Sports Recruiting - At Elementary School?

Mention the word "recruiting" in the same sentence as high school sports and people tend to offer up a strange look and some commentary — sometimes quite colourful — with accusations and name-calling.

Is there something wrong with school sports recruiting?

Schools brag about their academic achievements and the benefits of choosing their place, be it for music or something else, so why not sports?

If you're of the opinion that recruiting students for sports doesn't already happen in Greater Toronto Area schools, think again. What is interesting is the slick approach being taken by an increasing number of teachers, coaches and even current school players at not just promoting their schools, but with a heavy emphasis on sports programs. Getting the right athletes to their school is the objective.

Going to elementary schools and seeking out talented athletes about to finish Grade 8, seems fair - or is it?

No rules are broken. No tampering of regulations. Even Toronto District School Board Director Chris Spence, who I think is a good guy for the job, wants to hire a marketing person to go hunting for students to fill empty classes. Could they also be looking for good athletes?

I've heard people question the morals and ethics of recruiting a good basketball player, or a fabulous running back or a great goalie for a school team. By the way, all of them have happened. It makes one wonder does sports come before education?

OFSAA, that's the provincial sports association continues to struggle with maintaining a transfer rule, one they claim is fair, but it prevents students from switching high schools for sports. It's also a rule that frequently is blown up by loopholes, legal action and other factors.

Could recruiting impressive young athletes from Grade 8 be a way of getting to talented athletes before they figure it's time to switch schools and challenge OFSAA?

There are books on the market dealing with sports recruiting to high schools. Some are interesting, others depressing. Also worth noting is that earlier this year, the NCAA offically declared that Grade 7 students were classified as "prospects". For now, this only pertains to basketball as the association found college coaches working at elite and summer camps, creating college interest with kids who were ages 12 and 13.

Comments

[James]

Are you saying that having a high school basketball coach at a popular school approach someone in grade 8 at an elementary school is recruiting?
I agree and it goes on all the time in many sports. It can't be stopped. You forget that coaches are volunteers and school boards are going to do nothing with volunteers fearing they'll just quit and leave the system holding the hands of thousands of kids after school with nothing to do.

[Jason Cormier]

Hi Dave,

ROPSSAA passed a new rule last spring that requires all roster eligibility submissions to include the home postal code of incoming grade 9s. If the student-athlete in question does not live inside the school's designated boundary and is not part of a special program (e.g. IB, AP, French Immersion, etc.) then they must apply for permission to compete for the school.

[Edwards]

People will do anything to win.

[Peter Miller]

Look out, next year they'll be after Jimmy and Samuel in kindergarten. It's shabby but they are not in rule violation. Just moral and ethical failures.

[T. Hall]

Nothin' wrong with that. It's brilliance. Getting the right kids to play for your team and then making sure they stay in school. Beats them smokin' dope and hangin' in the malls.

[Dan Urquhart]

Wait until some of these coaches go hunting across the regions too and come up with allstar teams that will eventually destroy whatever is left of any credibility in high school "team" sports now.

[Da Hoops Man]

Nothing can be done so accept it. Coaches are teachers and they're members of the union and the administrations of the board of education are not going to mess with the unions or school sports comes to a halt. Those athletic associations are also teachers and they'll back their buddies or close their eyes to potential problems. It's called politics man. Don't you get it.

[CoachD]

This has been going on for over 25 years in the GTA. In the early 1980's, when I coached at a northern Scarborough secondary school, our top girls' basketball athletes came from a school located in the south end of the borough. In Durham Region, where I have been coaching for the past 20 years, both boys' and girls' high school sports programs have recruited out of grade 8 -- either explicitely by addressing the issue with students and their parents, or implicitly by word of mouth. Principals are required to sign-off on such "out-of-area" students and are often eager to do so, because of the funding that accompanies the student.

OFSAA and most of the regional athletic associations across the province have been aware of this type of activity for a long time and are either in denial or simply reluctant to act. EVERYONE knows about this loophole -- the question is: Why has OFSAA refused to address it?

[Former teacher/coach]

Coach D. is right. OFSAA has so many new staff now that don't know school sports and have difficulty enforcing rules. It doesn't have the credibility it did when Gibson and Hood and others were there. It's now a puppet organization with an executive director who was never a teacher or a coach. He's an administrator which is what the OFSAA Board wants to push around. The entire organization, which costs the taxpayer money, needs to be flushed.

[yraa athlete]

in york region i know BCSS has gotten some recruits for volleyball, there best SR boys player is grade nine and lives in durham...i dunno how fair that is

[Mr. Blake]

The idea in sports is to win and if that means you need the best players then you go after them. That's professional sports,where it's a business.
But high school sports is all about development and if coaches see it that way that's fine.
If they're only after seeking out players to win and hide that, then we have a problem.