A Sports Story Draws Some Boos

Last Sunday's story about Omar Williams and his questionable path to becoming a basketball player at George Washington University brought complaints, mostly from GWU students, faculty, staff and alumni.

Williams didn't graduate from high school after five years and then did little work at three prep schools, two of which no longer exist. His diploma from one of them helped get him into GWU, where he has helped the team to a No. 6 national ranking. The prep schools were vetted by a company -- Clearinghouse -- created by the National Collegiate Athletic Association to review high schools' academic integrity and athletes' transcripts.

This story goes to the heart of a continuing controversy in sports. College officials, alumni and fans often don't want to read about recruiting and academic problems. They want winning teams that will put their school on the map without regard to the fallout for the athletes. But boosterish reporting for hometown teams is long, long gone, and recruiting problems have been a newspaper sports staple for many years.

Many questioned the timing of the story -- right near the end of a successful season. Some thought that Williams was being picked on; one reader said "it was a chance to tear him down."

There are two reasons for the timing. One, noted in the Sunday story, is that The Post is taking a year-long look at high school basketball and how "the lure of multimillion-dollar contracts and the growth of college basketball have raised the stakes for young players, their parents, coaches and backers."

The other reason, which may not sit well with some critics, is that both The Post and the New York Times have been pursuing stories about phony prep schools whose only reason for being is to provide high school diplomas to athletes who need them. When The Post completed the reporting, the story went swiftly into the paper for competitive reasons.

Williams starred in this story -- and it was put at the top of Page 1 -- because he is an example of how the system allows someone without academic credentials into college.

The story was well reported, and I was impressed with the honesty of officials of two Philadelphia churches who told The Post that the prep schools they operated did not meet the standards that the Clearinghouse said they did.

Several readers who disliked the article said Williams is a success story; he is on track to graduate this year with a degree in sociology, according to GWU. Originally, GWU officials said he made the dean's list. They later corrected that to say that he made the athletic department dean's list, which requires having a 3.0 grade-point average.

That makes me want to know much more about Williams and how he went from being -- in the words of a former teammate and prep school officials -- someone who rarely went to class and had no interest in academics to being a successful student.

I trust that The Post will write that story. I'd like to see Williams quoted in it; GWU officials prevented him from speaking to The Post for last Sunday's story, said Emilio Garcia-Ruiz, assistant managing editor for sports.

I had one quibble, about an anonymous quote from another college official who said Williams would not have been admitted to his school. The quote did not meet Post standards for explaining why the official was not named.

·

Newspaper readers are creatures of habit, so I sympathize with those who feel tossed around by The Post lately, with valued columns moving and sometimes being left out altogether, with little notice.

I've gotten several complaints from readers who don't like the new home of Federal Diary -- Page D4 in the Business section. It was moved from its longtime home at the top of Page B2 in the Metro section.

Gilbert Johnson of Bethesda said, "I believe that it was a mistake for The Post to bury the Federal Diary column in the Business section. As you certainly know, the federal government is the region's largest civilian employer by many orders of magnitude. Its most mundane activities, such as openings and closings, may affect nearly everyone in the region. To hide the column that routinely covers these administrative activities in the back of the paper . . . does us all a disservice. Literally dozens of people in the last week said they thought the column was canceled outright."

Nancy K. Mason of Alexandria said: "Yesterday I opened the paper and turned first to where I ordinarily find 'Animal Doctor.' No such luck. Not even one of the paper's ubiquitous (these days) notices that the column/feature has moved elsewhere. Couldn't find it anywhere. Have you dropped it? Is it on vacation? Not a word. Today [Wednesday] I looked for John Kelly's column, newly moved to Metro, but not there. Not anywhere that I can tell."

Animal Doctor is moving to some of the Extras -- for Fairfax, Montgomery, Prince George's and Prince William counties. It will not run in the other Extras because they don't have the space to accommodate it, said Robert McCartney, assistant managing editor for Metro. If you want to read it and don't get one of the four Extras that carry it, go to http://www.washingtonpost.com and type "Animal Doctor" into the search box at the top of the home page.

John Kelly's column, which runs every day except Wednesday and Saturday, was moved from the comics page to inside the Metro section. The move created space on the comics pages for new puzzles, bringing a new problem.

Several readers were upset that the new crossword puzzle on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday has the answers upside down right next to the puzzle. "It makes it hard to concentrate because you keep looking at what the answers are. I want you to know that they should go back to printing the previous day's answers with that day's puzzle," said reader Michael Wilson, who lives in the District.

Enough readers complained that the format will be changed, said Shirley Carswell, assistant managing editor for administration. Editors are working on a format that will allow answers to appear the following day for the crossword, Scrabblegram and Stickelers puzzles. Whatever the format, you won't be tempted to cheat.

Deborah Howell can be reached at 202-334-7582 or atombudsman@washpost.com.