Supreme Court upholds school sports rules

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A sports association's rule prohibiting high schools from recruiting young athletes does not violate the free-speech rights of the schools or their coaches, a unanimous U.S. Supreme Court said on Thursday.

The ruling was a victory for the Tennessee Secondary School Athletic Association, which regulates interscholastic sports among public and private high schools, in its long legal battle with Brentwood Academy over recruiting violations 10 years ago.

Justice John Paul Stevens said in the court's opinion that the high school had voluntarily decided to join the association.

"The anti-recruiting rule strikes nowhere near the heart of the First Amendment," he wrote. "(The association) has not banned the dissemination of truthful information relating to sports. It has only prevented its member schools from recruiting individual middle school students."

Stevens said the association's limited regulation of recruiting posed no significant free-speech concerns, given that member schools remain free to send brochures, post billboards or otherwise advertise their athletic programs.

The association said Brentwood Academy violated its recruiting rules when its football coach sent a letter in 1997 to a group of eighth-grade boys inviting them to attend spring practice sessions.

While the boys had signaled their intent to attend Brentwood Academy, none had enrolled and attended three days of classes as required by the association's rules.

"In our view," Stevens wrote, "the dangers of undue influence and overreaching that exist when a lawyer chases an ambulance are also present when a high school coach contacts an eighth grader."