I grew-up in South Florida as a huge sports fan in the 1970's, played three sports competitively -baseball, football and soccer- and was the Team Manager for two North Miami Beach Senior High School teams that won the Florida State championship.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Miami_Beach_Senior_High_School
(I wrote about 80% of the above Wiki definition.)
To see Street Scene of NMBHS: http://maps.google.com/maps?q=North+Miami+Beach+Senior+High+School&ie=UTF8&ll=25.934659,-80.174553&spn=0.008684,0.010343&t=h&z=16&layer=tc&cbll=25.929149,-80.175365&panoid=iSypIXGVnW7S2RAEg6qT5A&cbp=1,0.6870095273476409,,0,5
The first State Championship was Boys Soccer in 1975 under head coach Vic Cappillo, and then Girls Gymnastics in 1979 under Pete Saponaro, two wonderfully talented and enthusiastic men whom I admired and respected enormously.
For all those reasons, by the time I graduated from NMB in 1979, I had many talented friends around the greater Miami area who were fortunate enough to be offered -and accept- D-1 college athletic scholarships in myriad sports.
Because of those factors, more than most people, I was very familiar with the enormous football talent pool around here, and foresaw the inevitable rise of the Hurricanes, Seminole and Gators' football programs to where we became accustomed down here to the idea of the three of them being ranked in the Top Ten at the beginning and end of every college football season.
To me, it was completely predictable.
So with that in mind, while I was at IU from 1979-83, I was continually frustrated at the number of very talented kids from South Florida -and Central Florida, too- who'd wind up going to smaller schools like the Central, Western or Eastern Michigan, or the like.
Kids who'd be just the sort who'd give IU some much-needed depth so they wouldn't have the sort of second-half collapses against good teams as has long been the norm in Bloomington.
And I wasn't alone in my frustration.
Not to name drop, per se, but Jim Thomas of FT. Lauderdale the-then IU basketball team was a good friend of mine at the time, despite Jim's living over at Teter Quad while I was at Briscoe Quad., near the IU Fieldhouse and Assembly Hall.
(Jim and I were friends despite his single-handily knocking off my school, North Miami Beach, in the state playoffs, at his school's gym, the one year we were arguably THE best team in the state of Florida and favored to win the state championship.)
As both students and sports fans who loved IU, we'd continually bemoan IU's chronic inability to get South Florida kids up to Bloomington, who, while perhaps not stars, were exactly the sorts of very solid, well-rounded kids that make the difference between a solid 7-4 or 8-3 team, and a floundering 5-6 team that raises more questions than they answer.
(Like are they really a 4-7 team that simply got lucky?)
All this frustrating talk of ours was conducted in an era when Michigan had a bona fide South Florida superstar like wideout Anthony Carter and Michigan State had RB Lorenzo White, each of whom were winning games of national importance.
I understand implicitly why someone of their unique caliber were, necessarily, out-of-reach for IU in the Lee Corso years, but must everyone down here with any talent remain un-touchable?
Having finally gotten Direct TV before last Fall, and the Big Ten Network, it's very discouraging as a Hoosier fan to see so many South Florida kids performing for not only Big Ten schools, of course, but, also seeing them play Michigan and Michigan State as the pride of Ypsilanti or Mt. Pleasant, MI, too.
Kids who could've been making a difference in Bloomington, but weren't.
Logically, why in the world should Eastern Michigan continually have better luck at recruiting kids in South and Central Florida than IU? Or Western Michigan for that matter?
And yet... http://www.miamiherald.com/620/story/561110.html
There were opportunities aplenty for IU and Coach Lynch a few months ago, when former NMB QB/DB Doug Wiggins, the Dolphins' 2006 Miami-Dade Player of the Year, was looking to transfer from the U-M. http://hurricanesports.cstv.com/sports/m-footbl/mtt/wiggins_doug00.html
So, what happened with Wiggins?
From my perspective, someone who attended his first Canes game at the Orange Bowl in 1971, last year was littered with lots of broken promises and self-evident poor coaching moves, as Randy Shannon constantly showed his multiple weaknesses as a head college football coach, showing himself as a Coordinator who's now out of his depth.
Against a middling North Carolina State team at the Orange Bowl, U-M completed exactly one pass in the entire game, even putting a WR behind center three times to try to get some offensive momentum generated.
In fact, by the middle of the third quarter, if not earlier, the Wolfpack defense was actually daring the Canes to pass -and they couldn't!
So naturally, after the season, whom did Shannon fire?
Yes, that's right, the Defensive Coordinator whom he'd personally promoted from DBs coach, even though the defense has been sliding steadily for four years due to lousy LB play while Shannon was the D-Coordinator.
Hmmm...
http://ncaabbs.com/archive/index.php/thread-273456.html
Miami Herald quote:
" U-M's Randy Shannon has a good relationship with most local coaches, but North Miami Beach's Jeff Bertani said, "It would be difficult for me to send a kid to UM now. The trust is broken.''Bertani said former NMB standout Doug Wiggins -- who transferred to Western Michigan -- ''was told he had a torn hamstring, which he did not have, because they needed a reason to redshirt him after he played [the first two games].'' Shannon's response? "I don't know anything about that.''
Honestly, a school in IU's iffy position in the football world should've been ready to pounce on him in a second when he decided to transfer out, since he wasn't likely to play a lot at the U-M as a freshman, anyway, despite having been rated the nation's No. 4 cornerback and the No. 33 overall prospect by Rivals.com two years ago.
Instead, now Wiggins will be at Western Michigan and in two years will likely be MUCH BETTER than any defensive player IU has.
I'd be willing to bet that there are probably kids at Immokalee HS right now, up near Lake Okeechobee, that could play or start at IU, and yet based on experience, there seems very little chance that IU will even take a chance on them.
Why?
What's this great strategy at Assembly Hall to become a better and more competitive football team without getting a lot more talented players from Florida?
Sounds like the sports equivalent of Obama somehow imagining he'll win the Electoral College without the state of Florida?
Well, all empirical evidence suggests that both approaches, if continued, are destined to failure.
At a certain point, you don't have to be an IU-trained optometrist to know that something is short-sighted with their current approach, which as always, has them with few dependable playmakers.
I'd be very interested in knowing if any of you are familiar with anything that's been written within the past ten years that details how IU has continually missed the boat on Florida kids who could've added something positive to the campus and to the football program.
If so, please drop me a line with the appropriate URL, so that I'm no longer in the dark.
If not, I may just have to chronicle that sad story myself.
Just in case I didn't make my point strongly enough above, consider the following.
The second day I was ever in the state of Indiana, having flown up by myself from Miami on a late August Thursday afternoon in 1979, days before moving into Briscoe Quad and while checked into the Holiday Inn on S.R 37, I spent most of that afternoon watching the IU football team practice from up in the stands at Memorial Stadium, surrounded by a handful of devoted and curious Hoosier fans, male and female, in various shades of Cream and Crimson.
Yep, that's me.
Sadly, the Miami Herald article below speaks for itself, and is more of the same ol' bad news for Hoosier fans.
______________________________________________
http://www.miamiherald.com/sports/story/596825.html
Columbus wideout Bush commits to Purdue
Posted on Mon, Jul. 07, 2008
BY DAVID QUINONES
LARRY BLUSTEIN'S COMMENTS
Gary Bush, Columbus
Known for his tremendous speed, here is a player who certainly came into his own over the past year. While his quickness and ability to break receptions for long scores has been a lure for colleges, his knowledge of the game is also something that has played in his recruitment as well.
In this Hoosier-state recruiting battle, score one for the Boilermakers.
Columbus' Gary Bush, a 6-1, 180-pound wide receiver, orally committed to attend Purdue University on Sunday night. His decision came after campus visits to Indiana and Purdue two weeks ago.
For Bush, West Lafayette was the clear winner between the two.
''It was really a no-brainer,'' Bush said. "Me and the coach [Joe Tiller] just bonded. It felt like the right place for me to be. Indiana was nice, it was a lot like Purdue, but in the end I chose Purdue.''
He added that he and his parents talked about the long-distance move, but that he has family in nearby Indianapolis and that his folks "supported my decision.''
The explosive Explorer also received attention from Ole Miss, Boston College, Alabama-Birmingham, Troy State and Vanderbilt before ending his recruitment experience early.
The rising senior is a three sport-star who transferred to Columbus from Southridge after his sophomore year. In the 2007-2008 season, Bush was among the Explorers' leaders in receptions -- usually of the breakaway-variety -- while also earning a Miami Herald All-Dade honorable mention for basketball and a second-team slot on the All-Dade Track and Field team.
In a midseason game against Miami Beach, Bush put the game out of reach with a 38-yard touchdown catch against the smaller Hi-Tides secondary. He recorded a 33-yard TD a month later against South Miami. Columbus' deep-threat paced the team with 21.3-yards per catch on the season.
Bush runs a 4.5-40 yard dash and his leaping ability (23-10 long-jump) at 6-1 makes for a huge downfield target. His second place long-jump finish helped Columbus secure the District 15-4A championships in April.
Strength might be an issue, as Columbus coach Chris Merritt says ''there is no offseason'' for the multi-sport Bush to devote lots of time to the weight room.
''For a guy like him, it's more about just maintaining. It's hard with his schedule,'' said Merritt, who describes Bush as an "all-around Division I athlete.''
But Bush says he has a plan for that dilemma.
''We don't start camp for a little while, so right now I'm just in the weight room, doing the work,'' he said.
Bush insisted the answer is not to give up on his other athletic pursuits. He is quick to note that while he and the staff at Purdue talked about the possibility of playing hoops, "Track is a definite. I'll definitely be jumping.''
Reader comments are at:
http://pod01.prospero.com/n/pfx/forum.aspx?msg=49813&nav=messages&webtag=kr-miamitm
http://www.southbeachhoosier.blogspot.com/