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| When St. Henry takes on Rose Hill today in the championship game of the All "A" State Tournament, it will be a matchup of teams who represents what the All "A" Classic is all about and that whcih represents a group of self-serving individuals who discovered a loophole used for their own advantage, which gives all of us "private" schools a black eye and takes advantage of their private school status. St. Henry is a small but growing Class A school wh has had it all come together for them this year. Seven seniors form the nucleus of this team which has set their sights on this day for the past four years. They have come by their players honestly, from their own feeder system, have played by the rules to get here and hopefully will be able to overcome Rose Hill Christian "Basketball" Academy (Enrollment 56, 10-12) who has taken an entirely different route to arriving at this day. Pure and simply, an individual or group of individuals have taken advantage of Rose Hill's private school status to field a select team of athletes primarily from Ohio and West Virginia and have descended on Rose Hill Christian Academy, just outside of Ashland, under the guise of seeking a Christian education, with the pure intention of creating a basketball super-power. It is not coincidental that these athletes are afro-american, and extremely talented basketball players. They have been playing AAU ball together for years. The fans who cheer for them and the other students who go to school there are 99 44/100% white. Since the arrival of Coach Jeff Hall and his select Royals, Rose Hill is 46-7, and this year are presently 19-3, with losses only to Lexington Catholic, Owensboro Apollo (King of the Bluegrass Finals), and Louisville Trinity (5th/3rd Classic). In the four years prior to Hall's arrival in 20001, the Royals were 28-50 against a much softer schedule. Their present girls team, who haven't had the advantage of of this influx of athletes seeking a Christain education are 5-12. A 9th Grade student/athlete, Billy Walker, who has a semester of 8th grade eligibilty remaining, left Rose Hill Academy this week after passing a semester of 9th grade study, to find a school where he could enroll as an 8th Grader in order to play with O.J. Mayo on a 8th Grade AAU team this summer and attempt repeat as 8th Grade National Champions. This school is giving all of the rest of we private/parochial schools a black eye. Public schools which are restricted by districts and geographic boundries, perceive that we all take advantage of our private school status and cheat by recruiting superior athletes to our school. Unfortunately, some do. Most don't. There is even a move afoot to place all private/parochial schools in our own "class" for statewide competition purposes. That would open the floodgates for some schools and leave those of us who run a clean program in their wake. The KHSA-Look The Other Way - A, refuses to take action for fear of being sued by the NAACP (or whatever name they go by these days) and every other bleeding heart group in the state for depriving these young men a Christian education. The shame of the matter is that those who support Rose Hill Academy are now blinded by their own success and refuse to admit that they are now condoning prostitution, only in a different form. Go Crusaders - Beat Rose Hill!!!! |
| St. Henry Vs Rose Hill "A" Classic Matchup of Good and Evil By Coach Dave Schabell February 2003 |
| Editors Note: St. Henry defeated Rose Hill 81-62 as good prevailed over evil in the 2003 "A" State Championship Game. Bill Walker's transfer to Cincinnati's North College Hill signaled the beginning of the end for Rose Hill, and the startup of three Ohio State Championships for NCH. Following the 2003 season, O.J. Mayo would follow Walker to NCH, where they would win three Ohio State Championships. Bill has since signed to play for Bob Huggins at Kansas State, while O.J. left NCH for Huntington High School in West Virginia to play out his senior season. He has signed a National Letter of Intent to play his college ball (before turning pro) at the University of Southern California. |