Washed_Up_Athlete

Everything you say is accurate, but that's not what I addressed. I addressed financial aid violations, which are plainly happening at Hartfield, St. Joe, and Greenville Christian. I mean - it's not even a secret. Anyone who knows anything about what's going on at each of these places can tell you who is paying for which kids to play football at the schools. Your post does raise another point: The goal of transfer and financial aid rules is to preserve somewhat level playing fields for the schools. Yet, the MAIS vigorously enforces the transfer rule between MAIS schools, many times causing families to incur thousand of dollars in financial losses just so their kid can have the best chance to develop and succeed in a positive environment. This happens every single year. The MAIS does not, however, enforce the financial aid rules with the same level of vigor, thereby allowing flagrant violators to compete on an unlevel playing field and encouraging other schools to similarly violate the rule in order to keep up. You see this play out on this very board. Every time the topic of financial aid violations is brought up, multiple posters will come in and mention MRA's apparent financial aid violations over the last several decades in an effort to justify what Greenville Christian did.

"Aid to athletes coming from one source, or benefactor, over an extended period of time," is a sign of faulty financial aid. While I understand what you're saying, a single booster paying for athletes to attend a school solely for athletic purposes violates the rule. After all, "booster clubs" are nothing more than one or more boosters with a title. Drop the title, and its the same people doing the same thing. That's why the title isn't determinative. The reality, IMHO, is that the MAIS will not enforce the rule until an offender is going 90 in a 55 MPH zone and threating the real powers in the association. While Greenville Christian plainly violated the rule last year, the MAIS looked the other way because the school was a national story and everyone knew it was likely a one-off year. St. Joe isn't really competitive (it just got pounded by Copiah, which got pounded last year by the worst J. Prep team in decades), so no one is really complaining.

MAIS Handbook Rule VH contains certain " Signs of Misguided and Faulty Financial Aid". Among these are: (1) "A pattern of transfers into an athletic program receiving financial aid, especially at the senior high level," (2) "Shear numbers of athletes receiving financial aid," (3) "Aid to athletes coming from one source, or benefactor, over an extended period of time," and (4) "Consistent reports from other member schools that a problem exists with the competitions financial aid as it relates to recruiting." I don't know whether member schools have complained about "misguided and faulty financial aid" at other programs, but the first three are surely met with regard to Greenville Christian, St. Joe, and Hartfield.

All true, but financial remuneration solely for athletic purposes is widespread. As previously referenced, a particular high-profile player's dad at St. Joe is paying for many, if not most, of their starters to attend school there solely so they can play football with his son. Hartfield also has a booster paying for similar number of players to attend solely to play football. Greenville Christian had an entire team of kids whose tuition was covered by a booster. MRA has had boosters sponsoring players for years. JA to a lesser extent, and Prep to much lesser extent. The issue is that (1) the rule is very difficult to enforce and (2) the MAIS leadership is apparently not inclined to do so, likely because Blanton is a MRA supporter and MRA is an historical offender.

Hartfield is doing the same.

My understanding is that they recruited 8 new players, but the team will not be nearly as good. So much of that team was built around the QB and Chris Bell that it will be difficult to replicate.

In the MAIS, Parklane Academy.

I can think of three MAIS off the top of my head that you've missed- Major Quin, Jackson Prep, sophomore Bralan Womack, Hartfield, freshman Sammy Watkins, JA, sophomore

Jimothy Lewis is going to IMG. At least that is what I was told.

Added him, but lost Quincy Phillips (RB) and Jimothy Lewis (OL). At least that's what I've heard.

First, there are different types of "money guys." These are private schools. The overwhelming majority of families are paying full tuition. If you've paid to send your kids to school for years, you're a type of money guy. But there are, at least in some of these schools, a higher level money guy. The type of guy who can, and some who have, funded the entire construction of turf fields, who donate money to school for a variety of purposes, and who independently pay for things. These are the "real" money guys, in the sense that the schools cannot afford to upset them. Then, there's a third type who's not necessarily the biggest giver, but who has influence in the school, maybe because he's on the board or because he's been a longtime supporter that a lot of people like and respect in the school. Schools can many times afford to upset the first type. They run into issues when the upset the latter two. Now on the recruiting issue, there's a couple of different scenarios that tend to play out. The first situation: you have player who isn't the best, but is good enough to win with. You can get a recruit for the same position. Should you? Probably not, especially if he's the kid of one of the latter two types. The second situation: you don't have a viable player for a position. You can get a recruit for the position. Should you? Yes. There's more nuance to the issue than this, and each school has unique dynamics, but that's a broad brush answer.

There's already some internal backlash right now. A few families are exploring changing schools, and other families are expressing discontent. But your point is well-taken: whether it amounts to anything or makes any difference remains to be seen. At its current scale, it surely won't. As I mentioned before, it's no secret who is funding the sponsorship at MRA, St. Joe, and Hartfield. And despite what an earlier poster stated, does in fact violate MAIS rules. Whether the MAIS does something about it will largely depend on whether enough other 6A member schools do something. I doubt they will.

This is true. It is also true that Blanton did not break the rule by holding back two grades. He pushed up to the line, but he didn't violate the rule. The issue - to the extent you consider it to be a real issue - is that MRA is holding back nearly entire classes of football-playing boys solely for football reasons. While kids have been held back for decades, never has it been this widescale, in your face, and driven solely for competitive advantage. You've had schools in the past that have had two or three holdbacks, but nothing like this. But the holdback matter cannot be viewed in a vacuum. It has to viewed in combination with MRA's athletic recruiting and sponsoring of players. Example: MRA goes to the family of an 8th grader at Germantown and tells them their son can come to MRA free of charge. The kid enrolls, has good year, and then the school tells the family that it strongly encourages them to hold their son back. The family holds the kid back, in part because they're not paying tuition anyway. This scenario is what it is occurring on a widescale basis. MRA will have success with it. But at some point there will be a severe backlash from other MAIS member schools and/or MRA families who object. How things play out from there will be interesting.

This is why many MAIS folks have believed PCS is a sleeping giant. You are 100% correct.

Context matters. Some boys are probably too young for their grade and would benefit socially, academically, and athletically from holding back. A strong case can be made in favor of a young man being 18 years old for most of his senior year. It is true that parents hold kids back at many schools for these legitimate reasons. This, however, is not what is occurring at MRA. 18 boys in the 8th grade are holding back this year. The MRA athletic department is not only encouraging this - it's part of the school's competitive strategy. Heck, there are a few families who are refusing to hold their kids back and leaving the school this year because of the unfair advantage created by having 19 year olds competing against 18 year olds.

This is the date of birth rule: "A student athlete shall not have reached his/her 19th birthday before August 1 in the school year in which he/she wishes to participate. For the 2019-20 school year, this means anyone born before August 1, 2000, would be ineligible." Blanton turned 19 within a few weeks of August 1. This made him about a year and half older than most of the kids he competed against. When he graduates this month, he'll be three months or so away from turning 20 years old. If MRA keeps up its current practice, more-and-more kids will be in a similar situation.

You could say the same thing about Madison Central, Ridgeland, and Germantown versus MRA. MRA has very good facilities, but they're not remarkably better than these large public schools. Certainly NW Rankin's facilities are better than Hartfield's facilities. Top quality kids will come to PCS if the athletics improve, the academics are equal or better than the public schools, and if they can star at PCS. Look no further than the Jackson schools. History bears this out.

No MAIS schools are allowed to give athletic scholarships. They cannot provide financial aid based solely on athletic ability. They can, however, provide financial aid for demonstrated financial need. What happens is that a family applies for financial aid from the school and receives some portion of reduced tuition. That difference gets paid for by a third-party. Having a third-party pay the tuition for athletic reasons is also against MAIS rules, but the rule is unenforced. Numerous people can tell you who is paying the way for kids at MRA, Hartfield, St. Joe, and Greenville Christian. It's no secret. But, the MAIS is headed by Stone Blanton's dad. Stone Blanton's mom works at MRA. MRA is one of the biggest - if not the biggest - offenders. And the biggest punishment (if not one of the only punishments) ever applied by the MAIS for illegal sponsoring of athletes was against MRA. Of course, the MAIS had a different head at the time. Additionally, while on the topic of MRA, the school encourages its athletic boys to hold-back a grade. This year's 8th grade is holding-back 18 boys. Stone Blanton will be nearly 20 YEARS OLD when he graduates high school. These kids will follow that model. As for PCS, many have long thought it's a sleeping giant. Just as MRA is geographically positioned well (surrounded by Ridgeland, Madison Central, Germantown, NW Rankin, and NE Jackson), PCS is also positioned well. If the new coach gets to work on increasing its talent pool, and if he finally starts running a modern offense, PCS could become a legitimate force in MAIS 6A.

Yes, it is more than many colleges. And it is important to understand these costs when looking at the boys' athletic departments of these schools. If you're paying thousands per year for your son to attend one of these schools (and you have done so since they started school), what do you expect? For some, they expect their kid to play, even if he's not a hard worker, he isn't very good, and he would not play at most other schools. People who have this viewpoint believe they are paying for the opportunity for their kid to play. The natural consequence of this viewpoint is that the the team loses games due to a talent deficiency, and a lot games if enough families with talent-deficient kids are present in the school. Many parents are okay with this. But what if you're a coach who may lose his job if he loses too much, or a parent who wants his kid to play on a team that is fully invested in winning with the best talent available? People with this viewpoint say that the kid who isn't good enough shouldn't play and that the school should either play another kid or recruit a kid who's willing to work hard and can play. This is the push-pull within the boys' athletics departments of all of the Jackson-area private schools. MRA and Hartfield have geographic advantages, lower tuitions, and are controlled by those with the second mentality. And those were your two teams in the 6A football championship last year. JA has a geographic deficiency, the highest tuition, and as a way to compensate for these, it has increased recruiting under Pogue. He tried his hardest to convince JA's administration/controlling interests that he couldn't win in the future with the available players remaining after this year's senior class and that recruiting would have to become a mainstay at JA. The administration/controllers wouldn't allow him to increase recruiting, so he resigned. And I will be very surprised if JA's football program doesn't rapidly decline over the next few years. Prep has never had to fully confront the situation in the past because of its numbers advantage and location. It will be very competitive, and will likely be a favorite in the major boy's sports, over the next 3 years. How it ultimately manages the situation after that will be interesting to see, particularly in light of Hartfield's no-holds-barred recruiting in Rankin County.

JA's high school tuition is $16,740. Prep's high school tuition is $15,573. MRA's high school tuition is $ 11,490. Hartfield's high school tuition is $9,350. There are additional fees at each of these schools. And they all provide tuition assistance for families that can document incomes that make the tuition difficult to afford.

The school has lost its head coach, one assistant has been very ill, another assistant left for MRA, and the only remaining assistant (the OC) is a dead man walking. Player defections will likely occur.

No one. The school hired a strength coach. There will be no spring practice. Just strength and conditioning with the new strength coach.

Interesting. Has this been announced?

He'll be a 17-year old sophomore. EP Sr. has purchased a team for EP Jr. They underperformed to their raw talent level last year, which led to John Bond's firing. If the new coach does not win 5A, either he'll meet the same fate or EP will head to IMG for his last couple of years. He has held an offer from IMG for over a year. Don't think EP Sr. is the only dad who's in the football team purchasing business. There's a mobile home magnate who's paying for a comparable number of kids at Hartfield.

JA had a talented group of seniors last year. Frankly, the team wasn't much less talented than MRA. The problem was that the offensive scheme and coaching was atrocious. The offensive struggles led to morale problems. The defense stayed on the field too long and ultimately gave in - due to both morale and just being too tired. The talent difference between St. Joe and JA this year will be surprising. The recruiting and sponsoring of players at St. Joe is much stronger than some people realize. There is at least one very interested parent paying for several kids to attend the St. Joe. JA is losing virtually every meaningful starter from last year's team. And there are no more Marcus Harris, Dakota Jordan, Daniel Adams, or Max Walenta type players in the school.