Of course Dings achievements are great but you- our readers- will appreciate the story of how Ding came to New Hampton (a coed boarding school in New Hampton, NH) and then found encouragement and success from a teacher/coach.

“A USA Football rep informed David Perfield, then the football coach at the New Hampton School, a boarding school in New Hampshire, that he had spotted a talented kicker from China. New Hampton offered him a spot, and on a whim, Ding flew 7,000 miles from his family’s modest two-bedroom apartment in Qingdao to the New England campus. ‘When I first talked to Long, it was a chore to understand what he was saying,’ says Perfield, who is now the director of development at the Cardigan Mountain School in New Hampshire. ‘His English was really, really poor.’ Did he at least know the rules of football? ‘Oh, no, Jesus no,’ says Perfield. ‘It took him awhile to understand that stuff. He knew you kicked off to start the game, but he didn’t know why you punted, or why you kicked a field goal.’”(KS)

Ding kicked for Norwich University during college and recently attended the Jacksonville Jaguars rookie minicamp as undrafted free agent.

Of Ding’s minicamp work, John Bonamego, Jaguars special teams coach tells Time:

“I was very pleased with where he’s at…He has a legit chance to kick in the NFL. When he came out here, he didn’t act like it was too big for him. It wasn’t ‘hey, I belong.’ He has a wonderful demeanor.”(KS)

Ding seems to like the pressure, telling Keeping Score, “I like the pressure, you know?…You make it, and you’re a hero.”

We wish him the best of luck in his attempt to stick with an NFL team.

If you know your top notch prep school basketball history, MCI with coach Max Good (currently the Loyola Marymount head coach) on the bench was once of the perennial prep school powers.

I watched, and worked the shot clock and scoreboard, at many a game where Good’s teams outran and imposed their will on the opposition.

The decision seems rooted in philosophy and finances. What role does the top notch team play in school and how much does it cost? It seems that, for MCI, liabilities began to outweigh the benefits.

“Finances was really a secondary role in this decision…The program no longer enhances the mission of the school,” MCI’s Director of Alumni and Communications Jennifer Beane told the Morning Sentinel.

“One hundred and thirty-five MCI post-graduate team players went on to play Division I college basketball, and 10 players, including Sam Cassell, Cutino Mobley, Brad Miller, Caron Butler, and DerMarr Johnson, went on to the NBA…

…MCI’s postgraduate basketball team saw its heyday under coach Max Good, from the late 1980s through the ’90s. In 10 years at MCI, Good went 275-30. Under Good, the Huskies had three undefeated teams, won five New England Prep School Athletic Conference titles and had a 79-game win streak. Eighty-seven of Good’s players went on to play Division I basketball, and nine of them have played in the NBA.”(MS)

Photo credit: Steve A Johnson via Creative Commons

The teams won the U18 Tier 1 National Championship for second straight year marking their fourth championship out of the last six.

Played in Buffalo, NY, the S-SM boys beat the LA Jr. Kings 2-1.

Whether it’s the governing body’s insistence in some faux notion of amateurism that never existed; to a student first, athlete second assertion (when anyone who’s ever been around a division 1 revenue sport knows that the time required by the sport is tantamount, or more, to a full time job); to the NCAA’s, and its members, willingness to function as a minor league program for in this case the NBA.

Which brings me to two recent articles on basketball talent Nerlens Noel. (Boston Globe’s Noel Pushing Forward, but Feels the Pull & The New York Times’ Everybody Wants a Piece of Nerlens Noel).

Noel’s supremely talented on the court while at the same time a high school kid. So talented, watched, and followed, is the 6’10″ Noel that he has almost 19,000 twitter followers.( BG)

He chose to leave his hometown high school and team to attend Tilton School. (Tilton plays some the best prep school basketball in the country.)

You’d think that heading off to Tilton would take some pressure of Noel- freeing him a bit- taking him away from those who project their beliefs and desires on him and those who want a piece of him- the well meaning and those who see him as cash cow.

As Boston basketball luminary Leo Papile told the Boston Globe’s Julian Benbow:

“It’s like a lottery ticket…Like somebody dropped one on the ground that’s worth $10 million and everyone’s scurrying around like, ‘Where’d the wind blow it?’ Every character in the world is saying, ‘Let me get in there.’ ’’(BG)

Alas, Noel doesn’t seem to have found peace in moving up to the Lakes Region. Everyone still wants a piece him. He’s still a great basketball talent.

The original plan was for Noel to spend two years at Tilton and, then, most likely to be selected in the 2013 NBA draft. Noel changed his mind and now will graduate from Tilton this year and, most likely, become one of the current breed of great players who spend one year on college team before heading off to the NBA.

The change of plan is where the guts, and gross, of the recruiting and cultivation of a seventeen year old major basketball player come into play. So many people seem to want to get their tenterhooks into him. Mostly, it seems, for selfish reasons.

It’s hard to maintain distance and perspective as an 18 year old. But, I’d like to see Noel play for himself and do what makes him happy. And, I’d like to see adult hangers on and coaches leave him alone.

Noel will announce his college choice tonight at 7:30 p.m. on ESPNU.

I wish for him that he puts himself first in the decision making process…I hope it works out for him.

Thirty years ago, the Globe was the only paper that kept tabs on prep school leagues and standings.

Then, the Globe’s resources went elsewhere and prep school coverage languished for a while punctuated by various fragmented attempts at regular publication, score gathering, and reporting of prep school ahtletics.

Kudos to Scott Barboza and Brendan Hall of ESPN’s Boston High School Blog. These two Mass. natives- sporting solid journalist backgrounds- are doing a great job of following, collecting, and publishing quick coverage on New England prep school sports.

Just yesterday Barboza published a list of New England players on the NHL Central Scouting service final rankings of North American skaters and goaltenders. It includes some solid prep school talent.

For coverage of the NEPSAC winter tournaments (hockey and basketball) and prep school sports news, type NEPSAC into the search bar.

Northfield Mount-Hermon scored a huge upset win in boys class AAA tournament. NMH beat Brewster- handing them their only loss of the season- in the semifinal round. NMH then went on to defeat, St. Thomas Moore in the championship game.

St. Mark’s and Tilton played for the class AA title. St. Mark’s took the title 59-53.

Salisbury took the class A title beating Choate.

Hyde (ME) defeated Hebron Academy for the class C title.

And, in class D Hoosac, beat MacDuffie, 64-57.

For your video distraction, click on the image for  the YouTube “nepsac basketball 2012” search. If you’re a basketball fan, this search can keep you away from your work for a good while.

Today, we have the prep school presence in the 2012 Men’s Final Four.

Some simple math: 4 teams, 13 players each, 52 players total. 8 of those players from boarding school programs.

15% of players on 2012 NCAA Men’s Final Four rosters come from boarding school programs.

Impressive.

Kansas

Thomas Robinson (Brewster)

Naadir Tharpe (Brewster)

Christian Garrett (IMG Academy)

Jamari Traylor (IMG Academy)

Louisville

Russ Smith (South Kent)

Jared Swopshire (IMG Academy)

Mike Mara (Northfield Mount Hermon)

Kentucky

Sam Malone (Tilton)

Prep schools (New England schools especially) play some of the best boys high school basketball out there. It’s always impressive to see the number of prep school players on college basketball rosters of the highest level.

Players (by college, then, prep school) on the roster of the four teams eliminated this past weekend:

North Carolina

P.J. Hairston (Hargrave Military)

Baylor

Brady Heslip (New Hampton)

Syracuse

Michael Carter-Williams (St. Andrews, RI)

C.J. Fair (Brewster)

Russ DeRemmer (Worcester Academy)

Matt Tomaszewski (Holderness)

Florida

Erik Murphy (St. Mark’s)

Will Yeguete (Florida Air)

Photo credit: mvongrue via Creative Commons

“I tell kids that if that’s your dream, dream…If you don’t dream, it doesn’t come to fruition. I also tell them that they’ve got to have Plan B,” Ivey told Roden.

For Ivey, Plan B means controlling one’s destiny through education.

Roden chronicles Ivey’s Time at the University of Texas, his trip to Final Four, and his professional career while telling the story that Ivey understands it’s all business (college and professional ball), knows it’s all fleeting and his parent’s insistence on education. Ivey’s grounding is rooted in the value his parents place on education.

“’The flip side of it [fun], the business side, is that when we make it to the N.C.A.A.’s., the schools get money or the conferences make money,’ he [Ivey] said. ‘Every time we’re on a big network, they’re getting a check. I didn’t understand until down the line that the N.C.A.A. is a business. Everything is a business; everything is surrounded by the dollar.’”(NYT)

This understanding has kept Ivey from being just another piece of meat for the grinder though. Roden writes:

“He spent a postgraduate year at Blair Academy in New Jersey with the idea of putting himself in the best position to succeed academically and athletically.

He chose the University of Texas, though not because it might lead to a pro career. ‘I always had it in my head I was striving to do that, but I also knew I needed to settle down and get that degree,’” Ivey said.(NYT)

Ivey of course succeeded at professional basketball. Currently a member of the Oklahoma City Thunder, he’s also played for the Milwaukee Bucks and the Philadelphia 76ers.

Ivey has become wiser through his success and, despite the fact that he left Texas without a degree, he has one now. Ivey graduated last fall after taking his nine final course hours during the lockout.

Make sure to read Ivey’s recounting of telling his mother that he wasn’t going to graduate when he left texas and his observations of friend T.J. Ford’s return to school.

Ivey’s mother, Jennifer Ivey is understandably proud.

Ridley College athletic director and alumnus presents a brief overview of athletics at Ridley.

Ridley (a coed boarding school in St. Catharines, ON Canada) offers competitive athletics in parallel with Sports For Life. Students in both programs benefit from daily physical activity but with programs and goals that fit with their abilities and interests.

Sports for Life are exactly those- healthy physical activities that can be practiced for a lifetime- such as soccer, Zumba, Yoga, Ultimate Frisbee.

Ridley focuses its competitive athletic energies on four “program development sports-” soccer, basketball, rowing, and ice hockey. These programs allow athletic students to hone their skills at high levels in preparation for collegiate athletics and/or international competition.