Athletics under fire again

Kayla Webley
2005-01-24
The Daily

The UW athletics department may be looking at more NCAA violations, this time as a result of fraudulent medical records.

Kevin Messick, Washington's lead athletics trainer, was placed on paid administrative leave last week for allegedly falsifying medical records in order to give an athlete a medical red shirt, according to The Seattle Times. The red shirt would earn the individual an additional year of eligibility.

According to UW Athletic Director Todd Turner, there is a chance the Huskies might have committed an NCAA violation.

"If it is an NCAA violation, we hope it would be secondary," Turner told the Seattle Post-Intelligencer Saturday. "We've done what needed to be done. We've responded appropriately."

Consequences for Messick include possible termination in February, unless an appeal is upheld, according to The Times.

The UW is at risk of violating the NCAA's code for ethical conduct, the P-I reported. The violation could be interpreted either as an extra benefit -- by allowing an athlete an additional year of eligibility -- or as an attempt to gain a competitive advantage.

The UW potentially faces more severe sanctions if the NCAA takes the case as a violation of the "repeat offender" clause. The UW is subject to a repeat-violator ruling until 2009, due to previous NCAA violations from the Rick Neuheisel case, which dealt with gambling and recruiting violations.

The UW could rescind the red shirt request in an attempt to nullify any NCAA problems, Turner told The Times.

Due to student privacy laws, UW officials will not release the name of the athlete or sport involved, saying only that the incident occurred before the academic year began. The athlete in question is still an enrolled student but has not played since the red shirt request was submitted.

Medical red shirts are awarded to athletes who are seriously injured early in the season. The injury sustained would presumably end their play for that season, leaving them eligible for an additional season of play. A medical red shirt adds a fifth or even a sixth year of play to an athlete's typical four-season career at a university, depending on whether or not the student was red shirted as a freshman and then later for an injury.

Messick has worked at the UW for five years. After spending two years as the associate head athletic trainer, working primarily with the football team, he was appointed head athletic trainer in October 2002.

His duties as head trainer includes care and coordination of injuries and rehabilitation of the football team, as well as coordination and education of the training room and sports medicine internship program. He also serves as the rehabilitation coordinator for all UW athletic programs.

The athletic department will be conducting additional investigations to affirm that no one else was involved and no other violations were committed, Turner told the P-I.

"I'm reasonably confident that this is an isolated incident, but we'll conduct due diligence," Turner told the P-I. "We'll go back and do some additional looking into it."