since Jan. 6 as a result of a Securities and Exchange Commission suit claiming he improperly diverted more than $16 million of investor money, and his plans to build a 30,000-square-foot athletics training facility on ORMA property have been scuttled.

It is unclear whether Oak Ridge Military will be forced to repay the money Kowalewski donated to the school.

Contact Jason Wolf at 373-7034 or jason.wolf@news-record.com

gag1025

March 22, 2011 - 11:17 pm EDT

Oh what a tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive. Famous quotation that pretty much says it all in the case of ORMA. Another one that fits this situation is Be careful what you wish for. They sold their souls and got what in return? From where I sit they got what they deserved. Promises of riches. It turns out that it was Fools Gold. Which should serve as a reminder to everyone that when you bend the rules to suit your needs, the rule will snap back and smack you in the behind. From rags to promised riches and back to rags in a short period of time. I hate it for the regular kids at the school, but not for the administration.

therealcoachcarter

March 23, 2011 - 12:12 pm EDT

Ok I've been reading various posts about Coach O and all the mixed reviews and opinions on him!! How can we judge or view this man in a negative way when regardless of what school the various young men started off from once they met or played for Coach O he made an obvious positive impact on their lives and High School/College careers!! He has went over the call of duty 2 help out not only his players but any young man that seeks out his help! It's not like he sits around seeking these people out, over 95% of the parents or players go to him for advice and guidance about knowledge on how 2 further sons education after High School is over! He shouldn't have 2 apologize for helping families out just like he did at Oak Ridge, Page Hs & Grmisley Hs!! I have so much repect for him because I know it's a full time job and I have over 80 young men that have played college athletics and several of them have graduated and recieved there degrees which is the ultimate Goal. Good Luck Coach O in what ever you futre holds and the next time some one from North Carolina comes along and makes a impact like Coach O instead of dogging them out cause he's doing something out of the norm, Coaches put yaw ego's to the side and figure out the process and support that person!! Thank You & Good Luck to who ever tries to fill his shoes!!!!! Trust me Coach O you'll be MISSED!!! You've done something in your State that will probably never be repeated!!!!!

March 26, 2011 - 7:03 pm EDT

All I have seen about him has been negative regardless of where he has been. The fact that he was told not to come back to Northern because of illegal recruiting practices (which was posted on here) and the fact that he apparently set up a schedule at ORMA based on false information that included post high school players. If he had wanted to (as he promised the incoming players he was going to do) set up a schedule that would be competitive he would have scheduled Hargrave, Fork Union, etc. instead of scheduling teams he knew he would crush then I would have a different view of him. This shows me that he was on an ego trip. He did the players injustice by doing this. The word going around was that when he found out that Hargrave was going to use their post grad team he backed out of the game but yet counted it as a forfeit win. Now you tell me what he was all about. The football and basketball programs at ORMA were set up to simply win at all costs. Hopefully ORMA have learned from their mistakes.

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