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Bad combination Gold Club witness coaches youth basketball
Updated: Wednesday June 20, 2001 2:01 PM
By Mike Fish, CNNSI.com ATLANTA -- The news apparently hadn't filtered down to Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) headquarters, not far from Disney World on the outskirts of Orlando. Were officials aware of the seamy allegations surrounding youth basketball coach Thomas "Ziggy" Sicignano, star witness in a federal racketeering trial that involves the Gambino organized-crime family? Nope, they'd never even heard of the guy. What about his Brooklyn USA basketball program? Nope, it didn't ring a bell. After checking their computers, AAU brass came to the realization that they'd approved Sicignano as a card-carrying coach, and players on his six age-group teams had cards for AAU-sponsored events in the metropolitan New York area. At least one of Sicignano's teams had qualified to play in the national tournament later this summer.
"I've never heard of him or his team, and I've been around this for years,'' said Mike Killpack, AAU director of sports operations. Yet some familiar with the inner workings of summer-league basketball, including NCAA investigators, had heard rumors that Steve Kaplan, owner of the Atlanta-based Gold Club, bankrolled Sicignano's program, which has produced several top collegiate players since its inception in 1990. Sicignano worked off and on at the Gold Club, a strip club, for five years as a manager. Sicignano, who cut a generous plea bargain with prosecutors, testified last week in Atlanta that Kaplan paid strippers to have sex with professional athletes and had funneled money to the Gambino organized-crime family in return for mob protection. A federal attorney described Kaplan, primary financial backer of the basketball program, as an "associate'' and an "earner'' for the crime family. Kaplan has pleaded not guilty to all the government's charges in the case. An NCAA investigator told CNNSI.com the organization had been aware of Sicignano and is monitoring the trial, adding: "I don't know why the AAU lets him still have a team in these tournaments. It's up to them to do something.'' Sicignano, known as "Ziggy" in youth basketball circles, said Kaplan donated around $120,000 between 1995-98 to his non-profit organization that fields teams for kids ages 9 and up. Steve Sadow, Kaplan's attorney, put the figure at closer to $200,000. The attorney also suggested that Sicignano arranged for a dancer to have sex with a businessman who donated $170,000 to Brooklyn USA. Sicignano said that wasn't true. "I guess allegations are floating around,'' said John Hodges, AAU director of communications. "Until [Sicignano] has a background or a record, allegations can't really prevent someone from participating in a program. He is an AAU member this year and has been in the past. He just participates in our events. We're not responsible for paying bills and all those things.'' Added Killpack: "As long as he has a club and all the kids are AAU members, then he can send in an entry fee and participate in different events they have up there [in the New York area].'' The AAU's position is it shouldn't be held accountable for the scandals associated with summer-league basketball, largely because it only stages events and has no other role with the teams. Sicignano paid $12 for an AAU coaching card and certified that he'd never been convicted of a sex offense or a felony -- which at the time apparently was true. Though helping underprivileged kids has always been a selling point of summer basketball, it's become rife with controversy over the past 20 years. The influx of sponsorship money from sneaker giants Nike and Adidas has allowed elite teams to roam the country looking for games. And it has given rise to summer coaches trying to broker deals with colleges for players and later aiming to capitalize if those players turn pro. It hit bottom when former summer-league coach Myron Piggie was sentenced last month to 37 months in federal prison after pleading guilty to defrauding four federally funded universities, a result of making cash payments to five high school players in the late 1990s. Now, a coach has admitted a strip club owner with alleged ties to the Mafia financed his non-profit program. "This is almost like starting over two years ago and going through the Myron Piggie case,'' Hodges said. With his under-oath testimony alone, Sicignano's role in the Gold Club also appears counter to the AAU's mission statement: "To offer amateur sports programs through a volunteer base for all people to have the physical, mental, and moral development of amateur athletes and to promote sportsmanship and good citizenship.'' Sicignano pleaded guilty last month to the felony of concealing knowledge that a crime was committed. He faces up to three years in prison, although his sentence is likely to be far more lenient because of his cooperation with the government. After learning details of Sicignano's testimony, Killpack and Hodges forwarded the information Tuesday to the organization's national board of review. The board has the option of suspending Sicignano or relieving him of membership pending outcome of the Gold Club trial. "I'd hate to be in his situation if half of this [testimony] is true,'' Hodges said. "He might just end up on the missing list.''
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