Football Stars Shining In Spring

Justin Chaisson of Gorman, Kyle Van Noy & Karrington Armstrong of McQueen and Keenan Graham of Silverado continue to make news this Spring. They are the 4 wanted Nevada prospects in the early season recruting. In hoops, Elijah Johnson of Cheyenne and Anthony Marshall of Mojave are also getting national love. We might be in the end of the school year, but plenty is happenning in recruiting.

First, let me apologize for letting this Fernley story go on the front page too long. We will be better than this in the future.

Gorman has had a tremendous year. Just think about it for a second. They win the 4A Football AAAA Championship, they get eliminated in the Sunset Semi Finals for Hoops and now in Baseball they get the USA Today #1 ranking in the country for top team in the land. Sure Sierra Vista doused the excitement by beating the Gaels later in the same week. But, for Nevada to get this type of respect says alot for how far Nevada has come as a Prep State. Gorman has had a great year and right now is the school at the moment that all are shooting for. Now Gorman's baseball team needs to get it done at State and win the AAAA title.

Elijah Johnson of Cheyenne is one of the most electifying guards on the West Coast. He has the ability to carry a team on his back and you can expect to see his Shields back at the Orleans in February. The kid is almost too unselfish. He could have taken over the State basketball title game, if not for the hot shooting of Reno's Austin Morgan. I can tell you that you will not see EJ let Morgan get the best of him this Fall. He is so good that both him and Anthony Marshall of Mojave were invited to Lawrence, Kansas this past week to compete in an event that featured the best to be Seniors in the country. To have two great Las Vegas kids get this type of honor to go back to play in an event that could have chose top kids from California or Chicago says something. Since EJ has already been back to Kansas (the NCAA Champion) during the regular season to see the Jayhawks on an unofficial visit, he is a top target for Bill Self. I would find it highly unlikely that we will see a Luke Babbitt reversal of judgement if the Jayhawks move on EJ. UNLV has an interest, but to play in a venue as legendary as Fogg Allen and to play for a team that will be on TV (real national TV, not the Mountain or what ever the Mountain West wishes to call their lame National Deal)makes it a pretty easy decision for EJ. Marshall has a chance to raise his stock this Spring as well.

Lets talk football. The NFL Draft did not bode well for the former Nevada prep stars. Jeff Van Orsow (Foothill) comes up empty on draft day and Gerrard Lawson (Palo Verde)signs a Free Agent contract. Not for his cover skills, but his outstanding special teams play. This bodes well for Lawson. Make an impact on Special teams Gerrard and you will grow into a solid DB at the NFL level.

Justin Chaisson knew what he was looking for - it was the chance to play for a big time program. So he announced that he will be accepting the scholarship offered to him by Oklahoma. This continues the Gorman pipeline to Oklahoma. Now with Ryan Reynolds, Demarco Murray, David White and now Chaisson - the Sooners have a pipeline in Las Vegas. Dont expect this to be the last Las Vegas kid signed by the Sooners either. Oklahoma, Colorado, Arizona and Arizona State have all increased their involvement in recruiting Nevada kids over the past year. CU did not make a big splash this past year - missing on several local athletes. Arizona and ASU both made great in roads over this past year. They both know that there is talent in Nevada that is ripe for the taking. UNLV is starting to offer the big time local kids earlier, but face the fact that there is a potential lame duck Coach in Mike Sanford. Chris Ault of Nevada has made little in roads in Las Vegas. For the exception of Mark Seward of Bonanza and Mike Ball of DP, the Pack is not showing up on the radar of local athletes. So a chance to make head way is being taken advantage by these PAC 10 schools. Now Rick Neuheisel is back in command at a PAC 10 school. He recruited Nevada well in the past and he personally has got involved with the recruitment of fast rising DE Keenan Graham of Silverado by showing him around the UCLA campus. Want to make an impression, Slick Rick certainly did just that has Graham has the Bruins on top of the list of schools he has interest in.

Graham has done all the right moves this Spring attending top Combines in So Cal and Nevada. His Coach is passionately involved in getting his Silverado Skyhawk players looks at the next level. Coach Andy has been very involved in reaching out to all of the recruiting experts and schools to let them know that he has talent. After only a couple of initial rides - Graham now has UCLA, Wisconsin, Maryland, Washington State, Vandy, Arizona, Boise State, UNLV, Utah, Hawaii and Colorado all in the mix. Oklahoma now has joined in and USC is starting to put some focus on Graham as well after getting film on him and having him take in their Spring game. He is also expecting Minnesota and Texas to join in. If USC offers - I expect the Bruins and Trojans to battle the Sooners for this stud player. He has his test scores and with a GPA of 2.9 the sky is the limit for this player.

McQueen has 2 solid players getting plenty of love - Kyle Van Noy and Karington Armstrong. Van Noy is now not just a low level player. BYU, Boise State, Colorado, UNLV, Stanford, Cal, UCLA and Nevada are all on the player. Armstrong just got an offer from Arizona this week and you can expect the same line up of players to be after him as well.

Lets talk about some of these schools who are stepping into Nevada. Hawaii - I am sorry but the Corbin Brown offer then non offer is going to hurt them in Nevada. Some of the inside chatter is that Hawaii felt that there were some errors made in the recruitment which could have led to sanctions in a BCS year. The comments that June Jones was not in the loop looks like a lame excuse. With nearly the exact same staff at UH, I find it hard to believe that Nevada kids can trust the UH staff. Wisconsin has always touched Nevada kids with former UNLV Coach Jeff Horton a part of their staff, they have not landed a kid. Colorado with former BSU Coach Dan Hawkins knows about the potential of Nevada kids. Hawkins did a great job of landing Northern Nevada athletes in the past, now he is focusing on Southern Nevada kids. His in ability to sign Devonte Christopher hurt them and they need a signee to develop a firm connection. Dennis Erickson of ASU has seen how Nevada kids can play a role in growing a program while he was the Head Coach at Oregon State. Josh Barrett of Reno was drafted late last weekend in the NFL draft. The recruitment of lineman Paleili of Gorman has been hurt by his ability to qualify. Getting Lawrence Guy of Western and Josh Jordan of Gorman should erase these bad thoughts. Arizona who usually spends the majority of time in Texas recruiting, opened up the pipeline with 2 Nevada signees.

Moving on to the girls soccer battle to get Northern and Southern Nevada players playing at the same time to get a real State Champion. The North can not play in Winter months for obvious reasons. The South has played in the Winter months. This works with Club soccer not being interrupted, but with some brutally cold game times and beat up fields due to a full football season having already been played -the South girls have had their sport played during a time frame that benefits few. The comments regarding title 9 for moving girls soccer to the Fall to match the North has put the South in the spot to add an additional sport to provide balance. The boys would have wrestling while the girls would not have a sport. In some states, we see gymnastics added to help provide balance. But, we are again hearing the complaints of budgets during a down time in Nevada. The Governor is looking for ways to cut programs and to have someone coming knocking for more funding when it is not related to teacher salaries and costs of new building of schools makes it a hard sell.

The NIAA continues to look for answers. Again, we raise the question about where they take funds from State Tournaments and what they do with them. Everyone is looking at State Agencies and asking the same question - what are these agencies doing to manage their budgets and grow their ability to increase productivity. At the same time, we have become an increasingly litigious country. A kid hits a ball in the stands in baseball, some one is hit and of course instead of saying it is just a part of being at the game - people are looking to collect a pay check. You can only imagine the amount of people out there who look for opportunities to sue to make an easy buck. So the NIAA has to protect itself and this is costly. The Lawyers getting rich while the kids are left not to play. So the NIAA is in a tough spot. The Clark County School District finally has someone in Ray Mathis who will stand up for helping to grow sports and opportunities for Las Vegas kids to play them. Washoe County finds themselves in a similiar spot, but not to the degree that the South is facing. You can bet that Middle School Athletics and the 5A Classification issue will come up next time that the CCSD is looking to manage their budgets as the legislature comes back to Carson City. You hear the teachers union wanting to increase the gaming tax. Gamers are stating - show us how providing an increase in salary is going to provide a better education. But, not one mention has been made about sports. Teachers get a well deserved salary increase, but who is saying dont take things away from the kids at the same time? This is a story that will continue to unfold going into next year. But, you can see how the money positioning is not even talking about improving sports.