http://www.13newsnow.com/story/sports/high-school/2015/06/25/ocean-lakes...
VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (WVEC) --Ocean Lakes Head Football Coach, Chris Scott will be out the first three games of this upcoming season. An investigation found that he violated a Virginia High School League rule on recruiting. Scott led the Dolphins last season to the Group 6A Championship with a 30-24 win over Centreville. Ocean Lakes finished the season unbeaten at 15-0.
Interesting news out of the Tidewater area, this could effect some recruits and relationships.
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WOW, have things changed . Even public high schools are now recruiting kids. Next will be pre school.
That'll start when our Fullers start having kids.
They can start recruiting now!
Pretty sure Mike London already hits the Day Cares.
Been going on a while - in the early 90's FC and Kempsville were both caught and had to forfeit half their wins. I know it happened for FC baseball, Kempsville and Cox soccer and we all assumed Great Bridge wrestling for decades drew from all over the area.
Is not a new problem but seems to move around the city every 5 years.
Classmate from NN who was a really good wrestler ended up moving to VB to wrestle at Great Bridge after his freshman year. You assumed correctly.
Do we have any sort of recruiting connection with the ocean lakes hs coach?
I would like to think that if VT did, then a lot more Ocean Lakes guys would be on the team.
They have to have some relationship with him.
"Recruiting" accusations have been around VB for a loooooong time. Sid Pearl, who started the Woodstock Mustangs rec league team in the 60's (now the VB Mustangs Pop Warner team run by his son Bruce) told me he was always being accused of recruiting. "The kids would all come to ME", he told me in protest, and I truly believe him. In essence, if you are successful, the kids - actually the PARENTS - are going to figure out a way to get their kids to the "programs" that are more likely to get their kids noticed and advance their football "careers".
I have to think the same stuff goes on in soccer, and I am aware of it going on in field hockey. Cox HS won something like 15 straight titles in field hockey. That wasn't something in the district water that turned those teams into champions.
Parents are competitive and clued in. They want the best for their kids, and I cannot find any fault in what they do. Laying the blame on the coaches is the obvious play, and I read the evidence in the article, but I know it is a 2 way street, and the other side isn't mentioned at all.
I also know that every school in the Beach has players, or has recently had players, that really don't live in the district. Much like the rumored gentlemen's agreement among SEC coaches with respect to recruiting violations, everybody is wise to what is going on in the Beach, and it isn't until someone takes a loss in the playoffs, or maybe misses the playoffs, that the recruiting violation arrow gets drawn from the quiver.
I remember a kid named Heastie a few years ago that played for at least 3 different HS teams. Parents, as well as a lot of recruiters and coaches, were jumping on that hype train, and I scratched my head in amazement. The buzz didn't quite match the talent, from where I sat. I think he ended up at WVU and quickly disappeared from the radar screens.
Anyway, it looks like Chris Scott may have lost a little control, maybe got a little too competitive, felt his oats...whatever. But I still think he is a good guy and a good coach. He will look at this, make changes, and life will go on. The tide will inevitably flow away from OL and to another Beach school. The history of VB football powers shows a constantly changing landscape of different teams taking the reigns from FC to Bayside to PA to Landstown to Salem and round and round. That shifting of dominance is almost proof enough that kids aren't staying in their home districts, and never have.
Logan Heastie, right? I think it was fairly well known among Virginia recruitniks at the time that he was overrated. That one was always baffling.
I know for a fact it goes on in soccer. Happened at one of our local high schools in the late 80s and through the 90s. I talked to some grads and the coach apparently actively scouted nearby clubs to get the players and they were absurdly successful. States every year etc etc and often sent 3-4 kids D1 which is impressive coming from graduating classes of around 600-700
The thing with the beach district is that you can START at an academy freshman year. Most of the schools in the beach district have an academy you can choose to go to while you live out of the school zone.
I went to Salem and played soccer. It def happens for soccer. There was one point where the majority of Cox was all from one Beach FC club team, another Beach FC team was Kellam, and FC was all from one VA Rush team. We even had a player from Salem who considered going to FC his jr or senior year just because almost all of his VA Rush/ODP team was going there. He decided against it but that ODP year was one of the best Virginia had ever had and they were all from the beach district. Pretty sure that was the year FC won states but they may have only won regionals.
I always heard rumors that it was really bad when Beatty was at Landstown.
Logan Heastie I think first went to Landstown (he played soccer as a keeper as well as football) and then went to Great Bridge. Not sure what/if there was a 3rd school. He actually could have been better at soccer as a keeper than as a WR. I swear I remember him being recruited by a few decent schools and if he had even remotely focused on soccer he could have gone farther than he did in football
Excellent point about the academies. I think the problem is that they aren't all that easy to get into. Regardless, what is usually done is submit some relative's address in the district and claim to be living there. When a complaint from another team is filed, it is my understanding that someone from the public school system follows the kid home to see if he actually goes to the address. That part sounds a little difficult to believe. Though logical, it seems fraught with legal implications in today's world, but what do I know?
As for Heastie, I am almost certain that he was a freshman at Cox, demanded playing time, was rebuffed, and the saga began. I don't know if he played JV, or not at all, after the "slight". No one had any idea who he was at that time, and kind of laughed about the arrogance - that's why I remember. Then years later we put it together. He was hailed far and wide as a "top WR in the country", though. LOL. This is why I ALWAYS love recruiting reports from regular guys that actually go to the games. Those reports from knowledgeable fans are often better than what you read from recruiting services.
I am digressing, but I love recruiting and HS football. Congratulations if you made it this far...
Finally, I have to touch on Beatty, who is always an interesting topic to me...I have no doubt that kids/parents gravitated to his success, and I also doubt he discouraged bending rules to get them there. Say what you will about Beatty, and most have plenty of negative things to say, but the guy was a legendary offensive mind in VHSL. I always point out that the top 3 passers in VHSL history all accomplished their records under Beatty's offense, and at 3 different schools (Sims/OS may have moved to the top since). Analyzing that in depth, including looking at the lack of star power in QB's that did it, and you have no choice to conclude that the records were all about Beatty. Tell me how a QB from Stafford has a top 3 QB in VHSL history without Beatty? Just remarkable, IMO.
I graduated 05 from salem. So a fair amount of my negativity could be because landstown opened up my freshman year. A lot of the better athletes at landstown would have gone to salem if it had never opened up.
I have been told Harvin would have been in Salem but I dont know the validity of that.