Congrats to the Hiland Hawks !!!

the officials were "letting them play" as I saw quoted in a paper, it was hard to tell from my vantage point but there were no lanes to drive as Dylan found out, HP had a swarming defence which seemed to control 3 qrts of the game......pounding the ball down low to Seger was just money and HP had no answer..........Jalen is all heart he will be very hard to replace........great win fellas.

Hiland did beat a D1 team in the regular season Canton glenoak and they also beat Benedictine but not sure of their Division....hiland is the real deal! I love when public schools win becuase you know it is pure and true with no recruiting!!

Lets not get all carried away here. Hiland is a quality DIV team. They did beat a DI during the season. They are a public school. They DID benefit from a high powered transfer. The guy btagging about a public school winning is great because public schools dont recruit like private schools better remember this, Seger Bonifant!! He might not have been recruited, but he "found" your school.

THE4RINGZ;725562 wrote:Congratulations Hiland. Well deserved.

Heard Bonifant is not a legal player? Because of address.

sjc70;726343 wrote:Heard Bonifant is not a legal player? Because of address.

If you don't have proof, hold off on it. Don't need rumors starting.

sjc70;726343 wrote:Heard Bonifant is not a legal player? Because of address.

I dont think you make this post AFTER the season ended. You really dont think OHSAA checked this stuff out?

Like ts said...lets just stay away from the rumor mill unless it is supported with a news link.

wes_mantooth;726517 wrote:Like ts said...lets just stay away from the rumor mill unless it is supported with a news link.

http://www.ohiochatter.com/forum/threads/15340-High-profile-transfer-within-the-IVC/page2 rumor mill started here, in august.

lol.....touche.

Luckily, I knew that one to be true because I know Hilands coaches.

september63;726501 wrote:I dont think you make this post AFTER the season ended. You really dont think OHSAA checked this stuff out?

No, unfortunately they don't, they didn't in the case of Africentric, in 2005? or 2006?, untill after the finals, and that coach is now at Harvest Prep,

I will agree that the OHSAA is not good at catching stuff till after the fact. As for the the Seger thing....I believe that one of his parents moved into the school district so I can't see where there could be a violation. And I havent heard a single thing about this other than just a couple people cracking jokes about recruiting and stuff.

OHSAA holds off because in places other than these chat rooms, people are innocent until proven guilty. Truth is, schools forfiet games all the time in multiple sports for violating OHSAA rules. Divorce and shared custody alone have made administrating eligibility regulations a nightmare. And I can tell you from first hand knowledge, OHSAA does not care "why" a kid is ineligible. If he plays, you forfiet. Africentric forfieted a state championship because one piece of paper was not filed on one kid. Everything was done by the rules. One piece of paper cost them a state title. And for the record, the HP coach was the coach at Africentric at the time. OHSAA found that it was the AD who messed up and the coach had nothing to do with it. This was widely reported in the Columbus Dispatch.

I don't know what HP did or didn't do but for crying out loud people, why don't we wait until OHSAA rules before we crucify an entire school, its coaches, teachers and administrators?

If there are schools ruled against, in the coming weeks, how do you make it right for the boys who played honestly?

sjc70;726760 wrote:If there are schools ruled against, in the coming weeks, how do you make it right for the boys who played honestly?

There is no way. Every team that they beat in the tourney has a legitimate gripe.

I just think we should wait and see what OHSAA has to say

sjc70;726760 wrote:If there are schools ruled against, in the coming weeks, how do you make it right for the boys who played honestly?

First, realize that there is a difference between making a mistake and intending to cheat. Most OHSAA violations of eligibility have more to do with administrative error or good intentions instead of an intention to cheat. Several years ago, a team my kids were associated with had to forfiet their first league championship because 1 freshman football player who averaged 1.8 plays per game was not eligible. The reason he was not eligible, because OHSAA had a different grade standard for rising eigth graders (in fall sports only) than they did for all other grade levels and seasons. If the boy was a sophomore or playing a winter or spring sport, he would have been eligible. .002 was the difference in his grade point. The new AD did not know the reg.

OHSAA made the team forfiet the whole season. Everybody said "See, those guys cheat". It's unfortunate but happens more times than not.

sjc70;726343 wrote:Heard Bonifant is not a legal player? Because of address.

Seger and his mom live in Berlin, and have since this past summer. I don't think anyone in this (Berlin) community is too worried about anything illegal that would cause the forfeiture of games, but the OHSAA is certainly free to check anything out they want.
I heard they (OHSAA) were looking into HP re: eligibility issues; have no idea how valid that is. As bukkus mentioned above, there are some VERY minor and trivial issues that can get games , or even a season , forfeited. Would hate to see something like that happen to anyone. Mistakes can happen to anybody; that's completely different than the (very few) schools who actively recruit and/or cheat to get around the rules. Those programs need more than a slap on the wrist.

I wondered how long it would take for the transfer issue to raise its ugly head. Probably should have taken the under.

For the love of all things Holy, let's not turn this into the wrestling eligibility thread.

I hardly think that he "found" a school that is a public school district that his mother moved to, and where he has played ball with those boys in AUU for many years...hardly found Hiland. Made a great decision, his mom and dad got to be proud of their son. We all know the difference between this and "recruiting", come on.

tigerpaws;726973 wrote:I hardly think that he "found" a school that is a public school district that his mother moved to, and where he has played ball with those boys in AUU for many years...hardly found Hiland. Made a great decision, his mom and dad got to be proud of their son. We all know the difference between this and "recruiting", come on.

I disagree. Most of what everyone on threads like these call "recruiting" is actually pretty much like this. Schools like Northland, HP, Central, Hillaird (all the good sports schools private or not) have people who move (or appear to move) the those schools because of their sports reputations. Then the paperwork gets fouled up and someone is ineligible and people say "cheat!" or "recruiting!". Having coaches actually proactively contact parents or students exist primarily in the minds of someone whose favorite team just got beat by one of these schools. In fact, the biggest culprits are the parents of these kids who go from school to school promoting their kid.

Like Ricola, let me ease any minds that may be disturbed by this nonsense. Seger has two homes: one in Berlin with his mom and one in Strasburg with his dad. His residency for school enrollment is in Berlin.

Because we went through this with a girl transfer, I'm quite familiar with how our AD handles these situations. First, because of how high profile these transfers have been, and controversial, he assures that the player and family understand all the rules regarding eligibility and residency. And concerning the paperwork, I quote: "All i's are dotted and t's crossed."

The same thing happened with the girl as is happening here. People throwing out all kinds of stuff that they "know" or "heard". Few people understand what the rules are, and few have the ability to properly interpret and apply them if they do understand what the rules are. So, a girl is seen in Millersburg or a boy in Strasburg, and people start talking about how the residency is a sham and there's cheating, etc. Yadda, yadda, yadda. But nothing happens because some of it is just rumor, and what is real is actually within the rules.

So, how can I be sure? Because AD Erik Buen would not tell me he had it covered if he didn't have it covered, and, if he didn't have it covered, a certain girl player would have been investigated and declared ineligible over her 2 year career at Hiland. There were literally hundreds, if not thousands, of people motivated to see her, her team, her coach, and her school suffer if there was any substance to their whining. There wasn't and there won't be with Seger. It's just some sick obsession some people have in creating drama where nothing real exists.

As for the game, it wasn't pretty in the first half. All of them were tight - both teams. They are kids and it was for the state championship. Understandable. The officiating was a factor. While they let them play both ends, they did call some on Hiland's defensive end. I think HP shot 6 or 8 ft's in the first half and Hiland had 0. When watching the replay, I saw aboout 4-5 hard fouls that weren't called for our guys. Hiland just had to take the ball in there stronger and I think they made that adjustment. Both teams played better in the second half, I thought. And of course Hiland's 4th qtr was the difference.

It makes you wonder whether Mark should have established Seger in the first half, make HP adjust, and then try their usual stuff. It might have allowed them to get a handle on the game earlier. I guess its risky to play different than you have all year, and if it's not broke, don't fix it! Seger had the whole arsenal on display. Jump shots, a 3, fade-aways, drives, baby hooks, drop steps, and a nifty move on a fast break. Just amazing.

Gonna miss Noah big time. An IVC fan from another school asked me a few weeks ago who we would recruit to replace him. I replied that I wasn't aware of too many 6'7" shooters that have any eligibility left. Penny Hardaway, maybe? Trevor Halter is at Marietta! Diebler is off to the NBA! He has played so well and was such a problem to match up with. He did more business in the paint this year and showed growth in that way.

Jalen has been such a joy to watch. Put him on one of our teams with average talent and he would have been a 1st team all-Ohioan. So tough and plays so hard. The epitome of what we want a Hawk player to be. When he dunked on senior night, I just about came out of my skin! Really, really going to miss him.

Braden just did his job and his role. Played defense, took care of the ball, got it to the stars, and was a team guy. You gotta have those guys. Will miss him too.

Thrilled to have Dylan, Seger, Jason, Luke, etc. back next year and see what they can do. This year they were the hunters. Rosecrans was #1. Next year they will be the hunted. I'm sure Rosecrans will be stewing all year for a rematch. But I think about a Seger who is a full go (no adapting to the program) playing with the DIV poy, and with the rest of what they will have. I will be most excited to have everyone see what Neil Gingerich does. His playing time got the most restricted because of Seger's arrival, but I've been told that Neil is so good now due to going against Seger in practice. He scored 10 points in the semi, grabbed a few rebounds, and blocked a couple of shots - and he didn't even get to play in the finals! Neil has shown flashes late in this season, but next year we will get to see what he really has. Really looking forward to seeing that. If he emerges like I think he will, it gives Mark lots of options of how to use Seger, perhaps more on the outside at times. It's going to be fun.