If it was anything like the High School I went to, the kid probably sucked, thought he knew everything, but still started because his parents were wealthy.
In the meantime all the good athletes were sitting in the stands because their parents weren't rich and thus they were not on the team.
It was like that when I was in high school to some degree. If you were good enough, you would start no matter who you were. There were two or three who were starters because of who their parents were tho.