Prep sports: Norris and Horizon

By Ed Piper

This is soapbox time, so if you want to steer clear of discussion of the present state of high school and youth sports, and you just want to read fluffy stories about your kids' teams, don't read this.

Earlier this week (Aug. 1), the local paper carried two items on high school sports that kind of pushed my buttons. One was on Helix basketball superstar Miles Norris's transfer to New Hampshire Academy, a basketball factory masquerading as a high school, and Horizon High School's closing its doors.

Being of that faith, I have a hard time with Christian schools that recruit. You look at their basketball team, and you wonder what the players on that team have to do with that school's mission to educate and get a high school diploma. The kids don't reflect the student body. The coach acts like he's a pro coach, focused only on his team's performance on the court. Maybe that's not fair, but that is an impression that schools' programs yield themselves to.

Ever since I was sports editor of my college newspaper, I could never fathom the abuses of the system--as I see it--by faith-based schools. Remember, I'm a retired life-long public school teacher, and I hold the mission of our schools to teach the three R's--reading, 'riting, and 'rithmetic--not to act as some kind of glorified pipeline for teens' dreams of getting a college athletic scholarship and/or playing in the pros.

I go way back for this example, and this is from my public school substitute-teaching, preceding my two decades teaching full-time in our county's juvenile court schools: I was subbing at a well-known high school in my home county, Ventura County. I was only going to be the substitute teacher for four days or so one week while the regular teacher was out sick. Lo and behold, a student in one of the teacher's five classes (this is before block schedule became the vogue as it is now) was battling for eligibility for that Friday night's football game, I believe.

So, not being inappropriate or applying undue pressure, the team's coach inquired of me--since the regular teacher was home, sick, and nowhere to be contacted (pre-cell phone days, with texting; pre-email days also)--if the student had a chance of being eligible, despite the "D" or whatever it was I put on his weekly progress report.

Now, mind you, I'm not on a power trip to ruin a boy's week by keeping him out of the week's football game. But on the other hand, would he have had such an advocate asking about bettering his grade if he weren't on the team? In one way, it's not fair to other students that he has this coach in his corner. On the other hand, maybe that's a pretty good situation: the student is accountable to the coach of a team he truly wants to play for, so there's a lever there that can be pulled to ratchet-up his motivation, thus equaling more study and more learning.

I forget what the outcome was--if he played or didn't that Friday.

The only point I have to make is that the tail--sports--start wagging the dog--the student's academic career and route toward a high school diploma, when you get into situations like (1) Horizon's recruiting (CIF has a rule against recruiting, but everyone knows which schools will take your call to play on their team--just look at the rosters), which was always a negative on that school's image for me, and (2) Norris the 12th-grade superstar's transfer to a faraway basketball factory.

Now, on Norris, to give some background: Others know a lot more about this than I do, but when I attended the prestigious annual Under Armour Holiday Basketball Classic at Torrey Pines after Christmas, there was a whole division consisting of teams from "prep schools"--which is a joke academically--and academies like New Hampshire. The commercialism these days is crass and sickens me--new shoes and outfits all around, banners of the sponsors, whether Under Armour, Nike, or whoever. What does this have to do with high school basketball? Nothing, and that's why John Olive, head coach at Torrey Pines High who runs the tournament, and the sponsoring sports apparel business wisely created a whole different division.

I mean, really, 19-year-olds who can slam-dunk with their eyes closed, who are beyond the age of normal high school enrollment? Wise move to keep them in their own little fish aquarium. Believe me, it was eye-popping to watch the incredible talent of the individual players. I loved it as a basketball fan. But as an educator, I see it as further crass commercialism and corruption of prep sports, and exploitation of young people.

A member of my extended family and I went round-and-round over this--Norris' impending transfer to NHA--Tuesday (Aug. 1). It comes down to me blaming the parents for not looking out for their own children's welfare and futures. Another high school basketball star transferring among three schools in his four years of high school eligibility. A junior, years ago, leaving San Diego High before the end of the 11th grade to turn pro in Israel. (Sad story, washed out with immaturity and no work ethic, besides showing himself to be unteachable to willing adult teammates who wanted to help him. Now what's he doing? Mopping floors, with no high school diploma?)

And, do you know what, some of these kids being ferried from school-to-school are African-American. Where is the emphasis on hitting the books as a plan for their future lives? A minute fraction are going to make the pros (i.e., NBA), and all of them are going to need reading, writing, math skills to get a job in the real world, whether after their careers or when they find there are hundreds, thousands of other players just as good as them. My colleague in teaching, Charles Muhammad, a former NFL player, bemoaned the fact the parents of his African-American students only cared about sports and not their children's ability to read and write and completion of assignments.

Looking at my sports coverage, I hope that you see I emphasize student athletes who play for their home high schools. Eric Sondheimer spoke my thoughts when he wrote in his coverage of high school sports in the Los Angeles area, "I'm going to put the spotlight on kids who stay home and play for their neighborhood schools." That is the impact I can have for what I see as the good in high school sports.

One (African-American) dad (not at La Jolla High) told me, "It's not a plantation. My son should be able to play wherever he wants." His son happens to be 6'11", with tons of athletic talent, and he transferred to a high school that started four transfers (of five starting positions) last year. Yeah, but how about the others who don't have the family support, and aren't getting a good education along with their high school attendance?

I hear a lot of criticism of Jerry Schniepp, the present commissioner of the CIF San Diego Section. Heck, it's not his fault. When CIF, state-wide, but section-by-section, changed its rule on athletic transfers from sitting out the first month of the season to no sit-out period at all, Jerry Schniepp didn't cause that. It's parents who are relentless in being quick to go the legal route by hiring a lawyer to threaten and pursue a grievance in court to let their kid play anywhere they dang well please. It's a selfish, me-me-me environment that parents engender when they look out for their own kids' sports prospects, and lose track of the bigger picture, as I see it--a good education and preparation for the future.