Last week’s football game against Wyoming played host to several Utah State recruits (both basketball and football). While to football team garnered two new commitments in the locker room after the game, the Aggie Basketball team brought in four recruits as well.
Three of these recruits have been committed to Utah State for quite some time, specifically, Riley Bradshaw, Quincy Bair, and Marcel Davis. That trio will be joining the team for the 2012-13 season after completing their senior seasons in high school this year. The fourth basketball recruit that was on campus this weekend was 6-foot-7 junior Forward/Center Eric Mika.
Eric Mika played his first two high school basketball seasons at 2A Waterford High School, a private high school located in Sandy, Utah. As a Sophomore, Mika averaged 18 points and 11 rebounds per game, leading his team to the 2A state championship game where they came up just short in a 38-37 loss to South Summit.
Over the summer Mika decided to make the move to Lone Peak High School, a 5A public school located in Highland, Utah. Lone Peak is a powerhouse basketball school that took the 5A state crown this past year. Despite the fact that Eric lives within the school boundaries, and was moving from a private school to a public school closer to his home, a three-member panel from Utah High School Activities Association’s (UHSAA) executive committee decided (unanimously) to deny Eric eligibility to participate in basketball this coming season.
The UHSAA’s transfer rule stipulates that a player must demonstrate a “hardship” in order to be granted eligibility in athletics when transferring schools. Eric’s hardship waiver was requested due to the fact that he had to commute to Waterford, attend early morning seminary classes, and share a gym with the girls team after school leading to later, and longer practice times. His school days were regularly 12-15 hours long. This was apparently not enough to convince the three-member panel to grant him eligibility.
Eric has two D1 offers in the bag already, one from Utah State, and the other from Weber State. Unfortunately for Eric, and the teams recruiting him, it looks like he won’t be seeing any action on a basketball court this school year.
These athletic committees think they are above reproach. Here in WA, our situation was very similar. Seminary, long commute to school, practice times and facilities all made our life a hardship, but the committee of other school AD’s did not even read our data or were prepared with intelligent questions. They did not even want to be there. Guess the reports of parents being arrested for boundary hopping is just the next logical progression of this process.