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Yeah, NY started the prep school trend like 25-30 years ago (at that time it seemed like they were mostly in the Northeast/New England ... then Oak Hill and a couple others).
Now, it's widespread all over the country. Ironically, the prep schools/sports academies here in Northeast Ohio you mentioned (Spire and Western Reserve ... along with International Sports Academy) really don't draw many Ohio kids for basketball. Part of it is the Ohio HS Athletic Association schools are very competitive (and easy to transfer from one to another) so it's only the true top tier kids who have left to get that next "bump" up in competition to the schools that play national schedules. But when they go, they aren't sticking around Northeast Ohio (well, Chris Livingston did for one year at Western Reserve, but that stunned everybody locally because at the time WRA was all about academics and would have been mopped up by 90 percent of Ohio High School Athletic Association schools ... and that was only 4 years ago).
I may be veering away from the topic, but I wonder why New York never nipped the prep school/basketball boarding school factory rush in the bud back when they were absolutely the state most affected by losing players? Seems like they could have not only kept their own top players home but been the state, especially because of the basketball legacy in NYC, to draw those top kids from across the country to schools in NY.
Prep School thing started with Worcester Academy, Maine Institute, Winchendon and Lawrence Academy afaik. At that time they were filled with mostly NYC kids. Nowadays some of them are still there but there mostly LI, NJ and New England kids.
In Urban Northeastern schools its to easy for coaches to poach kids out of them during the summer and their parents support getting the kids out of urban areas full of temptation. Nothing can be done about it legally.
I remember when I was a BNBL teammate with Wayne Selden. He had played Varsity at John D. O'Bryant in Boston as a 7th grader. by 9th grade he was at Tilton School in New Hampshire then to Kansas.
One day without much explanation our little summer team hosed some white kids from New Hampshire who came on the bus to the Shelburne Center in Roxbury where we were based. and we smacked them 66-11. Little did I know it was one of Tiltons underling teams coming to scout Wayne. Only found out a week later thats what was going on. I had thought it was strange but just wanted another chance to play more ball.
Good luck trying to figure out who is really from where just going off of these recruiting sites because probably 25 percent of D1 high school kids are now attending prep schools or one of the different basketball focused academies. That's not even to mention the revolving door the transfer portal has made college rosters.
I was actually looking at rankings earlier today because I heard that Milwaukee Bucks' 2nd rounder Chris Livingston signed one of the new 2nd round exception guaranteed contracts ... though I'm not seeing it confirmed anywhere. Pete Nance also signed an exhibit 10 contract with the Cavs and I'm about 99 percent certain they will keep him around with the Charge this year in the G-League.
If Pete Nance is able to find his way on the roster, that would give Akron/Summit County 5 current NBA players: LeBron James, Larry Nance Jr., Pete Nance, Malaki Branham* and Chris Livingston. That's not counting Steph Curry who was born in Akron but raised in North Carolina.
*Branham, though, gets a * because he grew up in Columbus and moved to Akron before his freshman year, so that one is debatable.
Anyway, I know Akron has another sure-fire NBA player coming up in Darryn Peterson (No. 3 overall in the class of 2025 according to 247) and I was scrolling through their rankings to see where some of the other top local/Ohio guys were ranked.
I noticed that the No. 8 overall prospect had Raleigh listed as his hometown, but he is from and still lives in Cleveland. That's because he's now apparently at Word of God School in Raleigh. He was at Hillcrest Prep in Arizona prior.
The No. 22 overall ranked kid is also from Akron/Summit County and he goes to his local public high school. The No. 39 kid is from Cleveland and goes to his local public high school.
The No. 41 overall kid is from Toledo. He, like the kid who is ranked No. 8 was at Hillcrest Prep in Arizona, then came back to Toledo and attended a small Christian School there and now apparently is at La Lumiere School in Indiana.
So of those five highly ranked Ohio kids, if you want to be technical about it, I believe Peterson lives in Canton, which while only 15-20 minutes down the road is a separate MSA. That would make it only two of those five going to school in the MSA that they are from/live. Even taking him out, that's still two of the five who are playing out of state at basketball focused schools. Conversely, I noticed 247's top Ohio kid in the Class of 2024 goes to Western Reserve Academy in Hudson (between Cleveland and Akron), but looks like he is from Rochester, N.Y.
I follow New England Recruiting Reportand then Cross Reference to Verbal Commits, Rivals, 24/7, On3, and ESPN. VC and NERR are best with hometowns- Im pretty good at teasing out whos really from where. I miss a few but I recently found some players from the Boston Area all over. Jahki Howard at Showtime Elite, Duane Thompson in CT, Jason Asemota in Arizona.
Also BNBL videos are full of players from Boston many of whom go on to play D1 (latest being Tre Norman, a Marquette recruit). But also AJ Dybantsa (see him at :15 in the second clip), Jahki Howard, AJ Reeves, Bruce Brown, Terance Mann, Wayne Selden Shabazz Napier and more. Even if they dont live in Boston (as is required to play) top players flock down tere from Mass to get the looks and the comp.
Boston Neighborhood Basketball League is the oldest continuous grassroots basketball league for kids in the USA. Established 1969
I dont think Mass and CT are overlooked anymore. In EYBL and Adidas AAU circuits Massachusetts is pretty dominant.
In my opinion we might be at a placee where some of the Mass an CT kids are overrecrutited in Basketball at this point. Football is still slightly underrecruited but changin fast. You used to couldnt get people to come up there. Now all the P5s make a stop or two in New England.
PA and NJ are sooooo far ahead of NY and NE in football though its outrageous.
Not anymore, no. I meant over the years they have historically been, and that even goes for football. I've seen some great football players out of both states. These days it's hard not to be found or known even in the most remote places. They still exist but they're pretty rare.
Not anymore, no. I meant over the years they have historically been, and that even goes for football. I've seen some great football players out of both states. These days it's hard not to be found or known even in the most remote places. They still exist but they're pretty rare.
Yea for sure in the past. Heavily overlooked. My brother is still salty about not being able to get football looks outside of the Ivies 20 years ago.
Crazy to think what couldve been and all that was missed in past eras
Yeah, NY started the prep school trend like 25-30 years ago (at that time it seemed like they were mostly in the Northeast/New England ... then Oak Hill and a couple others).
Now, it's widespread all over the country. Ironically, the prep schools/sports academies here in Northeast Ohio you mentioned (Spire and Western Reserve ... along with International Sports Academy) really don't draw many Ohio kids for basketball. Part of it is the Ohio HS Athletic Association schools are very competitive (and easy to transfer from one to another) so it's only the true top tier kids who have left to get that next "bump" up in competition to the schools that play national schedules. But when they go, they aren't sticking around Northeast Ohio (well, Chris Livingston did for one year at Western Reserve, but that stunned everybody locally because at the time WRA was all about academics and would have been mopped up by 90 percent of Ohio High School Athletic Association schools ... and that was only 4 years ago).
I may be veering away from the topic, but I wonder why New York never nipped the prep school/basketball boarding school factory rush in the bud back when they were absolutely the state most affected by losing players? Seems like they could have not only kept their own top players home but been the state, especially because of the basketball legacy in NYC, to draw those top kids from across the country to schools in NY.
Good question about the prep/boarding school connection with NY kids. I think some of it is for those that either need to get their grades up or for more exposure. I think the latter is key, as many of the top players from Upstate NY tend to do it for that reason.
Development is another reason. For instance, I have a cousin, whose daughter is reclassifying and transferring to a prep school in CT(Loomis Chaffee) from ironically Jamesville-DeWitt(is known historically for its good Basketball programs). She already is on the AAU circuit and if you reclassify/go prep, you can extend your time in AAU another year, from what I heard. Keep in mind that this young lady already has some mid major interest and due to camps, is getting some serious interest from Boston College. So, some of the prep/boarding school thing is to also get more seasoning and interest.
^ MWJ, correct. PA and NJ are the dominant football states in the Northeast. You can take NYS and all of the New England states combined and they don't produce the same number of D1's as either of NJ and PA.
From 2002-2012 when Don Bosco and Bergen Catholic reigned supreme there was only 1 school in NYS (St. Anthony's on Long Island) who would play these guys annually. That is during the reign when Bosco was #1 in the nation twice. Along the way Bosco beat famous storied schools like DeLaSalle (CA), Moeller and St. X (Ohio), Miami Central, Manatee and so on. A who's who of the national elite programs.
I recruited nationally for Rivals.com since 2002 but had to give it up for personal reasons about 5 years ago.
For basketball, NYS is loaded. Sooo many kids from NYS have left and gone the prep route (not just locally but all over the country) for decades now.
Nothing was like NYC basketball pre-2000, nothing except maybe Texas football. The greates of the greats all grew up on the playgrounds of the city. Kareem, Connie Hawkins, on and on and on.
What I'm amazed by now is still seeing so many New Yorkers playing for all of the most elite schools nationally.
All that said, Mass and CT have always had some really good individual talent as well and have been overlooked in large part, well just because. They were never really in the national arms race for HS hoops and football the way most states are. Looking at you southern states and California and Ohio which is an insane football state. Doesn;t produce D1's the way it used to but Ohio/PA are like the birthplaces of smash mouth, hardnosed football. Now Texas, Georgia, Louisiana have kind of taken that title over along with the other big time football states.
What is ironic about Don Bosco and Bergen Catholic, as well as other major NE NJ Catholic high schools is that they get quite a few of their players from NY for both Football and Basketball. For instance, former NFL defensive backs the McCourty Twins attended St. Joseph in Montvale, but are actually from Nyack in Rockland County and there are other examples for both sports.
Good question about the prep/boarding school connection with NY kids. I think some of it is for those that either need to get their grades up or for more exposure. I think the latter is key, as many of the top players from Upstate NY tend to do it for that reason.
Development is another reason. For instance, I have a cousin, whose daughter is reclassifying and transferring to a prep school in CT(Loomis Chaffee) from ironically Jamesville-DeWitt(is known historically for its good Basketball programs). She already is on the AAU circuit and if you reclassify/go prep, you can extend your time in AAU another year, from what I heard. Keep in mind that this young lady already has some mid major interest and due to camps, is getting some serious interest from Boston College. So, some of the prep/boarding school thing is to also get more seasoning and interest.
I guess going to a prep school as a "fifth" year could get you a third year on the 17U AAU circuit if you are young enough. Cutoff is something like as long as you aren't 19 by the end of March of whatever year you are still on the 17U level.
But most unsigned seniors can still play 17U right after their 4th year of HS. Did that for a couple tournaments this spring with mine (had looks but never signed a letter of intent in the spring period). He's going the JUCO route though did explore a couple fifth year prep options in order to retain an extra year of NCAA eligibility. In the end, preserving a year of NCAA eligibility didn't seem worth it for him compared to getting right into a JUCO program.
I was talking more about these 4 year prep/boarding schools that also are sending kids straight to (high
level) college. It is what it is and doesn't change "where kids are from." Just that NY probably could have kept more at "home" if they loaded up on those types of schools.
What is ironic about Don Bosco and Bergen Catholic, as well as other major NE NJ Catholic high schools is that they get quite a few of their players from NY for both Football and Basketball. For instance, former NFL defensive backs the McCourty Twins attended St. Joseph in Montvale, but are actually from Nyack in Rockland County and there are other examples for both sports.
Between the big Cleveland/Akron Catholic football schools (St. Edward/St. Ignatius/Hoban), at least one seems to play a big NJ Catholic school every year. The NJ ones probably win more than they have lost, but that's one of the things people bring up is that those NJ Catholic schools aren't as restricted as the Ohio ones when it comes to crossing state lines.
It'll be interesting for me to see how Cleveland Heights HS (very good Cleveland public, but not one of the elites) compares to Paramus Catholic, who is coming to Cleveland to play them to open this season
I think the NE Ohio Catholics usually will play either Bosco or Bergen Catholic in the Ohio vs. NJ matchups. Not sure if Paramus has been matched up with an Ohio school before.
What is ironic about Don Bosco and Bergen Catholic, as well as other major NE NJ Catholic high schools is that they get quite a few of their players from NY for both Football and Basketball. For instance, former NFL defensive backs the McCourty Twins attended St. Joseph in Montvale, but are actually from Nyack in Rockland County and there are other examples for both sports.
Well it's really just geography. Bergen and Rockland counties border each other and kids have been commuting to the North Jersey (Bergen County) Catholic schools from across the state line forever as it's only a matter of minutes. Now you can extend that net to the entire Hudson Valley as kids routinely come from towns wayy up there. But traditionally it's mostly been Rockland, with some Orange county kids. Yes I remember watching the McCourty's play in HS against Bergen Catholic in an epic game.They lost against the HS phenom Brian Cushing but played a great game. Rockland has produced some amazing football talent.
Well it's really just geography. Bergen and Rockland counties border each other and kids have been commuting to the North Jersey (Bergen County) Catholic schools from across the state line forever as it's only a matter of minutes. Now you can extend that net to the entire Hudson Valley as kids routinely come from towns wayy up there. But traditionally it's mostly been Rockland, with some Orange county kids. Yes I remember watching the McCourty's play in HS against Bergen Catholic in an epic game.They lost against the HS phenom Brian Cushing but played a great game. Rockland has produced some amazing football talent.
That's true, as Rockland and Orange Counties are right on the border with NJ.
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