Richardson Leaving Ensworth

[shakinthefat]

I was an o-cord for a major catholic high school in the chicago area for over 10 years - my son was recruited by Northwestern so i do have some knowledge of what goes on in regards to this subject.

If we found out that Jimmy John was a standout at his middle school,we would make sure he got one of our letters to invite him to our "summer camp" or perhaps, i would go to his middle school talk to his coach and many other ways to entice the kid to come to our school = technically we wouldnt call it recruiting but.....

 

That would cause a lawsuit in the state of Tennessee.....technically speaking.

Especially if your letter was sent to middle school kids who have already placed a tuition deposit and been accepted to the school.

Illinois secondary athletic association lost out on a major lawsuit.

[BLUEMOM]

First and foremost, I wish the young gentleman the very best and hope he clears the eligibility center and goes on to a good collegiate career and gains an invaluable education that will serve him well in life.

 

I believe that all schools should continually monitor and evaluate their desires for athletic greatness and academic success and achieve an acceptable balance between the two. A school should not knowingly accept a student-athlete that the school knows can't cut it academically. It is a lose-lose situation. Conversely, a student-athlete and his/her parents should know their limitations and their level of commitment to succeed in all areas and own it. Give a kid a chance if you feel they deserve it and do everything in your power to help them be successful in and out of the classroom.

 

As to players winding up at "lesser" schools, if the lesser school is a good fit for that student-athlete that is a wonderful choice. They have the opportunity to continue their athletic career at the next level and find the academic success to earn a degree. Might even realize that all the effort they put in academically in a prep school might have been worth it! That school most likely will fit their physical abilities better and may be closer to home for families to travel to games! There are myriad reasons for an athlete to consider and choose a "lesser" college.

[wholder]

IMHO all parties involved with this situation are too blame. The school used him; the parents failed him. (no pun intended)

 

 

I agree with that.

 

Rumor has it that Ensworth was about to forfeit its wins this year because he did not qualify academicaly (spelling) so he left the school. You hear anything and everything.

[KWoodroof]

I agree with that.

 

Rumor has it that Ensworth was about to forfeit its wins this year because he did not qualify academicaly (spelling) so he left the school. You hear anything and everything.

I'm skeptical. If he was ineligible, keeping him out of the Baylor game doesn't mitigate what's already happened. I can't picture that being the problem at all.

 

Ensworth is in an unfair position here. They're being accused of using this young man, or bringing in someone unqualified to be there, or of abandoning him, or all three. They cannot defend themselves due to the Federal Educational Right to Privacy Act. And unless the family chooses to go into detail, it's likely we'll never know for sure. And it's not our business anyway.

 

Given the fact that he appears to be academically eligible for the TSSAA, a reasonable explanation is that he has passing grades, though not magna cum lauda stuff. I would suspect that Ensworth advises its students much like MBA does, and has them take the ACT/SAT in the spring of their junior year, and in the fall of their senior year. It may be that his test scores simply aren't high enough for him to qualify with his current GPA. Raisinga GPA in your senior year is a task, and he simply may not be able to do it with EHS' workload.

[big red big blue]

I would tend to give EHS the benefit of the doubt, though their fanatical efforts to get him eligible as a sophomore--even dispatching Tim McGraw to go lobby the Mt. Pleasant principal--makes you question their motives. Regardless, it's better to give him the opportunity to succeed there and it not work out then to ignore him altogether. Both he and his father stressed that they wanted a better academic environment than Mt. Pleasant when this whole thing started. Their motives make sense. I hope for EHS' sake that they went overboard to accomodate him. No doubt they knew from the get go what a challenge he faced coming in as a sophomore. That's why transfers like this are rare...for a million different reasons, the odds are hugely against their being successful.

 

the unfortunate part, for all of us, not just EHS, is that we can't offer some sort of better alternative. I don't think the rest of us deserve any "points" for saying "we'd never admit a kid like that." We all have these gazillion dollar endowments and keep funding Shanghai-like construction projects. Wouldn't it be nice if we all could offer some sort of academic boot camp or something without putting a kid like that (and the school) in such a difficult position? Maybe there is something like that already. Some strapping young kids looking to bulk up their transcripts could figure that out.

[KWoodroof]

I would tend to give EHS the benefit of the doubt, though their fanatical efforts to get him eligible as a sophomore--even dispatching Tim McGraw to go lobby the Mt. Pleasant principal--makes you question their motives. Regardless, it's better to give him the opportunity to succeed there and it not work out then to ignore him altogether. Both he and his father stressed that they wanted a better academic environment than Mt. Pleasant when this whole thing started. Their motives make sense. I hope for EHS' sake that they went overboard to accomodate him. No doubt they knew from the get go what a challenge he faced coming in as a sophomore. That's why transfers like this are rare...for a million different reasons, the odds are hugely against their being successful.

 

the unfortunate part, for all of us, not just EHS, is that we can't offer some sort of better alternative. I don't think the rest of us deserve any "points" for saying "we'd never admit a kid like that." We all have these gazillion dollar endowments and keep funding Shanghai-like construction projects. Wouldn't it be nice if we all could offer some sort of academic boot camp or something without putting a kid like that (and the school) in such a difficult position? Maybe there is something like that already. Some strapping young kids looking to bulk up their transcripts could figure that out.

MBA used to offer a pre-7th grade English program in the summer, taught by the venerable Mrs. Bowen. I know of a couple of kids who attended in an effort to see if they could be brought up to a level where they would have a chance to succeed in 7th grade English (which you some of the other MBA alums may recall was a bit challenging). I don't know if that's still done. I would imagine that jumping into EHS as a sophomore was a near-Herculean task.

[Tigerforever]

Most likly boils down to Ensworth want pad gpa and Pearl cohn will. Also, the old country principle at MP was right in not sining release after all.

[KWoodroof]

Most likly boils down to Ensworth want pad gpa and Pearl cohn will. Also, the old country principle at MP was right in not sining release after all.

No, it was simply spiteful. How did Mt. Pleasant or the young man benefit from that act? The family, who probably know better than you, seems to think he's better off for his time at EHS.

[shakinthefat]

Six years from now the football field will have new most updated turf and it will be donated by NFL football player A. Richardson. The Ensworth field will be dedicated in his name.

The Antonio Richardson Field.

This will be just a long forgotten memory.

[randymc]

I don't have much of a dog in this fight, but I've seen Ensworth play twice in the last 2 years, and I thought Richardson was one of the laziest players on the field both nights. Now that being said, I am not saying who's at fault here. I do know passing 5 classes regardless of the school is not a terribly difficult thing to do to be eligible by the TSSAA rules. BUT, the sliding scale was brought up earlier, and the fact that a 2.0 student would have to score 86 on the sum of his act sub scores. Well, if EHS (and all these other elite private schools) is such a good school, I would think their 2.0 students would have no problem doing what lots of public school 2.0 student athletes do every year Something doesn't add up here.

[TheDeCleater]

I don't have much of a dog in this fight, but I've seen Ensworth play twice in the last 2 years, and I thought Richardson was one of the laziest players on the field both nights. Now that being said, I am not saying who's at fault here. I do know passing 5 classes regardless of the school is not a terribly difficult thing to do to be eligible by the TSSAA rules. BUT, the sliding scale was brought up earlier, and the fact that a 2.0 student would have to score 86 on the sum of his act sub scores. Well, if EHS (and all these other elite private schools) is such a good school, I would think their 2.0 students would have no problem doing what lots of public school 2.0 student athletes do every year Something doesn't add up here.

 

So let me summarize this post:

 

State that you really don't care

Insult the kid

Make vague accusation that the school and/or the player did something wrong

 

Did I miss anything?

[Gr8CaesarsGhost]

I don't have much of a dog in this fight, but I've seen Ensworth play twice in the last 2 years, and I thought Richardson was one of the laziest players on the field both nights. Now that being said, I am not saying who's at fault here. I do know passing 5 classes regardless of the school is not a terribly difficult thing to do to be eligible by the TSSAA rules. BUT, the sliding scale was brought up earlier, and the fact that a 2.0 student would have to score 86 on the sum of his act sub scores. Well, if EHS (and all these other elite private schools) is such a good school, I would think their 2.0 students would have no problem doing what lots of public school 2.0 student athletes do every year Something doesn't add up here.

 

I'm a public school parent and I think you are way out of line on this. Nobody has any idea how far this student may have come since his arrival to EHS. I sure don't. For all any of us know, he could have made miraculous headway towards his education.