AIC bans GPS coaches from games in student athlete poaching wars

AIC independent schools have banned GPS coaches from their sports matches as tensions rise over the alleged poaching of top student players who management claim are being seduced with lucrative scholarships.

A war over star student athletes has broken out between Queensland’s most prestigious schools, with a number of top colleges banning their rivals from attending their games amid bombshell poaching claims.

In an extraordinary move, the Associated Independent Colleges management committee has banned Greater Public Schools Association coaches and administrators from attending their games unless given explicit permission.

A letter sent to GPS chair Dr John Kinniburgh – also the headmaster of Toowoomba Grammar School – details a number of grievances, including allegations GPS Association schools routinely seduce players at rival colleges with lucrative scholarships to secure top rugby players for their own teams.

The AIC stated it had made numerous attempts to engage with the GPS association on the issue, and would implement the ban and also scrap all upcoming trial and supplementary games until the problem was addressed.

“Our intention in addressing the issue of GPS recruitment of students, was to initiate a broader conversation about the place of sport in schools, and the negative impact that sporting scholarships have on all schools, including GPS schools,” the letter states.

The headmasters and school leaders of AIC are signatories to the joint letter, including from St Peter’s Lutheran College, St Patrick’s College, Villanova College, St Laurence’s College, Marist College Ashgrove, St Edmund’s College, Padua College and Iona College.

GPS Association schools ­– which include Brisbane Grammar School, Anglican Church Grammar School, Brisbane Boys’ College, St Joseph’s College Gregory Terrace, The Southport School, Ipswich Grammar School, Nudgee College, Toowoomba Grammar School and Brisbane State High School – ­are already prohibited from attending state school sporting carnivals, in an attempt to limit the aggressive recruitment of star players.

With tuition fees at the majority of GPS Association schools pushing $30,000 per year, insiders told The Courier-Mail the brazen and lucrative offers to athletes were difficult for many families to turn down.

As well as offering to waive the athlete’s fees, GPS association schools were also routinely offering free or reduced tuition to siblings, in an attempt to entice families to agree to the shift.

The AIC said the issue had dated back almost a decade when, following an increasing loss of students from AIC schools to GPS rivals, protocols were established in 2013 in an attempt to stamp out the poaching practice.

But the AIC claims these protocols have been routinely ignored, and it was regular practice for old boys, coaches and staff to approach student athletes at games, a method they described as a concern.

“The GPS Association advised that our requests were rejected for ‘commercial and educational’ reasons,” the letter stated.

“The use of the term ‘commercial’ to describe matters around sport and enrolments, clearly highlights the differences between our associations in relation to the purpose of school sport.”

Current GPS by-laws prohibit schools from recruiting students from other GPS schools, but no such rule exists for non-GPS schools.

AIC schools also claim to be often only becoming aware of an athlete’s recruitment when informed by the family, without notification from the GPS Association schools.

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