Growing Exchange Rate Gets Irksome

A gathering thunder from Down Under perked the ears of California Interscholastic Federation brass at a recent commissioners’ meeting. The topic was new business, and Dean Crowley’s hand shot into the air.

“Exchange students,” the Southern Section commissioner said to his colleagues. “Any of you seeing an increase?”

Crowley hit a nerve. Yes, yes, yes, commissioners throughout the state nodded. Lots of exchange students, especially basketball players, and most often from Australia.

“The fear is that overseas coaches are funneling kids into certain areas and into certain schools,” Crowley said.

That fear has placed a spotlight on Simi Valley High Coach Dean Bradshaw, his 6-foot-9 center, Pero Vasiljevic, and former Cal Lutheran Coach Mike Dunlap.

Vasiljevic is an exchange student from Adelaide, Australia, where he is one of his nation’s best teen-age players.

Bradshaw is a longtime friend of Dunlap, coach of the Adelaide 36ers, an Australian professional team. Dunlap recruited several Australians while he was Cal Lutheran coach from 1989-94 and is a strong advocate of having Australian players come to the U.S. for playing experience and education.

Dunlap has spoken with Vasiljevic, who is staying with the family of Simi Valley forward Rod MacLean. And Dunlap acknowledges having conversations with Bradshaw before and after Vasiljevic’s arrival.

The circumstances surrounding Vasiljevic serve as a graphic example of a growing problem facing the CIF. Participating in athletics can be an integral part of an exchange student’s experience, but officials must guard against players being pipelined to a specific school. Recruiting, at home or abroad, is expressly prohibited in high school athletics.

In addition to Vasiljevic, exchange students in the area include Argentine guard Mariano It and center Leo Espelet, juniors who are playing basketball at Camarillo. About 1,000 exchange students are participating in athletics at the 1,100 high schools statewide, an increase of 25% from just four years ago, according to the CIF.

“The greatest increase is from Australia but we get a lot from European and South American countries too,” said Hanford Rants, the CIF foreign exchange consultant of 32 years. “Most foreign athletes compete in sports such as basketball and soccer that are popular internationally.”

The Camarillo players are linked to Hart Coach Mike May, a former professional coach in Argentina who frequently conducts clinics in that country. May has known It for nearly a decade and met Espelet last summer.

It’s parents asked for their son to stay with May, but May would not allow either player to attend Hart, saying, “It wouldn’t be ethical to use my contacts in Argentina to my advantage.”

Instead, through his church he steered them to a host family that happens to live in Camarillo.

Whether rules were violated in either the case of Vasiljevic or the Argentine pair is unclear. The CIF stipulates only that a student be “randomly placed” through one of about 50 approved programs to gain athletic eligibility.

The precise definition of random placement is open to interpretation, Crowley admits.

“Our rules pertaining to exchange students need to be examined,” he said. “We are probably naive. The commissioners feel there are a lot of loose ends.”

The Southern Section cleared Vasiljevic to play after suspending his eligibility for three days in December while Crowley and Simi Valley Principal Kathryn Scroggin investigated his placement. Neither Crowley nor Scroggin spoke with Dunlap.

Dunlap said he stopped short of telling Vasiljevic which high school to attend, but said he was unaware of the random placement rule. He agreed with Crowley that the rule needs to be more explicit.

“These kids don’t apply to come over, then land in Maine or whoopy world; that’s not how it’s done,” Dunlap said. “A kid coming over for swimming doesn’t end up in Nome, Alaska.”

However, basketball players coming from Adelaide do end up in Simi Valley: Stuart Clarke, a senior forward from the South Australian city of 1.2 million played for the Pioneers two seasons ago.

With Vasiljevic, who is averaging 23.3 points, 11.7 rebounds and 3.7 blocked shots a game, even some Simi Valley faculty are skeptical.

“The statistical probability of that kid being randomly placed into the home of a Simi Valley basketball player is a million to one,” one longtime Pioneer coach said. “There are a lot of nervous people around Simi Valley High.”

Bradshaw said he knew nothing of the talented center before his arrival at the school in September, and he told Scroggin as much after Crowley asked her to investigate Vasiljevic’s placement.

“There is a tremendous amount of rumors and none of it is true,” Bradshaw said earlier this season. “There are exchange kids all over. [Vasiljevic] does happen to be a pretty good player. I hadn’t heard of him until he showed up at school.”

Neither Bradshaw nor MacLean’s parents would comment for this story.

Scroggin determined the placement was random because Vasiljevic and MacLean’s family made their initial contact through an approved exchange program.

“That’s where the randomness comes in,” Scroggin said. “The organization pairs students with the families.”

Late last summer, MacLean’s family approached an approved program, People Link, and requested that Vasiljevic be placed with them after another approved program, Cultural Home Stay International, denied the placement because Vasiljevic did not have a 3.0 grade-point average.

“The host family said they had already exchanged letters with Pero and had bonded with him,” said Shelley Hyde, director of People Link. “They contacted us and asked, ‘Can you help us?’

“I told them the only way is if Pero contacts us. They contacted him. He contacted us and the placement was made.”

Having the school principal conduct the investigation is standard, Crowley said. The CIF has neither the staff nor the budget to probe placements. Only after a complaint is filed does an investigation take place, and the host school must gather the facts.

Only three times in the past three years has the CIF found undue influence in the placement of a foreign athlete, Rants said. In each case, the student retained eligibility after being reassigned to a different host family and a different school.

The difficulty comes in ascertaining whether a player and a host family were pointed toward the same exchange program by coaches. About 50 exchange programs are approved by the CIF. Presumably, these programs know about the random placement rule.

“We operate on a fine line,” Rants said. “If a 7-foot kid comes over, chances are it’s not for nuclear physics. If a particular family requests that kid, I tell our [exchange programs] to run away from it.”

Hyde said that no placement is totally random.

“Of course someone could manipulate the system,” she said. “Students are matched with host families based on mutual interests. Sports can be one of those.”

The value to foreign athletes of spending time in the U.S. is obvious. In addition to increasing cultural awareness, they gain exposure for college scholarships. Even if they don’t stay for college, they return to their homeland as better players and more well-rounded people.

By all accounts, Vasiljevic, a gregarious 17-year-old, is having the time of his life. His grades are good and he is one of the most popular students on campus.

“He is a class act,” said George Ragsdale, the Simi Valley athletic director. “The way he interacts with people, he is very mature. He’s not just a good addition to our basketball team, he’s really been an excellent addition to our student body.”

Dunlap recognized the benefits when he imported players to Cal Lutheran, which was perfectly within college rules. From his current view 12,000 miles away he does not see the trend diminishing.

“Australians are coming to the U.S. at a younger age,” Dunlap said. “They return vastly improved, athletically and in terms of personal growth. From the standpoint of the kids, the experience is very positive.”

Several Marmonte League coaches counter that from the standpoint of competition, an exchange student such as Vasiljevic unfairly tilts the scales.

“The only ones hurt are kids--my kids and the other kids around the league,” Agoura Coach Kevin Pasky said. “If a foreign exchange athlete is at a school within the rules, that’s a great experience for him and for the kids here he meets. But if a school gains an advantage because of an impropriety, that’s unfair.”

Adding to the dismay of Marmonte coaches is their close relationships with Dunlap and one another. All eight coaches knew Dunlap when he coached at Cal Lutheran.

Camarillo Coach Mike Prewitt, Bradshaw’s closest friend among the coaches, is the most forgiving.

“Obviously, Dean’s relationship with Mike Dunlap spurred this on, but they are just trying to help the kid, so I don’t have a problem with it,” Prewitt said.

As for Prewitt’s Argentine pair, opposing coaches have not voiced concerns. Crowley said that although their placement probably was not random in the purest sense, no investigation has been conducted and none is planned.

It and Espelet are from Comodoro Rivadavia, a city of about 100,000 south of Buenos Aires. Their adjustment has been more difficult than Vasiljevic’s because they speak less English and play on a team that already had four returning starters.

“It took a while for them to really get into the inner circle, but it’s happening now,” said Gary Miller, their host father. Miller and his wife, Farrelyn, have eight children, five living at home.

“They bring a different culture into the home. It’s good for our children. They’ve become like family.”

That’s precisely the positive experience May, the Hart coach, wanted to ensure for It and Espelet. May coached professionally in Argentina in 1982 and ‘86, and as recently as September conducted a coaches’ clinic in Buenos Aires.

“The bottom line is those kids,” May said. “Their families put their trust and confidence in me.”

Beefing up his own roster clearly was not a factor for May, who said he knows Prewitt only peripherally. Camarillo defeated Hart in a tournament game in December, and afterward May had his photo taken with It and Espelet.

“Mariano and Leo were a crucial part of the game, but to me, they are having a great experience, learning and becoming part of our culture,” May said.

That’s supposed to be the goal of all exchange students. Only a handful are standout athletes, although those few draw the most attention. To ensure that any exchange student can participate in athletics free of the specter of recruiting, the CIF must be explicit in its rules and penalties.

“It’s hard to make coaches in other countries aware of the rules, but if we as coaches here know the consequences of recruiting, it won’t happen,” Pasky said. “Coaches should be suspended and teams should be banned from postseason play. Schools need to know you either police yourself or you can’t participate.”

The exchange programs that place the students must be on guard as well.

“This has left me with a bad taste in my mouth for coaches and people involved in sports,” said Hyde, the People Link director. “It should be fun and not something so cutthroat. To me, it’s sad that it’s so important.”