Why so many?

Q: Does anyone lose as many athletes year in and year out via transfer as Robinson? This year, there are three football players (Joel Leonard-Gaither, Tom Gordon-Leto, Nixon Ramos-Jefferson) at other schools. Now, we lost sophmore Sheldon Cooley to Plant in basketball; Clayton Bourasa, a state qualifier in wrestling, to Plant; Joe Montes, a starter in baseball, to Jefferson; Shane Scanlon, a starter in baseball, to Plant; and Rikka Lovely, who started in basketball and won three track district titles last year as a freshman. Ramos also wrestled. We are already the smallest public school in Tampa by far.This makes it almost impossible to compete.

Joey Knight, Hillsborough Sports Editor: The situation you've encountered at Robinson is prevalent throughout Hillsborough County. The movement of student-athletes from school to school is a trend that has grown by staggering proportions in the last decade or so. For most of these kids, they see a better chance for playing time or more exposure to college scouts at other schools, then find loopholes in the county's special assignment policy to make the move. In some instances, they're illegally recruited by other county coaches. Hillsborough baseball coach Pat Russo, in fact, was fired last week when school officials determined they had acquired substantial evidence that Russo was recruiting players (Russo has vowed to fight the dismissal). At any rate, prep "free agency" is here to stay as long as there are unscrupulous coaches, and delusional parents who believe their child could be in line for a Division I scholarship if only they could play at another high school.

Comments

[CHINNETTE WALLACE]

WHERE IS THE SCORE FOR FREEDOM AND PLANT ?

[Frank Pastor]

Plant defeated Freedom, 32-20.