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Sports Outside the Beltway

16 again- Texas HS Basketball player really 22

Guerdwich Montimere first played high school basketball in Florida. From AP-

Police say a West Texas student who led his high school basketball team to the state playoffs last season was actually a 22-year-old man.Montimere

Police say the basketball star was really Guerdwich Montimere, a naturalized U.S. citizen from Haiti. School officials say he was recognized last month by Florida coaches as having once been a high school player in Fort Lauderdale.

Ector County school district officials say the man posed as 16-year-old Jerry Joseph and enrolled at Permian High School in Odessa.

The school’s basketball coach, Danny Wright, says he even let the boy live with him.

Montimere was arrested Tuesday and booked on a charge of presenting false identification to a peace officer.

A few years ago there was a 30-year-old playing high school soccer or here in Florida. BTW when I when I went to Deerfield Beach HS, we were in the same district as Dillard the Florida school that Montimere first attended.

This article questions whether Montimere is legally in the United States.

 

Two high school football games moved due to burrowing owls

The birds are protected by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. From the Sun-Sentinel-

The Piper High School football team has lost to the owls – a team not on its schedule.Owls

A pair of the burrowing birds have settled in on the 25- and 35-yard lines and the football team can’t play or practice on the field.

The owls’ new residence has forced the Piper football team to move its final two home games from its Sunrise campus.

The Oct. 30 game will now be played at Miramar High and the Nov. 12 game at South Broward. Nov. 12 also is scheduled to be Senior Night. It’s also likely the boys’ and girls’ soccer teams will have to play most of their seasons, which begin early next month, at a local community park.

“Right now we have a football program that’s trying to build and go in the right direction,” Piper coach Matthew Lewis said. “We’re dealing with the sudden change and this provides an excellent opportunity for us to handle adversity.”

The football players on Piper (3-3) weren’t too keen about any owl encounters.

“They’re small, but I don’t want to get close to them,” said Piper senior cornerback Nevin Lawson.

The owls have the upper hand under Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission rules that classify them as a species of special concern. The owls have a high vulnerability to factors that may lead to their becoming a threatened species if they are left without protection or management.

Piper is a Broward County Florida school, as is my alma mater Deerfield Beach HS. Deerfield or The Bucks and Piper played each other yearly back in the 1970′s. Actually the 1978 District Championship(When I was a senior) came down to those two schools, with Deerfield coming out on top 14-0. Piper got revenge the next year by winning 14-12 and they were district champs. The only time between 1978 and 1983 that the Bucks didn’t win the district. Twice in those five years Deerfield was eliminated in the state playoffs by the eventual champion and in another year we lost to Boca Raton HS whose QB is now U of GA head football coach Mark Richt.

 

Charges dropped against four coaches and officials related to New Mexico HS hazing incident

Two male students have already pled guilty to charges arising from hazings that took place in August 2008. From the Las Vegas Optic-

Charges have been dropped against school officials and coaches accused of not reporting a series of attacks at a football camp last year — and at least one victim’s parents, as well as the prosecutor who initially filed the charges, aren’t a bit happy about it.

Superintendent Rick Romero, Athletic Director Michael Yara, former head football coach Ray Woods and former assistant coach Adam Alvarez were each facing a misdemeanor count of failure to report child abuse or neglect. Eighth Judicial District Attorney Donald Gallegos said he dropped the charges after determining that the case would not likely hold up on appeal, even if he could get a conviction.

“The duty-to-report statute did not fit this particular aspect of this crime,” Gallegos said Friday.

The legal sticking point was in the state’s definition of an abused child, Gallegos said. In the Children’s Code, a person is required to report suspected abuse, but it goes on to define such abuse as coming from a “parent, guardian or custodian” — not another child.

Gallegos added that legislative intent may have been to require reporting child abuse regardless of the age of the person doing the abuse, but the law doesn’t state this.

At least one of these animals men facilitated rape(One assistant coach walked into a cabin while the sodomizing of a student took place and took no action other than to tell the boys to stop it.) and they will face no criminal punishment? This is just outrageous.

I am not the only one holding that viewpoint.

The parents went further in suggesting the ramifications to such a decision:

“What District Attorney Donald Gallegos and Prosecutor Leslie Fernandez are saying is that if a teacher knows that a female student is forcibly held down by several male students and sodomized, then they have no legal responsibility to report the crime because it was not committed by adults.

“We allege that the only reason this is different is because these are sexual assaults committed by boys against boys,” the parents said. “It is an unpleasant topic that nobody obviously wants to deal with, (but) deal with it! We are!”

If it had been a case of a girl being raped and a school official had turned a blind eye to it, the outrage would have resounded a lot further than New Mexico and it would have increased in volume when the prosecutor dropped the charges. The boys who were being sodomized were allowed to remain in the company of their tormentors. How about charging at least one of these people as being an accessory? What a spineless jellyfish of a criminal prosecutor Donald Gallegos is.

 

High school Coach bans Georgia Bulldogs staff from campus

This in response to the treatment of a potential recruit. From ESPN-

When the Georgia Bulldogs decided to back out of their scholarship offer to Carver (Ga.) High School quarterback Devin Burns, they didn’t cut off their relationship with just him.

They find themselves banned from stepping on the Carver campus, as well.

Burns, accompanied by his family, had traveled to Athens last weekend with the intention of formally committing to the Bulldogs after receiving a scholarship offer from coach Mark Richt and quarterbacks coach Mike Bobo this spring.

But while he was on the trip, the Bulldogs — who apparently knew of Burns’ travel plans — had decided to withdraw the offer.

Carver coach Dell McGee, upset with the timing, has since informed the Georgia coaching staff that for now, it was not welcome to visit the school, located by the Alabama border.

“I say that to show them that the incident that occurred wasn’t appreciated,” McGee said, according to the Columbus Ledger-Enquirer. “The biggest thing is, the University of Georgia knew, they had knowledge of Devin and his parents coming there for the weekend. For them not to communicate that they had rescinded that offer before that was not very professional.”

What happened to Burns doesn’t sound very professional, but good will McGee’s actions bring? It may only make it more difficult for his athletes to be recruited by UGA. Bulldog head coach Mark Richt(who I played high school ball against) has since apologized. It is time for everyone to move on.

 

You’re Out!- Umpire throws out entire crowd at high school baseball game

Whatever happened to Midwestern hospitality? From the Des Moines Register-

(Don) Briggs briefly ejected the entire crowd — estimated at more than 100 fans — during a game between Winfield-Mount Union and West Burlington on Thursday night in West Burlington.

“It was something else — I’ll tell you that,” Winfield-Mount Union coach Scott McCarty said.
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Dave Anderson and Bud Legg of the Iowa High School Athletic Association said they know of no other sanctioned high school event in Iowa where an entire crowd has been asked to leave.

“I have no recollection of that ever happening,” Anderson said.

The ejection came in the fifth inning of the game, after McCarty left the dugout to argue whether a batted ball was fair or foul.

West Burlington coach Jeff Housel, who said he did not see or hear time called, tried to send a runner from third base to score during the debate — but Briggs sent the runner back.

Briggs said the crowd became unruly, and had been unruly during the game. McCarty and Housel, however, said the situation was overblown.

There was no school official, which by the rules in place in Iowa, was to be the person to make the decision about the crowd. Since no such person was there, Briggs took it upon himself.

What for? The article makes no mention of the fans becoming dangerous. So they were unhappy with a bad call? What’s new about that in a sporting event? No one was in danger, and if you believe what the article says, no one was doing anything worse than voicing their displeasure with the umpire’s decision. The fans were allowed back in the stands but told ‘anyone making a negative comment toward the officials would be ejected from the premises and could be charged with disorderly conduct’. So arguing with an umpire is now a criminal offense?

Sure sounds like an overreaction to me.

 

Former HS and College Basketball Coach Jimmy Tubbs dead at 60

Prior to his days at SMU, he was a NCAA assistant coach for over a decade and a highly successful head coach at the high school level. RIP.

Former SMU coach Jimmy Tubbs, who was fired after two seasons in 2006 when an internal investigation revealed NCAA violations, has died. He was 60.

SMU spokesman Brad Sutton said Tubbs died Saturday. No cause of death was given.

Tubbs was a popular choice to lead the Mustangs because he’d spent 12 years as an SMU assistant before going to Oklahoma for two seasons under Kelvin Sampson. He was also a championship-winning high school coach in Dallas, a fertile recruiting ground SMU has always struggled to tap.

The Mustangs were 27-30 in Tubbs’ two seasons. He was 232-42 at Dallas Kimball High School, including the 1990 Class 5A state championship.

 

Girl kicker booted off High School football team

Seemingly football is not a proper sport for girls in parts of Georgia. From the Atlanta Journal Constitution-

Kacy Stuart was a kicker on a public school football team last year but apparently doesn’t have what it takes to be a part of a private league. She’s not a boy.

The 14-year-old high school freshman from Spalding County learned Thursday night — while team pictures were being shot — that she was being booted off the field. But her mother said she isn’t going down without a fight.

For two months, Kacy Stuart practiced with the school team, the Crusaders, at New Creation Center, a private Christian academy in McDonough, but was told Thursday she couldn’t be on the team.

“We’ll file for an injunction if we have to,” Angie Stuart said Friday. “We’ll do whatever it takes to keep her on the team.”

For two months, Kacy practiced with the school team, the Crusaders, at New Creation Center, a private Christian academy in McDonough. She participated in drills and even played a scrimmage game Aug. 23.

But a couple of weeks ago, Angie Stuart said, Hank St. Denis, executive board chairman of the Georgia Football League, realized a girl had been accepted onto one of its football teams. St. Denis overruled New Creation’s decision to let her join the team.

“He said she can’t play simply because she’s a girl,” Stuart said.

When she heard the decision, Kacy cried.

“She has college potential,” her mother said. “And she’s willing to give up her life here to move to her dad’s [home] in south Georgia, enroll in public school there and play football. That’s how much she loves this game.”

Efforts to reach St. Denis Friday through phone and e-mail messages were unsuccessful.

Kacy kicked for a junior high team that made the state finals last year. Because her family moved, Kacy had to find a school in another county to attend.

The Georgia Football League’s decision is simply idiotic. There have been instances of girls kicking for HS football teams for at least a decade, and in at least one case for a NCAA team. Are these people in Georgia still living in the 19th century?

As the Georgia Football League is a private organization, a legal fight may be difficult. Maybe with enough bad publicity these people will change their minds.

 

Nevada College Recruit Made It All Up

We learn the true story about HS football player Kevin Hart.

RENO, Nev. (Feb 6) – A northern Nevada prep football player who had claimed he was duped into believing he was recruited to play at a Pac-10 school admitted Wednesday he made up the story.

Kevin Hart, a 6-foot-5, 290-pound offensive lineman for Fernley High School, offered a broad apology in a statement he issued through the Lyon County School District. Hart said he had wanted to play football at a Division I school “more than anything.”

“When I realized that wasn’t going to happen, I made up what I wanted to be reality. I am sorry for disappointing and embarrassing my family, coaches, Fernley High School, the involved universities and reporters covering the story,” Hart said.

Lyon County sheriff’s detectives had been unable to corroborate Hart’s claims that he had been duped by a man he paid to help promote him to college football programs.

As soon as I heard not just Cal and Oregon denied recruiting Hart but other schools that had been mentioned, I had the feeling the whole thing was made up. Hart is young, but at 18 he should have known his web of lies would soon unravel.

 

Investigation looks into HS Football player opting for school that didn’t recruit him

What an odd story.

It looked like an American dream come true, but now somebody’s going to experience a nightmare.

Students, television and newsprint reporters packed the gym at Fernley (Nev.) High School to hear offensive lineman Kevin Hart give a verbal commitment to play football at the University of California. He chose Cal over Oregon.

“They really sold me,” Hart said, according to USA Today. “Coach [Jeff] Tedford and I talked a lot, and the fact that the head coach did most of the recruiting of me kind of gave me the real personal experience.”

The only problem … neither Cal nor Oregon recruited Hart.

Now, it’s a “law enforcement investigation,” said Fernley football coach Mark Hodges, according to the newspaper.

“This is involving law enforcement and may involve other departments, other than the NCAA, that are bigger than local,” Hodges told the Reno Gazette-Journal. “I would love to tell you everything I know, but I can’t at this time and I’m not even sure what I know.”

It was unclear whether Hart was duped by persons impersonating recruiters or if he was staging a hoax himself.

In High school I once heard some baseball players bragging they had a teammate thinking he was being scouted by a pro team. I don’t know if it was true or not.

Hart’s story is certainly bizarre. Justin Lawson at the Reno Gazette-Journal writes-

As I see it there are two scenarios that can play out in this one: Someone duped this kid into thinking that he was being recruited by these two schools or we’ve all been duped.

I don’t want to believe the latter because I just can’t see a high school athlete doing that to his coaches, teammates and friends. The first scenario could open up a lot of discussion for everyone from the NCAA down to the NIAA because if someone is impersonating a representative of these schools, then every high school athlete needs to be aware.

I don’t want to believe the second scenario either. Then sometimes a small lie can get out of control. Like in this recent story. In Hart’s case it looks like we’ll have an answer soon.

 

USC And The New OJ

This has to be one of the most bizzare recruiting stories I have heard lately. Just a few choice quotes below:

Mayo was first mentioned in Sports Illustrated when he was in the seventh grade. He was considered a future lottery pick by the time he entered high school. He once talked trash to Michael Jordan during a pickup game at Jordan’s camp.

“Let me call him,” Floyd said.

The man shook his head again. “O. J. doesn’t give out his cell,” he said. “He’ll call you.”

Before Floyd hung up, he asked one more time for Mayo’s cellphone number. “No,” Mayo said. “I’ll call you.”

Its going to be an interesting one and done eyar for OJ and USC.

 
 


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