Gilroy has a trio of tranfers who played for the same AAU
basketball team
Gilroy – Gilroy High is abuzz with hoop dreams with basketball practice set to start today. Eligibility concerns of transfer players who could help fuel a special season leave some questions.
“What will the three transfers bring to the Mustangs?” is the question most asked. And then, even more important: “Have eligibility issues been cleared?”
Questions should begin to be answered today when GHS coach Bud Ogden greets candidates for the 2006-07 team. Ogden has no intention of dealing with the unknown at this point.
“My philosophy is you play the hand your dealt,” Ogden said Tuesday. “If any of the kids are ineligible because of grades or other reasons, the world will go on … the season will go on. We’ll play hard-nosed basketball with whoever we can put on the floor.”
Spencer Ford and Lorenzo Dobson from Milpitas High School, and Javin Charlot from Oak Grove High School are enrolled at GHS. The 6-10 Ford, a senior, and 6-7 Dobson, a junior, bolster the Mustangs’ frontcourt presence and add to a solid unit that already welcomes the return of Marshad Johnson. The 6-1 Charlot is a senior point guard who was second-team all-Mount Hamilton League last year.
The trio of transfers played on the same AAU basketball team as GHS guard Kameron Handy. They all ended up at the same high school as Handy.
That has Milpitas coach Steve Cain and Oak Grove coach Rich Young wondering how that happened and questioning whether everything was above board.
Gilroy athletic director Jack Daley said, “From a CCS standpoint, we filled out the paperwork and have submitted documentation is regards to concerns of recruiting. We’re waiting word from the CCS (for them to be able) to play basketball. We don’t want to put the program in jeopardy. We have a liaison working on home visits. We’re fully aware of the whole situation.”
Neither Cain nor Young points a finger at Ogden or anyone at GHS. Neither specifically used the “R” word (recruiting). But both questioned how three players from the same AAU team ended up in Gilroy.
“It’s our understanding that another guy on our team (Oak Grove) was asked to go down there as well,” Young said. “He is still here. I’ve known Bud for a long time and I don’t think he would be involved in anything like this.”
Nevertheless, Young admitted that if he could change the schedule he would be happy if the Eagles’ game Dec. 12 with Gilroy would be stricken. Young said the game will be played, though.
Interestingly, Milpitas is the team that eliminated the Mustangs last year, 59-43 in the Central Coast Section playoffs. Ford was supposed to be the Trojans’ only returning starter (Dobson was academically ineligible). Cain says Ford came to him at the end of last season and asked him to schedule Archbishop Mitty because he wanted to face Drew Gordon. Cain says he complied.
“I liked Spencer from Day 1,” says Cain, who in 38 years of coaching has more than 650 wins. “He’s a very likable kid. I had no problems with Spencer. Right before the end of school I heard talk about him considering three (different high) schools.
“I’m upset with the overall process. I feel his AAU coach (Kort Jensen) had a lot to do with this. It all comes down to loyalty with a capital L. There’s a lack of loyalty, and that is what I am really disappointed in.”
Meanwhile, Daley said the school has done everything by the book and awaits word from CCS commissioner Nancy Lazenby that all three athletes are good to go at GHS. He pointed out that two have Gilroy addresses and the third was granted an interdistrict transfer.
“We’re under the microscope, which quite frankly I feel is unjustified,” Ogden said. “A lot of stuff is going on throughout the CCS.”
As far as why the three players wound up at GHS, Ogden would prefer to maintain a positive attitude.
“Maybe they see we are doing good things here,” Ogden said. “Maybe they see we’re doing things the right way. Maybe we should look at that and not the ‘R’ word.”
Cain remembers when he first started coaching at Samuel Ayer High School, which split and eventually became Milpitas, that Handy’s parents were students at Ayer. He says that their son and Ford became close friends.
And yet he admits he doesn’t know the whole story and probably never will.
“People ask me and it’s hard to explain,” Cain said. “I don’t feel it was because of anything I did. I’m the all-time winningest coach in CCS. My teams have gone to the playoffs for 19 straight years. I coached a seven-footer, Randy Gill. Who knows what was going on.”
It won’t be long before the Gilroy High family will know exactly what is going on. An answer from the CCS is expected by the end of the week, and grades will be posted by that time as well.
