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Mike White's high school sports chat: 04.08.25
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Mike White
11:02
It's freezing out, so let's get some hot high school talk going. Weather not looking great for spring sports rest of week, except maybe tomorrow. But hey, it's April in Pittsburgh. What do you expect? I might get my story ready now that we can run every few years of everyone saying, "This is the worst spring weather yet for high school sports." ... Now, on with the chat.
Mr Ed
11:02
Mike, although there are the minority of parents that are loud, meddling and generally being a pain in the you know what for coaches, isn’t the real source of the problem school board members? Seems to me a parent just complaining in the stands or even complaining to the coach about their kid’s playing time or his strategies, etc a coach can handle. I think it’s that these parents catch the ear of a school board member(s) and that’s when it becomes a problem for the coach. I see how some of these board members act in public meetings, I can only imagine what tools they are behind the scenes.
Mike White
11:08
Hey, Mr. Ed. First off, there have been bad parents for ages. There are just more of them these days. And yes, school boards can indeed be a problem because they might have an agenda, or might know someone they want to be coach, or listen to parents way too much. From what I see and hear, there are school administrators at some places that don't stand up to parents, either, whether in sports or school. It's OK to listen. You have to nowadays. But then say, "OK, you had your say. We'll take your complaints under consideration, now go away, go to games and shut up and watch."
Jus Sayin'
11:08
The omittance of Sledge and Schacter from the Fab 5 is further proof of the Post-Gazettes bias against inner city athletes. I will be boycotting.
Mike White
11:13
You are hilarious. That's comical. Just stop it. You're killin' me. Under your claims, there must be bias a lot worse at other places. Consider: Tribune-Review picked a Terrific 10 team. Sledge wasn't even on that!!!!! Neither was Schachter. So that dang Tribune must be even more biased. And in all-section voting among coaches, Sledge finished fourth in his section. So those coaches must be so biased. In all-City voting by coaches, Schachter didn't even finish in the top five. Dang, those City coaches are so biased against City kids. Thanks for your great insight.
RAMFAN033
11:13
There seems to be a lot of debate about what goes into the Fab 5 selections. Do you guys factor in playoff performance into it or is it strictly based on the regular season? I have seen numerous people say that the playoffs aren’t a factor and I think this would be a perfect time to let the fans know.
Mike White
11:18
We factor in a lot of things, but it's up to the individual what they value. And contrary to belief, this isn't my team. P-G high school sports staff people vote. We talk to some coaches also and they give us votes. Every year, there are people not on Fab 5 that you can make a case for. It's always easy to say this person and that person should be on ... but then who do you take off? Many times, the last 1 or 2 spots, there are 3-4 people that could be put on. But we can only pick five. Do we always pick the right five. Maybe not. It's easy to look back and say this person or that person should've made it.
Hoop Guru
11:19
What players were in strong consideration for the Fab 5 that did not make the cut? I’m assuming that Robbins, Sow, Carmichael, and Wallace were all locks.
Mike White
11:19
I'm not going to say who was in the running. Because those people then get all hot and bothered. But I think you can figure it out.
Mail Man
11:19
I agreed with the boys fab 5 selections.  Always tough to choose.  A couple players had an argument but you can't choose everyone.  I know in the past you have said there are a group of people that vote.  Are you willing to say who else was in the running?
Mike White
11:21
Like I said, you can probably figure out who was considered. I'm not going to name them. I don't think that would be right.
Hooper
11:21
AAU season has begun and I watched my kids play this weekend. It's funny to watch how some kids games translate differently from organized/school ball to aau.  The kids who can make plays stand out much more than the kids who go 1v1 the entire game and force plays.  Low IQ, cringy basketball selfish basketball is what I paid $50 for a weekend pass for.  Awful.
Mike White
11:24
I have seen AAU for years. I coached it for many years. AAU can be bad experienced for a kid -- or it can be pretty decent. Honestly, it all depends on what team you get with, what the coach is like and what the teammates are like. I see some of these AAU organizations with yound kids and they'll have 4 teams at a grade level - and three of the teams are filled with tomato cans whose parents just want to say "yeah, my son/daughter plays AAU." If a player is young, one good thing about AAU is that it keeps a ball in their hand for maybe another month or two - and that's not a bad thing. But if it's with wrong coach, wrong team, it can be bad experience. And costly also. Some of this stuff is just for people to make money. And it's amazing how naive some of the parents are. I know. I've seen it first hand.
11:25
Former Shaler coach Paul Holszhu said it best years ago. "It's not AAU basketball. It's AA-ME basketball." Shoutout to you, Paul. Hope you are good.
Pops
11:25
I was surprised to see how little interest there is in high school baseball.  I counted 50 people watching a 5A game vs 2 good teams.  Most were parents and siblings.  No students at an on campus game.  Seems like a dying sport.  Pirates aren't doing the area any favors either in the excitement department.
Mike White
11:29
Disagree. It's not a dying sport. WPIAL is producing a number of Division I players every year. Honestly, I would say it's no different now than many, many years ago. Regular-season baseball games have never drawn big crowds in the spring like football or basketball. However, I have seen regular season games, if it's a nice day, draw a decent little crowd, especially a bigger game at a big school. I'm not talking 1,000, but maybe 100 to 200. But I say it's not really different than decades ago, because I've seen stories of WPIAL championship games of many, many years ago, and the crowd is listed at maybe 1,500. Well, that's what they get now for WPIAL title games. Championship crowds have been really nice at home of Wild Things. So in conclusion, it's not really that different than years ago.
The Good Book
11:29
Nice job to the PG Crew on the Fab 5.  I know there is a certain family from Char Valley that is upset about it and made it known on social media, but you made the right choice.  It's a shame that parents argue about everything.  I know it goes with the territory for you guys, but you don't get paid enough to deal with all that stuff!
Mike White
11:38
Complaints every year. And that's OK. To be expected. It's OK for parents to stick up for their kids. We understand. But it just is ridiculous when people go out and make comments on social media or wherever that we're "biased." Look at this chat today. Earlier post said we're biased against innery-city kids. Good, Lord. We've been accused of racism in our picks before. It happened again just last year. A coach called the editor of the paper and said we were racist. I had a coach about five years ago call me and tell me "you don't know how much you hurt girls" because we didn't pick one of her players. Well then there are probably a thousand or so hurt girls because we only pick five. There will always be complaints - and that's OK. But we can't lose sight of the fact that we have done this for years because it is a positive thing - for basketball in this area and for kids. Fans like it. The kids like it. It's a good thing that we do.
11:40
More about the Fab 5. When you pick things like this, no matter how fair you try to make it, people complain. Look at, say, when NBA All-Star Game players are picked. People complain. Even players complain. It goes with the territory when picking all-star games. Someone always ticked off. But here's a piece of advice: Truly look in the mirror sometimes.
The Good Book
11:41
When you were at Hershey at the PIAA Championships, did you sense from other reporters around the state the "public/private" issue that seems to be a big deal in Western PA.  I saw as assistant coach from TNA taunting others on social media after they won...real classy.
Mike White
11:42
It's not as big of an issue in the east in Philly area. Because they win a lot and that's where most of the transferring, recruiting, etc. goes on. And they don't seem to care.
The Good Book
11:42
If flag football is added as a PIAA sport for girls, wouldn't another sport allowed to be added for boys?  Any idea what sport that may be?
Mike White
11:42
No and no.
The Good Book
11:46
It's Master's Week.  Is Central Catholic's Neal Shipley playing in Augusta this weekend?
Mike White
11:47
Yes, I believe so. He qualified by being low amateur last year, correct? He's currently on Korn Freery tour trying to get his full playing card.
Jus Wrong
11:48
Jus Sayin......You're  wrong Blackhawk girl's basketball players have been left of Fab5 for years and all they do is win.  Mr. White is fair ...Inner/ outer Beaver County too
Mike White
11:51
We just had a Blackhawk player on last year - Fusetti. Another in 2020 Mackenzie Amalia. Four others from Blackhawk made it over the years. I just checked. So who are we leaving off? Yes Aubree Hupp was a strong candidate this year. Maybe next year.
Guest
11:51
FYI on an old topic-The Private/Parochial vs public schools is not limited to football or basket ball. This year in the PIAA wrestling finals it was evident. In the AA bracket out of the top five schools, four were Private and Parochial. The Private school had kids from out of state. These schools have more money to attend tournaments and camps.
Mike White
11:51
I hear ya.
anon
11:51
where can i find the all section teams listed?
Mike White
11:51
They will be in our printed paper Thursday and on our web site either tomorrow or Thursday.
Old Guy
11:52
One thing high school basketball has over the NCAA game: No multiple game stoppages for reviews. These make the game choppier and at times, hard to watch. Just go with the call! I know you're a shot clock fan, but some of the NCAA discussions have involved the shot clock. No need to make the game more complicated.
Mike White
11:52
There can be reviews for last second shots in championship games in high school.
The Good Book
11:53
Other than Canon-Mac, Knoch and Hopewell, where else are there WPIAL Boys' Basketball openings?
Mike White
11:53
Pine-Richland comes to mind.
TIP
11:53
Pratt good player but over Zion Moore? Moore might be all underrated team
Mike White
11:54
Moore is a good player, indeed. Pratt got more votes.
pz
11:56
Any thoughts on why D1 commits seem to be going down in all 3 major sports (football/basketball/baseball) in the WPIAL except for baseball?
Mike White
11:57
Basketball hasn't been much different for the the past 25-25 years. We've had some good years in there also. Baseball producing a number of D-1 players. Football is the one that's down compared to even 15-20 years ago and way down when compared to 80s and 90s.
The Good Book
11:57
It's a shame that Baumann got run out of Knoch by parents.  He did a great job of building them up from nothing.....That's why I'm amazed there are guys that have been able to hang around for 20+ years.  (There aren't many left).  The tough thing is his son is there as a Senior next year and basically has to play with the kids whose parents ran his dad out.
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