Oh bull sh....t, Prep recruits all over Fairfield County, tried to recruit my dad away from Ludlowe many years ago when Ludlowe was a state power. Windsor has a practice bus that brings them home to Hartford, and Dobbs is from Waterbury. Yes, you are right my cousins kids play for ST Joe's. It is what it is, everyone just looks the other way. Ask Coach Cochran if he ever recruited for Bloomfield or New London? Lol
If public schools get caught the CIAC has some power to enforce compliance, but with the parochials or Prep, it's next to impossible to enforce so they just let it go.
Don’t you think when people bring this up ad nauseum about a program like Ansonia, that the CIAC would have looked into it? They don’t because there’s no credence to it. The kids are either residents or participate in Open Choice, so it’s a non issue.
Markell Dobbs has lived in Ansonia his whole life with his mother. He has family in Hamden but he’s always attended Ansonia schools and came up through the Ansonia youth program. As far as Cochran goes, he’s always been at a program that was either Open Choice or a Charter School, so again there’s no issue. This is the same reason a kid like Daron Braden, who lives in Enfield, can attend Bloomfield.
Unless, someone in those towns blows the whistle and has credible proof, as they did in Berlin a few years ago. The CIAC won’t waste their time or money, because some rival fans feel disadvantaged and can’t prove anything
Basketball players change schools like I change underwear. So, it doesn’t bother me. Control what you can control. If you don’t like what your opponents doing focus on what you need to do to beat them. You can’t control what they do.
My best friend has a daughter and son that attend St Joe’s. They are both tremendous athletes. They weren’t recruited to play there. Another son attended NDWH as a frosh. He now attends a prep school in MA because he wanted a challenge against high level competition in his sport. All three could have gone to Amity and been successful in their respective sports. They all took advantage of an opportunity to get a quality education and participate in successful athletic programs elsewhere. It was their choice. Nobody said we’ll give you this or that to come here. They attended open house took the entrance exam and were accepted. Were they aware of the athletic successes of these programs, of course. Did the coaches want them? Yes. But, nothing was promised or given to them for choosing to attend. The great thing about this country is that we can make these choices.
