Boyd out as Milton basketball coach; school self-reports allegations of ‘undue influence’

Courtesy Todd Holcomb; www.ajc.com

One of the state’s most successful basketball coaches is out of a job after his school reported allegations of recruiting to the Georgia High School Association.

David Boyd, who led Milton’s boys basketball program to state championships in 2010 and 2012, resigned Monday, according to Samantha Evans, the executive director of communications for Fulton County Schools. Reached by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution late Monday, Boyd said he had no comment.

Milton contacted the GHSA to report allegations of ‘’undue influence,” principal Clifford Jones wrote in an email to the Milton High community earlier Monday.

‘’Undue influence,’’ or recruiting, is defined by the GHSA as influence by any person connected with a GHSA school to induce a student to transfer from one school to another.

‘’As we move forward there will be a thorough investigation and the development of a comprehensive strategy to move our program to new heights of integrity and excellence,’’ Jones wrote in his e-mail. “In the days ahead, I ask that we support our student athletes, their families, and the program.’’

Attempts to reach Jones on Monday were unsuccessful.
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Under Boyd, Milton became a controversial lightning rod in the debate over high-profile athletes transferring to form high school super teams. Key former members of the recent Milton dynasty include transfers Shannon Scott (now at Ohio State), Dai-Jon Parker (Vanderbilt), Shaquille Johnson (Auburn) and Charles Mann (Georgia).

Milton’s 2012 championship team lost home-grown Evan Nolte (Virginia), Johnson and Mann to graduation but still figured to be one of the teams to beat in Class AAAAAA.

Among the new players reported to have joined the program were DaQuain Watts from North Springs, Shawn O’Connell from Roswell and Isaiah Manderson of Westside-Augusta. Two others were coming from out of state in Johnnie Vassar from Indiana and Zach Hodskins from Tennessee. All are college prospects.

Milton returns one of the nation’s top juniors in Jalyn Patterson and freshmen in Chris Lewis. Largely because of its status as a national program, Milton is scheduled to play games in Illinois, North Carolina and Florida in the upcoming season and was almost certain to have top-25 national rankings.

Boyd has been a head coach of six state championship teams and is the only coach in Georgia to lead four different schools to the title in Campbell (1982), Tucker (1996), Berkmar (2000, 2001) and Milton (2010, 2012). Boyd has 604 career victories in a career that began in 1980.

Boyd joined Milton for the 2007-08 season, when the school had made the state playoffs only three times since 1960. After one losing season, Milton became a national power, attracting transfers to surround Nolte and another home-grown star, Julian Royal (now at Georgia Tech).

Evans said that the allegations of recruiting were brought to the school district. She said she did not know who made the allegations.

”Whenever an allegation is made, the school has a responsibility to turn it over to human resources, and it was during that conversation with HR that Boyd decided to resign,” Evans said.

David Purdum helped report this article.