Comments on: Molina commits to Washington State

By: Humble

Humble — Tue, 28 Jul 2015 04:34:14 +0000

Hi Nike Fan in Hawaii, different sources but same outcome. All good for the girls. Never had pizza in Chicago, must be Ono!

By: Nike Fan in Hawaii

Nike Fan in Hawaii — Tue, 28 Jul 2015 03:22:45 +0000

Hi Humble, we must have different sources. I was told by her coach that after she went to Chicago she started to get more interest. I was told that Coach Taylor’s mentor, Coach George asked several coaches to come and watch he play in Chicago. After that tourney Coach Taylor started to field many calls about both Maui girls. Either way its good to go to Chicago to eat Pizza, lol.

By: Humble

Humble — Tue, 28 Jul 2015 01:32:58 +0000

Nike Fan in Hawaii, I belive that Fernandez was offered the bulk of her scholarships after the Team Aloha trip to Arizona in April. The other Maui girl, was offered scholarships from schools that were watching Fernandez and she was noticed. Now, I know that sounds BAD, but really its not. Fernandez was noticed because colleges that were at the tournament to watch Chanelle saw her, and those colleges that were there to watch Fernandez, saw Mea(sorry not sure of spelling her name). So every tournament that every club plays has an impact if the player has potential. What I am trying to say is credit for the exposure that these players received can’t be given to just one club. It’s the networking of all clubs that makes this work. Congratulations to all of them!
Also, players may not be able to commit to playing in all tournament because the parents need to pay. So in defense of those girls that were asked but declined, it could have been because financial burden it may have caused. Also, if you wanted to play on the West Coast, the EOT is prime recruiting grounds for West Coast colleges. Chicago is dominated by Mid-America & East Coast colleges.
I think, if you had to give credit somewhere, it should start with Mufi (TEAM ALOHA) and Stingrays. Because Mufi provided expense free travel for our local girls. Stingrays for successful performances at EOT, and Chanelle, the magnet that attracted all the recruiters that allowed other girls to be noticed. Everyone else is just jumping on the train for a ride.

By: Humble

Humble — Tue, 28 Jul 2015 01:13:26 +0000

Again, ppl not listening because it’s always better to blame or pass the buck to someone else. Coaches can and do make sure the student athlete goes to class. However, and listen carefully, they are not allowed to complete their assignments or take their exams. Those are NCAA major violations. Also, just because you attend the class does not mean you will automatically pass the class. If your name is symbolic of your philosophy, then that should be towards the student athlete “Education First”. Especially when, as a student athlete, the opportunity to make a living as a PRO is very small. If your talking about a coach losing their job over (one) student athlete not passing, imagine if they violated NCAA Laws. Again, we do not know exactly what transpired at WSU. The coaches may have done everything right and still Galdiera flunked. Maybe she didn’t flunk and this is just a rumor. Maybe Galdiera didn’t want to complete her college education. If, I as a coach, made sure that I assigned a personnel assistant to monitor her and provided every resource to prepare her for her exams and still she failed, how am I fully responsible? Enough with blaming and judging someone, because, if these coaches didn’t care for Galdiera, why during this difficult time for both parties, the head coach opened her home for Galdiera to continue to train and support her? And please don’t come with the excuse of “guilt”. They genuinely care about their athletes, even if they are not the BEST COACHES, they care even when they don’t benefit. That says a lot about them as People. If my son was kicked out of college because he didn’t fullfill his responsibilities has a student athlete, I sure would appreciate a coach taking him in, while options are figured out. I know of college coaches that basically take away a players scholarship after the player was injured playing for them. WSU coaches are great People First.

By: Nike Fan in Hawaii

Nike Fan in Hawaii — Tue, 28 Jul 2015 00:21:50 +0000

Someone please correct me if I am wrong. But this is the information I got. And this is my philosophy and it may differ from others. So Coach Mike Taylor has a new club called Hawaii Storm an affiliate of the California Storm. His club teams were the only Hawaii teams invited to the Nike Nationals and the Nike Oasis Tournament. He asked some Kona, Hilo, and Maui girls to play for his team since his team would be playing in a prestigious tournament in Chicago where most D1 coaches (not assistants like in Seattle, Vegas, Anaheim, and Oregon) attend.

To make a long story short, Fernandez and another Maui girls, a few Hilo girls, and some ILH girls played. I was told the two Maui girls got way more offers than when they played for their Maui team. Unfortunately I was told the Kona girls couldn’t play for him since it might upset their coach.

If this is true it is unfortunate. People always talk about loyalty. But as adults we need to be loyal to the kids, not the other way around. If the goal is to get our local kids exposure it shouldn’t matter who the kid plays for or what team he/she plays for. Getting the kid a scholarship is the main goal. It shouldn’t matter if it is from any Tom, Dick, or Harry.

When I heard this story I was a little bummed. Too often coaches think of themselves before they think about the kids. No coach owns a player. Parents and kids make decisions and the coach supports it, plain and simple. If a coach uses their power to intimidate a kid, they have no business being a coach any more.

By: bballfan

bballfan — Mon, 27 Jul 2015 23:25:33 +0000

Thank You for your input, like the name Eduction First is what really matters, no one is comparing WSU to Standford, just trying to say WSU is not at the bottom of the poll academically because their are thousands of other Universities that ranks lower as written in conversation earlier in the week, thanks to National Coach here is thousands of other Universities you can compare it to:

http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/washington-state-3800:

https://wsu.edu/about/excellence/

By: Education First

Education First — Mon, 27 Jul 2015 22:34:50 +0000

I also think while the kid is responsible, a big part of it goes on the adult. I do not know how you allow a kid to skip class when your job is to coach. I mean what are they actually doing when the kids are going to class? It’s not like they are conducting practice. I know there’s game film, practice planning, recruiting, etc. But c’mon, how hard an how long does it take to make sure your players are in class? Also, it’s not like you have to check every kid. You pretty much know which ones struggle in class. WSU really dropped the ball with Galdeira.

By: Education First

Education First — Mon, 27 Jul 2015 22:32:33 +0000

bballfan, to call WSU a high academic school is both irresponsible and uneducated. WSU is not known for high academics. Please do some research. Now any school who is willing to invest money into a kid is great. But that doesn’t mean it is a high academic school. I think you may have confused WSU with Stanford.

By: Balla

Balla — Mon, 27 Jul 2015 16:03:16 +0000

I don’t know about you guys but I would rather go 0-100 playing the best instead of going 100-0 playing weak teams. Talk to the coaches around the islands, well at least the boys ones. They all would rather play D1 and compete against the best and not make states instead of playing D2 and winning the title. Maybe girls are different and especially their parents and supporters. But as an athlete I wanna play the best to see how good these teams are and I want to improve playing the best. Who wants to play average teams and win there? I might be wrong but it seems plenty people up here think its good to travel to tourneys to play in average kind and win. How impressive is that? How about challenge yourself. And Kalakaua has the best girls teams. Peace…

By: Humble

Humble — Mon, 27 Jul 2015 08:27:06 +0000

There goes National Coach again, putting down someone that opposes his thinking or personal feelings. Left Field I agree with you 100%. What I think National Coach misses is that very thing you mentioned. It’s the players choice, being a parent you can only suggest or influence. Never force! What if Chanelle said to her parents ” I think I can help turn this program around, I want the challenge, I want to show I can make a difference at WSU”. Pullman has very little things to do outside of school and sports, so I think recruiting athletes there is a huge challenge. But once in awhile, things align and a challenged program gets a few great recruits and that program is now succesful. I respect athletes who want to take on the challenge with the underdog team. Yes, great coaching is also very important. But they can’t all play for UCONN. Again, I’m going to mention. Coaches share the responsibility of keeping their athletes in CHECK! But it is also on the athlete! Galdeira also let herself down and her team. But again, maybe this is really what Galdeira wanted. Maybe she didn’t want to complete school. She just wants to play basketball and get paid for it. It happens in Kentucky. Let me also state the Coach Beeman is a tremendous coach, but, I feel she dropped the ball on not starting to recruit these girls earlier. UH isn’t also very high academically and seems to be in trouble financially. So I don’t see Coach Beeman staying very long. I say she is gone after one more great season. Maybe at WSU.