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tfk53
04-01-2018, 11:02 AM
NY Times piece on emergence of top private schools in DC area developing high level basketball talent combined with academic prowess.
NCSU is getting one of the two players mentioned - Saddiq Bey (6-7, 195#). VaTech has offered the other - EJ Jarvis (Class of 2019, 6-8, 220#) so we may see both in the ACC.
The coach at Jarvis' school - Maret - is Chuck Driesell, Lefty's son who was head coach at The Citadel.

Very good to see examples of the desire for both academics and sports by players and parents.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/30/sports/sidwell-basketball.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollectio n%2Fsports

RaiderDevil
04-01-2018, 04:13 PM
I'm not sure if it is a similar deal, but in North Carolina Christian schools we are seeing a huge uptick in schools utilizing opportunity scholarships to stack teams. It has totally taken the smaller rural schools out of the picture as they are no longer able to compete with teams that have effectively been recruited. Many players are getting diplomas from schools they only attended for a single year to fill out a basketball roster. I hope the programs are "cleaner" in DC.

RaiderDevil
04-01-2018, 04:22 PM
www.ncforum.org/out-of-bounds-embezzlement-and-basketball-at-north-carolinas-biggest-voucher-school/

The 4200 sounds pretty small for a private school, but some schools run half price first year deals, which makes it realistic for some schools.

MChambers
04-01-2018, 04:53 PM
I'm not sure if it is a similar deal, but in North Carolina Christian schools we are seeing a huge uptick in schools utilizing opportunity scholarships to stack teams. It has totally taken the smaller rural schools out of the picture as they are no longer able to compete with teams that have effectively been recruited. Many players are getting diplomas from schools they only attended for a single year to fill out a basketball roster. I hope the programs are "cleaner" in DC.

Sidwell and Maret are two of the most prominent DC private schools, well known for the quality of the education they provide, so it's probably cleaner. Having said that, I have been told that at least one of those schools is known for admitting students based on, uh, things other than academics.

MCFinARL
04-01-2018, 11:44 PM
Sidwell and Maret are two of the most prominent DC private schools, well known for the quality of the education they provide, so it's probably cleaner. Having said that, I have been told that at least one of those schools is known for admitting students based on, uh, things other than academics.

Not sure what you are referring to, but any prominent private school in DC (and probably elsewhere) is going to consider a lot of things in admissions--academics, special talents (whether creative, musical, athletic, etc.), racial/ethnic and (to the extent scholarship funds permit) socioeconomic diversity, "important" families, legacies, etc., etc. It's not that different from applying to an elite college like Duke, just on a much smaller scale.

In the case of Sidwell (speaking as a former Sidwell parent, though a few years back--1996-2000), and from what I know indirectly of Maret, these are not schools that are trying to become basketball factories while paying only lip service to academics. Kids who play on the basketball team, like anyone else at the schools, will get a very good education and will be expected to work hard doing so. The main point of the original article, in fact, was that these kids were choosing schools like Sidwell and Maret, not generally known for athletics and competing in the MAC against other smallish, not powerhouse athletic schools, precisely because they and their families wanted to ensure they would get a good education along the way.

lotusland
04-02-2018, 07:21 AM
Oak Hill in the SW VA Mtns is certainly not in the DC area but I think a lot of DC kids go there. Good basketball but definitely not a basketball factory. It’s surrounded by cows in the middle of nowhere. Seems like a place for wealthy white kids who are getting in with the “wrong crowd” at home. At least that was the story for a young lady I recently spoke to who attended there. She said her parents had recently divorced and she started acting out so they shipped her off to Oak Hill. I can see how it would also be a good place for ballers to work on the game and their studies away from any distractions. It’s almost an hour from the nearest town of any size and those towns are Abingdon, Marion, Independence, West Jefferson and Sparta, NC, etc.

MChambers
04-02-2018, 09:24 AM
Not sure what you are referring to, but any prominent private school in DC (and probably elsewhere) is going to consider a lot of things in admissions--academics, special talents (whether creative, musical, athletic, etc.), racial/ethnic and (to the extent scholarship funds permit) socioeconomic diversity, "important" families, legacies, etc., etc. It's not that different from applying to an elite college like Duke, just on a much smaller scale.

In the case of Sidwell (speaking as a former Sidwell parent, though a few years back--1996-2000), and from what I know indirectly of Maret, these are not schools that are trying to become basketball factories while paying only lip service to academics. Kids who play on the basketball team, like anyone else at the schools, will get a very good education and will be expected to work hard doing so. The main point of the original article, in fact, was that these kids were choosing schools like Sidwell and Maret, not generally known for athletics and competing in the MAC against other smallish, not powerhouse athletic schools, precisely because they and their families wanted to ensure they would get a good education along the way.

I meant political connections.

MCFinARL
04-02-2018, 12:39 PM
I meant political connections.

Yes, for sure.

MCFinARL
04-02-2018, 01:00 PM
Oak Hill in the SW VA Mtns is certainly not in the DC area but I think a lot of DC kids go there. Good basketball but definitely not a basketball factory. It’s surrounded by cows in the middle of nowhere. Seems like a place for wealthy white kids who are getting in with the “wrong crowd” at home. At least that was the story for a young lady I recently spoke to who attended there. She said her parents had recently divorced and she started acting out so they shipped her off to Oak Hill. I can see how it would also be a good place for ballers to work on the game and their studies away from any distractions. It’s almost an hour from the nearest town of any size and those towns are Abingdon, Marion, Independence, West Jefferson and Sparta, NC, etc.

Among the DC kids who went to Oak Hill--Quinn Cook. Not a rich white kid for sure, but he and his mom have spoken openly, I believe, about how she wanted him to transfer from DeMatha to Oak Hill for the very reasons you mention--to have fewer distractions and get away from a neighborhood crowd who might not be the best influence.

While I think your characterization of Oak Hill as "definitely not a basketball factory" is fair, its basketball program is extremely strong--currently ranked #7 in the US (http://usatodayhss.com/rankings/computer/boys/basketball/US/2017) by USA Today. Schools like Sidwell and Maret, who are not even in the Washington Post's Top 20 rankings for local teams (though Sidwell was ranked for a while this year), are light years away from having basketball teams of the quality and consistency of Oak Hill's.

For those who don't know about it, the 2006 game (https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/recruiting-insider/wp/2016/03/04/montrose-christian-vs-oak-hill-a-look-back-at-one-of-the-greatest-high-school-games-in-d-c-history/?utm_term=.857ba1b6e38a) between Oak Hill (then ranked #1 nationally) and Montrose Christian is a long-remembered classic. On the Oak Hill roster: Michael Beasley, Ty Lawson, and our own Nolan Smith, along with several other players who went on to play at D1 colleges. On the Montrose roster: Kevin Durant, Greivis Vasquez, Adrian Bowie, again along with several other D1 college players. Montrose won, 74-72, on a last-second Bowie outback of a Durant shot.