For what it's worth, the CCH teams have always played against college kids in the summer. To my knowledge, there has never been any college players competing at practices, but certainly during the summer pick-up games & open gyms.

The author, James Weber, has no affiliation with Covington Catholic that I'm aware of.

 

I was under the impression James Weber got his info from Mark Schult.

It's the first I have ever heard of it but if it is standard operating procedure then I learned something new today. I'd encourage every team to practice with college players if everyone is doing it. Football, basketball, baseball. Bring in the college kids. It has results.

 

I agree with you that it has results. It's been going on for years at all schools. I don't think schools abuse it or put it on the front page but it happens occasionally during the season. As soon as assistant coach that played in college jumps in for a possession would be violating the rule. It's a very grey area that is minor IMO .

Haters gonna hate. Go Colonels!

This is so petty.

Then by golly you better be gettin' on the horn to the Enquirer and asking for a retraction for printing false info. Or wake up the kid from that dream who spilled the beans. Either way, it sure seems like a violation to me.

 

The only "former college players" who COULD have played are Coach Scott Ruthsatz (Head Coach, played at Heidelberg), Coach Matt Otte (JV Coach, played at Bellarmine), Coach Joe Fredrick (Varsity Assistant, played at Notre Dame), Coach Tony Bacigalupo (Varsity Assistant, played at Thomas More) and Coach Brandon Elliot (Varsity Assistant, played at Kentucky State). (All are on the roster here: http://khsaa.org/basketball/boys/sweet16/2014/region9roster.pdf )

 

And this whole thing is so subjective. Does "playing against" mean putting up 32 minutes and tip off? Does it mean demonstrating drills? Does it mean holding a pad to bang against the post guys? Does it mean showing a kid how to keep his elbow in when shooting?

 

Anyways, seems like a non issue to me.

Haters gonna hate. Go Colonels!

This is so petty.

 

Agree and I root against CCH most of the time!

I agree with you that it has results. It's been going on for years at all schools. I don't think schools abuse it or put it on the front page but it happens occasionally during the season. As soon as assistant coach that played in college jumps in for a possession would be violating the rule. It's a very grey area that is minor IMO .

 

I honestly had no idea. If I was a coach I'd have college kids on standby every practice.

 

I will say that with 12-15 kids on each team the need for an assistant coach to jump in should be minimal.

 

It is minor. Seems like in the bylaws when teams violated this bylaw they lost a scrimmage so at the end of the day if they did violate the bylaw it wouldn't be a severe punishment.

This is NOT a violation. No matter how you read the article or the bylaws. This situation is legal and is not referred to in any way in the bylaws. It is very clear and cut and dried to anyone who doesn't want to play "gotcha".

Again, from the article: In practices leading up to the Ninth Region Tournament, the Covington Catholic High School basketball team sparred on the court with several coaches and volunteers who played college ball, mostly guys who were post players.

 

Does that not read like college kids? Or am I just misunderstanding?

I read it as volunteer coaches, but I've also seen their bench at several games and they have a wall of post-player-looking dudes in suits, so that is probably why I went there.

This is NOT a violation. No matter how you read the article or the bylaws. This situation is legal and is not referred to in any way in the bylaws. It is very clear and cut and dried to anyone who doesn't want to play "gotcha".

While you may be correct, there is very little ink in the bylaws that I think is cut and dried.

Then by golly you better be gettin' on the horn to the Enquirer and asking for a retraction for printing false info. Or wake up the kid from that dream who spilled the beans. Either way, it sure seems like a violation to me.

 

The story was from the Recorder, but anyway. No retraction will be forthcoming, because that really just doesn't ever happen. A retraction is basically saying that every single bit of information in the story is false. That doesn't appear to be the case here.

The only "former college players" who COULD have played are Coach Scott Ruthsatz (Head Coach, played at Heidelberg), Coach Matt Otte (JV Coach, played at Bellarmine), Coach Joe Fredrick (Varsity Assistant, played at Notre Dame), Coach Tony Bacigalupo (Varsity Assistant, played at Thomas More) and Coach Brandon Elliot (Varsity Assistant, played at Kentucky State).

 

That is quite a team assembled there. Coach Ruthsatz would be at the point, Baci and Elliot would be your post guys, then have Otte and Joe Fred bombing from the outside. I would like their chances!

 

:up:

I never knew that. Seems like that is something that wouldn't be a big deal at all.

Pulaski used to do that under Larry Hurt back when they won the State also...most of the better girls teams in the area did that back in the day...before it was outlawed

I'm guessing this loophole will be closed by the KHSAA. While allowing college players or high school graduates to come back and practice against high school players may not be spelled out in the wording of the bylaws I think the intent is that they can't.

 

If this was legal I could see some football teams with full blown practice squads of past players. Allowing the the #1s to get more of a challenge in practice everyday.

That's been the case for a long time. I remember when Roy Bowling made his coaching return at North Laurel, he went to one of his old stand-by routines of having the girls practice against boys to toughen them up. Cost them one of their scrimmages as a penalty.

 

Girls can practice against males. Just not male high school students. A few years ago the NCAA tried to ban the use of male practice players (in college they can be male students) and the top D1 Womens teams banned together to get that squashed.

 

I watched a NCAA Womens team practice at the Final Four one year and they used 5 male players who absolutely throttled their starting five in a 10 minute scrimmage. The Head Coach (a women) had the guys full court press and play man-to-women defense over every inch of the court and kept score. The guys were 6'1 to 6'4" maybe and looked like pretty good former high school players.