Al Blades Jr. transferring to STA

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This is exactly why S. FL has become such a cesspool for college recruiting. The high schools and even the local youth programs are bloating kids' egos beyond repair. By the time colleges start coming around, the kids think they're 3 year NFL vets with 2 Pro Bowl appearances.

If the adults down here had any interest in building productive men instead of trying to ride the backs of 14 year olds to payoffs and/or bragging rights they'd get a handle on this horseshyt right away.

There's really no local pride down here, and I'd say this is a big part of the reason. Everyone's a mercenary. Kids treat their schools like stepping stones instead of having that pride that comes from fighting wars together for 4 years and growing up in that district.

AMEN
 
Beardy, it's gotten pathetic. Dudes sit around crying about kids having bloated egos then they cater to them and suck up them like they're royalty.

Go to the fcking HS in your neighborhood or the one private school that you choose in 9th grade and fcking stay there. If you're a good player, colleges will find you. They're down here recruiting 365 days a year. They ain't gonna miss you just because your *** is at Western instead of STA. They will see you and want you if you can play down here.

No one should be recruiting anyone until they're done with HS. Let HS kids be HS kids. Adults need to quit putting all this pressure on them to be super geniuses or the world's greatest athlete in order to validate themselves or profit off them. Too many pieces of **** living through kids or trying to profit off them. There's plenty of time to destroy people after they become adults.
 
I agree that the mercenary aspect of these high schools is unfortunate but you can't really fault someone for trying to maximize their situation. Yes, a guy who may be a star on a bad team will not get to shine as bright individually at STA but consider the national exposure you get playing there. You're on ESPN. You have multiple FBS scholarship guys on your team bringing every single coach and scout to your school to see your team. Somebody may be going to see a Joey Bosa or Sam Bruce but while they're there, they manage to catch you making a couple of impressive plays and all of the sudden you're on a school's radar. I'll agree it sucks for the public schools who just can't compete with the St. Thomas Aquinas and American Heritage's out there.
 
I agree that the mercenary aspect of these high schools is unfortunate but you can't really fault someone for trying to maximize their situation. Yes, a guy who may be a star on a bad team will not get to shine as bright individually at STA but consider the national exposure you get playing there. You're on ESPN. You have multiple FBS scholarship guys on your team bringing every single coach and scout to your school to see your team. Somebody may be going to see a Joey Bosa or Sam Bruce but while they're there, they manage to catch you making a couple of impressive plays and all of the sudden you're on a school's radar. I'll agree it sucks for the public schools who just can't compete with the St. Thomas Aquinas and American Heritage's out there.

If you're playing in S. FL, and you can play, they will find you. All this "maximize my situation" **** is what is destroying the local culture. Rep your district and your HS and stop the mercenary ****. If you can play, and you're in S. FL, you will get to go wherever you want.
 
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I never had respect for the Yankees, they just spent more than everyone else basically buying championships. I quit watching baseball years ago.

I pretty much felt the same way with regards to the NBA. Players move from team to team trying to assemble an all-star team to win championships.

The NFL, I stoped watching that when people started moving around a lot through free agency. It's not only the no fun league, but a blatant mercenary league.

STA, people talk this school and the team like it's something special. Please, it's a glorified Dade / Broward All-Star team. Of course they're going to be good. I have zero respect for them whatsoever.

I don't know what we're teaching these young men. We should be teaching them at this level to stand by their friends, teammates, and to all get better together. What ever happened to school pride as well? **** is crazy down that way now. When someone says a recruit of ours should stay home, rep the 305, etc....I laugh. They don't know loyalty or have pride in where they come from as that was already lost before we recruited them.
 
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franchise is correct. if you're good in south florida, you'll be found. nobody is going to stop going to STA to watch their team. they don't need blades there to help bring out recruiters.
it's a joke that STA has the most players in the nfl. and i like STA. but, it's ridiculous. and to "brag" about beating the public schools is a joke when, as franchise said, it's an all star team.

i feel bad for an up and coming young player at STA who has been in catholic school his whole life and started at STA as a freshman who is a junior and maybe thinks he's going to start only to have a blue chip recruit transfer for their last year and take their starting job.
 
I agree that the mercenary aspect of these high schools is unfortunate but you can't really fault someone for trying to maximize their situation. Yes, a guy who may be a star on a bad team will not get to shine as bright individually at STA but consider the national exposure you get playing there. You're on ESPN. You have multiple FBS scholarship guys on your team bringing every single coach and scout to your school to see your team. Somebody may be going to see a Joey Bosa or Sam Bruce but while they're there, they manage to catch you making a couple of impressive plays and all of the sudden you're on a school's radar. I'll agree it sucks for the public schools who just can't compete with the St. Thomas Aquinas and American Heritage's out there.

If you're playing in S. FL, and you can play, they will find you. All this "maximize my situation" **** is what is destroying the local culture. Rep your district and your HS and stop the mercenary ****. If you can play, and you're in S. FL, you will get to go wherever you want.

Not totally disagreeing with you but someone mentioned a WR from Western High earlier. The difference between dominating at Western and contributing at STA is that when scouts actually come to see you practice/play, you're playing/practicing against other top level competition. Aside from playing the regular district schedule, STA schedules multiple out of state powerhouses that often get broadcast on national TV. At Western, you're pretty much playing only local teams, you're NEVER going to get any national exposure and in practice you're going up against guys that aren't sniffing a scholarship.

Now, if you're already playing at one local powerhouse and you just decide to transfer to another team because the coaches kiss your *** more, then that's a whole different story.
 
As a public school coach, I'm getting real tired of this garbage. It's become impossible to keep a high caliber player regardless whether you're coaching them well or not. You're fighting way too many outside forces. People are constantly in these kid's ears.

There (at least) needs to be a rule passed where a kid cannot transfer once he enters his Junior (or maybe Senior) year. Freshman or Sophomore, you can go whether you want. This would prevent these private schools from capitalizing off of kids that other coaches developed. You got kids out here transferring after winning games and/or being productive at their former school. Western just lost a WR that caught 88 balls for 1200 yards this season. Now he'll go to STA and help them win another state championship while only registering 32 catches. He'll be "just another guy" for them, where at his home they'd rely on him heavily to win games.

I don't understand why these kids would rather be "another guy" when they can be "that guy".

Most poster will probably see this as sour grapes but I will ya on this Macho. This sounds like a recipe for disaster.

BUT the only question I have is that do you think the reason this was done was because of what happened at that school in broward last year or two years ago? I cant remember what school it was but Joe Rose was talking about it on the radio and it had to do with a mutiny on the team and the coaches quitting or something and the kids were stuck. And there were some former dolphin players who went out there to help coach them through the season..I swear I wish I could remember what school it was...

While I think this hurts the schools who are out there doing the right thing and coaching kids the right way...I also think it helps kids who feel they are stuck at a school that isnt developing them right, dont take the sport serious, and they have no way of getting out of the situation.

Which is why I agree with your amendment..by your sophomore year you should know if your coaches suck. You should be allowed to transfer. If you stick it out to your Sr year and just want to "jump on a bandwagon" you should definitely not be allowed to do this.

I've never had one of my kids leave on me personally. Never lost a defensive player on my watch. So I don't think it's sour grapes. I genuinely love my kids and they know that, so if a D1 level kid wants to leave me then I'll coach up the 5'7" kid with heart. Makes no difference to me. However, at some point it gets frustrating as a program when you're trying to build something, you're gaining steam and vultures come out of the woodwork. "They're winning a few games, let's go see who they got." (true story)

That revolt you're referring to happen a couple years ago. Western's HC left to take a college job and rather than hire the guy all the kids wanted they hired a guy that was only there for a couple months. The kids called a meeting with the new HC and wanted to ask him about the direction of the program. They wanted to retain their DC (me) and their OC (current Western OC). When the new HC said that he'll be calling the offensive plays and bringing in a new DC after spring all the best players jumped ship. (Juwan Dowels to Heritage, Adrienne Talan and Robert Foy to Flanagan, Brayon Parrish to Monarch, Jonathon Atwell to Cypress Bay, and Wade Freebeck had already gone to STA) There were also several incoming transfers that were scared away by all of this.

The new HC went on to hire a staff that the kids didn't approve of. There was a lot of beef and disagreement with the new staff versus the old staff and this also radiated down to the players. They started the season 0-4 and were outscored like 135-0 during that 4 game span. That's when the players decided to rebel and go on strike. They boycotted practice until a coaching change was made. The results were the HC getting fired 4 games into the season and the RB coach being promoted to interim HC.

None of this affected the WR I was talking about in my previous post because he was still in middle school and now Western has a new HC and an OC from their last successful staff. (2008-2012 staff)

The kids that transferred just before the 2013 debacle were wise and their decision made perfect sense.
 
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I agree that the mercenary aspect of these high schools is unfortunate but you can't really fault someone for trying to maximize their situation. Yes, a guy who may be a star on a bad team will not get to shine as bright individually at STA but consider the national exposure you get playing there. You're on ESPN. You have multiple FBS scholarship guys on your team bringing every single coach and scout to your school to see your team. Somebody may be going to see a Joey Bosa or Sam Bruce but while they're there, they manage to catch you making a couple of impressive plays and all of the sudden you're on a school's radar. I'll agree it sucks for the public schools who just can't compete with the St. Thomas Aquinas and American Heritage's out there.

If you're playing in S. FL, and you can play, they will find you. All this "maximize my situation" **** is what is destroying the local culture. Rep your district and your HS and stop the mercenary ****. If you can play, and you're in S. FL, you will get to go wherever you want.

What if al golden was your coach at western tho?
 
As a public school coach, I'm getting real tired of this garbage. It's become impossible to keep a high caliber player regardless whether you're coaching them well or not. You're fighting way too many outside forces. People are constantly in these kid's ears.

There (at least) needs to be a rule passed where a kid cannot transfer once he enters his Junior (or maybe Senior) year. Freshman or Sophomore, you can go whether you want. This would prevent these private schools from capitalizing off of kids that other coaches developed. You got kids out here transferring after winning games and/or being productive at their former school. Western just lost a WR that caught 88 balls for 1200 yards this season. Now he'll go to STA and help them win another state championship while only registering 32 catches. He'll be "just another guy" for them, where at his home they'd rely on him heavily to win games.

I don't understand why these kids would rather be "another guy" when they can be "that guy".

Most poster will probably see this as sour grapes but I will ya on this Macho. This sounds like a recipe for disaster.

BUT the only question I have is that do you think the reason this was done was because of what happened at that school in broward last year or two years ago? I cant remember what school it was but Joe Rose was talking about it on the radio and it had to do with a mutiny on the team and the coaches quitting or something and the kids were stuck. And there were some former dolphin players who went out there to help coach them through the season..I swear I wish I could remember what school it was...

While I think this hurts the schools who are out there doing the right thing and coaching kids the right way...I also think it helps kids who feel they are stuck at a school that isnt developing them right, dont take the sport serious, and they have no way of getting out of the situation.

Which is why I agree with your amendment..by your sophomore year you should know if your coaches suck. You should be allowed to transfer. If you stick it out to your Sr year and just want to "jump on a bandwagon" you should definitely not be allowed to do this.

I agree that the mercenary aspect of these high schools is unfortunate but you can't really fault someone for trying to maximize their situation. Yes, a guy who may be a star on a bad team will not get to shine as bright individually at STA but consider the national exposure you get playing there. You're on ESPN. You have multiple FBS scholarship guys on your team bringing every single coach and scout to your school to see your team. Somebody may be going to see a Joey Bosa or Sam Bruce but while they're there, they manage to catch you making a couple of impressive plays and all of the sudden you're on a school's radar. I'll agree it sucks for the public schools who just can't compete with the St. Thomas Aquinas and American Heritage's out there.

If you're playing in S. FL, and you can play, they will find you. All this "maximize my situation" **** is what is destroying the local culture. Rep your district and your HS and stop the mercenary ****. If you can play, and you're in S. FL, you will get to go wherever you want.

Not totally disagreeing with you but someone mentioned a WR from Western High earlier. The difference between dominating at Western and contributing at STA is that when scouts actually come to see you practice/play, you're playing/practicing against other top level competition. Aside from playing the regular district schedule, STA schedules multiple out of state powerhouses that often get broadcast on national TV. At Western, you're pretty much playing only local teams, you're NEVER going to get any national exposure and in practice you're going up against guys that aren't sniffing a scholarship.

Now, if you're already playing at one local powerhouse and you just decide to transfer to another team because the coaches kiss your *** more, then that's a whole different story.

Western plays in the toughest 8A district in the state. When Jonathon Feliciano and LB Justin Wilson were at Western every college in the country visited the school and most of them extended offers. Same thing goes for the WR we're talking about. Miami went by Western earlier this week to see him. Scouts don't care about any of that stuff you mention. (national exposure, practicing against other D1 kids, etc)

During my 4 years at Western I've seen offers from Florida State, Miami, Florida, UCLA, Wisconsin, Tennessee, Michigan State, etc...just about all the big dogs minus Bama.

That WR we're talking about registered a bulk of those 88 catches and 1200 yards against schools like Miramar, Plantation, Flanagan, Cypress Bay, Everglades, etc.

Your logic is flawed and couldn't be further from the truth. If it was true then they're wouldn't be 7 former Western players playing D1 football right now with one playing in the NFL and another slated as a 1st/2nd round pick in next year's draft.
 
I agree that the mercenary aspect of these high schools is unfortunate but you can't really fault someone for trying to maximize their situation. Yes, a guy who may be a star on a bad team will not get to shine as bright individually at STA but consider the national exposure you get playing there. You're on ESPN. You have multiple FBS scholarship guys on your team bringing every single coach and scout to your school to see your team. Somebody may be going to see a Joey Bosa or Sam Bruce but while they're there, they manage to catch you making a couple of impressive plays and all of the sudden you're on a school's radar. I'll agree it sucks for the public schools who just can't compete with the St. Thomas Aquinas and American Heritage's out there.

What you fail to realize is...if these kids stayed at home...a bunch of schools would have multiple D1 kids who garner attention not just STA. If they stayed at home some of those so called "bad teams" wouldn't be bad.

Let's use Western as an example again.

Did you know that James White, Brandon Linder and Giovanni Bernard are all Western kids? So was Tevin Allen, a smaller level D1 kid that played DB at STA. They should've all been practicing together at Western along with Jonathon Feliciano. On the same field. Together. At Western freakin' high school. Now imagine if that had happened.

You talk about some of these teams not being good or not attracting scouts but how will they ever be good if the best players in their boundary are going elsewhere?
 
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Every thread becomes a post about..

1.Sam Bruce
2. Al Golden ******** us OR and this is the most current..
3. HS kids that's right HIGH SCHOOL kids decision making and the folks that look after them

Yall are more mad at the fact that you cant read into HS kids and their comments than how they are being handled. You dont care about the background and circumstances they come from but about dumb **** like "why their heads are so big and hyped up." Who tf cares?! Some people make it off of their humble manner and some make it cause they know they're the ****. Some kids make it out of bad situations and some dont. They have to move on and live their lives however things turn out. Some of yall really need to get from behind the keyboard and re-evaluate yourselves. Its a discussion board so discuss all things Miami Hurricanes but cmon like trying to categorize a whole pool of kids and schools for your own negative agenda is weak af
 
and western would have a pretty good program instead of being irrelevant

We had a great program from 2008-2012. We started 6-0 two seasons in a row, were ranked and blew the doors off of every team not named Miramar, Cypress or Flanagan. Beat Plantation twice in one year and were a deep ball (to Stacy Coley) away from beating Northeast and advancing to the 2nd round of the playoffs.

Bottom line is...in order to beat the Flanagans and Miramar they (western) have to keep their local studs at home...which isn't happening. Ultimately that makes out impossible to make waves at a program like that.
 
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