Advantage Disadvantage by Yale Jaffe Page B

high
school curriculum. The gym, like other facilities built back long
ago, was on the second floor above the classrooms. This church’s
structure was a beautiful facility with a modest gym. The
neighborhood began as a German-Irish settlement, adding a post-WWII
Polish wave, followed by Hispanic (mostly Mexican), and finally
populated by predominantly black families. Despite the neighborhood
demographics, the school was predominately white. Its credentials
for college preparation were outstanding and most students hailed
from outside a one-mile radius were legacies who could afford
parochial tuition.
    The coach at St. Marlin High School was well known
around Chicago for developing basketball players. He had been a
teacher and coach for over twenty years and he earned a great
amount of respect for his early successes. Pressure to win came
from parents and alumni alike. The advantage of coaching in a
Catholic school was the so-called “boundary-less” territory of
potential students.
    Chicago public schools also had open enrollments.
Those who lived in Chicago could attend any of the public high
schools with the exception of the Magnet Campuses. A student must
have passed stringent tests to attend the academically oriented
magnet schools. This open enrollment policy in the regular schools
had fostered dynasties of dominant high school teams. Westinghouse,
King, and Farragut were examples where top players migrated to
winning programs and better coaching. Commuting was no problem;
they took the Chicago Transit Authority buses and trains.
    Catholic schools also had admissions exams, but
often waived requirements for athletes, legacies, and special
parishioners. The range of students at St. Marlin was limited only
by practical commuting times to and from the school. Many parochial
schools, like St. Marlin, had bus service from the suburban
commuter rail lines making it safer to attend the school.
    The St. Marlin basketball coach craved a return to
his earlier successes. Recruiting middle school players was both
subtle and overt by the St. Marlin staff. Well-attended summer
camps, with liberal fee waivers for talented inner city players,
provided the venue to encourage enrollment. The St. Marlin high
school players were camp counselors and the youngsters looked up to
them. Counselors gave the middle school players T-shirts with the
school’s colors and logo. All campers participated as special
guests of St. Marlin during the regular season at a non-conference
game, normally a game against a patsy team to make the best
impression.
    Desperate and aggressive coaches went further. They
disparaged the Chicago and suburban schools as inadequate college
preparation. They emphasized the dangers and crime statistics of
public schools. Some, like the St. Marlin coach, went even further.
They would engage in activity clearly illegal in IIAA’s bylaws. The
St. Marlin coach decided to use the services of a street agent to
encourage some of these urban kids to play for him. Bobby G.
promised that he could influence the single mom parents of two
talented players to attend St. Marlin. This would cost the coach
$1,000 for each player to ensure that these boys would attend his
summer camp. This was a good investment – these kids could really
make a difference to St. Marlin’s program. Bobby G. paid the moms
$300 each to enroll their boys in this program. He kept $1,400 –
the rest of the coach’s bribe money. Raising the money was no
object for the coach because he used the St Marlin’s Athletic
Booster Fund, which was abundant and available to the coach.
    The coach arranged with Bobby G. to pay him in the
parking lot before one of the summer league games at St. Marlin. He
approached Bobby G.’s BMW as he rolled into the school’s lot.

Chapter Eleven. The Windy City Daily

    Ronnie Edelman grew up as a “nice Jewish boy” in the
southeast side Pill Hill neighborhood before his parents moved to
the northern suburbs. As a high school