Former Milton basketball coach David Boyd was disappointed by the Georgia High School Association’s ruling to ban his former team from competing in postseason play this season.
The GHSA ruled that Boyd used undue influence to attract a number of high-profile transfers to play for him during his prolific five-year career at Milton.
“I’m disappointed that the players who came on their own to participate aren’t going to be allowed to play in the postseason. I’m very sorry about that,” Boyd said Tuesday. “But as far as doing something illegal or unethical, all I’m trying to do is help kids.”
Boyd did not refute the findings from the investigation by Fulton County Schools, which the GHSA used to make its ruling. The investigation revealed Boyd invited players, not enrolled at Milton, to summer workouts, during which he assessed their abilities. Fulton County athletics director Dr. Steven Craft said that is an example of undue influence.
“The GHSA has no jurisdiction over summer workouts, as far as I know,” Boyd said. “Not a single player attended a workout who didn’t want to be there and attend the Milton program.
“If a kid is coming to work out, I’m going to give them an honest assessment of their abilities. If a parent is considering moving because their son wanted to be a part of a program, shouldn’t the parents have the right to know whether or not their child can play here?”
Boyd emphasized that he had at least 20 sets of parents contact him about coming to Milton.
“They all contacted me first,” he said. “All I did was simply respond to their concerns and questions. Guess that was considered undue influence. … I don’t know what you’re supposed to do. If these are the things I’m guilty of, then I know of a lot of schools around that are guilty of the same thing.”
Boyd said he has a couple of job offers, but has no intentions of coaching at another Georgia public school.
“I may look outside the state or at private schools,” he said. “I want to take some time to make a good decision. I feel like it’s been a strange scenario. If I really felt like that there was something going on, promising playing time, money exchanging hands, then that would be different.”
Photo by Cecil Copeland
