He is innocent until proven guilty, but right now the future looks grim for Gordie Ernst, the Golden Boy of high-school sports in Rhode Island in the early 1980s.
Ernst, 52, is facing a federal charge of racketeering conspiracy for accepting $2.7 million in bribes while he was the men’s and women’s tennis coach at Georgetown University. The government alleges that in exchange for the bribes, between 2012 and 2018 Ernst identified at least 12 applicants to Georgetown as tennis recruits, even though several did not play competitive tennis. The designation facilitated their admission to the highly selective university.
Ernst appeared before a magistrate in federal court in Maryland on Tuesday, according to the Providence Journal, and was released on $200,000 bond.
A conviction will represent a stunning fall for one of the great high-school athletes in Rhode Island history and the tarnishing of one of the state’s leading tennis and hockey families.
Gordie was Dick and Rollie Ernst’s second-born son, sandwiched between Bobby and Andy. Dick Ernst was the irrepressible lifelong hockey and tennis player from Cranston and coach of each sport at the high school and college levels for more than 50 years. Rollie Ernst picked up a racquet after her boys were grown and gone from home. She played for Dick at Rhode Island College in the early 1990s and even coached against him when she did a coaching stint at Roger Williams University.
Named for hockey Hall of Famer Gordie Howe, as the story goes, Gordie Ernst was the brightest star in this family of stars. In tennis he was undefeated in singles, 97-0 during his high-school career, for a year at Bishop Hendricken and the next three at Cranston East. He won four state championships in singles and four in doubles, three with Bobby, named after hockey Hall of Famer Bobby Hull, as the story goes.
Gordie and Bobby were the stars of the powerful Cranston East hockey team in the early 1980s. Andy, named for hockey Hall of Famer Andy Bathgate, as the story goes, followed in the footsteps of his brothers and was All-State in hockey and tennis.
But Gordie was the son Dick promoted to the sports world. He could rattle off Gordie’s numerous accomplishments to anyone expressing the slightest interest. Gordie was the Providence Journal-Bulletin Honor Roll Boy in 1985, the highest honor for a high-school scholar-athlete in Rhode Island
Gordie and Bobby went to Brown together. Gordie played hockey and tennis for the Bears, but did not dominate as he did in high school. Few athletes do. He played junior hockey briefly during college and tried the lowest rungs of professional tennis for a while after Brown.
His coaching career included stops as an assistant at Northwestern, head coach at the University of Pennsylvania, director of a tennis club on Martha’s Vineyard, a dozen years at Georgetown and since last August at the University of Rhode Island. His side job in Washington was hitting with Michelle Obama and her daughters and occasionally with President Barack Obama.
Ernst is one of 50 individuals charged in a wide-ranging investigation by federal prosecutors and investigators. They include 33 parents from the world of entertainment and business plus at least nine coaches and administrators at elite universities like Yale, Stanford, Wake Forest, Georgetown, Texas, University of Southern California and U.C.L.A., as well as proctors for the SAT and ACT exams.
William Stringer of Newport Beach, Calif., a college admissions consultant, masterminded the scheme. He pleaded guilty in federal court in Boston on Tuesday to racketeering conspiracy, money- laundering conspiracy, conspiracy to defraud the United States and obstruction of justice. He was released on $500,000 bond and will be sentenced on June 19.
The New York Times reported Tuesday that a Georgetown spokeswoman said Ernst was fired in December 2017 for violating admission rules. Last August, the University of Rhode Island hired him to coach its women’s tennis team. URI placed him on administrative leave Tuesday after learning of the indictment .
Prosecutors allege that in August of 2015 Ernst received an email from an applicant that contained false information. He forwarded the information to admissions, and followed with a phone call to let the admissions officer know he was using his three slots for tennis recruits, a practice that virtually guarantees admission. The recipients of the preferred slots were the children of Singer clients. None played competitive tennis.
Parents of the applicant who sent the email with false information followed instructions and sent a $400,000 “private contribution” to a foundation established by Singer. Between Sept. 11, 2015, and Aug. 29, 2016, Ernst received payments amounting to $700,000 from one of the foundation accounts.
If convicted, Ernst will forfeit a country club membership in Chevy Chase, Md., his residence at the time of the alleged criminal activity; a two-bedroom, two-bath condo at 25 Gang Way in Falmouth, Mass.; a Vanguard investment account, and $2,719,963.78.
A conviction will also be another sad chapter in what has been a difficult stretch for the Ernst family. Andy died 2014 at the age of 45. Dick died in his sleep in 2016. He was 78.
And a conviction will be a cruel irony, the case exploding just six months after Ernst returned home to Rhode Island, the place where he enjoyed his greatest success as an athlete.
But for now, Gordie Ernst remains innocent.
