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SoCal Prep Recruiting Report & News

NABC Proposal-Something Old and
Something New ---October 16, 1997

Eric Sondheimer, (late of the Daily News and now with the the LA Times), today reported that the NABC was considering a move to change the summer recruiting process. This is a story that is not especially new, and has been circulating around the recruiting services, newpapers and message boards for more than a few months. The story is, however, one of the first west coast "mainstream" press articles on the subject, and is thought provoking and serves to at least raise the conciousness of those who don't know what's been going on in the "recruiting" world of high school sports.

As some of you may know, the time when college coaches can contact potential recruits is limited already, but the new proposal (originally discussed by a committee at the NCAA a few weeks ago) would limit college coaches' contacts with high school athletes even further and might jeopardize the AAU club and summer tournament "system" (or non-system, depending upon your point of view). Is this a good thing or a bad thing, or is it really "morally" neutral and just a way for the NCAA to horn in on the camps? You decide, because people a lot more knowledgeable than me sure don't know either.

Essentially, the NABC Board proposes to restrict the summer recruiting season to a series of "USA Basketball Development camps, state high school sanctioned all-star games and national junior college-sanctioned all-star events," according to the Times article.

Under the proposal, college coaches would not be allowed to contact an athlete by phone until August 15th before their senior year, and would be allowed only a single telephone call during April or May.

The NABC also further proposes to limit a coach from speaking on the phone with high school, AAU or summer coaches from July 1 through August 14.

According to the Times' version of the NABC proposal, the initiative is "designed to reduce the time spent by college coaches recruiting during the summer." It also would "lessen the influence of club coaches and camp organizers, some of whom use the lure of exposure to college recruiters as a way to attract top players to their teams and events."

While there's no doubt that some of that goes on, this might be a bit harsh, since not all club coaches and camps engage in this activity. I haven't exactly seen anyone from USA Basketball running forward lately to sponsor an AAU team, buy shoes for a kid who can't afford them, get kids to and from tournaments, sponsor a tournament for high school kids, or pick up the tab for uniforms. There may be some abuses with what used to be known as "street agents" or coaches who try to "use" their athletes for some hidden agenda, but I think that's the exception more than the rule.

According to the Sondheimer's article, Sonny Vaccaro who runs the ABCD Camp for adidas "strongly criticized" the initiative. On the other hand, the Dorsey coach Kevin Gibson expressed the high school coach's perspective, commenting that in his opinion the summer thing is pretty bad because the club and camp coaches "control the minds" of the players. Maybe. Maybe not.

We can all certainly understand the high school coach's anger and frustration.

Aside from the fact that during the summer most kids don't get to practice anymore, (forget about summer school or a job), now they just play, and play, and play in games, until by the end of July they are exhausted. Nope, that's not the biggest threat to a high school coach. Personally, I think the biggest "threat" from the current system is that during the "process" someone else is going to "steal" a kid and induce him to make decisions for reasons having nothing (or at least very little) with the quality of education he may receive. I've seen and heard of coaches making promises that are either a pack of lies at worst, or at best, may not work out even under the best of circumstances. Take a "star" at an academically enriched (but athletically challenged) school, and promise him that he'll start for your all-star caliber squad at School X. Never mind that after he gets there he'll be sitting on the bench because School X is so talent laden, and geez, forget about college prep, because that won't matter, he's going to the NBA anyway like McGrady. Right?

Imagine that you coach a kid at the high school level, and he's pretty good. Not great, but he's the best you've got, and he's got great potential. You are at a small school, in a small league, and the group of schools you play is not known for its athletic prowess. On the academic side, every single one of your school's students goes to a four year college and has something like a 99% graduation rate. Academics are not the issue. Nope.

Now you know that at your school, this kid might "star", but given things as they are, no one will really notice unless a major press campaign is mounted. And your just a coach. A teacher who also happens to coach, and you've got lots of priorities in addition to promoting one player.

Now this kid is important to you. You are a teacher and it's important to you to teach this kid something. But you've also got to use him to build a team and build a program. With this kid you've got a shot at a league title and playoffs. He lives in the area of your school. Without him, you've got a bunch of oompah-loompahs from Willy-Wonka's chocolate factory; if he goes, your program is nowhere, and your school is guaranteed no exposure. If he stays, everybody does well, and will probably get at least a bit of the attention he needs to go to a D-1 school; maybe not the top, but certainly a good school. If he stays, maybe he makes a few others on your team look good enough to go to D-1 or D-II; if he goes, no one else goes anywhere but D-III or NAIA (to paraphrase Sienfeld, not that there's anything wrong with that.).

Now you're a good coach. You don't break rules, and you don't "recruit". You take those kids you've been dealt and work with them. Maybe you're naive. Maybe not. You're a teacher first.

Now this kid has done pretty well in his first season with your team. He's got talent; a real prospect, but also a bit of a project. At the end of the season, you tell your kid what you think he needs to work on to improve his game, the kind of stuff that only repetition can improve. He tells you he's going to a summer camp, and really, there's not a thing you can (or maybe should) say about this. You talk about skills and practice; he talks about tournaments, games, camp, and "exposure".

So, off this kid goes to a summer camp. Let's say its the "DCBA Left and Right Coast All Star Camp and Shootout Summer Jam Festival" held near your city. It's not a "national" camp, but more of a"regional" camp, run by people you don't know, but whom you've heard good things about. They've been running this thing for umpteen years, and they usually hire the best staff around; mostly other high school coaches, some you know, some you don't, maybe even some assistant coaches from local colleges. The kids attending are mostly from other high schools in your area, some on teams in bigger divisions and other leagues, some private schools. Most of the kids are good, and most will go on to play college somewhere.

Most of the other kids at this camp are as good, if not better than your kid. They are all on AAU or club teams, and some have even got AAU or club coaches who give them shoes, take them to the movies, buy them meals, and provide other support. This same coach may also provide tutoring in school, help with tuition or scholarships at private schools and in general may not be such a bad guy after all. He may just be another father who's also got a real life job away from basketball who also happens to coach a club team because he or she may also have a kid who plays.

Back to the camp. At camp your kid likes the level of competition. Finally, he playing with someone who can catch his passes; someone who can also shoot, post up and has some moves. No more oompah-loompahs from Willie Wonkaville. The kid starts to believe that he's as good as the competition, and maybe he is; maybe not.

Camp is only a week. But now he wants to play with players of this caliber all the time, not just for one week during the summer. He gets to be friendly with some of them, maybe even joins some of them on a tournament team, or a "traveling" team.

Next thing you know, Mr. High School coach and teacher, is that its now the first day of school, and you've just been told that your budding star has decided to switch schools so he can play with his buddies all the time. But does this kid know that the school he's transferred to has a high school graduation rate of only 50%, that of those who do graduate, most do not go on to college. That the average class size is hovering somewhere around 45 kids per class? In short, has anyone thought about anything besides "game".

So what's wrong with this? Well, assuming that education means nothing, and game means everything, well, then there's probably only a few things wrong with it. Assuming, however, that education is supposed to come first, then everything is wrong with it.

Will the NABC proposal change any of this? I don't know, but I suspect that it won't.

There's a lot of concern from those who run the camps that this will hurt their incomes, that it unfairly tars the "good" camp promoters and leagues (the Pump Brothers, who run an impeccable program and the AAU and other tournament folks such as Issy Washington come to mind) with the same brush as the "bad" apples. Well, that's probably bound to happen anyway if USA Basketball gets into the act.

Currently the proposal is to have about eight "regional" camps run by USA Basketball, for the coaches to do evaluations for recruiting. This will supposedly place more emphasis on the high school season and less on the summer camp and tournament performance. Maybe it will, maybe it won't because right now, college coaches are severly restricted anyway as to when and how many times they can even come to a high school game. Is it any more fair for a college coach to only get to see a player once in person during the season than it is to see that kid play on a summer "all-star" camp team? I don't know, but I don't see much difference, particularly if the kid just happens to have an "off day" during the high school game.

If this proposal is adopted by the NCAA, it will certainly affect how and when the camps are run, and who makes the money. While the shoe companies are now saying that they will continue their support, how long do you think that will last if USA Basketball decides to link up with sponsors?

I certainly don't know what "the" answer is, (assuming that there really is one at all) and apparently neither does anyone else. Lots of different proposals have been put out by many people, including some of the top "recruiting" pundits and gurus, some of which actually seem to make more sense (e.g., limit the summer camp evaluation to "grade level" camps, i.e., USA Basketball takes only the seniors for "evaluation" by the colleges, either at regional or national camps, while the frosh, sophs and juniors all play in the current camp and club ball manner). Maybe this solves some "problems"; maybe it just creates some new ones.

Will AAU tournaments and club teams continue? Probably. Will there be some changes in how colleges recruit during the summer? Probably.

What do you think? Let us know in our Prep and College Message forums (look at the "Forums" link on the navigation bar. If you've got an idea, or simply want to express your opinion, that's the place to do it.

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