The Dock - I appreciate the thoughtfulness in the response. I do feel bad for the Hp kids because they get the negative thoughts right off the bat. But I also see they way some things happen with their basketball program and can see why people have those thoughts.
I have been around the Cardinal for about 10 years and have had a son and nephew both play in the league at different times. One of my favorite things about the Cardinal has been the coaches and most of them have taken the time to talk to players from the other team after great games. Coach Dennis and his staff don't even come out to the court until two minutes before a game. They don't talk to the other coaches during JV games or anything along those lines. I know that rubs a few coaches the wrong way.
The coaches in the league are great, in general, with or without Dennis. Timlin, Hooper and Rock are awesome -- Brown and the succession of Berne Union coaches (Blevins -> Little -> McKnight) all do great jobs and are good guys. Millersport's coach (can't think of name off top my head) interacts with the kids well, and Sean Bartley at Miller... man! Some people forget that he's also the head varsity football coach. And he drives the bus! LOL. Good guy, does what he can. (I recognize what you're saying on Dennis in that regard. Don't really disagree with you, on that.)
I think one thing also that is hard to come around on regarding HP vis-a-vis the competitive balance in the Cardinal is how "playing for second" sucks. Since the Cardinal reformed in 2013 and before Miller joined this fall, 5/6 of the non-HP schools in the Cardinal finished second. GCC of course has the fabled '15-17 saga of Bailey, Baker & Co. The only one that didn't finish second in the last seven years was Millersport, but they can have the fact they finished above BU/HP/FC in 2011-12.
^ It can be really frustrating and hard for schools like Berne, FCA and in particular Rosecrans to have had some really good individual teams with nothing to really show for it in the end because the path to the league crown is headed off by a larger-classification program that is demonstrably and structurally superior.
The two seasons of probationary HP, '11-12 and '12-13, the Warriors were 4-8 against BU/FC/MP (0-6 in '11-12; 4-2 in '12-13.) I remember those games pretty well... some really good memories. Admired those HP kids that stayed and played on those teams -- as I came to understand and learn, those were kids that had the school baked into their blood and family traditions... and to stay and play there when there was no postseason opportunity and the heat of some angered opposing competition?
Incredible. And they had some really good players in that corps then, too!
^ - Wanted to make a quick trip down memory lane, Laker style! Alton Frizzell, man. I remember being a big fan of Russell Westbrook when he was getting started in the Association, and thinking a little then but also certainly in retrospect, "MAN! That Frizzell kid gets after it and is good." And that '11-12 Laker team? Not only did you have Frizzell, but two very serviceable big guys and the unmatchable Kirk Grandy on the sidelines. Literally, unmatchable! It was either that year, or Frizzell's senior campaign in '12-13 that the Lakers trugged down Rt. 37 for a Friday night contest. Fisher was up 33-23 at the half, and in the 3Q Frizzell got T'd thanks to him jawing back to J Delisio's infamous on-court smack talk! Place was roaring... Frizzell next possession gets the hoop-and-harm and, as he goes to the line, he turns around and does the "shhh" finger motion to his lips @ the FC student section with a wink. And by God, he led the Lakers back from down 12 and won it!
I didn't think I'd see the 'Port ever getting that back in the future. Then came what I was seeing in the Biddy Leagues. 99% sure it was the Purvis boys then... phenomenal what they were doing as 4th and 5th graders! Thanks for indulging me on that quick recess to the previous Cardinal era. Those last two years: it wasn't the Ohio Capital Conference by any means, but it was a fun and crazy league. "Funner" than hell, and to the players I'm sure there were multiple games that felt like pure hell those two years across multiple gyms!
I feel that they don't "recruit" because OHSAA has made the rules a little less restrictive.Coach Dennis runs his own AAU program and if you look back at the teams. you usually see a few of the kids end up at HP. My nephew was handed a business card with contact information and on the back, a note that said "Lets chat about your potential". This was turned into OHSAA who did an investigation and HP got a slap on the wrist. I think they do a lot of the same things private schools do now. Most people I talk with talk about how it is a roster overhaul each year and that rubs people the wrong way.
Of course! Recruiting is, to an extent, legal and permissible by OHSAA. In the context of what we're discussing, (illegal) recruiting on the basis of sports, as a fan the way I see it is a three-fold problem with proof, enforcement and endgame: 1) sports-motivated recruiting and ensuing transfers from said recruitment can be really hard to prove the "cause and effect" [and its the
cause that is difficult to prove]; 2) OHSAA penalties probably aren't stiff enough on recruiting infractions, but also the fact that they only apply to OHSAA postseason play & fines; 3) in a more perfect and sensible world, the mechanisms and oversights that investigate & punish recruiting isn't spent on one individual player where the transfer impact is greatly insignificant to competitive balance small-picture and big-picture alike... and instead those resources and energies would be better spent chasing bigger fish. To use the great Jerry Tarkanian quote: "the NCAA was so mad at Kentucky that they gave Cleveland State two more years of probation."
I have heard some rumors about HP wanting to go the full prep school route and get out of OHSAA. I am not sure how true it is but I have talked with several different people who have mentioned it.
My guess is such a move, were it to happen, would incorporate the usage of the facilities & faculty of the connected, on-campus Valor Christian College in order to accommodate post-grads in the vein similar to what Oak Hilll or basketball-centric prep schools in New England do. Prep school route in the sense that it would take "5th year/'grade 13'" kids on instead of entirely supplanting the model they have for 9-12 (upper school) education. Would make a lot of sense if they were to do it.
I feel awful for their baseball teams. That is where my schools try to get revenge and it is not fair to those kids because they usually do not play football or basketball. My son played them about six years ago and they only had one or two guys that could get it over the plate. The game was called after two innings and HP only had six kids come to the plate.
The HP baseball and softball situations have always been a lose-lose for HP & the Cardinal. Conventional wisdom would suggest the school fields the programs in order to satisfy the minimum seasonal-sports requirement that OHSAA has. Or perhaps instead the school might have genuine interest in having programs for the sake of the students' opportunity to compete, but its always been really uninspired from a fans' perspective (home diamond full of rocks, frequent instances of not finishing out the season.) Probably a factor of there just not being a lot of kids that like baseball enough to play it instead of AAU or club soccer, too. Definitely something a "Harvest Prep baseball rule" could come in handy for the MSL handbook if all eight schools in the Cardinal would agree to it: no obligation to make up the games in case of rain-out.