[Granny Bear]

I am in the camp that says a kid should be able to go where they want to go. I know others disagree with this, some of those being people that I respect on here. But in my opinion if a school system wants to keep their kids in district, then they should present a positive reason for those kids to stay in their own district. If the district stinks at athletics, academics or the kid just doesn't wish to go to that school for personal reasons, then they should be allowed to move to a better opportunity that will give them a better chance to succeed......in life. I live in Garrard County and sent my kids to Rockcastle County. My reasons were personal ones at the time, but, my boys excelled at Rockcastle County in academics AND sports. They might have done as well at Garrard County, but, the track they took worked out nicely for them and we have no regrets for the extra travel/commute.

I have absolutely NO issue with this. If everybody did it this way, there would be NO problem!!!



But that's not where it ends. Some of you said, you thought the issue of recruiting was over stated. It isn't. There was a time when a certain family in Harlan County maintained 4 apartments in Harlan city just for address purposes. And they recruited hard.

It hasn't been a long time ago when posters would get on here and brag about the Canadian pipe line that brought basketball players in to the 14th region. Then the region blew up when one of them wasn't happy and went to the "other" school that they weren't recruited for.

So you see, whether stupid parents are living vicariously through their kids or stupid coaches teach that it's okay to do ANYTHING to win, these perspectives take recruiting to a whole different level. When you add money and power to the equation, it eclipses the idea of what is best for the student athlete.

It quickly became a pro-athletics type of scenario. Recruiting, even payments to the families were regularly happening. At one point in time, folks quit trying to hide what they were doing; openly approaching student athletes even at a sporting event.

This doesn't happen as often in my neck of the woods NOW. With employment down, and the Power Family not as involved in their school, I haven't heard about any of the extreme situations in a few years.


But at one time, student athletes became pawns for the influential. THAT is the part of recruiting that literally makes me sick.