Throughout the United States high school basketball players and their families have tried just about everything in their pursuit of college scholarships. Year-round training regimens. Specialized coaching. Countless hours commuting to the powerhouse program with the famous coach. Jumping from school to school for the right fit.
But now a new tactic has been introduced that is creating stars all across the nation, with top middle and grammar school players now spending an extra year in middle school. This trend in its infancy has proved to be an advantage on backend of high school, and frankly has impacted the disbursement of scholarship dollars on the front end as well; creating for many players and families a win/win situation.
If you look at any of the national ranking boards from 4th grade class of 2022 through the current graduating class of 2015, many of the top players in each class and the majority of the top 20 in each group have repeated a grade in middle school for one reason or another.
Coaches and parents say some players repeat grades for understandable reasons: Either they have a late birthday, need time to mature or could use an extra year to work on their academics before high school.
“This ball is rolling downhill,” said Dave Telep, a national recruiting analyst for ESPN. “The genie is out of the bottle. It’s no longer a trend — it’s an accepted practice within high school basketball.”
This weekend multiple national scouts descended upon the DMV to view some of the nation’s top middle players at the BBall Spotlight Future Phenom Camp. Part of the weekend experience - which included several high-level matchups - was the formal announcement of the reclassified players from all over. Being a national power and basketball hotbed, the DMV's list immediately impacted the national boards.
All the following DMV players confirmed their participation in their new class, and without fail all of the national scouting services agreed that to a man each of the following DMV players will be considered a Top 25 Player in the country, with many being Top 10 and some as high as Top 5.
Run by Mike Melton, the BBall Spotlight Future Phenom Camp is home to the top talent in the nation. Even with this level of competition, all of the DMV’s newly-announced reclassified players were named to the All-Star teams; paying immediate dividends and further providing that reclassification is one viable option for creating opportunity for parents and children.
The DMV Players who have taken the country by storm include (new class in parentheses):
· James Bishop (2019): Named Spotlight MVP
· Marvin Price (2019): Named to BBall Spotlight Top 20 All-Star Team
· Christian DePollar (2019): Named to BBall Spotlight Top 20 All-Star Team
· Tyler Brelsford (2020): Named to BBall Spotlight Top 20 All-Star Team & Top 5 Overall in Class
· Cameron Byers (2020): Named to BBall Spotlight Top 20 All-Star Team & Top 5 Overall in Class
· Terrance Williams (2020): Projected to be Top 3 player in the country
One of winningest and most respected coaches in the history of high school basketball - Bob Hurley of St. Anthony High (NJ) - stated when asked about the use of reclassification: “It’s just because you’ll be one year older in high school and you’ll be that much better of a player.”
The DMV continues to dominate national ranking boards at every level, and even in one of the most competitive camp environments in the nation the BBall Spotlight Future Phenom Camp the DMV more than represented.
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