An African pipeline of talented players to New Jersey is alive and well, but at times things can go awry with the process, as evidence by the recent scandal at Paterson Eastside.
The plane from Africa touched down at John F. Kennedy International Airport in Queens 21 months ago and Savior Akuwovo, a 6-foot-9 Nigerian, hopped in a waiting car and headed for the Poconos.
A few hours later, when Akuwovo arrived at St. Anthony High's summer basketball camp, his new teammates were curious why he carried two backpacks stuffed with clothes and nothing else. The Nigerian, after all, wasn't just there for camp. He was moving to the United States to enroll and play at the Jersey City powerhouse.
"I'm on a business trip to get a scholarship to college, and when a businessman travels he doesn't carry a lot of luggage," Akuwovo said, according to Eric Harrield, one of St. Anthony's top assistant coaches.
"Everybody laughed at that," Harrield added. "But when you think about it, it all made sense and showed his reasoning for coming here. It wasn't about riches or to be the next NBA superstar; it was to get better and obtain a free education."
Akuwovo's journey -- and mission -- are hardly unique. He is one of at least 15 prominent African players featured on the rosters of elite New Jersey high school basketball teams this winter, a number that coaches and other observers say is an all-time high and likely to keep growing.
This season, nearly every private school power in the state has at least one African player, including St. Benedict's Prep, Blair Academy, Roselle Catholic, Pope John, Hudson Catholic, Bergen Catholic and St. Mary's of Elizabeth. Several players are from long-time hoops hotbeds Nigeria and South Sudan, but others hail from Mali, Angola, Gabon and Senegal.
See the top African players in N.J.
The sudden presence of Africans rocked the New Jersey basketball community for an entirely different reason last month when NJ Advance Media published a report detailing that six overseas players, including three from Nigeria, were living with Paterson Eastside High boys coach Juan Griles. All three of the Nigerians listed their coach or his assistant as their legal guardians. One of the players complained about the lack of food in the house, sparking multiple investigations.
A subsequent report revealed a similar pattern on the Eastside girls team, dating to at least 2013. Eastside has since ended the season of both teams, pulling out of state and county tournaments. The situation at Eastside, according to interviews with coaches and state officials, shows what can go wrong with the win-at-any-cost mentality that permeates so many programs today.
"It's a nouveau slave trade," said Father Edwin Leahy, the headmaster at St. Benedict's in Newark, whose school has been taking foreign athletes and regular students for years through a strict admissions process. "It's buying and selling kids."
'LOOKING TO PLACE A KID'
There is no single route international players take to high schools in the United States. But one of the more traditional paths is through a prominent foreign program such as the Ejike Ugboaja Foundation, named after the first player drafted directly into the NBA from Africa, or similar outfits run by other African nations. The programs often help facilitate connections between foreign prospects and American coaches.
According to the Ugboaja website, the foundation's annual camp has helped secure 130 educational opportunities for African participants.
"For the videos we have on YouTube, our website, some coaches see it and want to contact us," Henry Ugboaja, who helps run the foundation, said in a phone interview. "They say, 'We saw this girl or that guy, and we think he'll be a good fit for our program.' They talk to the students themselves and their parents, and they get all the information, transcripts, all that stuff. Once they are able to get visas, they are [in the U.S.]."
Paterson Eastside basketball scandal
Other times, foreign players or handlers solicit high school coaches in the U.S. themselves through calls, emails and video highlights. Prominent high schools field countless calls each year, coaches say.
For example, St. Anthony Coach Bob Hurley "gets called from people all over the place -- China, Greece, Italy, Australia," Harrield said. "People all over want to send their kid to America to be coached by him."
For international players to study in the U.S., they typically must secure a Form I-20 -- a federal document issued by Student and Exchange Visitor Program-certified schools to foreign students who then use them to obtain a visa in their home country. Most often private schools -- not public schools -- are certified to issue I-20s.
Also, foreign students who attend public high schools in the U.S. must pay tuition and can only attend the school for one year, according to federal guidelines.
"To keep it basic: Part A: Secure the I-20 from the designated school official at the institution," said Harlan York, a top immigration attorney based in Newark. "Part B: Appear at a U.S. Embassy, and if the embassy is satisfied that everything's in order, secure the F-1 student visa. Then arrive at the airport and begin attending school."
Problems can arise once the foreign players make it to the U.S., as they did for several of the Eastside teens, and there are multiple examples nationally of players moving between four and five schools in a relatively short period of time. For instance, one of the Eastside players' previous stops included Connecticut, Florida and Wisconsin, and he is now in New York after a few weeks in New Jersey.
Human trafficking concerns broadside N.J. hoops power
The movement, coaches said, can occur because the player might not be as good as advertised, prompting an American coach to send him packing. The player could have problems adapting to lifestyle or study requirements. And, in some cases, a player who enters the U.S. on an I-20 issued by a particular school never sets foot on that campus.
"I'm disappointed in what goes on as a basketball guy," said Brian Shanahan, the boys basketball coach at Phelps School in Pennsylvania, which has enrolled several African players over the years. "The kids are the ones that end up paying the price because they're stuck. It happens a lot."
Sometimes, once players arrive in the U.S. they're shopped around during the summer AAU season by the handler or middleman who helped bring them here, according to coaches. The people who dangle the kids do not always have their best interests at heart, officials say.
"If you do it properly, you're helping people," said Sandy Pyonin, the longtime AAU coach of the New Jersey Roadrunners. "If you do it the wrong way, it's not good. You're using them. There is a big problem with people bringing [international players] here and not worrying about their academics or their living situations."
The international pipeline to the U.S. has had its share of problems, including allegations of human trafficking surfacing from New Jersey to North Carolina. In 2015, the Department of Homeland Security raided a private school in Georgia and discovered 30 young boys, mostly from the Dominican Republic, sleeping on the gym floor. The boys had been lured to America with the promise of a high school education and the chance at a college scholarship, according to reports.
How the Eastside scandal blew up
Coaches and handlers of foreign talent often are motivated by the possibility of a payday down the road if a player blossoms into a top recruit or an NBA draft pick, coaches say. Handlers can make money by funneling a player to a certain college, or when the player signs a professional contract. But the ones that don't pan out can be discarded without regard for the player's well being.
"Trafficking isn't just about bringing kids here to have sex," said Charles Kuck, a top immigration attorney based in Atlanta. "People want to have great basketball teams. People will find shortcuts to get around immigration laws. They've done it for a hundred years, they'll do it for a hundred more."
'LET'S GIVE IT A SHOT'
Regardless of how the Africans arrived in New Jersey, they're having a major impact on the court. When bitter rivals St. Anthony and the Patrick School faced off at the Dan Finn Classic in Jersey City this January, it was a showcase for some of the continent's finest young players.
On one end stood the Patrick School's trio of NCAA Division 1 recruits: 7-foot Buay Koka and 6-foot-9 Bul Ajang, both from South Sudan, and 6-foot-8 junior Valdir Manuel from Angola. Meanwhile, St. Anthony countered with 6-foot-11 Oscar Okeke and Akuwovo, both from Nigeria.
Other prominent players include St. Benedict's Bourama Sidibe, a 6-foot-11 center from Mali; Roselle Catholic's Majur Majak, a 7-foot-1 center from Sudan; Pope John's Samba Diallo, a 6-foot-7 forward from Senegal; and Blair Academy's star duo Junub Char Chuol and Deng Gak, both from South Sudan.
The presence of so many of these players on New Jersey's top teams virtually guarantees an African will be featured on the teams that play later this month for the Tournament of Champions title, New Jersey's ultimate basketball crown.
And it's not just the perennial powerhouses feeling an African influence. St. Mary's of Elizabeth, a competitive program but often overshadowed by other Union County stalwarts such as the Patrick School, Linden and Roselle Catholic, has a pair of talented Nigerian players: 6-foot-8 Calistus Anyichie and 6-foot-7 Casmir Ochiaka, both juniors.
The (many!) unanswered questions in Eastside scandal
"When we had this opportunity we figured, 'Why not? Everybody else is doing it, let's give it a shot and see where it goes,' St. Mary's coach Anthony Colletti said. "Kids are always looking to make their situation better, whether it's a kid on the other side of the planet or a kid here."
Colletti added his school followed a strict protocol in bringing Anyichie and Ochiaka to New Jersey, getting their I-20s approved by both St. Mary's and the Archdiocese of Newark, which oversees the school. The boys also play for the Roadrunners AAU team, so they were set up with the host family of a teammate from Summit High. They now live in Short Hills.
Both Anyichie and Ochiaka are honor roll students and solid contributors to the team, Colletti said. Anyichie already has scholarship offers from Stony Brook, NJIT, Seton Hall and Fairleigh Dickinson and is being recruited by Columbia, Lehigh and Yale. Ochiaka has offers from Seton Hall, Fairleigh Dickinson and NJIT.
"There's no downside on our end with these two," Colletti said. "I happen to have two really good kids."
Like most foreign players studying in the U.S., Anyichie and Ochiaka's tuition to St. Mary's is paid for by donors who sponsor them, Colletti said. Rarely will foreign players pay their own way, coaches said. Some families drain their bank accounts to pay for plane tickets to the U.S., while other times middlemen, the foundation or the U.S. high school help cover travel costs to get the players here.
But as long as there are scholarships to be had and money to be made through college basketball, the foreign influx will keep growing, coaches say.
"Clearly, you go all the way up to the college game and there's certainly a tremendous amount of foreign kids that are here right now," Hurley said. "I don't think this thing is going to slow down."
Matthew Stanmyre may be reached at mstanmyre@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @MattStanmyre. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
Mayor Steve Fulop spoke to CNBC in April 2016 about Jersey City's initiative to outfit the city's police officers with body cameras.
