Rene Portland out at Penn State

That's what I meant, but since it was never proven, I was being nice.

 

Nice? SportsJournalists.com? You've got to be kidding me.

 

Those Oakland Catholic teams of Suzie's were the most absolute all-star collection I have seen in Pennsylvania high school basketball, girls OR boys. It seemed as if she simply plucked the top AAU players from a 30-mile radius at will.

I don't recall anything ever being proven that anything unseemly was going on there; it's quite possible that playing for Suzie was that big a draw.

 

I think that was a lot of it. And once they started winning championships, that became a draw as well. I don't think she even had to recruit.

The WPIAL did rule at least one transfer ineligible that I remember, but that was overturned at the state level.

 

Of course, the CYO programs that I understand exist out there do a nice job of promoting the "good Catholic education your son would get at Oakland Catholic" view, too.

Not saying she blatantly recruited, but the churches do a nice job of steering kids toward Central Catholic, Oakland Catholic and all the others.

 

No doubt...and if she did bend the rules, she managed not to get caught. Unlike the North Catholic coach.

 

Ummm, what's wrong with members of the Catholic Church "steering" kids toward Catholic schools?

Isn't that their mission -- Catholic education?

 

It's still recruiting, if you go by the hard-and-fast rules of the PIAA and other state athletics associations.

 

Given the quality of Pittsburgh city schools, the Catholics are the best route to go. I went to Central, only because my public option was Taylor Alderdice (Hi, Curtis Martin!).

 

Except that Central Catholic and Oakland Catholic draw a good bit from outside the city limits as well. (For those not familiar with the schools, Central Catholic is all boys and Oakland Catholic is all girls and they are walking distance from one another).

The female basketball player that I mentioned earlier, who was initially denied eligibility because the district ruled she transferred for athletic reasons, was from outside the city limits. I think somewhere in Westmoreland County (now I'm going to have to look it up).