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High School Coach Lost In The Shuffle

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By ANWAR RICHARDSON | The Tampa Tribune

Published: December 14, 2008

TAMPA - Not so long ago, the high school coach was considered the authority figure in most sports, but that influence is giving way. With college recruiters focusing more on production in summer Amateur Athletic Union tournaments, these independent coaches have emerged as key figures in basketball.

"The biggest change is the number of people that now have influence on the young athlete in the summertime," former University of Kentucky coach Eddie Sutton said. "What you've seen is the high school coach has been taken out of the recruiting process. I don't think there are more dishonest coaches today than 20 years ago, but the process is so much different."

It has required a new way of thinking about prep sports. Burney Hayes, a Lake Wales AAU coach, says he tries to work with a player's high school coach. Because AAU teams aren't affiliated with schools, though, coaches have more leeway in dealing with players. His star pupil is Amare Stoudemire, who bounced through six high schools.

His father had died, his mother was in and out of prison, and Stoudemire might have gotten lost in a traditional high school setting. Instead, he became a first-round draft choice of the National Basketball Association and played on the 2004 U.S. Olympic basketball team.

"When done properly, AAU basketball can be extremely helpful. That's when done properly for the proper reasons," Hayes said. "I'm not trying to exclude high school coaches, but include them. We're not trying to take your child and get them to transfer, but help your child and make them better and be the best they can be."

Matt Ramker, who runs the Florida Rams, an Adidas-sponsored AAU team, agreed.

"There are some AAU programs in our state that have tried to shut out the high school coaches and tried to control the whole situation themselves," Ramker said. "With our situation, we want to involve a high school coach and have them as part of the process because they are with the kids every single day."

Anwar S. Richardson

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