Former Ohio women’s basketball recruit Kara Elofson was at ease this summer while honing her skills at various basketball camps, because she was under the impression that she had a scholarship with the Bobcats.

The rising high school senior was soon shocked to hear that the scholarship originally promised by former Ohio coach Sylvia Crawley and reaffirmed under new coach Semeka Randall would be rescinded Aug. 1 following the July evaluation period.

Elofson, who attends Breck School in Minneapolis, was notified of the decision by her father, Rodney, who said Randall called him.

“We were promised both by the original coaching staff and this coaching staff that our daughter had a scholarship,” Elofson’s father said. “Following the first of August, that all changed.”

Rodney said that Randall told him his daughter would not be an intregal part  of Ohio’s future.

“They said she wasn’t going to fit in, and they said, ‘I’m sure you don’t want her just to sit on the bench for four years,’” he said. “How am I supposed to answer that?”

The Ohio Athletic Department is not able to comment on matters regarding high school athletes.

“In accordance with NCAA bylaw 13.10.2, all members of the Ohio Athletics Department are prevented from commenting on the specifics of a situation regarding a prospective student-athlete,” said Ohio Assistant Athletics Director for Media Relations Jason Corriher.

This is not the first time a university rescinded a scholarship offer to a high school athlete before the athlete had signed a National Letter of Intent with the school.     

This past year, Idaho high school student Daniel Smith said that the University of Hawaii verbally promised him a football scholarship only to have his offer withdrawn when Hawaii coach June Jones left for Southern Methodist.

Smith has filed a lawsuit against the university, and the case is pending. Attorney Ryan Akamine represents Hawaii in the case.

“NCAA institutions require an executed National Letter of Intent for there to be a binding agreement between a prospective student athlete and the institution that agrees to provide a prospective student athlete financial aid,” Akamine said.

According to the National Letter of Intent office, verbal commitments have no leverage and a school is not bound to an athlete until he or she signs a National Letter of Intent.

“That’s where you have to understand that it’s a verbal commitment,” said Susan Peal, a member of the NLI program. “There’s nothing binding. That’s why you have signing dates.”

But Elofson’s high school coach, Brian Cosgriff, said in 25 years of coaching he has never seen a school revoke a scholarship offer at this time in the recruiting process.

“I’ve never seen anything handled so unprofessionally in my entire life, and to top it off, she doesn’t call Kara right away,” Cosgriff said. “She calls Tina Fisher, who is a Minnesota kid who is Kara’s teammate, to tell her they are not going to offer Kara.”

Looking for an explanation, Cosgriff said he called Randall, who he said apologized for revoking the once-promised offer. Cosgriff also said he spoke to Ohio Athletics Director Jim Schaus.

“I talked to the AD today, and the only thing he could say was ‘I’m sorry,’” Cosgriff said. “I will tell you this: Jim is a professional man, and he is a very, very nice man. If I handled confidentiality like she handled this, I would be out of a job. I wouldn’t think of going to somebody — a teammate first.”

Fisher and Elofson were teammates on the Minnesota Metro Black Stars AAU basketball team. Fisher is committed to play for Ohio. The pair was coached by Andy Meinhardt, who said, like Cosgriff, that he found the timing of the decision “set a very bad precedent.”

Elofson visited Ohio in January where Rodney said Crawley offered her a full scholarship, with Elofson immediately giving Ohio a verbal commitment.

Cosgriff said the Elofsons were ecstatic with the way things unfolded.  

“They were floored,” he said. “They loved the campus, they loved Sylvia and they loved coach Geoff (Lanier). It was too good to be true.”

After Crawley left for Boston College in April, Cosgriff said he was worried Randall would not honor the commitment to Elofson, but Rodney said that Randall and her staff promised to keep his daughter on board.

Rodney, who wore Ohio gear throughout the AAU tournaments, said he planned to spend basketball season with his daughter, who lives in Ohio.

“All of that is taken away for whatever reason. Maybe it’s a good reason,” Elofson said. “I’d like to know that reason last April when the new staff took over that this was a possibility. I’m not angry, but I’m hurt.”