STrib: How transferring in Minnesota high school sports reached 'out of control' status (Mpls South HS basketball lost 8 kids to transfer)

[GopherPlaya]

First of all, let's not lose sight of why this thread exists. Go back to the OP.

Mpls South lost eight players to transfer for this season:

NAME	POS	HEIGHT	YEAR	TRANSFERRED TO
Justin Benjamin	G	6-0	Senior	Cretin-Derham Hall 1
Monteff Dixon	F	6-6	Sophomore	Cretin-Derham Hall
Jaheim Houts	F	6-6	Senior	Hiawatha Collegiate
Jason Johnson	G	6-0	Freshman	Cretin-Derham Hall
De’Mari Larkins	G	5-9	Junior	Osseo
Temi Omotoyinbo	G	6-5	Sophomore	Osseo
Chaing Ring	F	6-8	Junior	Park Center
Jerome Williams	G	5-9	Junior	Minnehaha Academy

1 Justin Benjamin transferred for football and baseball; he no longer plays high school basketball.
Joe Rull , Star Tribune Source: Star Tribune research


One of the transfers is quoted as:

"We had a lot of potential," Williams said. "We could have possibly won state the next three years and even been nationally ranked."

Williams said Hyser is not to blame for the exodus.

"He is a great coach," he said. "I have the utmost respect for him. I don't think most of our players really understood the long-term vision the coaching staff and our peers had for us."





I'm only proposing a one year sit out.

If 8 of the best metro players all decide to transfer to some particular public school and are willing to sit out that season, to have an all-star team next season, then there is nothing you can do about that.

But a one year sit out vastly will still damper the rampant issue.



There is room for compromise.

Maybe it could be said that any basketball team cannot play with more than 1 transfer in a season.

That leaves open the possibility that there really is only one transfer, and wouldn't be forcing them to sit out.

Except for the kids who went to Cretin (Cretin is terrible this year btw) the rest went to the schools that they originally were supposed to. Majority only went to South bc of their AAU teammates/coach. Half live in the Brooklyn Park Osseo area. Open enrollment is more of an issue than transfers. For all the kids to be at South living 20 mins+ from the school while a kid living 5 away gets cut is a bigger issue. There aren’t many teams getting 3+ transfers if any. People hear a narrative and run with it. The penalizing teammates part is dumb too. If they are going to have a special season then step up and have it. The coach got to adjust to the cards he is dealt. Hopkins lost a Mr. Basketball nominee & 2 starters yet Novak figured it out with not much talent on the roster outside of Smith & Moore. The story in itself is hypocritical bc all these kids left minnehaha to go to south bc they didn’t want to wait on Chet Jalen n prince to leave

 

[short ornery norwegian]

I say again - this is an extra-curricular activity.

and reality check - only a handful of these players will get D1 scholarships, and a tiny fraction will ever play professionally.

If playing basketball is more important than getting an education, then let's come out and make that clear.

this is the AAU mentality taking over the sport. How about if we just pull all the top basketball players out of High School, and put them into some vocational program, so the classes do not interfere with their basketball? Or do what Gentry Academy does for Hockey - create a "school" where you play basketball most of the day and occasionally show up for a class?

god forbid there might be anything more important than playing basketball.