THE GAZETTE
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Wednesday, August 14, 2013 s
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sentence: where he would be “taking is talents” the next season. The Decision, as it has come to be known, has had obvious effects, most notably the consecutive NBA Championships James has lead the Miami Heat in winning. But there has been a quiet one begat down at the grassroots level: the “LeBron effect,” as one Montgomery County football coach labeled it. “Everybody wants to take their talents elsewhere.” “I think a lot of it has to do with what they see in the media,” Seneca Valley football coach Fred Kim said. “Look at the NBA, it’s the cool thing to do. LeBron James with The Decision. Back in the ’70s and ’80s, you saw guys stay with a team for their entire careers.” Kim argues that James created a ‘Look at me generation’ of athletes who go not where their loyalties lie, but where the best incentives — recruiting options, exposure, championships — are offered. “Sometimes they’re seeking a better academic situation, sometimes it’s where they are athletically,” said former Princeton Day Academy basketball coach, Van Whitfield. “Some are looking for a higher level of competition and some are looking for a better match for their skill set.” Whitfield should know. He took in six transfers just last season alone. This, in turn, has led to public school coaches resorting to a strange practice: recruiting their own kids. “We’re just trying to keep our kids in our school,” Henry A. Wise football coach DaLawn Parrish said. “I don’t think when you get into coaching a public school your mind is set on recruiting kids. If you wanted to do that you would go to a private school or a college.” But with cluster systems, the rise of private schools, consortiums, magnet programs, shared housing and various other loopholes, transferring has become a far less arduous process, and a far more common one. “They’re no longer loopholes if everybody’s doing it,” Telep said. “It’s a way of life.”
mates at WJ push for another has become, and will continue to be, a source of discontent as I watch them from the stands this season,” Ebobisse said. “… Although I will be missing out on the chance to bring honor to my school, I am looking forward to a competitive season of academy soccer as my team prepares to make a run to finals week in our first year.” Ebobisse said he’s hopeful Walter Johnson will be able to win a state championship this season. Meanwhile, the central striker will continue to hone his game in hopes of being selected for the under-18 national team where he played as part of a 4-23-1 formation at the combine. Gasper, who attends Gonzaga College High School, is committed to play soccer at the University of Virginia next season. Both Ebobisse and Gasper are coached by Matt Pilkington at Bethesda-Olney. “My biggest take-away from the camp so far has been the hunger you need to go to the next level,” said Gasper, a left back, via email. “Playing with
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When Seneca Valley running back Kevin Joppy made his move to Quince Orchard for his senior season, there were certain inevitable drawbacks. But for the most part, “everybody still hangs out with Joppy,” Kim said. “We still love him, the kids still talk to him every day.” If that were to happen when Kim was suiting up in a Seneca uniform, “it was ‘Oh my God,’” he said. “He’d have the scarlet letter on him and he’d get his butt kicked. When I was at Seneca, the only time there was a transfer was when someone came in from out of town. Seneca Valley was the only team I ever wanted to play for. If you wanted to play for Gaithersburg, that was sacrilegious.” What saddens Telep is that “you used to hear ‘I want to win a state championship,’” he said. “Now you hear ‘I want to maximize exposure.’” If that sense of community, or even family, pride has not vanished altogether, it has certainly dwindled. Ten years ago, when Parrish was coaching DuVal, there
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Continued from Page B-1 soccer-rich nations, Whitman coach Dave Greene said. But athletics and scholastics are tied closely together in the United States; Greene said it might be more beneficial to work around the fact that this country is an education-first nation. Aside from wanting to spend his senior year on the field with his best friends, Kastberg’s decision not to pursue Division I soccer played a major role in his decision
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was a member of a family on his team while his brother competed for Eleanor Roosevelt. “I said ‘That’s crazy,’” Parrish recalled, laughing. “Back in the ’80s, everybody wanted to play where their uncle played or their father played. You didn’t think about moving around. Now there’s so much moving around where I don’t know how much loyalty to a school there is, which is unfortunate. It’s rare you see a community school anymore.” Kim could only point to two in Montgomery County that he would count as traditional, community schools: Damascus and Poolesville. “You don’t ever hear a Middletown kid going to DeMatha or Bullis,” Kim said. “You’d get your [butt] run out of town.” Middletown, Kim said, “is an anomaly.”
Economy down, movement up This past season, former Sherwood basketball coach Dondrell Whitmore took on more transfers than he ever had in his seven years at the Warriors’ helm — three, two of which came by way of private school. “A lot of these guys came from privates and times are hard, man,” said Whitmore, who has since stepped down. “I noticed [the transfers] along with the recession. I see it happening more this year.” Many of the transfers, says Whitmore, are opting for the cheaper public schools in
to leave the academy system. He said he hopes to play at New York University in 2014-15. Sharpening of skills, exposure to college recruiters and prestige are the Development Academy’s biggest draws. But in general, many Montgomery County coaches said U.S. Soccer underestimated players’ desire to represent their schools and play with and for their peers. While the soccer-rich county did lose a bit of top-level talent, the league was overall relatively unfazed by the ruling. Winston Churchill coach Arnold Tarzy
lieu of the more expensive private schools such as DeMatha. Kim reported a similar theory, pointing to the recessed economy as a major factor in the increasing movement among high school athletes. “People are moving,” he said. “People are looking for more affordable places to live, using shared housing. The economy is down, and that’s had an effect. With the economy so tough, people aren’t buying houses. When you bought a house, you’d be rooted, you couldn’t just pick up and go, whereas if you get an apartment with a one-year lease as opposed to a mortgage, you can move again.” And when that lease is up, and the parents are raising a budding football player, what’s to stop them from moving into state finalist Quince Orchard’s district? Say it’s a basketball player, why not traditionally powerful Springbrook? “I think a lot of times it is and often appears to be that student athletes want to be in line with programs receiving scholarships,” Whitfield said. Maybe it’s in the name of that coveted scholarship to help offset the cost of college. Maybe it’s a generational thing or parents wanting what’s best for the kids. Maybe it’s a desperate exposure grab or a loss of pride in the local system. But “sometimes,” says Parrish, “the grass is not always greener on the other side.” tmewhirter@gazette.net
said the academy will take one of his players this fall, but that he is expecting 90 student-athletes to show up to today’s first day of tryouts, the largest number in recent history. The county also probably hasn’t felt the brunt of the ruling yet. A common fear among high school coaches is what might happen three years down the road when players who are in sixth and seventh grade now and never experienced high school soccer have nothing to compare the academy system to. “One hundred percent we
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Poolesville High School’s Cody Zinnser catches a pass and scores during a game last season. Coaches say Poolesville and Damascus high schools are community schools, where there is rarely any local kids who transfer to another school.
will start feeling the effects more in three or four years. They realized they lost some players who wanted to play at high school, that’s why the [Development] Academy is starting younger and younger, now they have pre-academy for U-13, U-14,” said former Clarksburg coach Jeremiah Spoales, who stepped down following the 2012 season. Clarksburg was a program hit hardest by the ruling last fall. The Coyotes lost three elite-level players. Such losses take more of a toll at schools where soccer doesn’t draw as many athletes as
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Walter Johnson High School’s Jeremy Ebobisse celebrates a goal against Montgomery Blair. Ebobisse plans to skip the high school season this year to focus on his academy team.
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Continued from Page B-1 eighth graders. “I can’t stand people who aren’t good sports,” Portes said. Portes said he doesn’t trash talk during games. More often, he strikes up a conversation with the opposing defensive lineman. “What’s the point of making a guy upset and wanting to beat you more?” Portes said. “That’s just how I am.” Yet, Portes has played passionately enough to garner interest from Wagner College and Towson University. Neither has offered a scholarship, but Portes
it does in areas such as Bethesda and Potomac, Spoales said. Greene said U.S. Soccer’s decision is understandable as it was virtually impossible for high school athletes to give 100 percent to both academy and high school teams simultaneously. But the truth is, Greene added, few of this area’s players will go on to play Major League Soccer. There are plenty of opportunities to play high level club soccer, coaches agreed. In fact, some athletes who aren’t starters in the Development Academy might get more exposure elsewhere.
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all these high quality players shows you how competitive the game is, and how hard you need to work in order to differentiate yourself from everyone else.” According to Ebobisse, a typical day of training at the Nike camp included a 15-minute dynamic warm up followed by passing patterns in three separate groups. The sessions culminated in a small-sided game or full-field scrimmage. After that, the players have a pool session, lunch at headquarters and then return to the hotel for more team activities. All of it is geared toward producing the next great talent for the men’s national team. Both Ebobisse and Gasper said that playing an American style of soccer has been heavily emphasized, as well as having the players test and respond to using a wide variety of Nike products. “The main thing I can take out of the experience is learning to adapt to a new environment in order to succeed,” Ebobisse said. “With 64 players coming from different regions, everyone quickly dropped the style they developed in their clubs, and quickly adapted to the U.S. way.”
said they’ve indicated the start to his season will be crucial, especially considering he’s moving from left tackle to guard and center — the positions the 6-foot-2, 275 pounder projects to play in college. “I need to have the best three-game streak I’ve ever had,” Portes said. No matter what Portes does following his senior year, he knows how he’ll spend some of his free time. “I’m sure I’ll come back to Wootton when I graduate and see football games,” Portes said. “And eighth grade games.” dfeldman@gazette.net
Numbers will likely never be an issue for Montgomery County high school soccer and one year out from the ruling there has been little change. “I do think the impact will show. You’re potentially taking the best players from each team, obviously the level of the league is going to drop. Not to where it’s a nothing league, it will still be competitive. But regardless, you would still have [a high school] jersey on and the intensity is still there,” Kastberg said. jbeekman@gazette.net