Amauro's Corner, BB 2004-05 Mid-Season Notes

Amauro's Mid-Season Notes

Amauro "Amar" Austin is another of our trusty observers. He is not to be confused with Ruben Amaro, the Phillies' assistant general manager. Like "Huck" Palmer, Amauro is a West Catholic graduate. He will file reports on the MANY games he sees.
You may e-mail him at Thurlbough@hotmail.com.

JAN. 24
AA's MID-SEASON NOTES
   This has indeed been a wild & wacky year to date. None of us has been able to catch every team's act largely because the Public League has expanded, but also because of the many cancellations, NON-scheduling & the late start to the season...
   It's utterly ridiculous that so many teams haven't played one non-league game. NOT ONE! Man, what are some of these Pub coaches doing? I know that some were bit by cancellations, but even for those guys, THERE IS NO REASON IN THE WORLD THAT YOU SHOULDN'T AT LEAST ATTEMPT TO SCHEDULE A FULL LOAD. Some guys figure, "Well, we won't be that strong this year, so I won't do any extra work. That's dead wrong! That's stealing your pay! Just playing the minimum is earning half your salary and doing nothing for the rest. It's wrong and should not be tolerated.
     Here are some scenarios: Take for instance a kid like Edison's Steve Martin. He's been a prominent player on the Owl varsity for three seasons. However, coach Kevin Reilly hasn't full-scheduled in any of those years so Martin isn't even close to scoring 1,000 points. This year alone Reilly scheduled four out of a possible 11 NL contests. That's sad. Not only can't Martin get to 1,000 points, but that's also seven fewer chances for guys like us and, more importantly, college coaches/scouts to see this kid perform, and he is truly one of our city's sleepers. Another reason a coach should always play a full load is because N-L games are great preparation for what's to come. Look at a team like Bok, which hasn't played a N-L game at all. Coach Lloyd Jenkins had seven N-L games cancelled for one reason or another, but that was still three under the limit. Those other 10 possible games would have been valuable experience going into the playoffs. There's nothing like game experience. It's seasoning personified, like salt & pepper. It gives you a chance to try different things and play stiff competition. I hope these guys are more conscious of this in the future. Many of these guys have failed to date and it's doing nothing except hurting our guys.
     In an even wackier ordeal, on January 10th I went down to Wayne & Chelten to Pickett MS to watch Del Val Charter & Lamberton. Only one problem: the game was switched back to Lamberton and no one had even told us. That's not the half of it, folks. AA hustled back to West Philly to good ol' Haddington Rec (aka "The Wilt"), which is where Lamberton plays, and got there with five minutes to spare. The teams were warming up and I got the names in the book. Uh, but no one called the referees about the change or even called them about the date change. You see this was a make-up that was to have been played on Dec. 16, but Del Val had taken a trip to Montreal, Canada, for a 3-game tourney (more on that later). I went and spoke to Del Val coach (also AD) Alan Cissorski to obtain the boxes of all the N-L games that they played. He then asked me, "WHY? WHY!" I asked him what he meant by why? "Why would you want that stuff?" he asked "Because he try to keep accurate records of all this stuff. We like to do an overall leading scorers list and we need to know your overall record." He said, "I didn't know we had to call in all of our games. I was told we only had to call in our league games. I don't want to give you that stuff and I don't really care how much our kids score. I just care if they behave themselves. You people put to much emphasis on how many points these kids score anyway." (Now I was getting a little upset . . . ) I came back with, "Well, coach, you are in the mainstream world of high school athletics now and this is how we do things here, and all over the country. Guys like myself are here to help these kids advance by getting to college." Coach C then cut me off with, "No, that's my job! I will take care of getting these guys in school and helping them. I handle that. I'll give you the boxes that I have, but the ones from Canada, you'll have to get another time. I'll have to call Charles Sumter (PL basketball chairman) to see what he says. No one ever told me that we had to call in all of our games. I wasn't going to call from Canada, etc." . I then gave up talking to this guy realizing that he REALLY didn't understand. He said more things that I won't get into, but all of this brings me to the point about our new expanded league. Why did we bring some of these teams in knowing that in truth they wanted no parts of this or were happy doing what they've already been doing? What'll be worse will be next year when seven to 10 more schools come in and we'll have 50 to 55 schools in The Pub. Then what will be will do? It's watering down what used to be the area's, and probably the state's, best league. The talent pool is being lessened even more by the influx of all these meaningless schools. Now we are talking about turning five middle schools into high schools. The four are already up to 10th grade and may have Varsity as of next season. Worst of all, it appears John Bartram will be broken up again -- a school that has become one of our true powerhouses (This will have its own paragraph later). First off, The Pub is going down by the second. You have the CL schools recruiting like crazy from the Pub feeders and now you want have up to 60 schools in a league that's already struggling like crazy? The CL schools have to recruit to survive, so I don't fault them. Next year schools like Rhodes, Vaux, Wanamaker and Sayre will all have varsities. Vaux, Rhodes & Wanamaker have been primary feeders to North Philly schools such as Franklin, Mansion, Penn and Gratz. All of Franklin's good ones in recent memory were groomed at Vaux. Sayre has sent many goodies to West and Brook over the years. What's the point of this? Oh, yeah, and don't forget that two or more charters will come in along with Communications HS and Randolph HS. This is insane and doesn't look like its going to end any time soon. There will be many more Alan Cissorskis walking around before everyone is on the level.
     Now onto the Bartram issue. This one really hits home and I would like to do something about it. Being a Southwest/West Philly guy, I've always been a bit partial to Bartram, West, Overbrook and U-City over the years and attended many of their games even before I got into this stuff heavily. The core of my family went to those schools and I have some sentiment towards all of them along with West Catholic, of course. I don't cry or get upset when any of them lose, but I have tried to throw showcase games their way and I do try to notify them about kids (normally ninth graders) in their building that they may not know about. The plan for next year is to have the Communications and Motivation buildings split from the Bartram Main building and have their own separate sports. This is insane! First off the Comm. building is where Bartram coach Lou Biester teaches and where he brings all of the basketball players to keep a closer eye on them, which has worked out favorably over the years. In Biester's five year reign (this is his sixth season), the Braves have lost all of two home games; have been the only team to win at Gratz in 15 years; and have been to four straight final fours with a title in 2003 and a great season in 2002 (started the year 26-0 and were ranked in the USA Today Top 25 before falling to Mr. Rice and Mansion in the semis). Also 11 players from those teams are currently playing basketball at either D-I, II or at competitive JCs. WHY CHANGE THAT? Why turn a powerhouse into a program starting back at square one just to make a 2A school with no tradition into a powerhouse? It makes absolutely no sense and something has to be done about it. I would like to do something, but I need help. The parents have to get involved and also the state rep has to get involved and that will happen through the parents and the community. This will only cause mass confusion and truly its already started. Anyone involved in the community with suggestions, feel free to send them to me at Thurlbough@hotmail.com. They will be welcomed...
    Finally, something must be done about the facilities in the Pub. There have been about six or seven gyms I've been in this year that have either no stands, busted stands or portable metal stands. That's terrible! Places like Gratz, U-City and Overbrook are three of them. These three schools could be prime sites for state playoff games along with Penn, Franklin, Southern & Northeast. Why did NE just get a new floor and new stands and didn't need any of it? I understand that this is the model school for the district and all, but start throwing some money into the mainstream part of the district as well. The three aforementioned places have arguably done more for The Pub that any other school. Gratz' great basketball tradition in the last 20 years, Overbrook's great tradition over a period of time and UC's great girls programs for the last 30 years. There have been a lot of promises made and though it's still early, many are starting to want to see some results, including myself.

Mr. Austin: I'm Zach Berman, a GA grad who wrote for Ted's site last year. I read your notes, and couldn't agree with you more. I go to Syracuse now and watched D'Or Fischer of West Virginia on Saturday. Here's a guy who can make it to the league next season with his size, and defense, and mid-range jumper, yet from what I recall, he didn't play high school ball. Coming from the Inter-Ac and seeing a lot of CL and Suburban teams over the years, I think it's a travesty that the Pub wastes so much talent. I think it's a step in the right direction when you bring it to the forefront.
-- Best, Zach Berman

I don't have any answers, just wanted to say I enjoy your work and I really feel for you guys down there. I have done PA state ratings since 1977. We used to do the whole Middle Atlantic area, but just do PA since 2001. I know Ted and puck man for years. I'm really sorry some of these coaches don't get. And the sad thing for me is that for years we have been trying to convince the rest of the state that the Pub was really by far the best in the state. And now all of a sudden they get in the :PIAA and this has to happen. Every where I go people say to me. Oh now you only have two Pub teams in your top 20, they never were anygood and now is the proof. Believe me I know how good they were, I usually see the better teams play at least a couple times a year even if it is only on CN8. Anyway good luck on getting through to someone who can help. And if you have any interest in seeing what's goining on around the state just log on to LLHoops.com. The guys has a bunch of areas around the state included on his front page. I do, with help, the District 3 and PA state ratings.
Jerry Shenk

TALKING ABOUT CHANGES IN THE PUB. TO SOLVE THEIR PROBLEMS IS LIKE REARRANGING THE DECK CHAIRS ON THE TITANTIC!
D.P.

Amauro -- As a teacher and fan of local high school sports, I both agree and disagree with aspects of your report. For one, I do agree that The Pub is over-expanding. It made more sense to me to start a Charter Schools League that would compete for their own league title and in D-12. With that said, I think The Pub did an excellent job with their playoff system. Granted, the Pub final will probably be lopsided (favoring the AAAA champ), but they somehow were able to keep a single Pub champion. I don't think they've been given enough credit for that. Regarding the junior high schools becoming new high schools, this is a step in the right direction for The School District of Philadelphia. More high schools lead to smaller enrollments where kids won't so easily slip through the cracks. Is this the best thing for, say, Gratz's basketball program? No. For the education of students at schools like Gratz, it is a good thing. Decisions are going to be made for the good of the thousands attending, not the few on the varsity team. Regarding the Bartram situation -- the annexes formally split nearly 2 years ago! The athletic teams have been given 2 seasons grace period (2003-04 and 2004-05). There are parallels out in the suburbs. I don't remember shedding any tears for CB West's football program once I heard Central Bucks was opening a South high school. Same for Downingtown when they split into East and West. The enrollments there obviously took hits and watered down the talent on the football teams. However, I'm sure those decisions were made in the best interests of those districts.
-- Bill