What a Summer for Silverado & Moving Vans

American Idol is supposed to be the dream for all of those who are trying to make it big. For Keenan Graham of Silverado, he is living his dream with an amazing rush of offers from major D1 schools. Also, Las Vegas now seems to be the school of choice for top football players in town. They score the top returning RB, QB and LB in one Summer. Pack the bags and head to LV.

Keenan Graham is a modest kid. The Silverado DL has gone from a low level recruit to a national star in a matter of a couple of months. Tracking a kid who put in the work at combines and sent out tapes to everyone that included grades has major colleges salivating over him.

Graham had attracted a handful of colleges before February. Now he is the marked man among the top DL in the country. Name the school - USC (offered), Michigan (offered), Washington State (offered), Virginia Tech (offered), UCLA (offered) and the list continues to grow.

Being a military kid, Graham is not afraid of leaving home. But, when you consider that Virginia Tech (a school not known for stepping foot in Nevada) has offered and believes that they have a great shot at him, he has grown quickly as a fast rising recruit.

His Father lives in Michigan and he will take an unofficial visit to Ann Arbor later in June. Still there are others wanting tape. Notre Dame and Ohio State the latest. He wants to narrrow his list down to 10 teams after the UNLV camp. You can rest assured that the Rebels and Pack are not in the running for him. Smaller programs are starting to realize that he is going to be off the market. Yet, Fresno State and Colorado State continue to believe that they can land him anyway.

Then you take a look at his LB teammate TJ Alofipo and colleges who are looking at Graham are seeing another stud player who is also worthy of a ride. See when colleges notice one player on a team, it only helps all of the other kids on the same team as well as their opponents. He now has 5 rides in front of him and the list is growing for the 6'2 240 pound athlete. He has Army, Hawaii, Fresno, SDSU and Colorado State on him. Not touching a weight until this Summer, he is only going to get better and you can expect his list to grow that much larger.

Do you want to call it recruiting or do you want to call it just a matter of chance? Reggie Bullock of Western, Cormier of Cimarron and Lopez of Sierra Vista have all landed on the campus of Las Vegas. Bullock mentioned that he had ASU, Arizona and Florida chasing him as a Junior. Lopez has shined in passing camps as the number one QB in the pass happy offense of Sierra Vista last year. He also had Sharp in the backfield which made life alot easier. So far Sharp has not packed up his bags and still is at SV. You can only imagine that without a proven QB, that defenses are going to focus on him even after having amazing combine numbers this Spring. Dont be suprised if he makes a move before school starts.

Las Vegas is a proven winner. Parents are making the efforts to get these athletes zoned to have them play for the Wildcats. Bullock is an amazing speed back who can catch the ball out of the backfield as well as hitting the corner better than any RB in town. Cormier is a D1 LB candidate that should help out this defense even more. Coach Chris Faircloth has never been one to seek out players. Players are seeking out a program that can get them a ride. The odds on LV winning the Sunrise continues to rise after these moves. With plenty already in the cupboard, expect the Cats to be one to beat and even if they take lumps against Utah schools, Bullock could put up Antoine White numbers in his Senior year in this offense.

Passing camps have come under the scrutiny of the CCSD due to insurance coverage reasons. Noting that the teams are representing their schools and that the camps are using High School fields, the insurance to cover these teams is making it difficult for our local schools to come up with the cash to make these events continue.

Coronado Football. What can we say about this program that the message boards have not said already. Right now it is a mess. Players are leaving and heading to Del Sol in an effort to play for a better program in droves. Parents are being targeted as the reasons behind the Coach Moore firing. Many of these parents had kids who have since graduated from Coronado. Interestingly enough, you dont see them looking at closer Silverado or Liberty to find spots. Silverado makes a ton of sense with their 3 D1 defensive players. Liberty continues to be the black hole for players and you still have to wonder about the direction of the program.

Knowing the Anthem area pretty well, all I can say is that Parents are as active on making sure that their kids get into the right Elementary school up there. Coronado is looked at as their school. But, the methods used in ousting a Coach who brought them into the playoffs without having all of his key players until the playoffs - you have to wonder if the future was brighter than many were seeing. After a while, the complaining needs to stop and the Athletic Director at Coronado needs to stand up for his Coaches. They have yet to field strong winning programs in any of their major sports. Not because of not having the money needed to get the programs everything that they need. It has more to do with the interjection of parents who want to play Coach while being in the stands. I still think that this is a plumb job. But, when will Coronado fans start to look at themselves as a public school version of Gorman. Gorman was dumping Coaches after getting to Semi Finals in Football - so they are not totally there yet. Then there is the concern of the LDS community in Anthem raising up together causing many of these issues. Hate to single out anyone's religion as an excuse of rationale of making a move - but these seem to be the same parents who demand for a youth rec Coach's ouster because they are being yelled at to do the right thing. Or the parents who say play my kid or else when the kid never shows up for practice. Would they act in the same manner with a Ray Fenton in charge? Would the AD stand up for his Coach and filter out all of the wining? I hope so. The program needs organization and someone who is strong enough to stand up to these outside forces. Both as AD and as the Head Coach. With so many kids leaving, will the new Coach be able to turn it around with little talent? Will they then be gone next year? You make this change at the end of the season and not when you are in the Summer training for next season. Do you need to hire someone with a BYU degree to make all of those faithful happy? I dont understand how religion got involved with the Staff at Coronado and in many way I kind of dont want to know. I can tell you that the stands will be full again at Coronado supporting this program. But, will these fans provide the support to encourage their kids to follow the Coach's lead? He has to be given the support to run his program. Not every style works for all players, truly special Coaches do not fall out from the sky.

On a quick Womens Basketball note, the UNLV new Womens Coach Kathy Oliver is impressive. You want to talk about someone who wants to make changes and not let the fact that local kids have left get in her way. After talking to her staff, you can expect to see Italee Lucas and Ashley Gayle play in Las Vegas for their schools against UNLV in the near future. Some Coaches refuse to play against teams that recruit in their back yard. Not this Coach. This new Staff welcomes the opportunity. This is refreshing to here. Who would not want to see Hank Thorns come back to play against UNLV in Las Vegas or P Allen Stinnett come back to play for Creighton against UNLV. But, there are no signs that is going to take place anytime soon. You are more likely to see these athletes play at the Orleans in one of their events than to play against the Rebels. Jim Boehiem of Syracuse and Roy Williams of North Carolina provide the chance for their players to play a game in their home town. It is nice to see the Womens program welcome this challenge. So get on the message boards and state how you want to see our local athletes play at home once in a regular season game. Be it UNLV Football or Hoops - the men's program would be wise to do the same. Maybe they can put up a good game and show locals that UNLV is a real option. The lack of local recruiting, yes I am excluding Findlay Prep players (who are not really local and their schedule is a bit of a myth to the average fan who wants to see them play in Vegas)in both mens hoops and football continues to plague local interest. Hopefully, the schedule makers will take this into consideration next Fall and follow what the Women's Hoop program is going to do.

That would be a dream come true for those athletes, our local UNLV players and also all of us fans who would like to see their progress in front of our own eyes.

If you are a Coach or an Athlete and you want to get some exposure from the site, please e mail us your information so we can spread the word. It is not too late to promote yourself and with the power of the internet and this site - it does not cost you a dime and it gives you exposure to those schools who can not recruit Nevada easily.