Potential NCAA rule change could impact Bronx high school athletes
As Fannie Lou Hamer High School head basketball coach Marc Skelton explains it, instead of looking to high schools for players, colleges now will already have more players in the building or may be waiting for a transfer.
The NCAA is reportedly looking into giving all student-athletes an extra, fifth year of college eligibility - a rule change that could cause issues for local high school student-athletes.
As Fannie Lou Hamer High School head basketball coach Marc Skelton explains it, instead of looking to high schools for players, colleges now will already have more players in the building or may be waiting for a transfer. "So just imagine a parking lot, and the parking lot is full, you can't park your car there," says Skelton.
That would be an issue for thousands of high schoolers around the borough who share the dream of using sports as a way to get into college.
"I don't really come from too much, so taking that big a step and going to college and playing basketball in college would be better than anybody else in my family," said Cardinal Hayes High School junior David Gaymon.
Dior Anderson, a junior at Monsignor Scanlan High School adds that a college degree "can mean a lot."
"Because I can help the people I love and care about," says Dior.
Fannie Lou junior Alex Rodriguez says "it kind of represents hope if you think about it."
But if this goes through, Skelton says he will need to find new ways to get colleges to recruit at the high school level.
"If you don't have the external motivation to actually go to college or go that colleges are recruiting you, then grades may suffer, a student's attendance may suffer, and then their grades may suffer," says Skelton.
At least for now, players seem to be taking the opposite approach. Malik Fields, who also goes to Hayes, says less college spots "makes the competition level even higher," while Anderson tells News 12 he is "about to go even harder in the classroom, harder in the court, harder in everything I do in life."
For the students lucky enough to get in, some coaches say it could end up being a good thing, since it will give them more time to mature and figure out what they want to do.
