1. Top Recruit Cited
John Wall (Word of God Christian Academy, Raleigh, N.C.) is known for his amazing quickness, body control and ability to make split-second decisions on the move. It appears he made a very poor decision off the court and he
John Wall, Word of God
Photo By Jim Redman
couldn’t have picked a worse time. The nation’s No. 1 boys basketball recruit of 2009 by some scouting agencies (
No. 8 overall by MaxPreps) was
cited for breaking and entering into an unoccupied house on April 27 in Raleigh. The 6-foot-4 point guard, who is the lone uncommitted blue chipper in his class, is reportedly picking between
Memphis,
North Carolina State,
Miami, Baylor and
Kentucky. It will be interesting to see if those schools remain in the chase. According to reports, officers saw Wall leaving the residence around 12:30 p.m. and there was no forced entry or indication anything was taken.
2. New Mexico Reacts to Swine Flu Concerns
New Mexico is the latest state to be shut down by the swine flu/H1N1 epidemic as the New Mexico Activities Association ruled Sunday to suspend all sports indefinitely until state health officials give clearance. La Cueva baseball coach Stan McKeever, whose team has the best record in the state, was just looking forward to the state playoffs. He told KOB.com: “It's kind of like getting up on Christmas morning and your parents telling you you've got to wait another week to open your presents.” In more H1N1 developments, just four days after suspending play, the Alabama High School Athletic Association announced it will resume play on Tuesday and the University Interscholastic League of Texas said its track and field plans are back on track. On Wednesday, the UIL suspended sports until May 11, and that included canceling regional meets leading up to the state meet. Cooler heads prevailed and simply the regional meets are now scheduled for May 15-16, May 22-23 and the state meet has been moved all the way to June 5-6 in Austin.
3. Historic Induction
The Florida High School Athletic Association inducted eight former Florida prep stars Sunday to its Sports Hall of Fame, setting all apart from the thousands of famous former standouts. But Carl Joseph, 48, was particularly noteworthy considering he was born without a left leg. He earned eight varsity letters and was a three-sport standout, including football, at Madison High while hopping on one leg. Joseph, who now lives in Tallahassee, is believed to be the first special needs athlete to achieve such an honor at the national or state level. Jackie Sherrill, a former college coach and a mentor to Joseph, said it best when he applauded the selection committee for not picking necessarily a record breaker, but for someone who inspired “the sports world and motivates us to believe we can do anything if we really never, ever give up.” See video.
4. What a Meet
The Penn Relays, Arcadia Invitational, Drake Relays and Texas Relays are well known high school track and field meets, but one of the nation’s lesser known juggernauts is the all-Northern California Sacramento Meet of Champions. Despite soggy conditions, it once again produced some of the nation’s top marks on Saturday including Novato junior Erik Olson, who, like the meet, has emerged from obscurity to break a 21-year-old meet mark and set the top 3,200-meter time in the country this year, winning in 8 minutes, 55.19 seconds. Other marks on the national charts included Moreau Catholic (Hayward) triple jumper Allitta Boyd (41 feet, 3 inches), St. Elizabeth (Oakland) sprinter Ashton Purvis (100, 11.88; 200, 24.46) and Deer Valley (Antioch) male triple jumper Hammed Suleman (49-2½) and female 400 standout Chizoba Okodogbe (54.40), Fairfield 300 hurdler Dante Thomas (37.62), Jesuit (Carmichael) 400 runner Tom Blocker (47.69) and the De La Salle (Concord) 400 relay team (41.53).
5. More on Sidney
The talk continues to swirl about Renardo Sidney’s startling “choice” last week to go to Mississippi State rather than sign to USC, where he made a verbal commitment in February. According to this extensive Los Angeles Times piece, the Bulldogs were his only choice.
National High 5 is a regular feature highlighting the top high school sports news and features on the Net. Let us know if there are some interesting reads that we’ve missed. E-mail Mitch Stephens at mstephens@maxpreps.com.
