CCSU soccer coach in trouble over trashed papers

HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — Central Connecticut's men's soccer coach faces a meeting with his boss after acknowledging he took stacks of the university's student newspaper and threw them in the garbage last week.

Coach Shaun Green declined Tuesday to comment on the incident. But he told police he emptied the newspaper racks at the school's student center last Thursday because he was upset over an article in The Recorder detailing his team's failure to qualify academically for next season's NCAA tournament.

School spokesman Mark McLaughlin said no charges have been filed, but Athletic Director Paul Schlickmann has scheduled a meeting Wednesday with Green to discuss the incident.

"It's under very careful review, and we certainly do take it very seriously," McLaughlin said. "It is part of a process. Conceivably it could be resolved (Wednesday). Conceivably it could go a couple of more stages."

Senior Nicholas Proch, editor-in-chief of The Recorder, said he noticed the papers missing Thursday afternoon as he was heading home from class. He said he discussed the problem with the school's student activities director, who filed a police report. He said about 150 copies of the newspaper were found in the garbage.

Police viewed a video from one of the center's security cameras, which appeared to show Green with a stack of newspapers in his hand, according to a police report.

Green returned a phone call from police, indicated he had been upset over the article on the soccer team, apologized for trashing the papers and said he would not take any more. The papers are available free to members of the university community.

"Right now, they aren't pursuing any charges, but I have to figure out what I can pursue and then go from there," Proch said. "I'm angry. We put in a lot of hard work to put out a paper every week."

Proch said Green has not apologized to him and has refused to comment for stories done by the newspaper about the incident.

The article was based on a press release put out by the school on April 26 that said the soccer team had failed to meet the NCAA's Academic Performance Rate standard and would not quality for the 2013 NCAA tournament. The team also will not be allowed to play in the Northeast Conference tournament.

"It was nothing new, it wasn't breaking news," Proch said. "It was already public knowledge."

Proch said last week's issue of The Recorder was to be the last of the school year, but the paper is now planning a special edition dealing with the theft and Freedom of the Press.

He said the staff is also trying to navigate the issues of fairness that come with covering a story that involves the newspaper

"That's difficult," he said. "We have to make sure we're covering this from all angles and get the university perspective so it's not just us using our voice to berate him."

Green's team finished this past season 10-8-1 and lost in the conference tournament semifinals to Monmouth.