MVPNash

Excellent post CoachK and puts things in perspective. You will find that only people affiliated with certain programs will defend that program. In every sport, at all levels, it shouldn't come as a surprise that successful programs and people always get scrutinized. By looking at your AAU team and record I'm sure you are not the most favorite team especially when you show up in their tournament bracket. I’m also sure you get calls all the time from parents asking to join your team because they like what they see and want their kids to be a part of what you are doing. Success will cause that affect and you can’t control who “wants” to join your program. Even though you are probably a good person you cannot control what others think about you or your program. I would pretty much bet that your parents and people that know you best would come to your defense when you or your program comes under attack. Scenario: if you had a girl that wanted to join your team, and you had a spot, you would make sure the rules were followed to a "T". If the rules were followed and 1) she was a perfect fit 2) she was very happy 3) you knew you were going to help that kid reach her full potential, then there is no way you would care about what others think when they say a) he must have broke the rules b) I do not agree with his coaching style c) OMG he just got another good player so lets change the rules. I’m sure you feel deep down that girl is exactly where she should be and her parents made the right decision. That is ALL that matters. No matter how hard you try you will NEVER change negative perception, but it is so easy to get caught up in trying to. Good luck with your team! P.S. this is a high school forum so there is never much talk about AAU. It's not really forgotten it's just somewhere else (perhaps the AAU board)

Thanks for the post. I believe we are pretty much on the same page for the most part. It also depends on the scout/recruiter that you spoke with. The input I received was "if the current situation is not right for your child and if you have the means/resources available then put your son/daughter in the best possible place to be developed for success in and out of the classroom, but above all, she must be happy in order to reach her full potential in both areas".

PlayerDad: You obviously considered moving your Daughter so you must understand why some people do it. It sounds as if your Daughter is a star in the program and thrives in that roll, plus wanting to stay with her friends and help the younger girls is commendable. I don't know you or your Daughter; however, it sounds as if she puts in a lot of work during the off-season and you probably spend a lot of money as well. I may be wrong, but you sound like a Dad that may have nudged his Daughter a little if she played for a bad program (say 2-24) and perhaps a coach that could not help develop her skills. If she did not want to stay to build a program from scratch, was miserable, and not doing well in the classroom would you have put a stake in the ground and made her stay? If you decided to move your family, would you just move anywhere, or perhaps do a little research and put her at a good school with a coach with a proven track record on and off the floor? Boone was the youngest team in the area and played 4 freshmen a ton of minutes. One kid came from Conner MS so if you call her a transfer then the team only had one transfer on the roster. Not one person would have moved their kid there just to win Bball games. There was no way to have predicted the outcome of their season when 9 of their 13 players were freshman and sophomores. Expectations were a .500 season at best. It is NOT about winning games, it is the Coach and the demands that she requires for these young women on and off the floor. WO314: You have made up your mind so for those parents to offer any reasons for moving will fall on deaf ears so why should they bother. Fookes is more demanding in the classroom than she is on the floor so you should be happy they are becoming much better educated by being there. If Boone County was like Kenton County there would really be some hard feelings. In Kenton County you can choose any school that you want to attend so the players are gravitating out to SK since the program has been turned around by Stowers. I know several players that would have never gone to Ryle or Conner if they could have played at Boone.

WO314: you absolutely hit the nail on the head when you said “a person can put a spin on it anyway they want in order to meet their needs”. Aren't you doing the same thing? The rule (Bylaw 6a) was followed exactly as it is written and was ruled upon accordingly. If the rule is changed then your accusation of “rule breaking” will have more merit. Since you are familiar with NKY, are you aware that other schools have new transfers? Perhaps SK, St. Henry, and Highlands just to name a few. Are you aware that a player transferred out of Boone a couple of years ago to attend Ryle (her 3rd school in 3yrs)? Are you aware that Boone had two girls transfer out this summer? Are you okay with other transfers and the players that transfer from Boone? Let’s hear your spin on it.

PlayerDad: this is a great post. After knowing Nell for quite a while I told her I would like for my Daughter to play for her program. She immediately said "this is a subject that I cannot discuss and you’ll have to do what you feel is best for your family and no matter what you choose to do she will be fine". Each time I spoke to her I wanted to ask questions and when this subject came up she shut me down with the same response. She runs her program exactly the way she wants with no wavering and no exceptions. She is a good person that is soley judged by most based on her coaching style and sideline antics. The players that are not prepared for the discipline/hardwork usually quit and the players that can handle her discipline and her classroom demands love her and would jump off of a bridge for her. Someone said it best when they said “she will coach whoever shows up for tryouts and will play with the cards she is dealt”.

3pt you are absolutely correct. It depends on who the new coach will be. LexCath just lost one of their superstars to a transfer. When is the last time that has happened? It's this way for every sport (HHS-football, St.Henry-volleyball, NDA-soccer and so on). In this case Boone just happens to be fairly successful in girl's basketball. If you build it they will come.

3ptshooter...you are wasting your breath on here so leave it alone. Lexcath and SC have won with a ton of transfers, but rarely any negatives are said about it. My daughter played with Laura Terry over the summer and she was a wonderful young lady; however, Never one negative mention about the fact she lives in Ohio. CoachK: you are completely anti-highschool and anti-Fookes so anything you say about it must be taken acccordingly.

IMO it's Gray's to lose.

Just read on a well known message board that Emily has committed to MTS. Anyone from that area know for sure? I met her and Laura Terry over the summer and they are both such nice young Lady's. I'm sure Emily is glad to get it over with so she can focus on her senior year. Congrat's and good luck!!

It's not their fault at all, but it makes total sense with the fiasco on the Highlands football field just a couple of short years ago with their transfer as well as the one that has been playing out in the newspaper over the past few weeks with the track team. I have no clue, but I cannot imagine that there is not some sort of probationary period for breaking the rules. I would also imagine every transfer going there will be under a microscope for a while.

Actually LBC that was the point I was trying to make but didn't do a very good job. No doubt that the winner of that game was more than likely going to win the state. Someone made the comment "there is no guarantee that Boone will make it next year", and I agreed, but also with SC in their region there is no guarantee that LC will be there either.

I wouldn't think about comparing them either. Boone has a long long way to go to be put in that category. Boone also had two freshman that were first off the bench along with two freshmen starters. I cannot remember clearly, but didn't LC barely make it past SC in the regional finals? so it sounds like there is a chance they may not make it to Diddle this year either. What a great game this is.

Sorry bluethunder! one of them I was referring to this year is an incoming freshman that was originally going to NCC. I counted her because at least 2 of the 6 girls listed above for Boone were incoming freshman as well so I assumed those were considered transfers. welovethisgame....it sure appears that way. Give our best to your daughter as well. I promise I'm done with this thread

welovethisgame...I couldn't agree more about each one of your statements. Boone had and will always have a target on their backs so nothing will be new there. I believe they would have been ranked as a pre-season top 10 or 15 regardless of Behrens due to last season’s record, beating quality opponents, winning the 9th, and returning their team this year. I've seen their schedule and it is brutal so I doubt they will remain in the top 10-15 for very long, but it looks as if they should be more tournament tough. When it's a one-and-done tournament anything can happen on any given night so no one, especially Fookes, expects a guarantee of anything. NDA was pretty much a guarantee last year and you can best believe Fookes will make sure her team doesn't lose sight of that fact. Hopefully this topic is now closed.

...

Equus...you named 6 transfers over the past 10yrs. NDA had at least 5 transfers on their bench last season so why are they not getting blasted. I'm sure HC has had more transfers also. I'm also pretty sure that Highlands has had more if you include the 3 transfers coming this year. Sounds like people on here pick and choose who to attack. Each one of you may know the family so I may be wrong, but I see one post near the top that reads "I heard the Family moved because of a new job in Florence". No one confirmed it as far as I can see, but everyone jumped all over this and ran with it as if it were fact. CoachK...Even though you are one of the better AAU coaches around you of all people should be well aware that reloading your team with more talented players and having your best team ever doesn't always mean you'll go deeper in the big tournament. The HS state tournament is one and done also so it's pretty tough. Bottom line is that more people will jump on here for controversy than anything else. Maybe they moved to buy their dream home, maybe it was to help their oldest son, or to put their youngest kid in a better school, or maybe it was for her to play at Boone. In a nutshell, who gives a care.

EQUUS....You seem to be on top of it so out of curiosity how many is it? If she is ruled ineligible it will be for something other than your information above and yes it would be a shame if she loses a year. Be careful who feeds you this load of stuff because you pass on information that is not accurate. She enrolled at Boone a couple of weeks ago. You couldn't me more right about Nell. She will not put up with anything from players or parents. She is one of the very few men or women coaches that truly run their program.

She played AAU with 2 of the BC players over the summer and they became good friends as did all of the girls from 4 or 5 schools in the region. Their move was work and family related from what I hear. If it was all Bball then why leave where she could be a big fish in a little pond for a place where she will be just part of team? Not sure where she got that date. I glanced at the rule earlier and I don't see anything related to a date and/or deadline anywhere. CootyB...you'll come to learn that BIGZIG loves to stir things up so disregard the majority of what you read from him. They have lived in their home for nearly 20yrs and they are a good family. If you want to know why they had to make such a drastic move then go to the source when you get the chance and don’t listen to speculation.

Not accurate CootyB. She is eligible.

Boone returns a real nice team. They have strong contributors both inside and outside. The key factor about their team is they have strong senior leadership mixed with young talent and a deep bench and they know they do NOT have any standout or "super" players. nptwildcat...unless you traveled over the summer and watched them compete against the top teams in tri-state you are basing your observation on last season. The region will never be a cake walk for any team, but if they play well I like their chances on any given night. I heard they will play LexCath in December so I guess we'll see if these kids can compete as well as if the LexCath kids can quickly adapt to a new coach with a new system. In either case it won't mean anything until March, right??

I've been waiting on someone to toss the "Coaching" question into this thread. Lex Cath has tremendous talent returning however; they are returning to a new coach and a new system. At this point they are the team to beat, but no one knows how smooth this transition year will go. Hans is on a serious hotseat and winning is the only option. He had a good year at St. Henry last year however; they played no where near the schedule, nor did they have the caliber of players, and most of all, IMO, there were no big expectations from the program. This season St. Henry will not duplicate last season with or without him so he got out at the right time and on a high note. I'm not saying Lex Cath will not win this year. I'm only saying transition years and buying in to a new coach/system can many times be interesting.

Terry hit a couple of 3's and Queen was solid on defense while guarding some strong players. Queen also missed a few foul shots that I know she would like to have back. Other than Brown no one really stood out for either team. Helton's substitution's were obviously scripted however; they played team ball and each set of 5 players on the floor kept pace and either led or stayed within 4 or 5 pts the entire first half. The seniors came out strong in the second half and the juniors weathered the storm for a while and then for some reason a couple of players on the Jr's squad tried to do way too much and the team got out of sync and they never recovered. The game went from 40-38 to 60-38 before you could blink due to 1-on-5 basketball. The juniors had never practiced or been in a game together and in my opinion with a few practices, and if Helton had some time to know his players, it would have been a different outcome or at least right down to the wire.

The pressure will be enormous. There will be so many questions about his ability to lead this high profile program that with every loss, or even a closely contested battle against a weaker team, the "doubt" questions will fly. It would happen to pretty much whoever was chosen, but Hans happens to be in the hot seat for now. The rumor is that St. Henry's coach that left two years ago wants to return to the job.

I'm sure Highlands has improved some however; NDA has not stopped playing together as a team since the end of the HS season. I've watched them play in a couple of AAU tournaments and they are just absolutely burnt out. I highly doubt you will see the same results between these two teams when it counts. NDA is not as good as they were last year, but Highlands is certainly not 20pts better than them.

Beta....Sneed is getting Div 1 looks and although I think she will be a better fit in Div 2 I for one will be surprised if she doesn't sign with a smaller Div 1 team this year. Klei has already committed to Ball State.