Dunbar football coach Lawrence Smith has received an impressive award from a group of his peers, namely coaches, as he was named the Black Coaches and Administrators National High School Coach of the Year at the organization's national convention last week in Atlanta.

Smith, who took over the Poets last August after former coach Ben Eaton died of a heart attack just before the season, guided Dunbar to its second straight Maryland Public Secondary Schools Athletic Association 1A title, a perfect 14-0 record and the No. 2 ranking in the Baltimore area.

Posted by Milton Kent at 9:16 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
                    

The Philadelphia-area private school that hosted one of the nation's top high school basketball recruits is apparently set to close the school and the basketball programs, perhaps as early as tomorrow.

American Christian Academy, located in Aston, Pa., will not only drop its varsity sports programs, but will close entirely, amid criticism from a former coach that it was one of those diploma mills that the NCAA has taken increasing interest in in recent years.

The school, which is run by the First Baptist Church of Aston, had been home to Tyreke Evans, the Most Valuable Player at this year's McDonald's All America Game. Evans, who was the subject of an intense recruiting war, has committed to play basketball at Memphis next fall.

Posted by Milton Kent at 2:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
                    

In previous posts here, I've scoffed at the wisdom of kids committing early to colleges, particularly for football, especially since the signing date isn't until next February.

However, if the trend of schools leaning on potential recruits to make their decision as quickly as possible, so as to gather as much talent as possible as soon as possible, the prospect of an early signing date that we floated here last week might not be a bad one.

Of course, more rules could be enacted to further limit the contact of college coaches, but, as one recruiting expert noted, the genie of pressuring kids to declare early is out of the bottle and is not likely to put back in any time soon.

Posted by Milton Kent at 6:53 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
                    

You'd have to go a long way to find moments as sweet as yesterday's Sun Athlete of the Year luncheon, during which the top 20 male and female high school athletes, as selected by a panel of Sun reporters and editors, were honored.

From the list of female finalists, which included Erin Brooks of Seton Keough, Winters Mill's Cassie Cooke, Deanna Dydynski of Mount Hebron,
Severna Park's Julie Gardner, Miriam McKenzie of Oakland Mills, Archbishop Spaulding's Christine Nairn, Sarah Parks of Centennial, John Carroll's Erika Stasakova, and Bailey Webster of St. Paul’s, Allyson Carey, who starred in two sports at John Carroll and led the school to a perfect girls lacrosse season and the Interscholastic Athletic Association A Conference title, was chosen the female Athlete of the Year.

On the boys side, McDonogh soccer star Chris Agorsor, who earned national high school Player of the Year honors, was named the male Athlete of the Year from a list that included Josh Asper of Hereford, Dunbar's Tavon Austin, Nick Elko of Arundel, Tyler Fiorito and Josh Fitch, both of McDonogh, Sean Mosley of St. Frances, Meade's Justin Murdock, Lee Reynolds of Poly and Loyola's Steele Stanwick.

Both Carey and Agorsor gave moving, heartfelt remarks about the meaning of sports in their lives, as well the roles of their parents, coaches and teammates in their success. However, the emotional moment of the program may have come when Jen Schmidt of the Friends School accepted the Hayley Milborne Award for Integrity, named for the former Roland Park golfer who disqualified herself last year at the IAAM Conference tournament because she mistakenly played the wrong ball.

Schmidt, who suffers from rheumatoid arthritis, spoke movingly about her parents and her desire to bring attention to the malady that has given her continuous pain since she was in the fourth grade.

It was, to be sure, a very special day.

Posted by Milton Kent at 10:25 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
                    

Normally, if the football coaches of the Southeastern Conference think something is a good idea, then it must be bad for everyone else, because no one does self-interest better than them.

But an idea floating around from them, to open a very short early signing window between Thanksgiving and December 1 in addition to the February national signing date, appears to be worth studying.

The one potential sticking point to the plan, which received approval at a recent SEC coaches meeting, but was voted down by the league's athletic directors for further examination, is a clause that would prohibit a kid from signing a letter if they've taken an official visit before the official contact period.

Posted by Milton Kent at 8:20 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)