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Post by coachscdub on Oct 21, 2023 21:27:26 GMT -6
Not sure how many of those on here are familiar with Lincoln University, but it is an upstart "Division 2" football team located in Oakland, California.
They have had a football program for three years now, and have not been successful at all, not suprising for a startup.
In talking with some of their players after our game today, and seeing things during our game i am shocked and appalled at how this university is still in existence.
They came to our game with 46 players, 5 coaches, zero trainers or medical staff, and a few assistant type bodies. Players were responsible for bringing water out on to the field during timeouts, and our student assistants were sent over to their sideline to fill up waters for them. They also did not have anyone who handled equipment issues, so during the game our equipment manager would walk across the field to assist them.
Injured players had to be assisted off the field by other players, as again, they had no medical staff.
The players i spoke with after the game informed me that the vast majority of their roster (70%) are ineligible, more than half of their players do not even attend Lincoln University, the player i spoke with attends an NAIA school via an online program. They have picked up random players throughout the season off of the street.
They do not have any football facilities, and instead practice at a local public park. I was also informed that water is not provided or available to the players during practice.
They also mentioned that they are not fed at all from the program, and are responsible for feeding themselves on their road trips.
They are playing 12 straight games this season, no bye week, and all of them on the road.
Oh and on top of that, they informed me that they have active felons on their roster.
The players i spoke with informed me that they are desperately trying to get out of there, and are looking for other options. They are essentially treating it as a JUCO and trying to get film of themselves playing against the D1 and D2 schools on their schedule. Apparently the head coach is aware of this, and actually limits players reps in games and informs them that "they already have enough stuff on film".
After hearing all of this today, and seeing the manner in which this program operates, it really hurt me in a manner i havent experienced before. I feel awful for these kids who are in a dangerous situation with no one looking out for their health or well being.
Whatever you do, do not let anyone you know attend this university.
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CoachK
Sophomore Member
Posts: 147 
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Post by CoachK on Oct 22, 2023 10:39:30 GMT -6
Oh, here we go. I mentioned them on another thread, along with Virginia University-Lynchburg.
It goes like this: Lincoln's HC Desmond Gumbs is basically a successful version of the Bishop Sycamore guy. He created a "high school" in the Bay Area called Stellar Prep that charged kids to sit in a rented storefront in downtown Hayward, CA (a bit south of Oakland) and do workbooks all day. Most kids didn't do them, obviously, as there were no teachers.
So this is basically a for-profit football team that Gumbs created out of whole cloth in order to pocket the cash and create his own little kingdom. He'll tell you it's "for the kids" but all the kids at Stellar Prep are worse off for going there than they would be at their regular high schools. In my time as a HS coach in the bay we had several kids transfer to us from SP, every single one was ineligible initally and every single one was not on academic track to get into a college football program.
The lone exception to this would be Desmond Gumbs' son, who played for SP but was homeschooled. He made it to Miss St I think, but never accomplished much. I think he's now as assistant for Lincoln.
So now Lincoln itself is a mess, it's just a bunch of portables in downtown Oakland. No housing or anything, no real college ameneties. It views football as a means to get more enrollment and more tuition dollars. Gumbs is the perfect man for the job. They play all their games on the road in order to get the guarantee checks, which I promise you are going to Gumbs' mortgage more than they are the kids or the program's needs. Their OC used to coach at the JUCO I'm at now and let me tell you he doesn't know the first thing about offensive football. Most of their staff leave after one season.
Lincoln isn't alone in this. VUL is the exact same, except coach Newman ran a scam prep school in Charlotte instead of a scam high school. More and more of these things will pop up, too. Kids don't know the difference, they just see the schedule and the twitter graphics and most in CA have no other options, since there is basically no 4-year ball here below the D1 level.
Programs like this do more damage to our sport than concussions or rowdy parents or hot-shot spread OCs. We need to apply pressure on the schools to reform, or shut them down. I know several kids at Lincoln and was briefly employed by VUL until I found out what that place was and quit before going out there, so I am happy to help steer anybody away from them.
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CoachK
Sophomore Member
Posts: 147
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Post by CoachK on Oct 22, 2023 11:10:21 GMT -6
Some quick Googling of Gumbs will bring up some interesting information on some of his other "business ventures."
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Post by leonel on Oct 23, 2023 15:11:03 GMT -6
Yes, I am a parent of One of those young men. We had to pull him out and redshirt him so he lost a year. It was a horrible experience for my son and us ,housing is horrendous stuffing kids apartments that have to sleep on the floor because there’s no more room,not feeding the kids on the road not even getting gear till a day before the game.. they are a non-dividual team, so NCAA can’t help me in disputing the year I lost so now I have go back through Lincoln to see what they’ll do for me which will probably be nothing seeing how they treated the kids. It’s horrible at the schools, institution/individuals would do this to students stripping their dreams away, and their hopes for funding for the school, which isn’t even really a school. Anybody have any suggestions for me and my son I would deeply appreciate it.🙏🏻
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CoachK
Sophomore Member
Posts: 147
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Post by CoachK on Oct 23, 2023 17:19:37 GMT -6
send me an email: jkocurek@frc.edu
There are some hardships and appeal processes you can go through. I'm not an expert but I am more than happy to do whatever I can to point you in the right direction.
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Post by 44dlcoach on Oct 23, 2023 18:28:47 GMT -6
We had Stellar Prep on our schedule a couple years ago. But it was for week 8 or 9, and they shuttered their season a few weeks before that. Never heard it from them, we heard it from the coach of the first team they cancelled on.
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Post by 19delta on Oct 23, 2023 19:30:02 GMT -6
Are schools like Lincoln part of an association like the NCAA or the NAIA? If so, how? Don’t schools have to meet certain criteria to be in an association like the NCAA or NAIA?
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Post by tog on Oct 23, 2023 20:25:23 GMT -6
Not sure how many of those on here are familiar with Lincoln University, but it is an upstart "Division 2" football team located in Oakland, California. They have had a football program for three years now, and have not been successful at all, not suprising for a startup. In talking with some of their players after our game today, and seeing things during our game i am shocked and appalled at how this university is still in existence. They came to our game with 46 players, 5 coaches, zero trainers or medical staff, and a few assistant type bodies. Players were responsible for bringing water out on to the field during timeouts, and our student assistants were sent over to their sideline to fill up waters for them. They also did not have anyone who handled equipment issues, so during the game our equipment manager would walk across the field to assist them. Injured players had to be assisted off the field by other players, as again, they had no medical staff. The players i spoke with after the game informed me that the vast majority of their roster (70%) are ineligible, more than half of their players do not even attend Lincoln University, the player i spoke with attends an NAIA school via an online program. They have picked up random players throughout the season off of the street. They do not have any football facilities, and instead practice at a local public park. I was also informed that water is not provided or available to the players during practice. They also mentioned that they are not fed at all from the program, and are responsible for feeding themselves on their road trips. They are playing 12 straight games this season, no bye week, and all of them on the road. Oh and on top of that, they informed me that they have active felons on their roster. The players i spoke with informed me that they are desperately trying to get out of there, and are looking for other options. They are essentially treating it as a JUCO and trying to get film of themselves playing against the D1 and D2 schools on their schedule. Apparently the head coach is aware of this, and actually limits players reps in games and informs them that "they already have enough stuff on film". After hearing all of this today, and seeing the manner in which this program operates, it really hurt me in a manner i havent experienced before. I feel awful for these kids who are in a dangerous situation with no one looking out for their health or well being. Whatever you do, do not let anyone you know attend this university. Sounds like neon and prime prep really. |
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CoachK
Sophomore Member
Posts: 147
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Post by CoachK on Oct 24, 2023 11:01:43 GMT -6
Are schools like Lincoln part of an association like the NCAA or the NAIA? If so, how? Don’t schools have to meet certain criteria to be in an association like the NCAA or NAIA? They are usually affiliated with tiny, upstart independent conferences, and I use 'affiliated' and 'conferences' loosely here. VUL, for example, is in the NCCAA, where the extra C stands for Christian, so it's all Very Good People screwing the kids over. Lincoln is part of something I've ever heard of, the SWS (?).
It's scams all the way down, here.
I've reached out to the Lincoln admin. The president seems unmoved, but I'll keep trying. If anybody has any additional information information on them I have no problem putting some pressure on those people to do something. The kids are being exploited.
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Post by leonel on Oct 24, 2023 14:58:57 GMT -6
Yes it’s a very very bad situation for the kids that are really trying to make a future out of football and these kind of colleges are hurting the kids in more ways than one with no benefit for the kids but for the school.$$$$$…..
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CoachK
Sophomore Member
Posts: 147
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Post by CoachK on Oct 24, 2023 17:27:37 GMT -6
I know. Gumbs is a maniac, though, so be careful and as cordial as you can throughout.
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