Over the past two years two of the highest ranked players in Minnesota have decided to take the prep school route for their senior year in high school. Many people have given them crap because they don't think it's in the best interest of the kid to spend their last year in high school out of the state of Minnesota. Naturally, this set up a huge debate on the twitter land. Both players chose to go to a "prep" school for their senior year.
Let's just go over some facts about "prep" schools. There are legit ones and essentially basketball factories. The legit ones have been established for an extended period of time and kids attend an actual school. They usually have college style dorms on campus that the kids stay in. There are other students on campus besides the basketball players. Examples of these type of schools are Brewster Academy (where Alex Illikanien is heading), Oak Hill, and New Hampton (where DJ Peterson, formerly of Hopkins, attended). There are many more including all of them that compete in the NEPSAC.
At the not so legit ones the kids only take "online classes" to help increase their test scores. All the players live in a house with one of the coaches where food can sometimes be limited. There is never a time when the players interact with other students in a school setting. HERE and HERE is a perfect example of these "schools" are all about.
There are also "schools" that kids attend a school they aren't playing for. So, they actually attend school with other students but do not compete on the same team (if they have basketball) as the other students in the school. They live in a house or with host families. The two biggest examples of this type of school is Findlay Prep (where Rashad Vaughn went) and Huntington Prep (where Andrew Wiggins went). At both of these "schools" the kids attend a private school (The Henderson School for Findlay and Huntington St. Joseph's for Huntington) during the day and then come together for workouts/practices once school ends.
Now, lets go over the perceived negatives to going to prep school. Kids will miss their family, they will miss their friends, they will miss their teachers. They will probably miss having family see them play. They will probably miss their prom. These are certainly a lot of things that some 17 and 18 year olds will have a tough time handling.
The positives for someone going to prep school go as follows. The kid(s) grow up because they have to, Mom and Dad can't get them out of situations because they are too far away. They get outside their comfort zone. They are exposed to many things including have a roommate from a completely different ethnic or socioeconomic background. One thing that gets overlooked is that after a year at a prep school then can figure out if they want to be close to home for college or that they can handle being away for four years.
The positives are very significant on the basketball side of things as well. They get to practice every day next to players just as good if not better than them. In games they play against players just as good if not better than them on a consistent basis. They are challenged every day. That isn't always going to happen to them at the high school level (there are exceptions to this).
I think every family has to make a decision based off of realistic expectations of their son's ability (hard to figure out sometimes). Is it all worth it? You never know until you try it. Locally, if you ask Jordair Jett (formerly of St. Bernard's then Notre Dame Prep and St. Louis), DJ Peterson (LaSalle), Zach Lofton (formerly of Columbia Heights and then Quakerdale Prep in IA, UMN via Illinois State), Kyle Washington (formerly of Benilde-SM and then Brewster Academy, NC State), Eric Robertson (formerly of Wayzata and then IMG Academy, South Dakota), and Rashad Vaughn (UNLV) to see if it was worth, I'm sure they would all say yes.
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