The word \u201crecruiting\u201d in high school sports is certainly a derogatory term.\u00a0 Schools who feel victimized believe another institution has invaded their territory to grab one of their finest athletes in order to make their own team stronger.\u00a0 Both public and private schools have been accused of \u201crecruiting\u201d.\u00a0 Private schools can be a bit more open with the practice because, by their very nature, they \u201crecruit\u201d in order to populate their institutions.\u00a0 They have the advantage of bringing students in from public school territory and, often, enhancing their athletic teams at the expense of a home district.\u00a0 There\u2019s no blame here.\u00a0 It\u2019s just the way it is and the governing body of high school athletics, the PIAA, has decided it is not worth the effort or the expense to dispute these transfers in court.\u00a0 It is very hard to prove allegations especially when parents choose to send their child to a private school or they find a way to establish residence in a geographical area.\u00a0 \u201cRecruiting\u201d occurs and even though it is disdained, very little can be done to stop it.<\/p>\n
This leads me to focus on two private schools in Philadelphia – Neumann-Goretti and Archbishop Wood.\u00a0 It would not be a stretch to say these schools are two of the nation\u2019s leaders in recruiting athletes.\u00a0 Neumann-Goretti is currently ranked #1 in the nation in girls\u2019 basketball.\u00a0 Let that sink in \u2013 the very best in the nation!\u00a0 They are currently beating their opponents by an average of 45 points a game.<\/p>\n
Archbishop Wood has perennially been one of the best girls\u2019 basketball teams in the state and in the nation.\u00a0 Wood won three straight state championships from 2009-12 and has been to the state finals in three of the last four years.\u00a0 They do not like the spotlight shifting to Neumann-Goretti. So the two are caught up in a recruiting firestorm!<\/p>\n
One of the best players on the Goretti team is Christina Aborowa, a senior who came from Ondo, Nigeria.\u00a0 On the day in November that Aborowa signed her letter of intent to play at the University of Texas, an email addressed to the Texas coach and athletic director arrived alleging that Aborowa was in the country illegally and that she was older than the age listed.\u00a0 The email also alleged that her teammate, Felicia Aiyeotan, a 6\u20199\u201d junior, was illegal and overage.\u00a0 The email was sent with a fictitious name and was also supposedly sent to other colleges to discourage them from recruiting Aiyeotan.\u00a0 Goretti was accused of cheating and the email implied that the FBI was looking into the case.<\/p>\n
A Philadelphia newspaper, Philly Voice, investigated and concluded the email came from the Archbishop Wood head coach.\u00a0 He had issued a \u201cno comment\u201d response when asked about the allegations, but has since resigned according to the Philadelphia Daily News.\u00a0 The Archdiocese investigated the paperwork on the two girls and concluded that the girls are here \u201clegitimately\u201d.<\/p>\n
The Bethlehem Catholic girls\u2019 basketball team, a target in the past of recruiting allegations themselves, is in the midst of trying to win their third straight District XI basketball championship.\u00a0 They are a very talented team.\u00a0 State rankings have the Golden Hawks ranked as high as #2 in the state.\u00a0 There is a good possibility if they are successful in the state playoffs that they could eventually meet up with Archbishop Wood, the #1 ranked team in AAA.\u00a0 The Hawks could be problematic for Wood, but certainly not as problematic as the firestorm facing the Archbishop program at the moment.\u00a0 Stay tuned!<\/p>\n
ABOVE THE EARS (SOME MUSINGS)<\/strong><\/p>\n The word \u201crecruiting\u201d in high school sports is certainly a derogatory term.\u00a0 Schools who feel victimized believe another institution has invaded their territory to grab one of their finest athletes in order to make their own team stronger.\u00a0 Both public and private schools have been accused of \u201crecruiting\u201d.\u00a0 Private schools can be a bit more…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"Yoast SEO Relevanssi index exclude","inline_featured_image":false,"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","itunes_episode_number":"","itunes_title":"","itunes_season_number":"","itunes_episode_type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2,3,4],"tags":[219,415,448],"class_list":["post-76444","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-behind-the-mic","category-featured","category-sports","tag-high-school-basketball","tag-philadelphia","tag-recruiting"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n\n