Harvest Prep @ Chillicothe

[Ohio1234]

Harvest Prep is one of the best offensive teams i have seen this season. Beating Chillicothe tonight 86-77 shot over 60 percent from 3 had 7 different players in double figures it was bananas! Chillicothe has their best offensive game of the season as well let by Jayvon maughmer the sophomore with 23 points and 7 three pointers the maughmer brothers combined for 41 on the night in the loss .

[CavalierAlum05]

Best I have seen Chillicothe look all season. Unfortunately they we went up against a juggernaut. Prep was something like 12-20 from 3 .
If they shoot like that consistently they will be in the final 4. My buddy who is familiar with the program said tonight was the first game 3-4 players had played due to transfers. Wow.
Cavs did not play intimidated at all. Came right out the gates swinging and to lose to the #2 D3 team by 9 is a moral victory.

[Chieftain2009]

Harvest Prep is a legit D3 team, I believe they are #2 in the AP poll.

[formerfcfan]

Harvest Prep is a legit D3 team, I believe they are #2 in the AP poll.

They could possibly be #1 next week, as Cols. Bishop Ready got beat 62-51 tonight by Cols. Wellington (who HP has beaten twice this year).


Some consider this year’s HP team to be it’s best in a long time; which, if true, wow.

[Coach SLegg]

We scrimmaged them in our 2nd scrimmage at Piketon and we could see then that they were loaded, especially with the transfers becoming eligible at mid season. Long, athletic, great ball pressure, executed offense, and shot lights out from 3Land when we scrimmaged them. The competitive balance rules have pushed them into D3. Imagine them at the D4 level like in the past. They're the real deal.

[countywide35]

big time team

[CavalierAlum05]

I think you will see them in the state finals. #32 was a man amongst boys

[trojandave]

I figured before the season that Harvest Prep would be a major player in the Athens D3 regional tournament, along with Africentric and The Wellington School. Looks like the Warriors will be a very difficult opponent for any D3 school from the SE district, but of course they have to make it that far. Good showing by Chillicothe to stay that close.

[Hoopie74]

I guess D3 will see what D4 has been dealing with for years. Same as with the Wherle days of the 80s. Almost impossible for small public's to get to the prize.

[formerfcfan]

I guess D3 will see what D4 has been dealing with for years. Same as with the Wherle days of the 80s. Almost impossible for small public's to get to the prize.

I think the stark difference between Harvest Prep and their public school counterparts (actually for that matter, their private school counterparts in the MSL sans Wellington) is the latter usually will have a starting lineup and bench that comprises mostly of multi-sport athletes (like football or soccer) whereas HP will have a team where pretty much everyone only plays basketball. If you have 10-11 kids that are "gym rats" and play/practice the game religiously for 11 or so months out of the year, you know the court like the palm of your hand. Your skills, your spacing and your situational awareness become as natural as driving a car. Factor in great athleticism, size and strength and there is a perfect formula for a winning team. The other thing too is they have a very good coach and he's surrounded himself with (pretty much) the same coaching staff for a very long time across both the boys game and girls game, and at HP and Liberty Union.

Where HP is structurally unique from not just public schools but also a fair share of private schools (like Portsmouth ND, Rosecrans and Fisher) is they're physically located in an area where the State of Ohio has entitled vouchers to cover either half or all of the tuition money. There's a lot of kids attending Harvest Prep, basketball player or not, that are in the same boat: either their theological strokes are in line with evangelical Christianity and HP is the best option available for that, or attending Harvest Prep means that they don't have to attend a school such as Columbus Independence or Columbus Walnut Ridge. At one of those urban, Columbus public schools - especially for the kids living in the neighborhoods - all sorts of crowds are in the halls. If you either had the means or ability (such as voucher eligibility) to send your child to a private, faith-based environment as opposed to a City School where they can easily get lost in the mesh and fall into the wrong crowd, wouldn't you?


I just see it as a lot less "stacking the deck" and "trying to stay ahead" on the part of the school and their basketball program, and instead more so there's a niche sport many of their students want to play and they have the coaching staff to maximize the potential.

[Hoopie74]

I won't argue over this issue. Down here the kids that play together in gym as third and fourth graders are the ones that fill the varsity roles. Born here and die here as Indians,Green Devil's,Wildcats, warriors. Most times There are perhaps Two to 6 seniors that fill out the roster. Normally it's a mix of 9,10,11 and 12 graders . The coaches here do alot of blood,sweat tears and yes work to put together teams that just love to represent our small communities. They will fight to the end,but; that doesn't make it any easier when they get to regionals and or state and face teams loaded 8 to 10 deep. I still sleep well knowing our kids give their all.

[formerfcfan]

What you’re describing is the nature of living in a rural area with sparse population and almost no contingency to a sizable metropolitan area. What is the frequency of families moving between education systems or different school systems in Adams County? Either on the basis of doing so voluntary (open enrollment) or out of necessity (like having to move)? My guess is very rarely, at least in comparison to what you see in Cincinnati or Columbus. Regardless of one’s attendance specific to public or private systems of education, you would find that many students in the Columbus vicinity have attended one or two different public school districts and/or possibly a private (or charter) school because the living situation necessitated it (where is the rent affordable, where’s the housing?) That’s before factoring in cases of split custody / divorce, which given the density of an urban area and the compact nature of where districts are located causes situations where a kid can only move five minutes away but live in an entirely district. If I drove by Harvest Prep, drove five minutes north or south and then headed east or west then I would have crossed two or three different school districts.


Consider this: you can paint the kids in your area in one light on the basis of their continued attendance through X public school district and the kids that attend a Harvest Prep or an urban private in another, but the kids are exactly the same. I think it’s great that kids that attend Peebles in third grade and more often than not are afforded the ability to get a HS diploma from Peebles. I can assure you many of these kids you implicitly scrutinize for not attending the same school since 3rd/4th grade wish they could’ve from the beginning; but they couldn’t because of forces and factors outside of their control.