OJ Mayo and the downfall of Western Civilization

I don't know whether to simply talk about one young man or to broaden things out and make this a commentary on our entire society. My honest guess is that I'll take a few diversions into each of those sides of the middle line that I'll try to walk here.

Let's start with my own admission of culpability in the whole thing. Last winter, one of the most-hyped high school basketball game in a long while: Oak Hill Academy vs. North College Hill. The two were ranked #1 and #2, respectively, in the national USA Today Super 25 high school basketball poll at the time. It turned out that Oak Hill beat North College Hill somewhat handily, but I didn't get a hcance to see it. I was out of town. And I lamented that fact, having hoped to see one of the supposedly greatest collection of high school talent in a while.

Luckily two of those talents were just juniors, so I'd have a chance to see the hometown North College Hill (which bordered on the first Cincinnati district in which I taught) this year, and especially to see OJ Mayo, the supposed second coming of Lebron James.

But that second chance wasn't to be as OJ has transferred out of Cincy and back to his hometown in West Virginia. And his first mate on the court, Bill Walker, was ruled ineligible for the coming season as he had apparently school hopped enough and used up his eight semesters of eligibility in Ohio.

I know all of this mostly because people from WVa sportscasters all the way up to ESPN have been reporting this - which heads toward my issue: high school sports are out of hand.

I am a born and raised Hoosier, and Indiana boy who loved seeing Damon Bailey break the state scoring record, and drove for hours in a driving snowstorm to see high school basketball tourney for the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame. I love seeing the Vikings play just about anything from water polo to tennis to basketball. And I know that I am far, far, far from without sin on this issue, but...

If I had the chance to recreate the American educational system, I'm not sure that I would even build a gymnasium attached to a single high school in the nation, or maybe I'd just have 'em all built without a single bleacher or press row.

The priorities of the American education should not be split in even the slightest way toward education, no matter how many of them depend financially on the athletic department, no matter how many young men and women better their lives by gaining a college degree after an athletic scholarship, I often feel that we might be better if we fully jetisoned the athletic department, moving instead to a physical education system that focused on life-long health - teaching how to eat right and fit in daily workouts instead of sending kids to hoop it up in the gym, holding signing parties for the top ten in the class instead of the kid who can pick a quarter off of the backboard. With the athletics gone, we could spend all of our money on simply educating.

Of course, I'd be afraid for what the athletics might look like if they were given entirely to a body with no real governing body - you know, all AAU style and such.