Comments (0) Best Local Boy Gone Bad - 2008
Floyd Irons
Sadly, this past year brought no shortage of stunning downfalls around these parts. (The tragic homicidal unraveling of Cookie Thornton and the drug-addled train wreck of Seven-Up heir Andrew Gladney spring to mind.) The biggest plunge from the pedestal, though, had to have been Floyd Irons, legendary coach of the Vashon High School boys' basketball Wolverines. For more than three decades, Irons, a Vashon alum himself, led the squad to ten state titles and a Top 10 national ranking. But in June Vashon lost three of those trophies and was forced to forfeit five seasons' worth of games, owing to residential and recruiting violations under Irons' watch. As if that weren't enough, Irons pleaded guilty in federal court to participating in a mortgage-fraud scheme that netted more than $1 million. Today Irons is doing time — twelve months total — in a federal prison in Marion, Illinois. By the middle of next year he'll be working off a punitive fine of more than $650,000 and beginning five years on parole.
