Columnist Dean Juipe: Coach happy but freshmen being abused

Dean Juipe

Friday, Aug. 14, 1998 | 10:17 a.m.

IT'S WITHIN the rules, no question about it.

And those who do it say everyone else does it, as if it's a practice that has gained widespread acceptance.

But that doesn't mean it's right.

In fact, it's not right at all. Taking a young man who should be an incoming freshman and holding him not only out of football but out of school is pathetically wrong.

It's a bad habit yet one embraced by UNLV head coach Jeff Horton. While his Rebels have opened training camp for their 1998 season, seven of the high school seniors he recruited last year are nowhere to be found.

They're not with the team and they won't be starting school in September.

Four local players are affected, including the 1997 player of the year, Valley High's Dion Jackson. He, along with Cimarron's Toby Smeltzer, Valley's Shane Lockhart and Silverado's Joel Menendez were persuaded by Horton to postpone not only joining the team but starting school.

They're idled in every sense of the word until the winter semester that begins in December, when they'll belatedly begin attending class at UNLV.

The kids likely had little choice in the matter. Had they balked or outright refused to follow Horton's recommendation, the coach had the option of rescinding their scholarships.

Worse yet, the unfortunate seven will be redshirted for the 1999 season.

Gleefully, Horton says none of these guys will play a down until the 2000 season. He reiterated Thursday that he's happy because in theory he gets bigger, faster and more mature players.

But in reality, it's entirely possible none of these seven players will ever be significant factors for the Rebels. Truth be told, if they were bursting with talent Horton -- with records of 2-9, 1-11 and 3-8 the past three seasons -- would have them out there and contributing today.

At the very least it's safe to assume these seven young men will not play professional football.

So delaying their entry into the real world by preventing them from starting school on schedule with their friends and former classmates is an injustice and a disservice to them.

Equally significant, look at the risk involved. These seven would-be players got out of high school in June and now have absolutely nothing to do (except, it's presumed, lift weights on their own away from the team) until December.

Along the way they'll face numerous temptations. They'll also drift away from the regimentation it takes to successfully navigate school and pass difficult classes.

Horton can seem like the fatherly type at times but there's nothing fatherly about this. In fact, the parents of the seven kids can't be too pleased with a scenario that assures their offspring of nothing beyond getting a late start in football and an unwanted gap in their life.

It's one thing to redshirt an incoming freshman but it's another to keep him out of school based on some half-baked premise that it's for the football team's greater good.

Coaches always want to stockpile players yet telling an energetic teen to sit on his hands for six or seven months seems a bit revolting.