Former players voice concern about football program

A group of former Fort Scott Community College players voiced concerns about the school's football program during Monday's board of trustees meeting. Meanwhile, college officials say they had not heard about these issues until the past week.

Three former players and one of the player's parents were present to speak to the board in open session about incidents that occurred in July and August. The players and parents said they wanted to bring the matter to the board because they wanted trustees to know of their experiences with the program and that the players had not been able to speak to head football coach Jeff Sims about their concerns.

The former players were Jake Potts, John Shuman and Zack Ross. All plan to leave FSCC and attend different colleges. Among their concerns are recruiting practices, drug use and thefts taking place in the dorms occupied by FSCC football players.

Potts said he had several items worth more than $1,000 stolen during his time living in the dorms.

Coach Jeff Sims was not at the meeting, but was contacted by The Tribune afterward to get his response.

"I'm sorry they didn't have a good experience and they're leaving," Sims said. "I think very highly of these three men ... At no time did the parents ever contact me."

Sims added, "I wish you could satisfy everybody 100 percent. ... These three guys, I think they're wanting to move on and do different things. They decided they didn't want to be part of the program."

FSCC President Clayton Tatro said he, too, is disappointed that the students had a less than positive experience at the college. "I think it is important to note that none of these students came forward with allegations until they intended to leave the college. They never made any attempt to reconcile these issues while at the college. No one at the college was made aware of these issues before the past week.

"We take these allegations very seriously, but are seriously disturbed they were not raised to our attention prior to this," Tatro said.

Tatro said Potts talked to Dean of Student Services Steve Armstrong and "Sims was part of that conversation."

"How is this credible and why didn't we know about this beforehand?" he said. "... Anybody can accuse anybody of anything. All I can say is this is the first time any of these students had brought forward their concerns."

When contacted late Monday, Sims said he was not aware of the former players' plans to speak to the board, nor of their issues with him and the program, adding that "none of the players ever came to me."

Armstrong and FSCC Athletic Director J.D. Ettore said they also plan to prepare rebuttals to statements made during the meeting that will be released at a later date.

"There are two sides to every story," Ettore said.