Report: Army football recruited high school athletes with alcohol, women
The Army football team attempted to woo high school recruits with alcohol and women, according to a report in The Colorado Spring Gazette (via Deadspin).
Documents obtained by the paper state that recruits were offered "an alcohol-fueled party, a dinner date with female cadets, cash from boosters and VIP treatment on a party bus complete with cheerleaders and a police escort." Some of the recruits allegedly drank as many as seven drinks in 90 minutes.
The U.S. Military Academy admitted to the misconduct, stating that 20 cadets -- including starting quarterback Angel Santiago -- two officers and two coaches, had already been disciplined by the school by pulling them from the Spring Practice Game, after an investigation by Lt. Col. Shannon Miller in March, one month following the supposed incident.
AP: Air Force athletic director moves up retirement
Miller also states that West Point's director of football operations, Lt. Col. Chad Davis, "recruited cheerleaders and members of the academy's women's basketball and volleyball teams to act as dinner dates for recruits," and told the women, "We want recruits to see that there are pretty girls that go here. There are not just masculine women that attend West Point."
"Although seen as a minor infraction by the NCAA, the U.S. Military Academy takes this very seriously and adjudicated this at the highest level of the disciplinary code," West Point said in a statement to The Gazette. "We adjudicated this under Article 10 of the Cadet Disciplinary Code and all cadets appeared before the Commandant's Disciplinary Board."
The trip with full police escort has allegedly been going on for more than a decade.
More details of the investigation are available over on the Colorado Springs Gazette.
-- Alex Suskind
