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Prep school transfers impacting NHIAA schools again

No one outside of Bishop Guertin is shedding any sympathy tears for the Cardinals girls basketball program which, as reported this week, lost two key players in the title runs of the last two seasons, Aaliyah Forman and Ava Owens. Many coaches, etc. who have seen potential program building blocks in their school systems leave to go to the private education world, be it Guertin or other spots, certainly won’t shed a tear.

Those moves have been going on in communities for years all over the country and are a fact of life. And, ironically, locally in last few years some student athletes have gone from private to public. So please, let’s not compare the news value of that, as someone suggested, to what happened when Forman and Owens announced their departures.

Now the Forman-Owens story is highly interesting because (a) it impacts a highly successful program and could change the short-term landscape of Division I; (b) college scholarships were already offered and you wonder what now happens to them, and how they may have impacted these moves, and (c) they are both repeating their junior years, which clearly signals an academics component to the move which is something we all tend to forget about when colleges swoop in with their offers.

Sad loss

Rivier University’s athletic department – as well as the whole school – is mourning the loss this week of late Riv and Bishop Guertin chaplain Br. Paul Demers. He was a big Raider fan, and his memory was honored prior to a Rivier men’s volleyball sweep over Wentworth at the Muldoon Center, as Raider players wore impromtu black armbands on their jerseys, reportedly using trainers tape or a sharpie.

“An incredible man with a passion for everything Rivier athletics and Rivier University,” one observer said in an on-line post.

“As we move towards the end of the semester, there will be additional opportunities to recognize Brother Paul’s life and his contributions to the Rivier University Community,” Raiders coach/assistant athletic director Craig Kolek said in an email.

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