sond708

SoCalHoops College Recruiting News

Eric Sondheimer Takes A Stand,
And This Time He Really Means It!--(July 8, 1998)

Every once in a while, we actually agree with Eric Sondheimer. Today was one of those days. While he may be a bit overly-dramatic or use a bit of poetic license from time to time in his stories, his article in the LA Times today about the "summer transfer" syndrome which is now plaguing high school athletics here in SoCal is not particularly "news," but it does at least present a sort of curmudgeonly approach to the "problem." We put that phrase in quotes because not everyone agrees that athletic transfers are really "the problem" with high school athletics these days, or that there really is any problem, other than the fact that the coaches are underpaid, and the athletes are often ill-prepared to deal with what comes after graduation, especially those who don't get recruited, or worse, those who declare for the NBA draft without realizing that they are giving up their college eligibility if they don't get drafted, like Ellis Richardson will discover. Here's what Eric had to say:

It's give-and-take time for high school coaches. The coming and going of athletes this summer is moving along at warp speed. Blink once and your star quarterback could be gone. Blink twice and you might lose your All-City basketball guard. Blink three times and the quarterback could be back. At San Fernando High, the football and basketball teams have lost three potential starters to Alemany, a Catholic school in Mission Hills.

Jason Tubbs, Reggie Kinlaw and Bryson Atkins have enrolled at Alemany so they can play for their club basketball coach, Darryl McDonald, the newly hired Alemany coach who was a San Fernando assistant last season. They join guard Byron Joseph, formerly of Village Christian, who already has checked in. A fourth San Fernando player, All-City guard Devin Montgomery, also has applied to transfer to Alemany. An Alemany administrator said it will cost each player close to $5,000 in tuition and other expenses to attend Alemany just so they can play for McDonald. As long as the players' families are paying, the transfers are perfectly legal.

For these players to transfer en masse is quite a tribute to McDonald, who takes over a program that was 1-23 in Mission League play over the last two seasons and doesn't have a gym. It will be interesting to see what the reaction of Alemany parents will be when their sons lose starting positions to the new players in football and basketball. Will the parents keep quiet if the team wins? Will they complain if the team loses? How many transfers will it take before administrators at Alemany say, "Enough"?

Sondheimer's article today wasn't limited only to San Fernando. It also focused some special attention on. . . . guess who. . . Gilbert Arenas. Wow. Our favorite player (we really do mean that :-) gets some more free publicity. Hey, Gil (Sr.), we'll send you our bill (just kidding). Here's what Sondheimer had to say:

Hey, these days sports mean everything, so good luck, Alemany. As if the exodus at San Fernando and stampede of athletes arriving at Alemany isn't intriguing enough, how about the circus revolving around All-City guard Gilbert Arenas?

Arenas still attends Grant, according to his father, Gilbert Sr. But Sylmar Coach Bort Escoto apparently doesn't care, because Escoto used Arenas last week when Sylmar's basketball team won the War on the Floor tournament at Chatsworth High. Arenas was the ultimate ringer. And the War on the Floor was transformed from a high school tournament into something more resembling a recreation league showcase. Sylmar won. Big deal. The Spartans wouldn't have won without Arenas. Was it wrong for Arenas to play for Sylmar while he's still enrolled at Grant? Not by today's standards.

"There's nothing illegal with what [Arenas is] doing," said Barbara Fiege, the City Section commissioner. "It's really the way of the world these days. It's school shopping."

Not illegal, but not right either. Coaches shouldn't allow athletes to play on different teams during the summer to see what school they want to attend. Arenas was unhappy that Grant Coach Howard Levine didn't have the Lancers playing a tough summer schedule, so he started playing for Sylmar. My hunch is Arenas will return to Grant in September. Sylmar is a longshot at best. His father has no intention of moving, and Arenas isn't likely to enter Sylmar's math-science magnet program for his senior year.

Wow. We're betting that Eric won't be too welcome at the Sylmar gym this fall and if he does show up it will be in a disguise. But here's our favorite line from his column about Gil playing for Sylmar:

He'll end up at Crenshaw before he ever plays a real game for the Spartans.

Gotta love it. But actually Sondheimer did put out a little newsworthy tidbit for all the college recruiters (like they didn't know this already from reading their packets at ABCD Camp, where Gil is now playing:

The real news last week was that Arenas achieved an NCAA-qualifying score of better than 900 on his SAT, clearing the way for big-time colleges to start offering scholarships.

Interestingly enough, Sondheimer managed to get some really interesting quotes about the Escoto-Levine-Arenas situation from one of Escoto's closest allies in the coaching ranks, Chatsworth coach "Fluke" Fluker, who together with Escoto helped put on the War on the Floor Tournament last week at Chatsworth High. Here's what Sondheimer had to say:

Escoto isn't the first City Section coach to open the proverbial Pandora's box by allowing a high-profile athlete to switch teams in the off-season. But Arenas is the most visible athlete yet to openly shop for a new school, and it's provoking sharp pains of disgust in the stomachs of veteran coaches.

"It's an unstable situation for coaches," Chatsworth basketball Coach Fluke Fluker said. "I think coaches are afraid to discipline their kids because they're afraid their kids will run to another school."

The time has come for coaches to make a stand. This is high school sports, not college or the pros. Teenagers should not be permitted to influence a coach by threatening to transfer. Thankfully, there are coaches bucking the trend. Consider the new philosophy of San Fernando football Coach Sean Blunt. "If you don't want to be a Tiger, there's the door. Don't let it hit you on the way out," Blunt said.

Two weeks ago, San Fernando won the Beverly Hills passing tournament led by quarterback Larry Brown and receiver Terrell Stanley, two former Cleveland players who transferred back to San Fernando, their home school. "The whole Valley knows where to grab kids--come to Pacoima," San Fernando assistant Tom Hernandez said. "We lose them all over, but we're still strong. We have a lot to offer. The grass always looks greener, but it's greener where you live."

Chatsworth's Fluker said if any of his players want to leave, "I'll help them fill out the paperwork." "I'm not going to let some 15-, 16-year-old kid blackmail me," Fluker said. "My job is not predicated on my win-loss record. This is high school, not college. A large part of my job is developing young men."

Hernandez said San Fernando has moved on since the departure of three football players to Alemany. "They've been replaced," he said.

Interestingly, the Sondheimer article doesn't have any quotes from either Levine, Escoto, or Arenas, and we don't know if Escoto is still sticking to the "no comment" approach that he took at the War on the Floor. We're pretty certain that coach Levine wouldn't be shy about commenting, and we know that Gilbert doesn't really think much of the rumors. . .he just wants to get exposure and to play. And personally, we agree with Sondheimer, Fluker, Levine and the rest: This is, after all, high school athletics, which is supposed to be more about education and character-building than anything. On the other hand we really can't expect young athletes to act any differently when coaches and the system allows them to shop around freely. Hey, if you don't like the system, write to Barbara Feige and the LA Board of Education. Or better yet, vote next time to break up the LAUSD into smaller districts the next time such a referendum hits the ballots.