You may recall the story of an assistant high school football coach in Greensboro, NC and how he was somehow came up with the funds to take blue-chip players on recruiting trips to places like Eugene, Oregon and Berkeley, CA (see below). There was also rumors that he would end up on the Oregon coaching staff despite having no head coaching experience.

Well, now the Ducks are in DEEP trouble with the NCAA and don’t be surprised if the name Otis Yelverton resurfaces.

Mr. Yelverton got a short-lived job at the shady Oak Ridge (NC) Military Academy that was enrolling men who were much older than your average high school player and steamrolling over these other poor programs. Yelverton has resigned.

Newly unemployed and reputation tarnished, might Yelverton be ready to speak out?

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Despite Northern Guilford High School opening on January 29, 2008, the basketball team still “won the 3A state championship title – and with no seniors. But questions arose about the team’s fairytale rise to glory, leading to an investigation by Guilford County Schools that determined some of the players on the team resided outside of the school’s district. As a result, the team was stripped of its championship title and (Coach Stan) Kowalewski’s coaching contract was not renewed.”
http://www.nwobserver.com/articles/2009/12/06/news/doc4b1807ee49f40864555335.txt

As you may know, Northern Guilford is football home to Parade All-American Keenan Allen, University of Oregon commits Chris McCain 4-star LB and James Scales 3-star DB.

FISH #1: How can a high school whose paint is still drying have a state champion basketball team and a nationally ranked football team?

Kowalewski is now the head basketball coach at ORMA (Oak Ridge Military Academy) 13 miles west of Greensboro.

ORMA’s AD Derrell Force resigned from Northern Guilford last spring amid the school’s eligibility scandal.

“Sources said Force is expected to offer Oak Ridge’s football job to Otis Yelverton, a nonfaculty assistant coach at Northern Guilford last year. Guilford County Schools declined to renew Yelverton’s contract for the fall. Yelverton declined to comment.”
http://www.news-record.com/content/2009/07/30/article/former_northern_guilford_coach_ad_headed_to_oak_ridge_military_academy

FISH #2: It’s interesting that all these shady characters end up together again. According to this article, ORMA’s new athletics director is Otis Yelverton. What happened to Force? I don’t know Yelverton’s resume but he was a nonfaculty assistant coach at Northern Guilford – not head coach. That is quite a career jump.
http://www.nwobserver.com/articles/2009/12/06/news/doc4b1807ee49f40864555335.txt

So who is Otis Yelverton? He is a coach in North Carolina who has coached and “mentored” McCain, Scales and Allen as well as Allen’s half brother and former Buffalo University starting QB Zach Maynard who wants to transfer and play with Allen. He also coached/mentored 4-star DE Gabe King who was found ineligible to play high school football in North Carolina due to living in the wrong district (sound familiar?) and transferred to South Eugene (OR) High School.

Representatives of University of Oregon have been very careful about this issue and it may be why King has yet to commit to the Ducks.
http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Newest+Axeman+looks+comfortable+at+first+practice.-a0208717756

FISH #3: It seems awfully strange, coincidental and expensive for a family to up and move from Greensboro, North Carolina across the country to Eugene, Oregon just so their kid can play HS football. Why Eugene? Did they have financial help? From whom?

Additionally, Yelverton did his mentoring thing with Remene Alston who will be a senior RB at Oregon. As far as I can tell, Yelverton was not a high school head coach for any of these recruits. He was an assistant.

Yelverton’s distant cousin, Dino Philyaw, is a former Duck star RB who had a cup of coffee in the NFL. He has no official affiliation with Oregon other than being an alumnus. He is currently the president of SSD Luxury Builders in Eugene and operates Philyaw’s Cookout & Catering. He is a local hero/celebrity in Eugene. After high school, he played some minor league baseball and went to Taft JUCO in California before ending up at UO. Yelverton and Philyaw played against each other in high school in North Carolina and have stayed close. The two were involved in the Rivals.com Five-Star Showdown in March 2009 that included Allen, King and many other blue chippers from the Carolinas.
http://purdue.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=923236

This past summer, Yelverton took Allen, King, Scales, McCain, and Maurice Harris to Oregon’s football camp. Harris is a class of 2011 WR at NGHS and already has offers from Alabama, Cal, Clemson, etc. He is also Allen’s cousin.

FISH #4: Who paid for the flight, etc? How much do you think a summer flight for six or more from Greensboro to Eugene costs?

FISH #5: Philyaw was there to greet them. It seems to me, as a UO booster Philyaw has probably had some illegal contact, but I don’t know the details of the contact or the NCAA rules.
http://blog.oregonlive.com/behindducksbeat/2009/09/oregon_football_could_reap_div.html

“ ‘Yeah we are all taking off tomorrow around 7:30 am and will be landing in Eugene around 1:30 pm,’ said Coach O. ‘James Scales, Keenan Allen, Gabe King, and Chris McCain will all be traveling with me to visit Oregon. James is also bringing some of his family on the trip. We plan on visiting Oregon, Oregon State, and Cal on the six day trip,” said Coach O.’ ”

FISH #4.5: Add in Scales family members, rental cars, gas, food and lodging… $$$

http://duckterritory.com/football/football-recruiting/130-nc-athletes-invade-oregon
http://queencityhigh.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=957496

Mighty fishy….