"My rule was I wouldn't recruit a kid if he had grass in front of his house.
That's not my world. My world was a cracked sidewalk." —Al McGuire

Thursday, September 13, 2007

Open enrollment in Wisconsin

Transfers are a fact of life in college hoops -- and on the high school hardcourt too. Transfers are impacting not only private high schools as many would suspect, but public high school programs as well. From today's Wisconsin State Journal:

WIAA associate director Deb Hauser told school representatives 12 of the 16 public schools that qualified for the state boys basketball tournament had players enrolled from other districts through the state's school-choice program. Ten of the 18 public schools in the WIAA state girls basketball had open-enrolled players.

One team had five open-enrolled players among the 14 on its roster, according to Hauser......"The data is there to show that it may not be the non-public schools that have the movement, but our own public schools, too,'' she said.

MU's Scott Christopherson is mentioned in the article. Christopherson switched from Melrose-Mindoro to La Crosse Aquinas midway through high school which raised a few eyebrows. MU target Evan Anderson is cited in this piece as well...he moved from one public school to another, which didn't attract the same level of scrutiny as Christopherson's move according to Hauser.

2 comments:

Eye said...

I think the most damning indictment in that article is that Hauser refers to the public schools not once, but twice, as "ours". Isn't that organization supposed to represent all of its members equally? This also is a great way to describe the provincial attitude of many in this state in regards to Wisconsin-Madison athletics.

jce said...

Oh come now...she said "our" as in "our public schools." The WIAA's public schools. No harm there.

I think she is just pointing out that the "problem" isn't just private schools, but with public schools too. I don't think the WIAA should do anything because any solution is just going to be too complex to work.

And I am someone whose son plays high school basketball and has absolutely no chance to get to the Kohl Center because to get through the sectional it has to run up against three or four such schools. But that isn't what high school sports should be about anyway.