Brian Urso, the new Central Catholic High School boys basketball coach, might be suspended for a year before he coaches a game next season.
But while Urso’s toes are dipping in some hot water with the WPIAL, his actions also put the Robert Morris University men’s basketball team into a questionable situation concerning NCAA rules.
Urso was the director of basketball administration at Robert Morris this past season and was hired as Central Catholic’s coach April 24 after the school fired longtime coach Chuck Crummie. Urso will have a hearing with the WPIAL board of directors Wednesday to answer allegations of recruiting players in eighth grade through recent emails. The Post-Gazette has obtained a copy of an email sent by Urso to parents/players of eighth-graders, and the WPIAL also has copies of the same email.
The emails asked eighth-graders to attend open gyms (workouts) at Central Catholic in May, which could be considered recruiting. According to WPIAL and PIAA rules, the penalty for a coach found to have “engaged” in recruiting is a one-year suspension. In the past, a few coaches at Catholic schools in the WPIAL have been suspended a year for recruiting.
“Obviously, it has raised some red flags,” WPIAL executive director Tim O’Malley said of the emails. “The emails gave indications that some things were going on, and whether or not they are acceptable, it’s in the best interest of all those involved to come in for a hearing.”
But on top of the alleged high school recruiting, Urso’s actions representing the Robert Morris team while also being the coach at Central Catholic have come into question. NCAA rules state simply that a college “may not employ a high school coach who remains a coach in the same sport at the high school.”
Urso appears to have acted as Central Catholic’s coach while also still portraying himself as the Robert Morris director of basketball administration. Urso sat on the bench with coaches last season during games.
Ryan Fleischer, Robert Morris’ associate director of athletics-compliance/assistant university counsel, said Urso resigned from his position last week with Robert Morris. But on May 2, Urso sent an email to some eighth-grade students and/or parents introducing himself as Central Catholic’s new coach and attached a schedule for five open gyms for players to attend in May.
But in that email to parents/players, Urso also attached an application for the Robert Morris Boys Basketball Camp, run by coach Andy Toole. Urso wrote that he is still “coordinating” the summer camps and that any boy who wants to attend the camp and puts “Central Basketball” on the camp application will get a $75 discount off the regular $225 price.
Fleischer said Tuesday the discount is a violation of NCAA rules.
“Institutions are not allowed to give non-objective discounts to camps or clinics. You can’t target a high school,” Fleischer said. “But we caught that before it happened.”
On the high school level, O’Malley said the WPIAL board would consider whether the camp discount would be viewed as a potential recruiting tool for Central Catholic.
Although Fleischer said Urso resigned last week, Urso was still coordinating Robert Morris’ “team camp” for high school teams in Western Pennsylvania as recently as Monday. The camp is Saturday at Robert Morris.
Throughout May, Urso sent emails to high school coaches using his Robert Morris email account and also ended the emails with his title as “director of basketball administration.” Toole directed any questions about Urso’s situation to Fleischer
“My understanding was that, after being named Central Catholic’s coach, it was kind of a delayed thing,” Fleischer said. “For all I knew, he was going to start with Central later on.”
Even if Urso did resign last week, he was still acting as Central Catholic’s coach and representing himself as Robert Morris’ director of administration at the same time. This is not an open period for college recruiting, meaning coaches can’t observe or evaluate high school players off campus. Also, individuals such as a director of basketball operations are not permitted to recruit off campus or observe or evaluate players. Urso started coaching Central Catholic in summer/spring leagues recently.
Fleischer said he was unaware that Urso was still sending emails to high school coaches as the director of basketball administration.
“I think I have a reputation of doing what’s right, especially on campus. Anything that comes up, I’ll look into it,” Fleischer said. “I’m going to look into these, but this is the first I’m hearing about them.”
Urso’s fate as a high school coach will be decided by the WPIAL board of directors Wednesday after testimony. The decision will surely be watched closely by the many public school coaches and administrators across Pennsylvania who want separate postseason tournaments for public and Catholic/private schools.
Neither Urso nor Central Catholic athletic director Rick Capretta responded to messages for comment.
Brother Anthony Baginski, Central Catholic’s principal, said in an email that all media inquiries must go through him. When asked questions about Urso’s alleged recruiting, Baginski wrote: “We feel it is best those issues be addressed at the hearing. … We are looking forward to Wednesday’s hearing with the WPIAL. We fully support and stand by Coach Urso and believe this meeting will provide us with the opportunity to clarify the potential recruiting violation and move forward from this issue.”
PIAA executive director Bob Lombardi knows of the Urso situation and knows of the emails Urso sent. Under PIAA rules, Catholic high schools in Pennsylvania can recruit students at three feeder schools that are designated by the high school to the PIAA. But Lombardi said Central Catholic has never informed the PIAA of its feeder schools.
If the WPIAL suspends Urso for a year, he can appeal the case to the PIAA.
“What coaches should be doing is sitting down with the athletic administrations and principals before they put out any correspondence to any prospective students,” Lombardi said. “School administrations have an obligation to know the rules and also know where to go to ask about the rules. There is a tier of checks and balances that possibly may not have been utilized in this case.”
Mike White: mwhite@post-gazette.com and Twitter @mwhiteburgh.
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First Published: June 4, 2019, 10:00 p.m.
