Post by HC13 on Jan 9, 2023 17:07:22 GMT -5
A lengthy write up of the increase in transfers to Private schools
www.bostonglobe.com/2023/01/06/sports/miaa-girls-basketball-nepsac/
Why are girls’ basketball stars leaving MIAA schools for NEPSAC programs?
By Ethan Fuller Globe Correspondent, Updated January 6, 2023, 12:22 p.m.
A year ago, Molly Donovan was not considering attending a prep school.
Donovan was happy with her high school basketball success and her friends and coaches at Duxbury High. But soon after the 2021-22 season ended in March, she started receiving interest from schools in the New England Preparatory School Athletic Council.
Within weeks, Donovan had taken a visit to St. George’s School and was blown away by what the Middletown, R.I., boarding school had to offer: smaller class sizes, a sprawling coastal campus, and a highly competitive basketball environment. She transferred, reclassified to the Class of 2025, and recently finished a successful first semester.
“It kind of was something that was completely unexpected,” she said. “And it’s never something I thought I would do. But when I had the opportunity and then I went and looked at it, I was completely in love, and I was like, ‘I don’t want to pass this up.’ ”
Donovan is not alone. Four 2021-22 Globe All-Scholastic girls’ players transferred to NEPSAC programs: Ashley Dinges (formerly of Central Catholic), Jasmyn Cooper (Oliver Ames), and Grace Oliver (Norwell) transferred to Nobles, and North Quincy star Orlagh Gormley headed to Dexter Southfield. They are part of a growing trend of star girls’ basketball players whose preferred destination is the NEPSAC rather than a Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association school.
NEPSAC offers more exposure to college recruiters and an elite competitive landscape in an effort to prepare athletes for the next level. The downside for players from MIAA schools is that they leave the spotlights of their local communities.
With the MIAA, NEPSAC, and Amateur Athletic Union all vying to guide young stars, choosing a basketball pathway is more complicated than ever.
What does NEPSAC offer?
The NEPSAC oversees approximately 175 member and associate schools throughout New England. Many look and feel like small college campuses, even though most enroll fewer than 1,000 students.
The Independent School League is among the largest conferences in the NEPSAC and has teams filled with players with the talent to play at NCAA Division 1 schools. Nobles players Cooper, Dinges, Oliver, Chayil Mauristhene, Chinenye Odenigbo, Christina Pham, and Nasi Simmons all are either committed to a D1 college or receiving D1 offers.
It’s simply more efficient for college coaches to scout a NEPSAC game, where they might see 10 or more potential D1 players, versus a marquee MIAA contest in which they might see three or four. The Nickerson Holiday Showcase, held Dec. 16-18, drew dozens of recruiters, including representatives from Duke, Boston College, Villanova, Harvard, and Holy Cross, to Nobles’s two gyms.
“It is a big bang for your buck,” said Lindsay Miller, a former Harvard assistant coach and recruiting coordinator. “You can go there and see several teams with several college-level players on them.”
Ushearnda Stroud is the head coach of Austin Prep, which joined the NEPSAC this year. She also is the director of the girls’ branch of Mass Rivals AAU and won back-to-back Class B titles at Brooks before joining Austin Prep.
Stroud emphasizes that NEPSAC athletes aren’t just putting themselves in front of college coaches. They’re also practicing with and playing against the kind of talent they’ll see at the next level, an important aspect of the “college preparatory” environment.
“Every time they step on the court, they’re looking over, saying, ‘There’s another college basketball player I’m competing against,’” Stroud said. “Every time they’re in the gym, they’re practicing, competing with other college basketball players on their team.”
NEPSAC schools don’t offer academic or athletic scholarships. The wiggle room for grants and awards varies depending on the conference. St. Paul’s left the ISL in 2016 because some of its grants stepped over the league’s rules that restrict financial aid to need-based assistance. Prospective NEPSAC students have to apply, be accepted, and feel comfortable with their families about the financial aid package.
Reclassifying to a later graduation year also has become a popular trend among these girls’ basketball players. Players might need a year to acclimate to the academic, athletic, and social demands of their new school, or be motivated by an additional year in the recruiting spotlight.
Miller, who coached for two seasons at Rivers, a NEPSAC school, believes the COVID-19 pandemic, NCAA transfer portal, and subsequent logjam of college athletes have forced high schoolers to evaluate their approach to being recruited.
“A lot of kids feel like, ‘I’ve worked 10 years to put myself in this position, and now suddenly, there’s half as many spots available, and I haven’t been able to get on the road in front of people or play my high school season. So what can I do to not have all that lost?’ ” Miller said. “And the answer, sometimes very simply, is you need to reclass and have another year.”
Miller now works as a mental performance consultant for Net Excellence Performance. Her peek into the thought process of a high school athlete sums up the crux of the argument to go NEPSAC and reclassify. “I might not get the offer,” Miller said. “I know I might end up in the same place I did if I didn’t reclass, but at least I gave myself the opportunity after all these years of work.”
What do NEPSAC transfers leave behind?
NEPSAC schools have their own rivalries. But Miller, who is also Westwood High’s all-time leading basketball scorer, recognizes that the crowds don’t match those at a fervent high school game — and the NEPSAC won’t play state championship games at Tsongas Center or TD Garden.
North Quincy High coach Matt Ramponi supported Gormley’s decision to transfer and understands how the NEPSAC can further her basketball aspirations. At the same time, he saw how Gormley and other local stars captivated the community by signing autographs for kids, sitting with middle schoolers at lunch, and inspiring youth turnout.
Framingham High coach Kristen Audet-Fucarile sees how fans and young ballplayers gravitate to local stars such as senior Selina Monestime.
“The thing that I always remember is: You are from this town,” Audet-Fucarile said. “So when you come back to this town, people are going to know you left a mark here. This is where your family is, and this is where your friends are. And when you’re back here, you made this huge history in Framingham.”
The NEPSAC outdoes the MIAA in the scope of its success at the Division 1 college level and beyond, but the MIAA has feathers in its own cap. Most notable recently is Veronica Burton, the No. 7 overall pick in the 2022 WNBA Draft, who played at Newton South High before heading to Northwestern.
Newton North High senior Abigail Wright nearly transferred twice to Dexter Southfield. Wright was discouraged by her one D1 scholarship offer from a program she did not intend to join and saw the exposure potential at the NEPSAC level. But she also wanted to keep playing volleyball too for Newton North and maintain the bonds she had made.
Wright wound up winning a volleyball state championship with Newton North this fall, and she has committed to play basketball at Harvard.
“I told myself and my parents, ‘If I have to do extra work or whatever it is that I have to do to get seen by the people I want to get seen by, I will, but I want to stay here,’ ” Wright said. “I stand by the fact that it was probably one of the best decisions in my life because I have had the most wonderful high school experience.”
Acton-Boxborough High girls’ basketball coach Jesus Rodriguez, who also coaches in the MCW Starz AAU program, says that NEPSAC play can help with exposure and development, but players can still build hype on the AAU circuit.
Rodriguez advises juniors or seniors to consider a year at a prep school if they feel unsatisfied with their situation, but would not push them to transfer if they felt comfortable at their school.
“If you’re good, really good, then you don’t need to do it,” he said.
Where does AAU fit in?
Massachusetts is filled with AAU clubs that range from regional competitors to national powerhouses. They criss-cross the country during spring and summer to play in tournaments attended by many college scouts.
“AAU coaches are trusted advisers as well as coaches, but to these kids and these families,” Miller said. “They’re oftentimes bridges to college coaches and bridges to NEPSAC schools should kids want to pursue that opportunity.
“So those relationships, as a NEPSAC coach, are very important, because then the coaches are familiar with you, your style, your personality, the needs of your program, what it’s like to play for you and your school, and they can suggest that [school] as an option for their players or feel comfortable with it.”
Rodriguez said some NEPSAC schools have pressured players to switch to an AAU program they have a rapport with, creating a feeder-system-like pipeline.
“At the end of the day, it is what it is,” he said.
Social media helps AAU teammates forge friendships. They often check in with each other as they move through the process. Sometimes this means hoping to team up on a NEPSAC squad or getting excited to face each other during the high school season.
“Coaching Brooks last year, we had an unbelievable season and we had other Rivals [AAU players] on almost every other NEPSAC team,” Stroud said. “The conversation amongst the kids was, ‘Who could knock off the Brooks girls?’ So, that friendly rivalry.”
One concern raised by Rodriguez and others is that MIAA coaches are comparatively scarce on the AAU scene.
“I think that’s a big issue that I have, that all these [NEPSAC] coaches are [in AAU]‚” he said. “I didn’t want to coach prep because I wanted to go to a school that is a public school and is normal, [where] I’ve just got to get those kids better that are already there.”
Can MIAA schools increase their appeal?
Multiple coaches who spoke to the Globe said the MIAA loses ground on the NEPSAC because of a ban on out-of-season coaching. MIAA coaches cannot be at practice with their teams outside of the official winter season, which begins after Thanksgiving.
NEPSAC coaches typically cannot lead practice until early November. But teams in both associations can host “open gyms,” usually run by captains or a skills trainer, allowing college coaches to check in on players.
The difference is NEPSAC programs can more easily hire trainers and find gym time. They often use social media to publicize their open gyms and the colleges that attend them. Donovan said open gyms were a recruiting game-changer in her time at St. George’s.
We would do open gyms in the morning or we would do them at night and they were so helpful,” she said. “I was able to get a lot of [college] looks and talk to coaches from them.”
Ramponi explained that to hold extra workouts, North Quincy often brought in former 1,000-point scorer Kyle Costa, who had to get a background check and fingerprint ID, and they were usually limited to outdoor courts.
“That just restricts us so much,” he said. “Then, in order for us to get the trainers which we did get, we have to pay for it out of pocket. I mean, we live in Quincy, it’s a blue-collar community, and we have families that are paying extra out of pocket to pay somebody to train their kid because their head coach and anybody in the coaching staff can’t train them.”
An out-of-season coaching ban also can affect players’ year-round development. North Quincy played 28 offseason games this year. Ramponi estimates eight were coached by a volunteer parent or skills coach; the other 20 were led by the players themselves.
“We have to work through and navigate these little loopholes just to provide our kids with opportunities to play at the next level,” he said.
But easing the ban comes with its own thorns that reach far beyond basketball, which is why the MIAA’s tournament management committee voted down such a proposal in October.
“There’s a lot more logistically that goes into it: coaches’ availability, facility availability, summer hours, kids playing other sports,” said Jeff Newhall, athletic director and girls’ basketball coach at St. Mary’s, an MIAA school. “I think a lot of people just look at it as black and white: Why can’t the basketball coach just run practices in the fall? Well, it’s not that easy.”
Connecticut’s high school athletic association held a boys’ basketball showcase in June for the first time in an effort to give college coaches a convenient way to scout the state’s top talent. Newhall, also chair of the MIAA basketball committee, is intrigued by the idea.
“We’re certainly behind the 8-ball, and I do think we can have isolated showcases … without just saying it’s open season, 365 days a year,” he said.
Newhall added that the MIAA cannot carry all the responsibility for making itself more appealing. The burden also falls on individual schools and districts.
“If you’re losing a ton of kids to prep school, to a certain degree, either your community has an unbelievable amount of talent, or maybe the school — the individual school, whatever school that could be — has to change some of the things that they’re doing to make it a little bit more attractive,” he said.
Decision time
The decision between MIAA and NEPSAC comes down to a teenager answering one critical question: Are the opportunities for me to succeed at my dream basketball level worth altering the course of my high school experience?
Donovan said she was in tears the night before visiting St. George’s, wondering if the change would be worth it. The sudden reality of missing her friends, her family, her dogs, and her home hit her at full force.
“I was like, ‘Mom, Dad, I don’t want to go, what if I don’t want to go?’ ” she said. “They were like, ‘Well, that’s fine. You don’t need to go there. You can just look. You literally don’t need to go at all.’ And then I remember I toured, and then I got back in the car, and I was like, ‘I’m going.’ ”
After transferring, Donovan was overwhelmed by the positive support from her team. She emphasized that she didn’t leave Duxbury behind, and she still considers her former teammates among her best friends. She attended Duxbury High hockey and basketball games during her winter break.
Donovan has seen critical comments on social media directed at her and other players. But she knows that her supporters in Duxbury and at St. George’s are the ones who matter.
“I find myself sometimes being like, ‘Oh, do people not like me?’ or whatever. Then I realize it was my decision,” she said. “I did it, and it’s fine, and the people that want to support me will, and there are so many people that do.”
www.bostonglobe.com/2023/01/06/sports/miaa-girls-basketball-nepsac/
Why are girls’ basketball stars leaving MIAA schools for NEPSAC programs?
By Ethan Fuller Globe Correspondent, Updated January 6, 2023, 12:22 p.m.
A year ago, Molly Donovan was not considering attending a prep school.
Donovan was happy with her high school basketball success and her friends and coaches at Duxbury High. But soon after the 2021-22 season ended in March, she started receiving interest from schools in the New England Preparatory School Athletic Council.
Within weeks, Donovan had taken a visit to St. George’s School and was blown away by what the Middletown, R.I., boarding school had to offer: smaller class sizes, a sprawling coastal campus, and a highly competitive basketball environment. She transferred, reclassified to the Class of 2025, and recently finished a successful first semester.
“It kind of was something that was completely unexpected,” she said. “And it’s never something I thought I would do. But when I had the opportunity and then I went and looked at it, I was completely in love, and I was like, ‘I don’t want to pass this up.’ ”
Donovan is not alone. Four 2021-22 Globe All-Scholastic girls’ players transferred to NEPSAC programs: Ashley Dinges (formerly of Central Catholic), Jasmyn Cooper (Oliver Ames), and Grace Oliver (Norwell) transferred to Nobles, and North Quincy star Orlagh Gormley headed to Dexter Southfield. They are part of a growing trend of star girls’ basketball players whose preferred destination is the NEPSAC rather than a Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association school.
NEPSAC offers more exposure to college recruiters and an elite competitive landscape in an effort to prepare athletes for the next level. The downside for players from MIAA schools is that they leave the spotlights of their local communities.
With the MIAA, NEPSAC, and Amateur Athletic Union all vying to guide young stars, choosing a basketball pathway is more complicated than ever.
What does NEPSAC offer?
The NEPSAC oversees approximately 175 member and associate schools throughout New England. Many look and feel like small college campuses, even though most enroll fewer than 1,000 students.
The Independent School League is among the largest conferences in the NEPSAC and has teams filled with players with the talent to play at NCAA Division 1 schools. Nobles players Cooper, Dinges, Oliver, Chayil Mauristhene, Chinenye Odenigbo, Christina Pham, and Nasi Simmons all are either committed to a D1 college or receiving D1 offers.
It’s simply more efficient for college coaches to scout a NEPSAC game, where they might see 10 or more potential D1 players, versus a marquee MIAA contest in which they might see three or four. The Nickerson Holiday Showcase, held Dec. 16-18, drew dozens of recruiters, including representatives from Duke, Boston College, Villanova, Harvard, and Holy Cross, to Nobles’s two gyms.
“It is a big bang for your buck,” said Lindsay Miller, a former Harvard assistant coach and recruiting coordinator. “You can go there and see several teams with several college-level players on them.”
Ushearnda Stroud is the head coach of Austin Prep, which joined the NEPSAC this year. She also is the director of the girls’ branch of Mass Rivals AAU and won back-to-back Class B titles at Brooks before joining Austin Prep.
Stroud emphasizes that NEPSAC athletes aren’t just putting themselves in front of college coaches. They’re also practicing with and playing against the kind of talent they’ll see at the next level, an important aspect of the “college preparatory” environment.
“Every time they step on the court, they’re looking over, saying, ‘There’s another college basketball player I’m competing against,’” Stroud said. “Every time they’re in the gym, they’re practicing, competing with other college basketball players on their team.”
NEPSAC schools don’t offer academic or athletic scholarships. The wiggle room for grants and awards varies depending on the conference. St. Paul’s left the ISL in 2016 because some of its grants stepped over the league’s rules that restrict financial aid to need-based assistance. Prospective NEPSAC students have to apply, be accepted, and feel comfortable with their families about the financial aid package.
Reclassifying to a later graduation year also has become a popular trend among these girls’ basketball players. Players might need a year to acclimate to the academic, athletic, and social demands of their new school, or be motivated by an additional year in the recruiting spotlight.
Miller, who coached for two seasons at Rivers, a NEPSAC school, believes the COVID-19 pandemic, NCAA transfer portal, and subsequent logjam of college athletes have forced high schoolers to evaluate their approach to being recruited.
“A lot of kids feel like, ‘I’ve worked 10 years to put myself in this position, and now suddenly, there’s half as many spots available, and I haven’t been able to get on the road in front of people or play my high school season. So what can I do to not have all that lost?’ ” Miller said. “And the answer, sometimes very simply, is you need to reclass and have another year.”
Miller now works as a mental performance consultant for Net Excellence Performance. Her peek into the thought process of a high school athlete sums up the crux of the argument to go NEPSAC and reclassify. “I might not get the offer,” Miller said. “I know I might end up in the same place I did if I didn’t reclass, but at least I gave myself the opportunity after all these years of work.”
What do NEPSAC transfers leave behind?
NEPSAC schools have their own rivalries. But Miller, who is also Westwood High’s all-time leading basketball scorer, recognizes that the crowds don’t match those at a fervent high school game — and the NEPSAC won’t play state championship games at Tsongas Center or TD Garden.
North Quincy High coach Matt Ramponi supported Gormley’s decision to transfer and understands how the NEPSAC can further her basketball aspirations. At the same time, he saw how Gormley and other local stars captivated the community by signing autographs for kids, sitting with middle schoolers at lunch, and inspiring youth turnout.
Framingham High coach Kristen Audet-Fucarile sees how fans and young ballplayers gravitate to local stars such as senior Selina Monestime.
“The thing that I always remember is: You are from this town,” Audet-Fucarile said. “So when you come back to this town, people are going to know you left a mark here. This is where your family is, and this is where your friends are. And when you’re back here, you made this huge history in Framingham.”
The NEPSAC outdoes the MIAA in the scope of its success at the Division 1 college level and beyond, but the MIAA has feathers in its own cap. Most notable recently is Veronica Burton, the No. 7 overall pick in the 2022 WNBA Draft, who played at Newton South High before heading to Northwestern.
Newton North High senior Abigail Wright nearly transferred twice to Dexter Southfield. Wright was discouraged by her one D1 scholarship offer from a program she did not intend to join and saw the exposure potential at the NEPSAC level. But she also wanted to keep playing volleyball too for Newton North and maintain the bonds she had made.
Wright wound up winning a volleyball state championship with Newton North this fall, and she has committed to play basketball at Harvard.
“I told myself and my parents, ‘If I have to do extra work or whatever it is that I have to do to get seen by the people I want to get seen by, I will, but I want to stay here,’ ” Wright said. “I stand by the fact that it was probably one of the best decisions in my life because I have had the most wonderful high school experience.”
Acton-Boxborough High girls’ basketball coach Jesus Rodriguez, who also coaches in the MCW Starz AAU program, says that NEPSAC play can help with exposure and development, but players can still build hype on the AAU circuit.
Rodriguez advises juniors or seniors to consider a year at a prep school if they feel unsatisfied with their situation, but would not push them to transfer if they felt comfortable at their school.
“If you’re good, really good, then you don’t need to do it,” he said.
Where does AAU fit in?
Massachusetts is filled with AAU clubs that range from regional competitors to national powerhouses. They criss-cross the country during spring and summer to play in tournaments attended by many college scouts.
“AAU coaches are trusted advisers as well as coaches, but to these kids and these families,” Miller said. “They’re oftentimes bridges to college coaches and bridges to NEPSAC schools should kids want to pursue that opportunity.
“So those relationships, as a NEPSAC coach, are very important, because then the coaches are familiar with you, your style, your personality, the needs of your program, what it’s like to play for you and your school, and they can suggest that [school] as an option for their players or feel comfortable with it.”
Rodriguez said some NEPSAC schools have pressured players to switch to an AAU program they have a rapport with, creating a feeder-system-like pipeline.
“At the end of the day, it is what it is,” he said.
Social media helps AAU teammates forge friendships. They often check in with each other as they move through the process. Sometimes this means hoping to team up on a NEPSAC squad or getting excited to face each other during the high school season.
“Coaching Brooks last year, we had an unbelievable season and we had other Rivals [AAU players] on almost every other NEPSAC team,” Stroud said. “The conversation amongst the kids was, ‘Who could knock off the Brooks girls?’ So, that friendly rivalry.”
One concern raised by Rodriguez and others is that MIAA coaches are comparatively scarce on the AAU scene.
“I think that’s a big issue that I have, that all these [NEPSAC] coaches are [in AAU]‚” he said. “I didn’t want to coach prep because I wanted to go to a school that is a public school and is normal, [where] I’ve just got to get those kids better that are already there.”
Can MIAA schools increase their appeal?
Multiple coaches who spoke to the Globe said the MIAA loses ground on the NEPSAC because of a ban on out-of-season coaching. MIAA coaches cannot be at practice with their teams outside of the official winter season, which begins after Thanksgiving.
NEPSAC coaches typically cannot lead practice until early November. But teams in both associations can host “open gyms,” usually run by captains or a skills trainer, allowing college coaches to check in on players.
The difference is NEPSAC programs can more easily hire trainers and find gym time. They often use social media to publicize their open gyms and the colleges that attend them. Donovan said open gyms were a recruiting game-changer in her time at St. George’s.
We would do open gyms in the morning or we would do them at night and they were so helpful,” she said. “I was able to get a lot of [college] looks and talk to coaches from them.”
Ramponi explained that to hold extra workouts, North Quincy often brought in former 1,000-point scorer Kyle Costa, who had to get a background check and fingerprint ID, and they were usually limited to outdoor courts.
“That just restricts us so much,” he said. “Then, in order for us to get the trainers which we did get, we have to pay for it out of pocket. I mean, we live in Quincy, it’s a blue-collar community, and we have families that are paying extra out of pocket to pay somebody to train their kid because their head coach and anybody in the coaching staff can’t train them.”
An out-of-season coaching ban also can affect players’ year-round development. North Quincy played 28 offseason games this year. Ramponi estimates eight were coached by a volunteer parent or skills coach; the other 20 were led by the players themselves.
“We have to work through and navigate these little loopholes just to provide our kids with opportunities to play at the next level,” he said.
But easing the ban comes with its own thorns that reach far beyond basketball, which is why the MIAA’s tournament management committee voted down such a proposal in October.
“There’s a lot more logistically that goes into it: coaches’ availability, facility availability, summer hours, kids playing other sports,” said Jeff Newhall, athletic director and girls’ basketball coach at St. Mary’s, an MIAA school. “I think a lot of people just look at it as black and white: Why can’t the basketball coach just run practices in the fall? Well, it’s not that easy.”
Connecticut’s high school athletic association held a boys’ basketball showcase in June for the first time in an effort to give college coaches a convenient way to scout the state’s top talent. Newhall, also chair of the MIAA basketball committee, is intrigued by the idea.
“We’re certainly behind the 8-ball, and I do think we can have isolated showcases … without just saying it’s open season, 365 days a year,” he said.
Newhall added that the MIAA cannot carry all the responsibility for making itself more appealing. The burden also falls on individual schools and districts.
“If you’re losing a ton of kids to prep school, to a certain degree, either your community has an unbelievable amount of talent, or maybe the school — the individual school, whatever school that could be — has to change some of the things that they’re doing to make it a little bit more attractive,” he said.
Decision time
The decision between MIAA and NEPSAC comes down to a teenager answering one critical question: Are the opportunities for me to succeed at my dream basketball level worth altering the course of my high school experience?
Donovan said she was in tears the night before visiting St. George’s, wondering if the change would be worth it. The sudden reality of missing her friends, her family, her dogs, and her home hit her at full force.
“I was like, ‘Mom, Dad, I don’t want to go, what if I don’t want to go?’ ” she said. “They were like, ‘Well, that’s fine. You don’t need to go there. You can just look. You literally don’t need to go at all.’ And then I remember I toured, and then I got back in the car, and I was like, ‘I’m going.’ ”
After transferring, Donovan was overwhelmed by the positive support from her team. She emphasized that she didn’t leave Duxbury behind, and she still considers her former teammates among her best friends. She attended Duxbury High hockey and basketball games during her winter break.
Donovan has seen critical comments on social media directed at her and other players. But she knows that her supporters in Duxbury and at St. George’s are the ones who matter.
“I find myself sometimes being like, ‘Oh, do people not like me?’ or whatever. Then I realize it was my decision,” she said. “I did it, and it’s fine, and the people that want to support me will, and there are so many people that do.”
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