took money from singer. one person who took a plea deal is the former stanford sailing coach now disgraced and fired and joining us today is john vanden more the sailing coach who is telling his side of the story. in his new book, just out. rigged game, john, thanks

for joining us today. thank you for having me. today is the first trial but you were the first person actually to be sentenced back in 2019 you pleaded guilty to racketeering conspiracy one charge omitting that you served. you did sort of one day. now you have this book held rigged game. tell us what is the game and how is it rigged? so the book is actually called re justice. um and so what i talked about with great justice is the setup of college admissions in general and how that's working. um how colleges support coaches like myself and how the prosecution how the government approached this case. these are all different dynamics that play into my book. part of rick singers game is passing his clients. kids office fake athletic recruits. not everyone understands how that works. explain to me how a sailing coach could even influence emissions. so in

missions has i can speak for stanford. at least emissions has the final say on every single student that comes up, and so what is sailing coach does or any coach for that matter? would go in and put a student forward that meets an academic criteria already, um and has the admissions look at their academics and the coach would say, look, this student can can support our team and can make an impact on our team, and there's the ones that we would love to have on there. the way i like to describe it the way i described it to a lot of my recruits is that my help is like breaking a tie. you still have to really qualified student athletes. it's too qualified students warmer. that's a student athlete that support from the coaches will probably break that tie. um all right, but it sounds like it's more than a tiebreaker because in the book, i think as the fbi agents came to you and asked about the emissions process, didn't you tell them that the average emissions rate is like 5% but out of the ones you recommend? it's 80. so they

blew that a little bit of proportion. i didn't i don't have any facts and figures of what it is. but the students that i'm bringing yes, they get accepted to higher rate. but they've already passed a lot of the academic rigor. um so it does give them better chance, but they're already qualified students to begin with. all right. so how many slots if you want to call him that? do you get as a sailing coach? so the spots that i could support changed a little bit over the years. but let's say, on average i could support about six student athletes for each class, okay, and it's different, depending on the sport. it's different, depending on the sport. yes different sports and different numbers. okay so you describe how you and singer first met in the book how he called you as for meeting why did you even think he was legit and someone you should even engage what. so it was probably the first recruiter that would ever approach sailing. um and i was at stanford. so having doing something different, um, seemed

like the right thing to do to at least investigated. he was referred to kind of backed up to me from another coach at stanford, uh, so i felt comfortable in who he was, and him talking to me even to begin with. um so that other coach referred him to me. and so it was an environment that i felt comfortable. alright you also describe that he seemed to be walking around in a area that normally you need a badge again into so that reassured you that he had some access right? absolutely okay, so you you said he groomed you in that first meeting. how. well really because he was really interested in me and in our team, um and really was hitting on. he was very good at it really hitting on the things that. we really needed and was kind of our weak points. we were a small team that didn't get much recognition he wanted to help in that, um we're a small team that didn't have a full coaching staff. he wanted to help in that. um so he was

very charismatic and very convincing. when you talk to him, all right, he said he would bring you some people to look at. um but this is the part that i think puzzles me and a lot of people, which is you said yourself in the book. you had no trouble attracting the best sailors in the world, right? because it is stanford. so given that why would you even consider someone he referred if you didn't already know that they were an elite sailor. so when i first worked with singer into his own admission, he didn't knew nothing about selling and what a great selling recruit would be. and that's not shocking. not many people outside of the cnn world but know anything about what we're looking for, is a student athlete. but he was professional recruiter that could recognize athletic traits to help. so the whole part of our relationship and that he came to me about was that he wanted to learn more viable for recruiting. it is a give and take a ship. at least that is how he proposed it. >> you talked about going to

love these regattas. you're always going to schools, talking to potential recruits. when already know who is the actual talent? wouldn't you they are not even eligible for this? >> yes. i certainly could not go to all. there are a lot of students out there that we would miss. having another set of eyes out there is to get as many eyes out there. the other part of it is very top-level recruits. the hard part was finding the players that we depend on every day to push the starters.

this became really important. >> molly and you finally told the singer you not be using one of the slots on her. the singer is pretty affluent. didn't alarm bells? >> i don't know anything about that. that is why i talked about it on my book -- in my book. i went to the athletic director and told her. >> you went to your athletic director or associate athletic director? >> she happened to be the head of development at the

time. she said that is incredible. she didn't not really have the answer. you talked about. you said i will place molly on the development watchlist to indicate that development has an interest in the ultimate admissions decision. can you translate for that -- that for the general republic -- general public? >> i believe she was put on a list that would have development possibilities if she got into stanford. and this, you might have influence with admissions.

understandingunderstandingunderd know, we did, um, get a comment from stanford because we asked them to respond, and they said stanford does not accept gifts. if it knows a gift is being made with the intention of influencing the admission process, so that is what they said. look molly did get omitted despite not getting your endorsement, right? but then singer offered half a million dollars you say as a donation to the program, and you talked about how you were thrilled and you brought it to your bosses. and what was the reaction? then, when the check came through. they were thrilled as well, uh and i went to ask them not only with the check is going through that is it okay that it goes through rick singers foundation? um. and they said no problem and so i went to tell my athletic director of the fbi director bernard your, um, as you congratulated me about who rick singer was. and he turned to me and said, oh, we know rick and

kind of cut me off from trying to describe who he was, and that made me feel more comfortable about taking donations from mick. all right. we'll continue this conversation a lot more with john vander more after the break, including what you think needs to be done after my car accident, i wondered what my case was worth. so i called the barnes firm. when that car hit my motorcycle, insurance wasn't fair. so i called the barnes firm. it was the best call i could've made. atat t bararnefirmrm, our r inry a attneysys wk hahard i could've made. atat t bararnefirmrm, to get you the best result possible.

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vandemark. he is telling his side of the story and his varsity blues scandal. my apologies for saying the law -- the wrong thing. a lot of people look at this as a rigged game. did you think about where all that money would go? there were three chats. designateds recruits that did

not end up going to stanfd. where did all that money go? >> all the stanford university. the program itself. >> i think at this point, stamper has not kept any of the money. in response to this interview, they have redistributed that money to attend college access programs in the bay area. this is your attempt to be seen differently. he did not get to take a stand because you took the plea deal. rigged justice, how the college scandal ruined an innocent man's life. how can you say you're innocent when you did take money in what we now know is a scheme to buy one of your spots, one of your slots and vastly improve chances for admission, even if it went

to the sailing program. >> i was innocent going into this. even the judge that sentenced me recognized this as well. this was rick pushing is on me. this was not me trying to make something happen. one of the big reasons i wrote this book is because i wanted to give a warning for anyone who isn't a big corporation to really look at the bigger perspective. even if you have complete innocent intentions, you can be caught up in something really bad. quite some people look at this and say even if you did not then if it, you benefited from a pat on the back from your bosses. you felt that they wanted to bring in money from the program. talk about that. you're at stanford, there is a lot of money there. >> in a sport like

the varsity sports. raised. for us to have a third coach, that would have to be fun raised as well. >> you did feel pressure to talk to donors and try to fund raise. did you think that was part of the problem? >> i do. when i first started at stanford , the athletic director who hired me -- he was very clear to me that coaches were meant to coach. yes, we could meet with donors and talk about our program but we were not there to make the ask and make it happen.

make the ask and do the fundraising on our own. at least that was my interpretation of it. i think a solution into this is we should go back to -- coaches have nothing to do with fundraising. we should be speaking about the sports and the season. we should really be sticking to sports and not have anything to do with any money transferring hands. >> one of the changes that stanford told us they made in the wake of the varsity blues scandal is that these recruits identified by coaches are subject to a second level review process. do you think that is a good thing question mark >> yes. yes, i think it is a good thing to be able to look at it and see it from a different perspective. it depends on who -- it is hard to tell whether that makes any difference.

the biggest thing to do is let the coaches recruit, let the coaches coach and take the money out of the equations and let the professionals handle the development money. >> all right. rick singer called this a side door. >> the back door everybody refers to and i think still exists is a rich donor donates to the school, building, feels, whatever else it is and that influences the mission at different schools. i don't think that has gone away. there has been very famous examples of that. jared kushner at harvard and so on. everybody knows about that. >> in your book, you describe yourself as pre-naive, you did not know how things work. is that how you see yourself in

the scandal or do you feel remorse? >> i certainly question my self every day for having any involvement with rick singer and his program or whatever he is doing. that is certainly going to carry with me forever. training as a separate question and being able to really understand what the laws are, how money is supposed to transfer hands, where can you get in trouble? you get trained as a college staff member in a lot of different things but it seems weird that we are not trained in that way. >> even without the training, as clearly a smart man to be a coach at stanford, one of the top programs in the country, you had some savvy. in order for you to say you did not know those checks, where you designated as recruits, had strings attached, to a lot of people, they say that is not

believable. >> i understand and they have to believe what they want to believe. it was not presented that way that this money is donated and the student is going to be supported. rick singer was donating but also bringing recruits. the recruits will have to donate as well. i thought i was doing my job really well. i thought someone was helping me bring in quality recruits and someone donating to the program. >> stanford made a victim impact statement for you and you talked about being pretty devastated by the university response. why? >> it is devastating because i gave everything to that university for 11 years.

i love the sport, i love the student athletes. i felt devastated because i was not supported by university. i was not a coach or a human being to them. >> you're still living in the bay area and networking for stanford, what are you doing now? >> i do work a limbic, and coaching sailors that are 10 to 14 euros. my full-time job is an engineerg >> this is the author of the book, rigged justice. coming up next, a conversation about mental health and empty nesting parents.

>> you dedicate your entire left to raising your kids and then they move out. parents are left with an mp

nest. at a pandemic on top of that and you can have a major impact on your mental health. joining us to talk about this dr. thomas lefton, the chief of psychiatry and the chief of edison at kaiser permanente. thank you for your time. >> thank you. parents worry if their kids will find college but what kind of number does it do to the parents from an emotional and mental health standpoint? >> that is a great question. this is twice parents have had to endure this. when there children go off to college for the first time or going through their full-time job, back to their apartment and then their jobs switch to virtual and in the back on. now they are leaving again. the parents have had two losses.

that can take a toll on parents. >> i will argue that probably during the time the kids were back home during the pandemic, they spent more time together than they have since their childhood years, even more than their teenage years. does that make the separation that much harder after you spent so much intense time together? >> it has been really tough. i agree. before, a lot of times, the parents were home as well because they were doing their work virtually. it is both the parents and the children at home with each other. it has been tough. >> how does that manifest? what are some of the signs of empty nest syndrome? >> some of the signs are the same as just grief. a loss is a loss. having the child

loneliness, now they have all this time. what are some ways to cope? i imagine -- >> the children might not like that. some of the recommend is to focus on the positive. you did your job well as a parent. if your child is going back to college or their full-time job, that is a great thing you did. focus on yourself. parents focusing on exercise,

eating regularly, spending time with their other family, their friends, that can help a lot. also, it is showing that you love yourself by spending that time taking care of you. another thing is you are right, facetime meetings with your child are good. maybe a limited duration. maybe once a week, maybe it's every two weeks. whenever you can work out is great. going through this, reaching out to family and friends to talk about what this it is like for you and asking for advice can help tremendously. >> i am sorry bu

>> thank you so much for joining us on this interactive show, getting answers.

tomorrow, we will talk with dr. susan phillips about potentially lifting the indoor mast mandate. see yo tonight, the high school shooting in texas. a 25-year-old english teacher among those shot. teenagers sheltering in classrooms. teachers blocking the doors. authorities identifying the alleged gunman, an 18-year-old student. the hunt for the suspect for hours. tonight now in custody. and what we've just learned. marcus moore from texas. also, the major news tonight on the oil spill emergency. if oil was spotted the night before and the coast guard was called, when did they officially shut down the pipeline? authorities before the cameras a short time ago on this and matt gutman on the scene again tonight. news tonight on the pandemic. l.a. imposing strict new mandates requiring you to show proof of full vaccination to go out to eat, to go to the movies and other activities. what new york city