University of Colorado officials this summer gave raises to at least nine assistant football coaches – one by 627 percent – to work at youth football camps that have been the focus of a flurry of investigations by federal revenue agents and state auditors, records show.
The boosts came at a time when state auditors decried the condition of the finances of the camp operation and chastised the athletic department for its lavish and sometimes-uncontrolled spending. A grand jury this year called the camp operation little more than a giant slush fund.
One coach told The Denver Post his duties at the pair of three-day camps each June remained unchanged from year to year, yet he received a raise last summer without asking for it.
Of the coaches who worked the summer camps in June, three received pay increases of at least 80 percent, including one coach, Craig Bray, who saw his camp pay go from $1,500 in 2004 to nearly $11,000 last summer, a 627 percent hike, CU records show. By comparison, three other coaches were given a $75 raise. Attempts to reach Bray were unsuccessful.
NCAA rules require coaches to tell their employers of any outside income they receive, including from sports camps.
Athletic director Mike Bohn, who helped determine the coaches’ camp pay, said the amounts were “a last-minute decision to emulate the commitments that were made” by former head football coach Gary Barnett. The amounts, he said, “reflect the different roles of the coaches in camp.”
Following widespread allegations that football-camp finances were a mess, CU took control of them from Barnett last summer. He had run the camps under a separate contract with CU.
Bohn said he “wasn’t aware” that several of the salaries he approved were much more than what Barnett had reportedly paid the coaches previously.
“It was a private entity that ran them, so I wouldn’t know what the coaches were paid” under Barnett, Bohn said.
No coach’s duties were substantially changed this year, and the camps were held for the same number of days.
“There was nothing additional for them and no change in expectations,” Bohn said. “Whether (payments) are out of line with other camps is something we’ll have to see for next year.”
CU paid $200,000 a year to a Barnett-owned company, High Hopes ’95, to organize and run the camps. Barnett was fired Dec. 8, and his successor, Dan Hawkins, was named Friday.
Barnett and his attorney, John Rodman, did not return repeated telephone calls seeking an explanation.
Not much improvement
Auditors found CU didn’t do much better than High Hopes when it took charge of the camps last summer, although it did reduce Barnett’s camp pay to $130,000. Bohn said Barnett’s cut was to help pay the coaches.
“He is a head coach who was generous enough to share his camp compensation with his staff,” Bohn said of Barnett.
In contrast, Hawkins will be paid $50,000 to work the football-camp operation.
Though almost everyone else associated with the operation got a raise, according to camp expense records released by CU, auditors found the school ended up $250,000 in the hole from the venture. A majority of the camps’ expenses – about $332,000 – was to pay coaches and staff, auditors said.
The camps are held each June for youths ages 8 to 18. Most major university football programs operate sports camps for kids, which are also a means for coaches to supplement their incomes.
And those supplements got beefier with CU at the helm. Overall camp pay to assistant coaches went from about $75,000 under Barnett to more than $103,000 this year, records show.
One of the fattest pay increases was to football recruiting coordinator John Wristen, whose camp salary went from $7,375 in 2004 to $14,900 this year, a 102 percent increase. Attempts to reach Wristen were unsuccessful.
Assistant football coach Brian Cabral, who briefly led the Buffaloes last year while Barnett was suspended pending an internal review of allegations of wrongdoing, also was paid $14,900 to work at the camp. In 2004, he was paid $9,250.
Sen. Ron Tupa, an outspoken critic of CU’s lax control over athletic-department spending, said it’s “anybody’s guess” whether any information about camp spending is accurate. If it is, “it’s incredible,” he said.
“How can anybody be sure what they were paid under Barnett?” Tupa asked Wednesday. “The truth is suspect at every turn. And raises? For what?”
Several coaches said the number of camp participants dropped drastically this year compared with previous years, although an exact number wasn’t available Friday.
Another coach said camp registration fees were increased this year to ensure coaches were paid.
CU on Tuesday released coaches’ camp salaries for 2005. Their pay from previous years appears on disclosure forms coaches file with CU, an NCAA requirement. Auditors found that 11 of 16 athletic-department staffers, 10 of them coaches, last year underreported their football-camp pay.
Coaches estimate what their camp pay will be and file a form with CU at the beginning of the school year, typically sometime between September and January. Since the camps aren’t held until the following June, coaches are required to file an amended report if their camp pay was more or less than what they predicted. None filed amendments on time for the period ending August 2004.
Several had underreported their pay by a considerable amount, records show. For instance, Wristen and colleagues Shawn Watson and Shawn Simms were each paid $7,375 in 2004, but each had told CU he expected less than half that amount.
Federal and state revenue agents have been reviewing camp finances as well as Barnett’s High Hopes for several months, according to several sources.
Those inquiries are expected to be completed soon. Several coaches who said they have been contacted by IRS investigators said they properly reported all earnings on their tax returns.
Some coaches said CU pays demonstrably less for camp work than universities of similar size.
“Some guys (at other schools) get $10,000 to $12,000 for a camp,” said Vance Joseph, a former CU assistant now with the San Francisco 49ers. “I don’t think we were paid very well before.”
Shrouded in secrecy
David Hansburg, the camp’s director as well as CU’s associate athletic director over football operations, was paid $16,400 for the camp job this year. In 2004, under Barnett’s High Hopes, he was paid $9,071, records show.
Hansburg, also considered an assistant coach, said raises include incentives for coaches to do more than just work with the kids, although no coach could recall being asked to do more work.
“It’s for things such as promoting the goodwill of the school and improving its image,” he said, although he would not describe what types of activities that could include.
Hansburg also refused to describe his camp-related job duties when Barnett was in control, saying, “It was a private firm and nobody’s business.”
But assistant Mike Hankwitz, whose camp pay crept from $6,500 last year to $7,450 this year, said he has not done anything differently – nor was he asked to.
“The only thing that was changed was the handling of the finances and the accounting, to my knowledge,” he said.
Hankwitz said he saw no discernible difference in the way the camp was run or in the responsibilities given to the coaches in 2005.
But they earned their extra money, he said.
“It’s a lot of hard work,” he said. “We work from 8 in the morning ’til 9 at night. We didn’t just go out and throw a ball.”
Staff writer David Migoya can be reached at 303-820-1506 or dmigoya@denverpost.com.
Staff writer Chuck Plunkett can be reached at 303-820-1333 or cplunkett@denverpost.com.
