Texas Sports

Friday, October 6, 2000

Deschamps: A&M-K can make me the scapegoat if it wants

Ex-compliance director 'tried to do the best job I could'

By Javier Becerra
Caller-Times

Contributed photo

Ron Deschamps left A&M-Kingsville in February of 1999.

It's been more than a year that Ron Deschamps left Kingsville to return to his native Canada.
   Since then, Deschamps has kept a close watch on Texas A&M-Kingsville, where he served as compliance officer for the school's athletic program.
   Although he's now more than 2,100 miles away from Kingsville, Deschamps has remained in the middle of the university's battle with the NCAA, which the organization ended almost three weeks ago with the announcement of its penalties against the school.
   The sanctions came after a 13-month investigation triggered by allegations submitted by Deschamps, first to the university and then to the NCAA. The governing body of college athletics found that A&M-Kingsville had allowed 23 athletes to participate while ineligible - all of which, the university said, Deschamps had wrongly certified as eligible during his time as the school's compliance officer.
   In a telephone interview from Montreal, Deschamps - now the head of the guidance counseling department at Beaconsfield High School in Montreal - spoke candidly recently about his time at A&M-Kingsville, the NCAA sanctions and his role in the university's ineligibility problems.
   "It's easy for them to make me the scapegoat because I'm not there," said Deschamps, 46. "If they want to make me the scapegoat, that's their choice. I know when I was down there, I tried to do the best job I could for the students and the program."
   The university places the blame on Deschamps. But at no time did the NCAA state that Deschamps was the whistleblower.
   Larry Blumberg, spokesman for the Division II Committee on Infractions, said the source of the charges was not a factor in the group's ruling.
   "Who reported the allegations, or didn't report them, was not anything the committee looked at, saw or thought about," Blumberg said during the announcement of the penalties on Sept. 20. "I think it was said at the hearing that he wasn't anymore with the university. I really didn't know if anybody turned the university in. I thought it was self-reported."
   Deschamps' tenure as compliance officer at A&M-Kingsville ended in February 1999, when he was forced to resign by university officials for wagering on sporting events using the school's computers, he said.
   He freely admits on placing bets on professional hockey games using the Internet, but Deschamps never figured it would lead to his termination, especially, he said, since other people within the department knew he was gambling.
   "I'm not going to hide from it. It's something I was doing," Deschamps said. "I knew that what I was doing was wrong, but also at the same time didn't think anybody was going to make a big deal of it. There were other people in the athletic department that knew I loved hockey and knew I was betting on hockey."
   Gil Wright was hired to replace Deschamps as compliance officer. While Deschamps held the position, he also served as academic advisor for the university's athletes.
   As part of a number of self-imposed penalties, the university split the two positions in an effort to provide greater oversight for compliance. Randy Hughes, executive assistant to the president and director of athletics at A&M-Kingsville, said at the Sept. 20 news conference that there was a lapse in responsibility from the compliance office.
   "At the time we hired our NCAA compliance person, we had the idea of being forward thinkers, hiring a person completely dedicated to compliance, and it worked good," Hughes said. "But also, as you can imagine, depending solely on one person, if that one person is not capable or is not very judicious in their job, then we have NCAA compliance problems."
   Deschamps said he is glad the situation is finally over, and that he believes the university is making an attempt to monitor the department with greater scrutiny.
   "One of the things this whole situation probably brought to light is the fact that there needed to be far more consultation, certainly more than just me having to do this," he said. "Nobody had ever come to my office to say that they were unhappy with what I was doing."
  
  

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Staff writer Javier Becerra can be reached at 886-3734 or by e-mail at becerraj@caller.com

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