24Rocks

Any word on eligibility?

Thanks for the reply! The athlete I’m referring to is Immanuel Dut from DCA. He really wants to play basketball in college but he ran a sub 50 in the 400 meters as a junior and it was his first year of track. He’s 6-4 and looks to have a lot of natural ability in that race. So far this season he’s not matched that time but I figure he’ll get better as the season progresses.

DCA has 4 starters back from a team that won 25 games and 5 if you count Inmon, who started up until Ateny became eligible. The 4 main starters are as good as any top 4 in the region. They'll definitely miss Dut so I can understand why you'd say that. I'd argue that Leek Ateny has a bigger upside than any other player in the region. He's only a going to be a junior, he's 6-10 and still growing, and averaged a double double. They have 2 kids who were sophomores this year with potential in Dadisman and Motley. If they can just get solid play out of that 5th slot and not be hurt much when they sub they should be alright. If you look at the rosters and game stats of most of the top teams in the region they all drop off significantly by the time you get to slots 5-7. Just about every coach in the reason has the same problem, they hope some of the young players can improve enough in the off season to help them out next year and at the very least, not hurt them.

Is there a good source for performance standards that college coaches are looking for to become interested in recruiting a high school athlete for track? I know of an athlete in central KY that might be good enough in track and basketball both to warrant a look. His times so far this year are down a bit but it's still early and the weather has caused some cancellations. Thanks!

I don’t see why they’d need an interim since there are a couple of months to go before school’s out. They won’t need someone in place until summer ball starts. Maybe I’m missing something though. If this person isn’t an interim and really doesn’t have any experience the players will probably look for other options.

I just read in a Larry Vaught article that Grace had opened up her recruitment. That’s an interesting development. I would expect to see UK’s new coach at a lot of DCA games this year.

It was an obvious foul and should have been called.

When the younger kids see their friends and family members thriving at the other schools it might be hard to get them back.

DCA lost a key part in Dut but returns 4 starters. Actually, they return 5 players who started during the season. Billy Inmon started the first part of the season when they went 18-5. When Ateny became eligible he moved into that slot. Inmon's not in the same category as Ateny or Dut but he does have some experience. You're entirely correct in your comment about their lack of depth. They have a couple of sophomores who will need to step up in Dadisman and Motley. If the coaches can just get solid play out of that 5th slot and figure out how to use the two big guys to their best advantage they should be in good shape.

I'm not sure how they can get their senior English requirement in when they do that but there must be a way because it seems like a common practice.

This isn't a good sign. As far as I'm concerned, a well run program will regularly get players to their senior year, especially if it's a fairly large school. You have to develop your players. This is a common method among girl's coaches, play the top 1 or 2 in each class starting at the 7th grade. The problem is, especially in boy's basketball, is that you'll miss out on kids who grow and mature a little later. In a school of 1,000 kids you'd have about 125 boys per class. I can't be convinced that you couldn't find at least 3 or 4 per class who can play high school basketball.

Thanks for the update.

Pulaski has a good quarterback returning and from what I understand he’s a receiver. They have a new coach in place and better basketball than Boyle. I’m not sure about Corbin.

Their recovery ability is not any better than older players. You can spot it if you know what you’re looking for. Slow reaction time, lack of effort on the offensive boards, standing and watching, their shot is off and as they try to fix it they get worse. Poor decision making (really dumb turnovers….). I spot it because I lived it. I played for a coach who ran us in to the ground. Two weeks after the season and after I got my legs fully recovered I was playing way better than I was right before the district tournament. I was an assistant coach in a boy’s program years ago and our kids were in the same boat. I convinced him to give them 2 or 3 days off and at the next practice we had three boys dunk for the first time in their lives. We went on to beat a team we weren’t supposed to beat and closed out the season strong. I know for a fact that several of the DCA players lost a significant amount of weight during the 2022-23 season and that’s another sign of overtraining.

DCA has to figure out the best way to use their size. I don’t think they maximized the two big guys last year. On top of that, they need to do a better job at peaking by tournament time. The last two years they were worn out going in to the district.