It is often said, but rarely done.

I've read "this should probably be its own post, but..." a few times. As I was responding to something on OIA, I felt the urge to type the phrase above, but then thought, "What they hey, let's make it its own post." I was responding to Donnie's question about basketball being the more popular sport amongst Savannah high schoolers. The response was going to read as follows:

Basketball seems to be the most popular sport. However, calling it the most popular sport is really a default title. At the two schools I have worked in, I've observed that most students don't really care about how the teams are doing. You seem to hear more about the team that is doing best in Savannah (Groves) amongst students. I would imagine that if your school was the best, the student body would rally behind it more. However, at SCJ at the beginning of the year, their football team was like 5-0 and people still didn't really give a hoot. I grew up in an area with a lot of young meatheads who lived for football and worked out hard all year round. Every year there was one or two guys going to decent D1 programs (Chad Henne Michigan, Jeff Smoker Michigan State, Ryan Purvis BC, Perry Patterson Syracuse, even Kerry Collins PSU) I am not sure which extreme is better, the apathetic savannah football player/student body or the schools back home where kids get roided out and 3 months after graduation deal with post-high school football withdrawal and depression. You would think with a town like Savannah, being what I would assume to be the second largest city in Georgia, you would get more D1 prospects in football and basketball.

There are a lot of things that would need to happen to bring the best athletes in Savannah out of the woodworks and onto the court and/or field. However, I am a believer in the survival of the fittest. If a kid isn't going to play football or basketball because their team isn't any good, or they can't make the grades, or they are worried about losing in the playoffs, he probably doesn't have what it takes to last through the first month of preseason work outs at the college level. Pure athletic ability will get you somewhere in life (not necessarily somewhere good), but a good work ethic, a good attitude, due-diligence, wear withal, and good decision making gets you somewhere that everyone else wishes they were.

I know this post doesn't really offer any solutions; but, even if it did, it wouldn't change anything because, no one who makes these decisions reads our blogs. I think that may be a good thing to keep in mind.

I would like to close this post with a video. For your viewing pleasure, my favorite basketball player of all time: Scottie Pippen.