Does anyone know if McDermott's mom's maiden name is Henderson? I live in Zanesville, and just wanted to know. I think I know his family back here in Ohio.
I think you're right. There was a Johnnie Henderson from a large family of Hendersons in Zanesville, according to my research. She would be 51 years old. Further, there was a Johnnie Henderson who is fourth all-time leading rebounder for Ohio U's WBB. She played there in '79-83. Must be the same person and family.
Violation?
Are you serious? How could that be a violation? Are you familiar with the NCAA rules? Did I contact a member of the family? No.
What did I do? I researched easily and publicly available records on the internet. If you told my your name, I could use intelius or some other database and tell you what cities you've lived in, your age, and the likely names of your family members. If I wanted to pay, I could get even more. All I did was look for a Johnnie Henderson from Zanesville Ohio and found her.
I then went to the Ohio U sports site and looked at the very publicly available women's basketball media guide and skimmed through and found a Johnnie Henderson who played there in the early '80's.
You'd be surprised at how information is publicly available, the same way you could get most peoples addresses and phone numbers from a phone book. It's available for me, for you and for virtually everybody.
Since she said she played basketball at Ohio U, and this fellow said he knew of a Johnnie Henderson from Zanesville, it was easy to put this information together from very easily available records on the web. They're there for everybody.
Now, if Hurricanesohio is an alum, or a booster, and he contacts the family, that might be a violation. So, not knowing his status, he should be careful what he says and to whom.
Back in the late '80's, we had a player named Diego London. I knew the family. His father asked me for a tape of a game. I checked with our then compliance director, Doug Johnson I think his name was. I decided to tell the senior Mr. London to wait until Diego graduated. I didn't give it to them, because I lost touch, but I used to know what a violation is because I was active in the Hurricane Club and I used to come into contact with athletes' family members, especially the basketball players we had from Washington DC. Like Tim James, Brandon Scott and Jacob Morton. I also spoke to the Londons, and the family of Bukasa Kalombo, a DE we had in the late '80's. (Probably our first African player, and they were rare back then.) I only spoke to the families after the student-athletes enrolled (so it could not be construed as recruiting) and was careful never to do anything that could be remotely construed as an extra benefit.
Now, the person who should be careful, is Hurricanesohio, since he might be coming into contact with the family, and he should not engage in recruiting even indirectly, especially if he could be deemed to represent the school's interests, i.e., a booster or alum. (I'm neither). I suspect these rules and definitions are the same as they were in the late '80's, early 90's, when I was very active with the athletic department and the Hurricane Club.
