Young men–often young black men–are being used by a college sports system that gets wealthy from their talents and labors. The system requires acquiescence to work. Enter Josh Hall.
Tuesday’s Charlotte Observer carried an article concerning the rise in the rankings (by Rivals.com) of Josh Hall, a high school basketball player. According to the article, written by Langston Wertz, Jr., young Hall was ranked #25 nationally. That makes him a 5-star recruit in the Class of 2020.
How Hall achieved this rise is interesting and, for me, disturbing.
As a freshman, Hall played at Southern Durham High School in North Carolina but then transferred to Oak Hill Academy in Virginia, where he played on the “B” team. Finishing his junior year at Oak Hill, Hall was not satisfied with the notice he was getting, so he transferred again, this time to Moravian Prep School in Hickory, North Carolina.
Hall, who gained fifteen pounds of muscle according to Wertz, led the high school program at Moravian. After he gained some recognition after a tournament game against Oak Hill, he “decided to reclassify around the same time” and change his graduation date (at the urging of several recruiting coaches) from 2019 to 2020. Wertz quotes Hall: “I felt like I had some little things that I had to improve on in order to come to college and play right away. I wasn’t talking to any big-time coaches then, but once I re-classified, it blew up.”
The words and phrases used here are interesting: academy, prep (preparatory), reclassify, big-time, 5-star, nationally. As an educator for forty decades in independent schools, I understand the use of some of these words and how they are used to camouflage.
I grasp the phrase “big-time coaches,” understanding that this probably does not mean Davidson College, which is my local favorite. But I have to admit, “re-classify myself” is one of the best euphemisms I have ever read or heard. As I understand young Hall, he–with the urging of some college coaches following Hall’s newly-found recognition as a basketball talent–decided to ‘self-flunk’ his senior year in order to “come to college and play [start, be a star] right away.”
In my mind and experience, a student would be required to repeat a year for one or both of two reasons–lack of maturity (a slippery slope) and poor academics. That first one is dangerous, often used for the wrong reasons. Some independent schools or parents have a student repeat a grade to gain a year of physical maturity. I often saw it done at the 8th or 9th-grade level, but it has now fallen to the K or first-grade level.
A student sometimes is required to repeat a grade because of poor academic performance but, in public school, this has become rare because of mandated testing.
However, in all the above situations, it is an institution or the parent(s) making the decision. Yet, in this case, young Hall flunks himself in order to be better prepared for college basketball–not to get better prepared for college reading, mathematics, science, history, or writing.
It is plain where his and some coaches’ values are. I can only hope that a severe injury does not hamper his freshman year of college hoops before he turns professional.
As a boy out of a cotton mill town who was blessed enough to be a fair high school wrestler, I appreciate and understand the ladder that sport offers. However, sport is only a means, not an end. I only wish all the Halls the best. But they are being used by a system that gets wealthy from their talents and labors. There are so many whites watching so many blacks. But where goes the money?
In Black Boy, Richard Wright tells of being blindfolded and wearing boxing gloves, then being put in a boxing ring with other young, black boys. Scared of the men, the boys had to swing out into the dark and hope that no other boy’s gloved fist would find their face–all the while hearing white jeers and laughter.
Those explicit days are over. But more subtle damage is being done.
