Boys' Basketball: Taft has 13 former players in college

Ok...you have got to be kidding me with this??? Right?? Look I was born and raised in the Los Angeles area, and a resident of the San Fernando Valley since, 1979. I have pretty much followed all the sports in particularly basketball.

Those above mentioned athletes going onto college and and then the league has very little to do with Derrick Taylor. It has more to do with the state of affairs of high school or rather youth sports. I'm at a loss for words as to why you even say such things, when you know the deal. It's called "illegal" recruiting as you well know.

Now don't get me wrong, this is not just a Derrick Taylor phenomenon by any stretch of the imagination. As a matter of fact, I'm sure Taylor is an "ok" coach, and I mean just that, ok! I have seen his tirades on the bench and can only imagine what his practices are like, with his verbally abusive behavior. But that's another subject, but please stop giving undue credit as this "blog" of yours states, that is ridiculous.

True, Taft has had and currently has some tremendous athletes, dating back to well before the '90's. But this more recent crop of baller's starting with Steve Smith (those in the know, know he was an outstanding basketball player and ran a bit of track while at Taft), were pretty much transfers (not Smith) to Taft. Farmer was from Birmingham, and I could go on and on. Many of these kids are recruited from their middle schools and youth football and track programs. One can go as far as to say that many of Taft's players were not in the district at all. But of course illegal addresses has been done for years. But originally that was done to get your kid to a better school academically and into a better area, not to get him an athletic scholarship. Hey I'll even go as far as to say it's ok, if you can get away with it, but that does not make it right!! But let's not give credit to a coach getting these kids to the "league". Please do not insult the intelligence of someone very much in the know that just happened to see this ridiculous statement.

This is extremely sad, they are alum's by association and that's pretty much it. Half of these kids are not even from around here. One can attest to that by the fact that very few of these "college" and "professional" athletes rarely return to Taft in a show of appreciation for what the school has done for them. You see, so many kids that should have probably been on that team got booted off by the time they go through the frosh/soph, and JV teams. If these schools are constantly bringing in illegal recruits, as juniors and seniors, well someone has to go. Unfortunate for the kid that lives around the corner, trying to make the team.

So lets please not put Taft or Derrick Taylor in the same category of let's say Willie West of Crenshaw High, who I'm sure would love to comment on just this subject. I mean Westchester High didn't all of a sudden become a basketball powerhouse with kids from the neighborhood.

After you respond to this comment I'll gladly go further into the subject with you and these high school sports factories, where even the administrations look the other way.