IrishSlim
The Sultan of Swashbuckle
A little over than a month ago, during a late night drunk posting session, I started calling an AD underling (NorthGARep) a plant. It was a complete joke.
Or so I thought.
I woke up the next noon to some curious reactions from board stalwarts. So, I kept poking and prodding. More and more curious reactions followed, including some post deletions from the moderators.
And then the PMs, Facebook messages, and emails started. (My contact info for the latter two is readily available to anyone who knows how to use the Google machine.)
Over the past four weeks, I've been contacted by 10 different people/posters who claim to be "in the know." (To be fair, I suspect one user posing as three different people, which would bring that total to 8 different individuals.) The recurring theme was this: Scout is only nominally independent of the University, and specifically, only nominally independent of the Athletic Department.
Some tidbits of our conversations follow. For obvious reasons, in agreeing to allow me to post these things, they all requested total and complete anonymity. Some are DC gurus, some are/were associated with Scout, some are current AD employees, others left their involvement with the WF sports programs unstated. Their motivations for sending me this information are their own and I didn't pry, but it's clear they were sent to me because I'm both a writer and a dickhead about censoring issues. So. Here we are.
I can't vouch for the veracity of these statements, but to borrow a phrase I learned in the Army, "where there's smoke, there's fire." Just passing along the information, I'll allow you all to determine what's legitimate and what's not.
***
- 4 different individuals claimed that Steve Shutt, Wake's Assistant Athletic Director of Media Relations, has multiple handles he posts from on DeaconSports. One specified "at least 3 or 4." I find this interesting because in email correspondences with DV7, Mr. Shutt has claimed to only lurk the boards and not post. (Correct me if I'm wrong about this, vision.)
- During the initial talks of this board being built, it was relayed to someone involved that "fucking with Scout is directly fucking with the Athletic Department and Wake," from someone in a prominent position.
- 1 emailer said that the relationship between Scout and the AD changed definitively when Naz was hired by the AD last summer. "It became a direct relationship, and ... [they] felt like they now had direct oversight."
- 2 individuals, after admitting a "clear and definite relationship" exists between Scout and the AD, argued that it's not DS' fault per se. Access and recruiting info has withered away since Dino left, they said, and that the AD made vague insinuations of cutting it off even further unless the free board was "cleaned up." A 3rd individual went on to describe a palpable fear within the AD and the basketball program that the BuzzOut movement is greatly harming recruiting efforts. (It wasn't RJ, either! I don't think.)
- The first 2 individuals mentioned in the paragraph above, when pressed to describe the relationship between Scout and the AD, used the words "feeder" and "proxy," respectively.
- 1 emailer argued that some of the DC moneymen who went to Ron Wellman last year about Dino, using "culture change" as a reason to justify their opinions, are now concerned Wellman has taken that argument too much to heart.
Or so I thought.
I woke up the next noon to some curious reactions from board stalwarts. So, I kept poking and prodding. More and more curious reactions followed, including some post deletions from the moderators.
And then the PMs, Facebook messages, and emails started. (My contact info for the latter two is readily available to anyone who knows how to use the Google machine.)
Over the past four weeks, I've been contacted by 10 different people/posters who claim to be "in the know." (To be fair, I suspect one user posing as three different people, which would bring that total to 8 different individuals.) The recurring theme was this: Scout is only nominally independent of the University, and specifically, only nominally independent of the Athletic Department.
Some tidbits of our conversations follow. For obvious reasons, in agreeing to allow me to post these things, they all requested total and complete anonymity. Some are DC gurus, some are/were associated with Scout, some are current AD employees, others left their involvement with the WF sports programs unstated. Their motivations for sending me this information are their own and I didn't pry, but it's clear they were sent to me because I'm both a writer and a dickhead about censoring issues. So. Here we are.
I can't vouch for the veracity of these statements, but to borrow a phrase I learned in the Army, "where there's smoke, there's fire." Just passing along the information, I'll allow you all to determine what's legitimate and what's not.
***
- 4 different individuals claimed that Steve Shutt, Wake's Assistant Athletic Director of Media Relations, has multiple handles he posts from on DeaconSports. One specified "at least 3 or 4." I find this interesting because in email correspondences with DV7, Mr. Shutt has claimed to only lurk the boards and not post. (Correct me if I'm wrong about this, vision.)
- During the initial talks of this board being built, it was relayed to someone involved that "fucking with Scout is directly fucking with the Athletic Department and Wake," from someone in a prominent position.
- 1 emailer said that the relationship between Scout and the AD changed definitively when Naz was hired by the AD last summer. "It became a direct relationship, and ... [they] felt like they now had direct oversight."
- 2 individuals, after admitting a "clear and definite relationship" exists between Scout and the AD, argued that it's not DS' fault per se. Access and recruiting info has withered away since Dino left, they said, and that the AD made vague insinuations of cutting it off even further unless the free board was "cleaned up." A 3rd individual went on to describe a palpable fear within the AD and the basketball program that the BuzzOut movement is greatly harming recruiting efforts. (It wasn't RJ, either! I don't think.)
- The first 2 individuals mentioned in the paragraph above, when pressed to describe the relationship between Scout and the AD, used the words "feeder" and "proxy," respectively.
- 1 emailer argued that some of the DC moneymen who went to Ron Wellman last year about Dino, using "culture change" as a reason to justify their opinions, are now concerned Wellman has taken that argument too much to heart.