Rice is a hold back so he should be mentioned only with the soph class. lol

Ahmad Price is a stud and would be a top player in any region, regardless of age, in my opinion. I'm not sold on the other two just yet. I tend to think the pressure will be on the Fern Creek coaching staff to develop all of those kids.

 

I wonder if they will try to play up again at AAU state in May? Travelers have played their 16s up the last couple years and it was disastrous for them last year. Those Gator kids would be playing up 2 grade levels. Could be tough.

 

Not sure where they will play in May. The funny thing with all three is they are different players and each will have their moments they look great and like many players have games they do not. So depending on what game or games you watched them you could make a case for all three as having the most upside. Wales is a traditional point who plays great defense on ball and is very poised with the ball in his hand. Ahmad is a slasher who plays bigger than his size with great instincts. Trey Hill is a combination guard who is unbelievably fast with the ball in his hands for a 6'3" kid who also have a 6'7" wingspan. They all are close to averaging 10 PPG or more. Statistically, Trey Hill has probably had the most productive season scoring, Wales with assists & steals, and Price with rebounding.

It is a bit of a stretch to casually throw out they could be classified as Juniors. Granted they are now 16 years old, but if indeed their birthdays are referenced correctly they are the beneficiaries of a fall birth date which is not a calculated move to improve their chances to succeed in sports. The hold back year may have been a planned move for an advantage, but that would place them as a "normal" sophomore in the case of Butts & Fitzgerald. In my opinion, at least Fitzgerald would be in the Top 30 of the sophomore class. In the freshmen class he is likely a Top 10 player in the state. He will be a star his entire career at the high school level for SW regardless of being a hold back or not. I also feel it is not that unusual for kids to be one year hold backs. It is sort of like the steroids era in MLB, at some point it is almost like a culture that made it a move to keep up with others that were doing it.

 

At some point it no longer is an advantage. Many college coaches when recruiting a class will actually favor a kid who is young for their grade if all things are equal between two players. They will view the younger kid with more upside graduating at 17 than a kid who graduates at 19. I would suggest that a freshmen who is 14 or 15 that is making an impact on varsity level is more noteworthy than a 16 year old freshmen. I mentioned before that Fern Creek in Region 6 starts 3 freshmen (Hill-15, Price-15, & Wales-14) who are not hold backs and that team is 9-5 against a tough schedule. That is a very rare situation in Jefferson County to even see a single freshmen starter, but to see a team with 3 is virtually unheard of.

 

I know a lot of people who graduated from high school at 17 and had fall birthdays. Many in my family did it.

 

Therefore, they could be classified as really young Juniors.

Over at Nicholas County, they have two really talented basketball players Spencer Morris and Sam Hamilton. Both have been putting up 15-20 in freshman games, playing solid in Jv with Morris even playing some major minutes in Varsity. Hamilton is a long lefty, pretty athletic and Morris is a great shooter and rebounder. Mixed with the talent in the sophomore class, Nicholas has a bright future.