Two NJ track meets, two sets of bogus results: One Newark high school coach resigns

The co-founder of a Newark-based track club that was listed as the host for two bogus track meets told NorthJersey.com on Thursday that he has resigned as a high school track coach after admitting to falsifying results of a meet called the 2017 Brick City Invitational.

Eddie Greene, who co-founded the Newark Flames Track Club, said he submitted fake meet results to NJ MileSplit for the 2017 Brick City Invitational in Newark and that fewer than half of the nine scheduled teams even showed up, despite him reporting results for at least eight teams.

NJ MileSplit is a well-known track and field website and the state's de facto timekeeper.

West Side High School, where Greene was the boys' track and field coach, confirmed Greene's resignation Thursday morning.

"It was a stupid decision on my part," Greene said. "I was just trying to make the meet seem a little bit bigger than the meet really was. It was a dumb move."

Greene emailed his resignation letter to Gary Taylor, the athletic director at West Side High School on Thursday morning.

"I responded that I accept and it is effective immediately," Taylor said.

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2017 Brick City Invitational

This meet was scheduled to take place at Weequahic Park in Newark, on May 22, 2017, according to NJ MileSplit.

Nine teams registered for the meet on the website:

Bard High School Early College, Newark,

Benedictine Academy, Elizabeth

CSIHS/McCown, Staten Island

Cherry Hill Bolts, Cherry Hill

East Orange Campus, East Orange

New Egypt HSNew Egypt, NJRegistered

Malcolm X Shabazz (listed as Quiet Storm) Newark

Weequahic High School, Newark

West Side High School, Newark

But on the day of the meet, only West Side, Malcolm X Shabazz, East Orange and Paulo Freire Charter School showed up, Greene said. Paulo Freire was not registered, but results were originally listed for the team, said Robert Kellert, editor for NJ MileSplit.

"The day of the meet, we didn’t get all (the) teams," Greene said. "It was my idea and my suggestion that why don’t we just add a couple more teams in so that the meet looks more fuller."

Those meet results were never made official by MileSplit, Kellert said, and have now been scrubbed from the website. Initially, Greene said that Aaron Brown, the only contact person listed on the meet page, was the meet director, in a Wednesday interview.

Brown said he had never heard of the meet and was never contacted regarding it. Greene later retracted, saying he did list Brown as a contact person, but that he himself was responsible for coordinating the 2017 meet.

2018 Brick City Invitational

This year's meet was scheduled to be held May 20 at Schools Stadium, also in Newark. But that meet never happened, said a man who identified himself as Corey Johnson, the coach and CEO of the Newark Flames, in a phone conversation with NorthJersey.com on Tuesday.

Johnson followed in Greene's footsteps and submitted fake meet results for teams that never showed up, Greene said.

"I showed Coach Johnson how it could be done," Greene said. "So I guess the next year when he wanted to use it for his purpose, he figured ‘Well we did it last year. We could do it again.' He wouldn't have known how to do it if it wasn't for me."

At least six teams were listed as participating in the meet: including Bard Early College, Benedictine Academy, East Orange Campus, Immaculate Conception of Montclair, Malcolm X Shabazz, Notre Dame, People's Prep, West Side and Newark Flames.

Many of the schools' athletic directors whose teams were listed had not even heard of the meet before NorthJersey.com reported it.

Glenda Waxter, the mother of one alleged participant, flagged her son's results in the meet and knew he did not compete that day.

Waxter, a track and field official both for the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association (NJSIAA) and USA Track & Field, had noticed the discrepancy between her son's actual best triple jump mark of 43-8 1/2 and the 45-10 he was given at the 2018 Brick City Invitational that was posted on NJ MileSplit.

Some of the performances originally posted for the May 20 meet also included significant personal bests for many of the athletes. The marks would have qualified the athletes for either the championship division or the Emerging Elite division of the New Balance Nationals next month, the national high school outdoor track and field championship meet.

The aftermath

The Newark Flames Track Club was listed as the host for both the 2017 and 2018 Brick City Invitational. Greene said he is now dismantling the track club.

NJ MileSplit has scrubbed meet results associated with the Newark Flames and has launched its own investigation.

"It is unfortunate because this kind of behavior has no place in this sport, or sports in general," Kellert said. "New Jersey has a great cross-country and track and field community, and for this situation to come to a national spotlight is a disservice to those who do so much to grow their athletes the right way on and off the track."

Greene said he would be sending a statement to the NJSIAA. A spokesperson for the NJSIAA said Thursday that its investigation is continuing.

This weekend is the NJSIAA Group Championships, where athletes from West Side High School, including Greene's son, will be participating. Greene said he is done coaching for the foreseeable future, but will attend this weekend to support his former team.

"I'll go to the states and support him as a father," Greene said. "I'll support the athletes from West Side as a fan."

Staff Writer Paul Schwartz contributed to this article.

Email: torrejon@northjersey.com

POPPER: Bizarre fake track meet is latest example of grown-ups spoiling sports

2017 QUESTIONS: Controversy grows with alleged fake H.S. track meet as questions raised about 2017 event

FAKE MEET: Coach admits he faked HS track and field meet results

WHISTLEBLOWER: HS track official, mother of athlete 'livid' son was listed in fake meet