Sports

Jeff Kuehn: It takes a community to assemble a paper

Jul 03, 2010

By: Oakland Press Sports

You spoke. We listened.
Today’s sports section is the culmination of a month-long project to engage Oakland County residents like never before in the sports news-gathering process.
As you can see from cover to cover in today’s SportsBeat, you responded to our plea to get involved in ways that went far beyond our expectations.
The formal name for what you see today is The Ben Franklin Project. Our mission, as embraced by all 18 daily newspapers in the Journal Register Company chain, was to crowdsource (engage the community in the news-gathering operation) and produce a paper free of paid proprietary tools.
What began with a townhall meeting led to a series of stories about the culture of travel/AAU/club sports in Oakland County and how they relate to high school sports as young athletes try to perfect their talents in hopes of landing a college scholarship.

The articles detailing what kids go through to compete at the highest level of amateur competition, the sacrifices families make in regards to time and finances, the role training facilities play, how college coaches have adapted their recruiting methods to a changing landscape and what the Michigan High School Athletic Association thinks of sports beyond the walls of member institutions would not have been possible without a spirited discussion between high school sports coordinator Keith Dunlap, myself and a half-dozen passionate readers.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton once quoted the saying, “It takes a community to raise a child.” The same can be said for an aspiring college student/athlete.
Attendees at the townhall meeting talked freely about their own experiences and/or put our writers in touch with parents, coaches, trainers and athletes involved in non-high school sanctioned athletic clubs.
In an attempt to further engage readers and following a patriotic theme that arose in the news townhall meeting attended by close to 25 people, columnist Pat Caputo reached out and asked you to select Metro Detroit’s sports heroes through a column in the paper along with pleas on Facebook and Twitter. As evidenced by his report inside, the response was fantastic.
Caputo reveals the winner and shares a sampling of written responses he received via e-mails, tweets and hand-written letters.
Detroit Lions’ beat writer Paula Pasche jumped on the call for patriotic news as did Dunlap on the high school scene. Pasche wrote a feature story on linebacker Caleb Campbell, the last pick in the 2008 NFL Draft, who played for Army. Dunlap turned a call from a reader about Novi Detroit Catholic Central’s Tony Thomas opting to play college hockey for the Air Force Academy into a story suited for today’s Independence Day edition.
Pasche also sent out requests on Facebook and Twitter for questions to ask quarterback Matthew Stafford and head coach Jim Schwartz. Both men are entering their second season and expect to see a big improvement by the team in 2010.
Pasche took the assignment a step further by reaching out and asking Lions’ fans to predict the number of games the Lions will win in 2010. The results and some of the responses can be found inside today’s section.
The landscape has changed. Our ability to reach out, communicate and interact with you on a daily basis will open doors and allow us to cover, promote and chronicle local sports in ways never before imagined.
Video, live online chats, instant feedback from readers and the ability to break news as it happens have greatly enhanced our ability to bring the news to your doorstep and/or computer. The same enhancements on our high school website, MIPrepZone.com, which contains separate pages for every high school in Oakland County, provides parents, athletes, coaches, teachers and aspiring journalists opportunities to contribute and expand the mission of promoting high school sports.
Finally, consider this an invitation to take part in the fun. When the call for the next townhall meeting goes out, when we ask for your vote regarding a future project or story, when we reach out with seminars that instruct how to submit videos, photos and articles for publication, I hope you do what Oakland County sports enthusiasts have always done and get involved.

Contact sports editor Jeff Kuehn at jeff.kuehn@oakpress.com or (248) 745-4682.

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The American Dream: AAU programs offer bright futures, or big letdowns

Jul 03, 2010

By: Oakland Press Sports

By KEITH DUNLAP
Of The Oakland Press
They generate controversy and affirmation, frustration and jubilation.
They affect and involve lots of people, whether it is college coaches, high school coaches, parents, teachers, administrators, personal trainers or sponsoring corporations.
Whether the feelings are good or bad, they also without question produce passionate responses on a variety of issues from those who are directly involved.

What produces all of the above is non-high school sporting leagues or organizations that involve high school athletes.

For sports such as basketball and volleyball, it’s best known as AAU ball. For baseball and softball, it’s summer ball, while it’s travel hockey, club swimming and so forth.
No matter what side of the fence people stand on these offseason sports, several things are clear:

— AAU and travel sports have become big business. There’s a healthy amount of money needed to not only play for a team, but travel to tournaments or meets throughout the season.
Dave Smith, a coach for the AAU girls and boys basketball program “Team Basketball” that has kids ranging from sixth through 12 grade, said the average cost for a player to play in his program is anywhere from $400 to $800 a year, depending on how many months that player decides to play.
Those costs include a uniform and tournaments, but doesn’t include travel costs for families who go to out-of-state tournaments.
Smith and his staff are volunteer coaches and don’t coach for profit.
Other organizations that play in more tournaments than Team Basketball does charge more, as Smith said it costs anywhere from $200 to $600 to enter a tournament.
“These kids are being looked at and recruited earlier and earlier,” Smith said. “You have a lot of influence from parents and coaches. There are a lot of outside forces trying to push these kids to another level. “
John Pochas is the father of Birmingham Groves baseball player Chris Pochas, who will be a senior next school year for the Falcons and plays summer ball for the Michigan Red Sox.
John Pochas said it costs from $750 to $1,000 a summer to play for the Red Sox. Travel costs to tournaments are not included.
“It gets a little more excessive as (the kids) get older,” Pochas said.
Corporations who sponsor tournaments also contribute mightily to the business aspect of AAU or travel ball, hoping their sponsorship will lead to future clientele if those players one day reach the pros.

— College coaches seem to be more interested in scouting tournaments instead of high school games to find elite recruits. It’s simple math for college coaches in terms of going to an AAU/travel event as opposed to a high school one.
When a college coach goes to a high school game, it’s normally to see one player, maybe two. When attending an AAU/travel event, a coach is able to see many more prospects than that.
Oakland Community College girls basketball coach Marv Allen said he can see anywhere from 50 to 60 prospects at an AAU tournament, which also breaks the players down by age.
“When you look at a high school team, most of the players are there just for the athletic experience and are part of the team,” Allen said. “They are mostly part of the sport atmosphere. AAU is a competitive situation, so you’re getting the best of various teams participating together. As a college coach, I can go to one venue and I see more than likely the best of the best.”

Football might not have an AAU or offseason league that consists of games, but it’s the same concept for college football coaches.
Most scholarship offers are handed out at camps held at the college during the spring or summer. Sometimes all it takes is to see a kid run an excellent 40-yard dash time or show an impressive vertical jump and a scholarship is handed out.

— More and more, parents are realizing excelling in AAU/travel sports is the best way for their kids to get exposure in hopes of landing a college scholarship.
John Pochas said this is an important summer for his son. The offseason before a senior year is generally the time when high school athletes in any sport are offered scholarships the most, and this summer John Pochas said they will be traveling to as many tournaments as possible in hopes of catching the eye of scouts.
“This is kind of the critical year because he just finished his junior year,” John Pochas said. “That’s a big strategy. If you want to make the investment, you want to make it a tournament that has some scouts there.”
Because of that, the mindset of attending travel tournaments has completely changed as his son has gotten older, according to Pochas.
“The kids liked it (earlier in life) because it was always like going on vacation,” Pochas said. “It’s a little more serious now.”
While recognizing the avenue his AAU program can provide to earning a college scholarship, Smith said ultimately his program tries to serve as an educational tool, not only for skill development in basketball, but to provide life lessons.
The odds of a typical kid earning a college scholarship still are remote, so Smith wants to make sure parents are realistic and realize their investment in AAU sports at the very least is providing an education for their kid.
“I think parents that go into the program with the expectation of a college scholarship could be disappointed if a player gets injured or burnt out,” Smith said. “I think if everyone goes in it with realistic expectations, the player will be successful (in life) whether or not they play in college.”

— Concerns exist that AAU/travel sports have eroded high school sports, and will further do so.
There are ways people believe high school sports have suffered because of AAU/travel sports. One, with the amount of games being played and travel being done in AAU/travel sports, it’s hampered practice time and the chance to further develop skills. That in turn has weakened fundamentals during high school seasons.
Another detriment of AAU/travel sports that proponents of high school sports cite is that team play has suffered, because AAU/travel has a tendency to be more about impressing and showing off individual skills.
As a result, team-first play has been somewhat hindered for high school athletics.
AAU/travel sports has also increased specialization among high school athletics, where athletes confine themselves to one sport all for the sake of earning a scholarship in that sport. That thinking has upset coaches who favor two or three-sport athletes to help an individual enhance competitiveness and develop other motor skills.
In addition, and this could really start to become an issue of the near future, AAU/travel sports could erode participation in high school sports, although that’s more the fault of school districts.
Because of skyrocketing pay-to-play costs for high school athletics, parents may find AAU/travel sports an option that isn’t much more expensive and a better investment given the college exposure they can create.
“That’s going to be huge this year,” Allen said regarding the effect pay-to-play fees could have on high school athletes.

— People such as personal trainers and marketing/recruiting agencies are becoming more prevalent than ever. For parents and athletes, it’s a matter of getting an edge beyond that of playing AAU/travel sports.
More and more kids are involved in sports-performance companies such as PlaymakersU, a Pontiac-based company that provides personal training, academic tutoring and character building.
“You’ve got to get that extra edge,” said Derek Denham, public relations coordinator/recruiting expert for PlaymakersU. “Because if you’re not doing it, someone else is.”
Denham said the organization trains more than 300 athletes in a variety of sports, ranging from age 6 to college. Those involved with the organization get physical dimensions measured, timed in the 40-yard dash, tutored academically to help raise ACT scores for college coaches, and are given character workshops.
“In today’s recruiting world, you have to have the whole package because (college) coaches’ jobs are on the line,” Denham said.
The organization meets at Wisner Stadium in Pontiac, but has tentative plans to move into the Howard Dell Community Center.
“The recruiting process has changed over the years,” Denham said. “With the advent of the Internet, people are not just recruiting from the state or nationally, but worldwide now. For us, when we talk to the parents (we tell them) that you need to go out and get enough competition and exposure as you can get. There’s never enough.”
Dan Renel, who is the father of Josh Renel, a former Rochester Adams football standout who will be a junior on Wayne State’s football team this upcoming season, said he hired a personal trainer for Josh before his junior year, and it helped greatly.
Dan Renel was complimentary of the training sessions conducted at the high school, but said there’s only so much a high school program can do.
“When these kids go to the school to work out, it’s not like they’re getting individual training,” Renel said. “You would have a coach there to supervise everybody, but he’s not pushing individual kids. Most of the high school programs aren’t that way where they have a trainer working with them individually.”
In addition to hiring personal trainers, Renel pointed out another growing fad for high school athletes: The highlight tape.
With YouTube and other video websites becoming more and more popular and athletes looking for ways to promote themselves to college coaches who might not otherwise see them in action, producing highlight tapes is becoming as a regular a routine as practice itself.
“It becomes an exercise in marketing,” said Renel, adding his son had a highlight tape produced for him. “The better market or your market your product, in this case an athlete, the more that athlete is going to get looked.”

All of the above aren’t necessarily newfound issues involving AAU/travel sports, but they seem to be shed in more light with their growth and the amount of people that are impacted each year.
Because of that, expect not only AAU/travel sports themselves to intensify for years to come, but the continued arguments as to their pluses and minuses.

E-mail Keith Dunlap at keith.dunlap@oakpress.com.

Still runnin’: Summer programs offer chances for higher-level competition for aspiring stars

Jul 03, 2010

By: Oakland Press Sports

By MARVIN GOODWIN
Of The Oakland Press
It may be summertime but the living’s not easy for a number of track and field athletes around the area. That’s because they’re still training, even though they’ve finished their seasonal commitments to their middle school and high school teams.
On this particular evening, at the Orchard Lake St. Mary’s Preparatory School track, members of the North Oakland Blue Dragons track and field team are

engaged in a variety of training disciplines under the watchful eye of coach Warren Skeete.
They’re huffing and puffing, and looking fatigued at times. But that’s what they want.
“I came here because I was on another team before,” said sprinter Tauren Keels, a recent West Bloomfield High graduate who will compete for Indiana Tech in Fort Wayne, Ind., next season. “I was

looking for harder training, more specialized training and I knew that coach Skeete would give it to me. My times have come down a lot.”
The Blue Dragons’ roster includes athletes from Rochester, Auburn Hills, Oxford, Waterford and other communities. Candice Mack, Zac Miklja, Trevon Salter, Yasmine Jones, Xavier Burns and Teanna Murray are among club athletes who stood out during the high school track season.

A number of summer track and field programs, who compete in AAU and USATF sanctioned meets, operated in Southeast Michigan. Among those are Maximum Output, Motor City Track Club, Southfield Mustangs, Swift and others. All provide

opportunities for youth competition in local, state and national arenas, and many have produced elite-level performances. Athletes such as Kendall Baisden of Birmingham Detroit Country Day and Southfield High graduate Bridgette Owens

-Mitchell, both national-class track athletes, have competed during the summer for club teams in the area, along with Phil Washington, who won the Division 1 state championship in the 400-meter dash for West Bloomfield High School.
Washington is in his second year with the Motor City Striders, one of the oldest clubs around, and Baisden is in her second year with the Motor City Track Club.
“I like AAU a little bit better,” Washington said, comparing high school with the club. “The team is a little closer … and they’re all track fanatics. These guys are real serious about the sport and they want to get better.
“You have to work harder if you want to be good. Every day I’m coming home dying. But it’s a good feeling after you work hard. If you’re not willing to work, you’re probably not going to go too far. It’s not easy, but eventually it pays off.”
Washington said in summer competition, athletes usually compete against others in the same age group. But the competition can be tougher.
“That’s why I love nationals so much,” he said, “and it’s always a better race if you know there’s someone there that can beat you. You have to be prepared every race.”
Baisden, who won the USATF Junior Nationals 400 last week, said high school track can be challenging because of competitions against older athletes.
“(And) it’s harder in high school because there’s less time for recovery because the meets last only a day,” Baisden said, contrasting national and regional competitions, which can be held over multiple days. “(But) I but I like them both.”
The Blue Dragons have been around for nearly a decade, assisting youth in preparation for various sports.
“We’re a youth development organization,” Skeete said. “We use track and field for core training for sports most kids are doing in school. We do a lot of core agility, flexibility and endurance training.”
Nearly 40 boys and girls from six to 19 years old are active members of the Blue Dragons, including Matt Campbell, who competes for the University of Michigan, and Isaac Marshall, who competes at Michigan State. The pair, former teammates at Rochester High, have spent years with the Blue Dragons program and have returned to help mentor younger athletes.
“One thing I like about it is you get a lot of personal attention … and good fundamentals,” Campbell said. “It gave you a mental edge to compete at a higher level.”
Skeete, a former volunteer coach at Auburn Hills Avondale High, started the Blue Dragons “to help a few kids I was coaching.” Originally from Guyana in South America, Skeete grew up in Toronto where he ran track in high school and competed at the club level. He is a USATF and IAAF certified coach with expertise in sprints, jumps, middle distances and basic throwing events.
Sometimes, club track and high school coaches do not think on the same plane, opening up conflicts, according to Skeete.

“What we’re having is a philosophical battle,” he said. “The high school coaches are going out of their way to be detrimental to the club runners. It seems to be a petty ego problem. What they’re most concerned about is scoring points to the detriment of the athlete.
“You should do what’s best for the team, but you have to have them (athletes) run their best event. That’s how you get your scholarship.”
But Skeete also knows that with the dwindling number of athletic scholarships available, particularly for non-revenue producing sports, academic achievement must be emphasized. And, collectively, the Blue Dragons are mostly high achievers in the classroom.
Still, competition for athletic scholarships remains tough, which adults must realize, he said.
“What parents have to stop thinking about is the full-ride scholarship,” Skeete said.
Other challenges include funding for travel and participation at meets. “Fund-raising is an absolute nightmare,” Skeete said, “especially in this economy because the state does not provide funds.”
Therefore, club members are involved in car washes, selling cookie dough, scratch cads and soliciting businesses for funding and travel.
“We’re always looking for sponsors,” Skeete said.
Even so, the clubs manage to continue operating despite financial challenges. And that’s good for the youngsters, who’ve made their choice for summertime pursuits.

AAU has become one-stop shop for college coaches

Jul 03, 2010

By: Oakland Press Sports

By MATTHEW B. MOWERY
Of The Oakland Press
When entrepreneur Clarence Saunders opened the first Piggly Wiggly store in Memphis, Tenn., in 1916, his idea for self-service grocery shopping completely revolutionized the way consumers purchased food.
While the ideals and origins behind the formation and subsequent growth of the Amateur Athletic Union’s system of summer basketball aren’t nearly as neatly summarized as that example, the result — at least for college coaches — is almost exactly the same.
AAU basketball, for all its warts, has neatly cut out the middleman in the recruiting wars, effectively providing the consumer (in this case the coaches) a one-stop-shopping atmosphere, where nationally-marketed products (here the players) are on prominent display on the shelves.
That comes with both good and bad — increased exposure and attention have spawned a seamier side to the suddenly burgeoning business of recruiting — but for coaches, you have to take the bad to get the good.
“It is what it is. And you cannot like it and complain, and say bad things about it, but there are good things about it,” said Oakland University men’s basketball coach Greg Kampe, who has watched the AAU phenomenon grow in his 26 years in Rochester. “I can’t change it. I’m not gonna change it. So I accept it for what it is, and try to make the best out of it.”

For time-strapped coaches, making the best out of it means taking full advantage of the fact that they can see far more players at an AAU tournament in the summer than they ever can during the high school seasons.
“The biggest advantage, from a college coach’s perspective, to do AAU recruiting, you go to an event, and I’m there all day long, and get to see seven or eight kids. There’s not too many times where there are seven kids who are our level or above are playing on the same high school team. So we get to go to one site and sit there and see all these different kids from different areas of the state of Michigan, or even the Midwest, for that matter, and we don’t have to leave a gym,” said Jeff Curtis, the head women’s basketball coach at Division II Northwood University.
“From the convenience factor, it’s huge, and not to mention it’s always on the weekends — which does take you away from your family on the weekends, but it also means you’re home on the weekdays, which for some people is really, really important.”
That convenience is even a bigger factor for women’s coaches in our state, who were used to recruiting in their offseason (the fall) before the court-mandated season switch for Michigan high schools. For the last three years, women’s coaches have had to deal with the same headache of in-season recruiting that their counterparts on the men’s side had dealt with all along.
“Before the seasons changed, every Tuesday and Thursday, I was going to be on the road. I was recruiting. That’s the way it was. And now, it becomes more of a challenge to pinpoint when kids are playing — certain conferences play on certain nights, and sometimes they play the early game or the late game,” said Curtis, who estimated his staff — members of which put an average of 35,000 miles on their cars on the recruiting trail last year — logged 22 days in July alone last summer, as compared to two or three in-season recruiting trips.
“It has made a major impact, and we’ve probably stepped up our game a little bit, as far as what we we’re looking to get accomplished, as far as our recruiting, in the spring and in the summer, but we still … like to do our homework and see kids play in high school, as well. … Bottom line is that we still need to be out and see kids play, as much as we can.”
And if having instant access to thousands of players all at once is a huge bonus for coaches, it’s even better when the AAU tournaments divvy the players up into age groups.
That’s a godsend for someone like Oakland Community College women’s coach Marv Allen, who has to reload his team in two-year cycles.
“Say I’m looking for seniors that are coming out, or a junior at a particular position as a potential player down the road, I can see maybe 100 girls in one day. But the nice thing is, they’re all juniors and seniors, versus if you go to a high school game, you may see two seniors on one team and one on the other, and mostly juniors. Or vice versa. So you get a much quicker overview faster, is what you get,” Allen said.
“If there’s a freshman, that’s four years away for me. A four-year college may be able to look at them and think, ‘We’ll put them on our (radar), and follow up next year and the year after,’ where I’ve got that two-year turnover.”

On the radar
One of the main mandates of AAU basketball is to get kids on the radar of college recruiters as early as possible — sometimes to the detriment of the sport, and the kids themselves.
Kids not yet out of middle school and years away from driving privileges are taking cross-country summer trips, and donning expensive uniforms. For cash-strapped parents — many of whom are just starting to deal with pay-for-play systems in high school sports — those additional costs may price kids out of playing multiple sports, just adding to the general move toward specialization.
Three- or four-sport athletes are definitively a thing of the past.
“When I was growing up, I couldn’t wait to be on my high school basketball team, because I got to wear the cool uniform, and warm-ups, and all the neat things that came from playing for your town. … When I was in high school, if you made an hour ride on the bus to play somebody, that was unbelievable. Now, I mean, some of these AAU teams, they’ve got 13 different uniforms, they’ve got kids at 15, 14, 13 years old that have nicer equipment, brand new shoes — the hottest shoes, the coolest stuff — and they’re given all this stuff. … They’re wearing a different uniform for every game, and they’re traveling all over the freakin’ country,” said Kampe, whose own sons play in the AAU system.
“They just get stuff before it’s ever earned — long, long, long before they ever should, in my opinion.”
The AAU system — which as often as not merely breeds the sense of entitlement for athletes — also erodes the attitudes of loyalty and perseverance, almost setting up a system of free agency.
“I see it because I recruit a kid, and things don’t go well for him in his freshman year, instead of sucking it up and saying, ‘This is the school I picked and this is where I want to be.’ … and it’s not so much the kid, it’s the people around the kid, who should be saying to him, ‘You chose this school, it’s not going to be easy. You were just a freshman. You’ve got to improve, you’ve got to get better, and go through the process.’ No, kids want to run and change, because that’s what they’ve done all through (the process). I know of kids that have played on a different AAU team every year. They don’t like the coach, they don’t like this, so they leave,” Kampe said.
“When I was in high school, if something went wrong, my dad would grab me by the jersey and say, ‘You do what that coach says, and you keep your mouth shut.’ Now it’s, ‘You need to get out of there, that coach doesn’t know what he’s doing.’ ”
By and large, those people doing the whispering are there for the money, like it or not.

Money, money, money
Coaches who’ve been around the game for decades, like Kampe and Tennessee women’s assistant Dean Lockwood, it’s been an annoyance they’ve had to deal with increasingly, as the interest in their sport has grown.
Handlers.
Entourages.
Representatives who turn kids into miniature free-agents.
“There’s a lot of different motivations. In the men’s game, because all of it trickles down from NBA money, it’s like all these people, so many of them have got their hooks into this kid because they see a payoff at the end of the line, more often than not. Not all of them — there are some really good ones out there,” Lockwood said. “But the people who get in the way of the recruiting process, and want you to deal with them, and want to be so overly involved in the whole thing for somebody, or have their hand out — in the end, it’s money.
“In our world, there’s not the NBA, there’s the WNBA, and the money’s not the same. But because women can go overseas (to play professionally), and do very well, and there is a WNBA, we’re seeing more and more of that.”
For Lockwood, who spent the first 22 years of his coaching career on the men’s side — with stops as an assistant at Army, Tennessee and CMU, and as the head coach at Northwood and Saginaw Valley — the switch to the women’s game six years ago has merely allowed him a front-row seat to watch his newly-adopted sport go down the same road.
He even warned legendary UT women’s coach Pat Summitt that it was coming, back in his first go-round in Knoxville, Tenn., in the late 1980s.

“I told her this: Our game (at the time the men’s game), we’re about 15 years ahead of your game, in terms of — not how it’s coached, or anything — but in terms of the elements that go into recruiting. I said, ‘You watch and see. As your game grows in popularity, there’s going to be elements involved in recruiting,’ ” Lockwood recalled.
“And now, being on this side of the fence, I said something to her the other day, I said ‘You know what? It’s getting closer and closer to the men’s game, in terms of all the people you have to deal with, in terms of the AAU stuff, the entourage of people.’
“If you talk to men’s coaches … you’re going to hear some absolute horror stories about people they have to deal with, and instead of being one, two or three people, it’s five, six, seven people in a kid’s camp, that you have to try to get in your corner. But I’ll tell you what, you’re seeing more and more of that (in women’s basketball).
“Now, is it as widespread? No. Is the volume of it as big as it is in the men’s game? No. But do we see it? Yes we do,” admitted Lockwood, who has seen it all before. “If you’ve cleared the land, and you’ve had to hunt bears and wolves, you know what they look like. And if, all of a sudden, my livestock is disappearing, and I see big paw prints — I know a bear or a wolf when I see it.”
More often than not, those wolves in sheep’s clothing attach themselves to a kid during the AAU process, reinserting the middlemen back into a process that was originally intended to keep them out.

Separate, yet equal
So how does a college coach get through all the noise of recruiting to find the right players? By using all the tools available to them, and understanding how different they are.
Like the venues themselves, both high school ball and AAU hoops have positives and negatives for recruiters.
“There are lots of good things (with AAU basketball) … but I also think it’s tough to watch,” Kampe admitted. “AAU teams, they practice once a week, maybe twice a week, they’re up and down, kids change, they may have four different players this week than they did last week, the style of ball, the coaching — there’s a big difference in coaching between lots of the teams — so there’s a lot you don’t know.
“A lot of it is just watching kids just run up and down and make athletic plays. The intelligence factors and things like that, you don’t see a lot of in the summer.”
By and large, though, AAU ball allows recruiters to pin down a kid’s tangibles — can he/she dribble, run, jump and shoot? — while watching them in high school ball may provide a better measure of intangibles — how do they take coaching, and winning and losing?
“I think some people base their recruiting solely off AAU, which I think that’s a little bit of a mistake, in my personal opinion. We want to see kids playing AAU, and I want to go and turn around and I want to watch them play in high school, because I want to see them play in different situations and in different environments,” Curtis said. “And that’s our part, as college coaches, of doing our homework.
“Give the kid a chance to show what they can do on a team full of all-stars, and I want to see you can do when you might be on a team that’s not quite as good as your AAU team. How are you going to react when things get a little tough? I think that shows the true character of the kid that you’re recruiting. And that’s one of our things: ‘OK, have you seen them play?’ ‘Yes.’ ‘Where did you see them? Did you see them AAU, did you see them high school ball? Did you see them in an open gym, or a showcase?’
“And we try to cover all of those areas, to get a true understanding of what a kid’s all about, and how they react to certain situations, and honestly, more times than not, it’s the same all the way across the board. There’s been very few times where we see a kid who shines in AAU, but emerges as kind of a bad attitude when it comes to high school ball. It does not happen too often that I’ve seen, but I have heard of cases where that’s what’s going on.”
While AAU ball may lack some of the permanence of high school — wins and losses mean far less when they pile up like cordwood — competing is still competing.
“In an AAU setting, you still get to see a kid compete. I don’t care who you are, if you’re playing, if there’s a game, and that clock is running, and there’s officials, a true competitor … they don’t want to lose, ever,” Lockwood said. “If it’s a high school drill, or an AAU game, or a high school tournament game — those kids do not want to lose. And they will give everything they’ve got.”
In the end, that’s all recruiters want to see, no matter where a kid is playing.

Matthew B. Mowery covers colleges for The Oakland Press. Read his blog at TheOaklandPress.com, and follow him on Twitter @matthewbmowery.

MHSAA, AAU have never quite seen eye to eye

Jul 03, 2010

By: Oakland Press Sports

By KEITH DUNLAP
Of The Oakland Press
Back in 2006, there was obviously a lot of attention on the fact the biggest football game in the world, the Super Bowl, was being held at Ford Field in Detroit.
But people might not have known that as part of the Super Bowl festivities, the host city/area also got to be home to a youth football tournament involving high-school age kids around the world.
The NFL Global Junior Championship that year was held at the Pontiac Silverdome, with teams from Mexico, Japan, Canada, Germany and the United States competing in the event.
On a side note, the event ended in 2007 after 11 years and was replaced by the American Football Junior World Cup, a biannual event held in the summer.
When the NFL Global Junior Championship was held in a Super Bowl city, the U.S. team would be comprised of local high school players, but that wasn’t the case for the event at the Silverdome.
The U.S. instead was represented by a group of players who played in the Toledo, Ohio area, not metro Detroit.
So why was this the case?
Because of a longstanding, and often controversial, rule from the Michigan High School Athletic Association.
The MHSAA has a rule where high school athletes who compete for their schools in a sport can’t play in an event deemed as an all-star game or national championship (unless that player is a member of a national team), or else they must forfeit their athletic eligibility to play other sports the rest of the season.
That’s the reason why the high school football all-star game is played in the summer, some nine months after the season has ended.
Some are confused as to why the MHSAA has such a rule, claiming that it’s a once-in-a-lifetime experience to have players compete in all-star games with other top players from around the country in their sport.
MHSAA communications director John Johnson said the rule is in place as a means to preserve the educational process of high school athletics and “avoid exploitation by parties who are not interested in the educational process.”
It’s not an issue for players who compete in just one high school sport and play in an all-star game in that particular sport, but does force multi-sport athletes who want to play in an all-star game to make a choice.
According to Johnson, it’s not true that Michigan is the only state with such a rule in place, adding that he knows of at least “a half dozen others” that have such a rule.
“It’s not one game, it’s a mindset,” Johnson said. “It’s something you start thinking weeks, months in advance. It affects the way you play in the games if you’re high school kids. It’s something that can also affect interaction with teammates. It becomes a breeding ground for a lot of different things, and they’re not necessarily healthy.”
There have been several athletes over the years within the state that have been forced to sacrifice playing other sports for the opportunity to play in a high-profile all-star game.
One local example recently was former Birmingham Detroit Country Day football standout Jonas Gray, who is now playing at Notre Dame.
A 2008 graduate, Gray was a three-sport athlete who was a role player on Country Day’s 2007 Class B state championship boys basketball team and was a key sprinter on Country Day’s track and field team that won the 2007 Division 3 state title.
As a senior, Gray had an opportunity to play in the U.S. Army All-American Bowl, an annual national high school all-star football game in San Antonio.
Gray happily took advantage of that opportunity, but it came at a price.
But because he played in that game, Gray was ineligible by the MHSAA to play basketball or run track during his senior year.
The MHSAA also doesn’t allow athletes to play high school sports and AAU sports at the same time, thus hockey players have to choose between playing high school and travel hockey in the winter.
Johnson said playing an AAU sport at the same time as a high school sport can hamper the educational process the organization wants high school athletics to promote.
“Again they can promote excessive behavior, excessive travel and excessive games,” Johnson said of the faults of AAU sports. “Now they’ve been coached by their non-school coach in a way that may be contrary to what that school’s coach is teaching that individual.”
Under the old sports seasons when volleyball was played in the winter, players would miss half of the AAU season, which began in January, because high school volleyball didn’t end until mid-March.
That was one reason why the lawsuit was brought against the MHSAA by two volleyball parents in the Grand Rapids area to switch the volleyball and girls basketball seasons, an effort which ultimately succeeded when the MHSAA lost a near 10-year court battle to keep the seasons the way they were.

E-mail Keith Dunlap at keith.dunlap@oakpress.com.

Kids now seem to specialize a bit more

Jul 03, 2010

By: Oakland Press Sports

By KEITH DUNLAP
Of The Oakland Press
In general, high school sports coaches understand and respect the opportunities AAU/travel sports can bring to an individual athlete.
They know the ways that AAU/travel sports can enhance competitiveness, skill level and exposure to college coaches who are looking for talent.
On the other hand, some high school coaches have concerns that AAU/travel sports have changed the landscape of high school sports in negative ways.
One way is that the growth of AAU/travel sports has led to an increased emphasis on specialization. Parents are given the advice that the best way for a kid to receive a college scholarship in a sport is to devote their time year-round to that sport, and that playing other sports takes away time from the one sport deemed an athlete’s ticket to a scholarship.
That infuriates many high school coaches who want their kids to play multiple sports, not only to improve other motor skills that might not be enhanced playing a particular sport, but to improve their competitiveness.
Coaches who feel that way believe that playing multiple sports makes them better in the sport they want to play in college and possibly beyond.
In addition, high school coaches realize that most high school athletes won’t be in consideration for a college scholarship, so playing multiple sports is another way to provide the life lessons athletics can teach.
Birmingham Detroit Country Day boys basketball coach/athletic director Kurt Keener said a glaring example of someone who benefited from playing multiple sports is NBA star LeBron James, who was an all-state football player at his suburban Cleveland high school.

Country Day is one school that requires non-senior athletes to play a sport in at least two different semesters.
“It certainly didn’t hurt his ability to play basketball,” Keener said of James.
Of course, there’s the other side of the argument as well.
Derek Denham, recruiting expert/public relations director for PlaymakersU, a sports-performance company that provides athletic training, academic tutoring and character building, said pushing an athlete into one or multiple sports depends on the athlete itself and the college prospects of that athlete.
Denham said he played in high school with Andre Rison, Sr., a former NFL standout who Denham said was such a phenom that he could excel in whatever sport he played, whether it was football or basketball.
Typically though, athletes that have legitimate college prospects are more and more pushed to choose one sport.
Denham cited an example of former Country Day running back Jonas Gray, who is now at Notre Dame.
Gray’s best sport was football, but he also played basketball and was a sprinter on the track team. But at 5-foot-9, it was going to be hard for Gray to go anywhere in basketball, a reason why Denham felt Gray should just focus solely on football.
“I depends on the individual what he wants out of this,” Denham said. “If you have aspirations to move on to be in college or even a pro, you have to empower yourself to do this.”
Concerns also abound that AAU/travel sports have poisoned the purpose of playing those sports, which is to try and better develop skills both in the sport and in life.
With more and more AAU programs allowing players from another town or even out of the state onto a team, oftentimes coaches serve as agents for college coaches, who have been known to coincidentally show up at hotels the players are staying at during tournaments.
Tom Hursey, executive director of the Basketball Coaches Association of Michigan who coached basketball at Midland for 21 years, said AAU works best and its purest form when organizations take only local-based players, but acknowledged more and more AAU teams stretch county and state lines.
Hursey said it’s not a bad thing that AAU teams go more out of the area to get players and out of the state for travel, but that those in charge of the teams can get “a little too enthusiastic.”
With that in mind, Hursey said roughly 10 years ago that BCAM made an effort to reach out to AAU coaches.
The attempt from BCAM was to set up guidelines and an accountability system for AAU coaches that were trying to do more than teach the game and develop skills.
Hursey admits he’s unsure how much that has worked.
“I won’t say it’s been a big success, because what happens is that coaches don’t want to turn in other coaches for breaking the rules,” Hursey said. “We tried our best to do that. Whether it helped, I don’t know.”
In addition, there’s an opinion of many high schools coaches that AAU/travel sports have actually hindered skill development and competitiveness, not improved it.
The emphasis among AAU teams has become more about going to as many tournaments as possible and playing as many games within these tournaments as possible, which some feel has left less time to practice fundamentals.
“That’s kind of hit the national scene now,” Hursey said.  “It’s sad when you have all these foreign players come over and they have better skills. The blame is on AAU and I can understand that. These great players play on these great teams, and it becomes a case of winning the tournament rather than spending a couple of hours on fundamentals.”
Dave Smith, an AAU coach who presides over “Team Basketball,” a program for boys in grades 6-12, said that his players more often than not use their time in AAU to better themselves for their high school seasons, and thus do try to enhance skills.
That’s particularly the case with players who aren’t likely to receive a college scholarship, according to Smith, who believes a good AAU program does stress skill development.
“Kids that are playing at a high level in school and at a high level in AAU understand they take the best points from both coaches and incorporate that into a game,” Smith said.
Birmingham Marian volleyball coach Irick Gardner also runs an AAU program, and said he has seen instances where playing so many games in AAU can negatively effect player skills.
Gardner said it’s just a matter of what type of training players are getting. He said if it’s just a matter of playing games to get better, players might as well save the money spent on AAU and go to local recreation centers to play games.
Parents can obviously counter with the thought that college coaches are at AAU tournaments and not recreation centers, but Gardner said that can be a negative.
“The problem is that if you do it the wrong way in front of those college coaches, they’re going to bypass you,” Gardner said. “One hundred college coaches are there seeing you doing it the wrong way if you’re not training the right way. (Parents) just don’t get it sometimes.”
Kids who compete in AAU tournaments also play game after game, which often doesn’t have much meaning since those kids know there will be more games the next day regardless of whether they win or lose.
That has hurt the competitiveness of kids, according to Keener.
“I think these kids play so many games that they lose their competitiveness because all of the games can just run together,” Keener said.
Going forward, the rising costs to play high school sports could also lead to more parents putting a greater emphasis on AAU/travel sports, and thus further change the landscape of high school athletics.
A recent Michigan High School Athletic Association survey found that the use of participation fees to fund athletics has doubled the last seven years, with fees paid increasing more than 30 percent.
Of the 62 percent of the MHSAA member schools that participated in the survey, 47 percent of those schools charged participation fees during 2009-10 school year.
Parents who have the intent of trying to buck the overwhelming odds and get a college scholarship for their kids might feel it’s a better investment to just stick with AAU/travel sports.
But as Hursey points out, the odds of a typical athlete getting a college scholarship are still slim.
As long as people have that mindset, high school athletics should still have a prominent role in the lives of families.
“High school athletics do not exist to get kids college scholarships,” Hursey said. “High school athletics exists to provide things such as some positive life experiences, learn some leadership and get some conditioning, and so forth. That’s why we exist.”

E-mail Keith Dunlap at keith.dunlap@oakpress.com.

Carter clan benefiting from AAU participation

Jul 03, 2010

By: Oakland Press Sports

By PAULA PASCHE
Of The Oakland Press
Paying for your four daughters to be involved in club sports can get a little pricey.
“What better way to spend money than on your kids,’’ said Kevin Carter of Bloomfield Hills.
The Carters are not alone. Club sports are a growing factor in Oakland County and elsewhere. Perhaps you hear more about AAU basketball, but that is not the only game in town, and parents know it.
Carter played college football at Western Michigan and his love of sports seems to have found its way into the blood of his four daughters  — 6-year-old Katheryn, 12-year-old Karmyn, 15-year-old Kristyn and his oldest, Tierra, who is a college student in North Carolina.
The schedule at the Carter household can get a little harried, but Carter said they just work it in. His wife, Cassandra, is key to the picture too.
“We call her the warden,’’ Carter said of his wife, who makes sure her daughters also achieve academically.
Currently their daughter Kristyn, who is coming off a back injury, is training at Playmakers U in Pontiac to run high school track at Farmington Hills Mercy. It’s track for her now, but previously she was involved in competitive cheer at Trilogy in Shelby Township.
His two younger daughters play soccer for the Wazay football club in Rochester. Karmyn also has run track.
Their eventual goal is to play for the U.S. development team and/or earn a full-ride athletic scholarship.
Carter said most soccer players are good students and they have a chance at Division II schools such as Kalamazoo, Albion and Butler.
“My girls are all good students. They love the competition and the sports,’’ Carter said.
Carter said the club sports are where it’s at.
“That’s where the kids go who are serious,’’ Carter said.
Darryl Woods of Auburn Hills would agree with that.
He’s not shuttling four daughters, he has one son — Damaris — who is serious about football and basketball.
Damaris just wrapped up his AAU basketball season. In the past he’s also played on travel football teams.
In the fall he’ll be on the freshman football team at Brother Rice. He also aims to play basketball there, too. They chose Brother Rice because of academics and sports, in that order.
His dad said it’s tough to make a decision between the two sports.
“Until we know which sport college will pay for, he’ll play both,’’ said Woods who played high school football at Pontiac Central.
Damaris found confidence in his training at Playmakers U for the past two years.
“It was speed and agility training, they also worked with him at his position (wide receiver),’’ Woods said.
On the basketball court, he’s a shooting guard. Damaris has his goals listed and the top is to play in the NBA. But his dad tries to keep reality in play. “I tell him, ‘If you make it to college, whatever happens after that is a bonus,’’ Woods said.
His wife, Sheleda, is actively involved in Damaris’ activities, too.
Their 11-year-old daughter, Dalis, plays basketball at the Auburn Hills Boys and Girls Club, but her dad calls her a “no-sweat kind of person.” She plays basketball because her friends do. She’s not being pushed to go anywhere she doesn’t want to go.
Neither is his son.
Darryl Woods likes the life lessons that his son is learning through athletics.
“In life you have to deny yourself things,’’ Woods said.
His son is busy enough that he doesn’t have time to sit around the house and spend hours playing video games.
When Darryl Woods was a kid in Pontiac, he used to go outside and play with neighbor kids. That doesn’t happen so much any more. With club sports, young athletes get a chance to learn life lessons while breaking a sweat.

Former Shamrock Thomas proud to be playing hockey

Jul 03, 2010

By: Oakland Press Sports

By KEITH DUNLAP
Of The Oakland Press
Perhaps this year more than other year, the Fourth of July holiday will have special meaning for former Novi Detroit Catholic Central hockey standout Tony Thomas.
In fact, Fourth of Julys will probably have added significance from this point forward for the rest of Thomas’ life.
In the fall, Thomas will begin playing hockey for the Air Force Academy, which offered him a scholarship after watching him at Catholic Central and when he played junior hockey last season for the Topeka RoadRunners of the North American Hockey League.
Of course, playing hockey at a service academy isn’t your typical hockey experience.
There are way more demands than just playing hockey, whether it’s the rigorous academic duties, walking in formation lines or boot camp.

It’s a challenge that Thomas has bravely and happily accepted.
“It’s not an easy thing to do,” said Thomas, who spoke by phone on June 21, three days before leaving for the Air Force Academy to start a six-week boot camp. “It’s something that felt right to do. I feel proud and I think I made the right decision.”
Thomas’ interest in the Air Force started when the hockey program sent him recruiting letters while at Catholic Central.
His interest really perked up when he saw Air Force record a 2-0 upset of Michigan in the first round of the 2009 NCAA tournament.
“That’s when I thought these guys were up-and-coming,” Thomas  said.
During his senior year, Thomas helped lead Catholic Central to the 2009 Division 1 state championship, earning first-team all-state honors after collecting 43 points (18 goals, 25 assists) in 30 games.
At Topeka last year, Thomas contributed heavily to the RoadRunners, accumulating 47 points (20 goals, 27 assists) in 58 regular-season games before garnering nine points (4 goals, 5 assists) in nine playoff games.
“I didn’t know what to expect,” Thomas said of his year at Topeka. “I started on the fourth line and I worked my way up to the top line.”
In addition, the father of the billet family Thomas lived with in Topeka was a veteran of the military, having served before in Saudi Arabia.
Knowing Thomas was going to Air Force, the father of the billet family was able to tell him just how much of an honor it was to serve the country.
“He definitely said it’s a time you’ll never forget and there are a lot of positives,” Thomas said. “That really helped me with my decision.
Another aspect to playing at the Air Force Academy for Thomas is that when he’s done playing hockey and gets his degree, he’ll have to serve at least five additional years with the academy after that.
When he gets his degree, the Academy will guarantee that Thomas has a job in his field somewhere around the world for five years, so that was another perk to accepting the scholarship offer to play hockey.
Tony’s mother, Deb Thomas, said there are naturally some fears as a parent about seeing a child make such an enormous sacrifice and commitment.
But beaming smiles are more prevalent than any concerns, especially since Deb Thomas said her son will be receiving an education totaling more than $400,000 as a result of the scholarship.
“Actually, I think we’re in the proud-of-him stage,” Deb Thomas said. “This is something he’s worked for his whole life. He’s always been an excellent student and pushed himself academically. We kept saying the harder you worked, the more doors are open to you.”
In terms of hockey, Tony Thomas said he expects to see quite a bit of ice time, since he’s the only left-handed recruit coming into the program and has a knack for producing on the power play, so he’ll probably be used on that unit as someone who’ll constantly stand in front of the net.
Without question, playing hockey at Air Force should be once-in-a-lifetime experience for Thomas, both on and off the ice.
“I’m just really excited to see what it all holds,” Thomas said.

E-mail Keith Dunlap at keith.dunlap@oakpress.com.

Year No. 2 will be key for Lions’ Stafford

Jul 03, 2010

By: Oakland Press Sports

By PAULA PASCHE
Of The Oakland Press
How much will quarterback Matthew Stafford improve in his second season as a starter?
That’s the Lions’ big question on offense.
The early signs are most encouraging. He’s been delivering the ball to receivers during the OTAs on a mostly regular basis. Of course the team is not in pads and he’s going against the Lions’ defense, which has been refurbished (to put it mildly) and is still getting acquainted.
But, still.
One fade to Calvin Johnson in the end zone a few weeks ago drew rants and raves.
“Calvin has that ability to make difficult things look easy. He’s a guy who can run 4-something (in the 40-yard dash) and when he does, it doesn’t look like he’s moving real fast because he’s so big and he’s so long he can cover so much ground,’’ coach Jim Schwartz said. “That he’s so graceful when he does it, it looks effortless.
“Matt can throw it through a wall, so it’s easy for him just to flick a ball and have a lot of steam on it, he just makes it look easy. And I think that’s a good thing. I know it wouldn’t look that easy if they were lesser athletes.

“The difference where Matt is now opposed to last year, last year he was splitting reps and he was trying to do all those things that we’ve talked about rookies. This year he’s been here every single day in the offseason, he’s been throwing most of those days. … This year they’ve been at it strong since the middle of March so we should be seeing something like that,’’ Schwartz added.
Stafford, of course, credits Johnson.
“He’s running good routes. We’re on the same page right now, I feel pretty confident throwing and catching with him, he’s doing a good job,’’ Stafford said. “It’s easy with him running routes.’’
Stafford is miles ahead of where he was last year. He knows the offense, he’s better at reading defenses and he’s been throwing to his receivers in offseason workouts since mid-March.
Conventional wisdom is that an NFL quarterback makes his biggest jump from his first year to his second.
In his rookie season, Stafford started all 11 games that he played in. He was out with injuries for the other five. He completed 201 of 377 passes (53.3 percent) and had 13 touchdowns and 20 interceptions. Not sterling numbers. But considering the circumstances, it was acceptable.
Looking at some of the NFL’s top active quarterbacks, some of their numbers greatly improved between years one and two as a starter.
For New England’s Tom Brady, the difference was touchdowns. In his rookie season in 2001, he threw 18 touchdowns. He boosted that by 10 in his second season. He also increased his passing yardage from 2,843 to 3,764.
For Brett Favre the numbers aren’t significantly different from his first year as a starter to his second. In 1992, his first year as a starter (13 starts), he threw 18 touchdowns and 13 interceptions, completed 302 of 471 passes for 3,227 yards (64.1 percent). In his second starting season (16 starts) he was 318 of 522 for 3,303 yards (60.9 percent) for 19 touchdowns and 24 interceptions.
Perhaps with Favre, the key wasn’t the numbers. In 1993, his second year, he brought the Packers to the playoffs for the first time in 11 years. As you may recall,  led by Favre they beat the Lions, 28-24.
Indianapolis’ Peyton Manning’s passing yardage increased from 3,739 in his rookie season to 4,135 in his second. Certainly not a big deal. But his interception numbers dropped from 28 his rookie season to 15 in his second year.
Drew Brees can’t be judged on his second season because he was injured for a stretch of five games. So he started just 11 games. But between his rookie year (2002) and his third year (2004) he made a few leaps numbers-wise.
As a rookie, he had 17 touchdowns and 16 interceptions, while in 2004 he had 27 touchdowns against just seven interceptions.
The Lions’ final regular-season game is Jan. 2 against Minnesota. That is when we’ll know just how much Stafford improved. He’s got plenty of room to do so. And this year he’s got help.
“Not to put any more pressure on Stafford than needed, you finally see a quarterback who carries himself like the franchise. We’ve tried drafting quarterbacks in the past and it didn’t work out. You finally see a guy who carries himself like, ‘I’m going to turn this thing around.’ There’s no other option than to buy in and believe in,’’ center Dominic Raiola said.
“There’s a lot of pieces around, there’s a lot of talent around. … It makes his job that much easier,’’ Raiola added. “He can just go out and be special.’’

Paula Pasche covers the Lions. Follow her on Twitter @paula.pasche.

Just how many games will the Lions win?

Jul 03, 2010

By: Oakland Press Sports

Making predictions is a tough business, but what the heck. My guess is that the Lions will win six to eight games this season, although I’m reserving the right to change that after training camp.
Here’s what several Lions fans (some named, some not) are predicting. — Paula Pasche

— I say four wins. This schedule is brutal for a team with two wins. Several of the teams were in the playoffs and the North has gotten tougher to find wins. …They are building a team brick by brick, and learning how to win in the NFL is a learning process. 2011′s draft and free agency is where we get better.

— Taylor from Holland:  We can’t look at the Lions every season and say, “They’re just going to be the same old Lions.” This year definitely feels different and I believe that the players understand where they’re at and are buying into what needs to be done, rather than dwelling on the past two seasons. I haven’t seen free agency this aggressive and drafting this smart in a long time. The Lions have a tough schedule, but play many of the top teams at Ford Field and some of the weaker ones on the road. I’m predicting a 6-7 win season. I’d like to be as optimistic about the playoffs as Louis Delmas, but if Detroit could just reach .500, I think I could sit back and begin dreaming of an NFC North Championship T-shirt. As long as the front offices continue to bring in the highest-calibrator players and not just a slew of underachieving wide receivers, I think that Lions fans will start to see something special finally come together.

— I don’t have the 2010 schedule in front of me, but when I first looked it over, I figured best case of 5 wins, all at home. Maybe one winnable game on the road, for a max of 6 wins total. 2011 is when we better see a winning record and hopefully a playoff spot.

— Don: Lions should have a 7-9 record with a possibility of nine wins. I still believe the additions of Burleson, Sims and Best will improve the offense. The improvement on the defense will be on the shoulders of the D-Line.

— I would think 5-11 or 6-10. The improvements all around are worth at least three wins over last year. That said, the Lions are still dangerously thin at several positions and the talent that is there is still somewhat raw. If everyone stays healthy and performs to their ability, 8-9 wins would be possible. This being reality, I will stick with 5-6 wins.

— Robert in Texas: Too many first and second-year players that need a bit more time working together, Not only rookies, but also veterans that will not light it up their first year in the system. Anything over five wins will be bonus, but, five will be solid progress.

— Mike from Dowagiac, Mich.: 5-7

— Mike Golob of Bloomfield Hills: I go for 5-11 in 2010. Frankly, that might be a tad optimistic, as 4-12 might be more realistic. The division is tough. I expect Chicago to be better and we know the Vikings and Packers are both very solid. The Lions still have gaping holes courtesy of the Millen disaster. The offensive line is subpar. Gosder Cherilus appears to be another Millen bust, so they have no RT and Backus is mediocre at best at LT. The linebackers are very thin and the secondary may be the worst in football again. Stafford does not have the luxury of a solid defense or running game, so we can’t expect miracles from him in his second year. In summary, the talent and depth still is very thin and it will take at least another year or two to get up to NFL standards assuming good drafts and no serious injuries which always seem to strike the Lions. Now that I have laid it out, I am going for 4-12 as my final projection. I can’t justify 5-11 given the toughness of their division and the holes
remaining on their roster. I am 61 years old and I have learned not to be overly optimistic about the Lions. Keep up the good work.

— Rick of Rochester Hills: Last year the Lions chalked up a miserable -232 point differential, scoring an average of 16.3 pts/game, while allowing 30.8. The 12 teams that ended up under .500 had an average point differential (APD) of -125.6. The five teams that ended up 8-8 had an APD of -3.4. And the five teams that ended up 9-7 had an APD of +77.8.
It’s not unreasonable to expect the Lions much improved defense to subtract one opponent TD per game from last year’s average, nor is it unreasonable to expect the much more talented offense to score one more TD per game this year. The combined differences would result in the Lions scoring an average of 23.3 pts/game while allowing 23.8, which would put the Lions in the range of a projected 8-8 season based on last year’s NFL team point differential statistics. I’m predicting 7-9 and hoping for better.

— Walt: I set the over/under at 5.5 games. With the influx of talent and a year in this Mayhew/Schwartz system, six should be a reasonable number. However, this is the Lions we are talking about. The only assurances we have are that players wearing blue and silver uniforms will show up for sixteen published dates and take the field.
The Lion’s problems have been health and depth. Hopefully, they can stay healthy and develop people on the depth chart, not just plug holes.

— The Lions have shaken up their roster yet again. Last year basically they were filling some holes just with healthy bodies because they weren’t quite sure what they had. After a 2-14 season, they knew exactly where the deficiencies were and made trades and signed free agents to help them make their way to respectability.

— Steve from Troy: I say 7-9. The defense is just too much of a question (mark) to go any higher than that. The offense has the makings to be pretty explosive — IF everyone stays healthy.

— I’m thinking six is reasonable, considering the clear upgrades. But that secondary worries me and if fears are realized that number could drop to five or four. Only three would be a major disappointment, but I don’t expect that.

— Dave from Portage: I think being competitive and staying in more games will be the biggest difference in 2010. This is the season where they earn some long lost respect around the league. And if the team isn’t in the playoff mix in 2011, then my Mayhew/Schwartz patience tank will be getting low.
Go Lions, pass the cornbread.