Prep Schools Getting Slam-Dunked Want Own League **[academic's are sore losers]**

Associated Press ^ | 4-23-02 | David Armstrong, Wall Street Journal

[Oldeconomybuyer]

WINCHENDON, Mass. -- When Phillips Exeter Academy faces the top basketball teams in the New England Prep School Athletic Conference, coach Malcolm Wesselink jokes that his biggest problem is getting his players not to ask star opponents for autographs.

Hoop stars among the preppies? Don't snicker. The NEPSAC league includes the likes of Martin Iti, a 6-foot-10 junior at the Winchendon School here who has already been scouted by the New York Knicks and San Antonio Spurs. Giedrius Rinkevicius, a 7-foot-2 center, came to Maine to attend Bridgton Academy from basketball-mad Lithuania -- and next year will have a basketball scholarship at the University of Missouri, one of the best college teams in the country.

[sharktrager]

They really aren't whiners. These are schools that aren't going to go out and offer scholarships to students who don't really meet their standards just to win games.

It's too bad that more schools don't follow suit. There is something seriously wrong with a high school (even a private one) recruiting students based solely on athletic prowess.

As more players go straight from high school to the NBA, some of these "prep schools" can field better teams than 1-AA colleges, and maybe even sone 1-A schools.

[AnAmericanMother]

I have to agree with you.

I went to a college that had a long tradition of playing a particular school in football. But the other school went heavily into football, began recruiting extensively, and became a real powerhouse in the region. Our school did not permit recruiting of athletes and cheerfully flunked football players who didn't keep up the academic standards.

We got slaughtered regularly, not the infamous 222-0 GA Tech/Cumberland (I'm ashamed to say my grandfather was helping run up the score for Tech in that game) but we were thoroughly whipped. But our school eventually dropped out of the league because we were afraid one of our students was going to be seriously injured or killed. It's no joke having 175 pound college kids going up against a defensive line that averages 250 pounds.