BasketBall Life after high school
By Jason Pike
ST JOHN’S, NL – If you, like me, have followed the basketball landscape around this province closely you will notice that those great players that, for two or three years everyone knew, just faded into obscurity. Sure some of them go on to have at least some type of collegiate career but for the most part those spaces are limited, either because there aren’t open tryouts or they weren’t invited or they lack the confidence or because some coach somewhere didn’t think they were good enough.
Over the last few years I’ve paid closer attention to this mostly because a lot of these players my own child has idolized and talked about and aspire to be like. So I’ll use the 4A High School provincial championships as the high bar of this article. Everyone in the basketball community knows that the 4A provincial high school championship is supposed to be the creme de La Creme of basketball in the province and for the most part it is. Of course there are always those few elite players that live outside of the city and go to significantly smaller schools, but even in recent years a lot of these players have made attempts to move to the city in hopes of getting a look in from college or university, big or small for a scholarship.
If you’ve been involved in basketball for any length of time I’m sure this resonates with you. Every couple years there’s that new batch of players that we watch develop either at the 4A High School level or in club ball championships. In more recent years there’s been a in-depth focus on club ball as it seems that everyone is looking for that free ride to play ball in college or university. You will have those Local Heroes that everybody goes to watch, to see if the scouts are watching them, or if they’ve gotten offers at some post secondary Institution. There is often a lot of hype surrounding some of these players, but then time passes on they don’t get an offer they don’t get a walk on spot on a team and they fade into basketball obscurity, only to be replaced by another kid several years their junior chasing the same dreams.
For me these last few years I’ve watched a lot of basketball, mostly because I have a child who plays the sport and who watches these players and aspires to be like them. But I think about the ending of the last two seasons and several players who people watched with expectations of post high school basketball careers. Locally two that really strike a chord with me are Michael Kiley and Andrew Barnes. Both exceptional basketball players and both were expected by just about everybody around them and the basketball community to continue their progress into a post-secondary institution playing basketball. Andrew Barnes even went as far as to move into the city from two hours outside St John’s so he could play with the O’Donel Patriots in his final year of high school eligibility, just to have a better chance to get noticed. He also travelled off island with the ce23 under 18 elite team in numerous tournaments and performed very well.
Michael Kiley posts a similar successful record graduating two years ago. But since that time they have faded into the background. Currently attending Memorial University but no spots were offered by Ian coultas, coach of the Memorial University Seahawks, and no out of province institutions came knocking. In my opinion it’s a damn shame. Two very fine basketball players, Elite level basketball players, with no more options other than to play in a senior men’s league here in the city. Those tend to be unorganized and chaotic much of the time.
I mean honestly what are their options really. Especially when you bust your ass to accomplish a lot and then, poof, one day its just all over and no one really told them that one day you can’t play the kids game any more, at least not the way you always did and not the way you aspired to. There are no real options given.
I have often questioned that, especially from a university program that has struggled here to really accomplish anything of substance. All of our truly elite players have moved on to bigger and better institutions. The likes of Matt Pennell, Mark Tobin, AJ Nash, James Mullett and Sean Gray are having very successful careers at out of province universities. I can’t help but wonder because the whole basketball landscape has changed here drastically in the last 5 years or so.
How so you may ask? Ultimately you can trace it back to Carl English and his return to his home province. Upon starting the ce23 Basketball Academy he has set a new standard for the level of basketball being played in this province and has really set the bar high for what basketball should be in this province.
It has changed things here drastically, things that the NLBA, our governing body of basketball, should have done eons ago, but failed to do so. The standard has changed, but has everybody’s mindset changed with it? I don’t think so. It’s like the old adage says, the more things change, the more they remain the same! People fear change, they get complacent, they get comfortable with the way things are, so it often takes a lot of years to break habits of doing things the way they’ve always done them.
I wonder if the same is true of our Memorial University Seahawks approach to scouting and acquiring players. I briefly mentioned Michael Kiley’s name to one of the University coaches in passing while attending an Invitational Tournament at Gonzaga High School last season, but he didn’t offer much input, or much context other than acknowledging that he was a good player. I kind of awkwardly smiled to myself and I wondered will we ever reach the point where we stop undervaluing our own players from here in this province.
I often feel like maybe it’s not as alluring to have many local players on the team as it is to have Imports, sure we do have a few on the team, mainly Cameron Stanford and Bower Isaacs and I believe to the best of my knowledge that this year’s freshman crop also includes Ben O’Brien, the former Gonzaga standout. But all in all, the options are definitely limited for a post-secondary career in basketball. That or you’re stuck playing in a very messy on organized men’s league.
There’s definitely a need for more communication with out of province schools that either compete in AUS or ACAA. Trying to keep these players engaged in the sport and the addition of the under 18 club teams have definitely aided a lot of players in staying involved in the game an extra couple years.
This is doubly true of female youth athletes where the attrition rate of of young athletes after a high performance youth sports experience.
All in all things are better than they have been in the past, but there’s a long hard road to navigate before we get to where we really need to be to provide the best opportunities for our ball players.
