Sara-Maude Juneau fired an 80 on windy Otter Creek golf course to remain in the top twenty golfers as Day 2 competition concluded in the NCAA Central Regionals in Columbus, IN. Juneau has a two day total of 154 and is in 17th place headed into the final round Saturday.
Freshman Anna-Karin Ljungstrom had the best round of the day for the Cards with a 77. She has a two day total of 158. She is tied for 38th with Laura Anderson..who finished the day with an 84. Daphine Parker and Candice Wiley are further back with two day scores of 170. Wiley toured the eighteen with an 83 Friday and Parker shot an 84.
Louisville needs low scores in today's final round from their top four golfers if they are to climb to 8th place and qualify for the NCAA Championships in Wilmington, NC. The Cards will tee it up at 12:30 Saturday afternoon.
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Much has been said lately about the involvement of basketball AAU coaches and the "brokering" of their performers to college coaches and the handling of certain things for the recruits families. The issue concerns mostly men's college basketball but sometimes it drifts into the women's game. Maya Moore and UConn drew a little press a few years back when it was alleged that Moore received improper benefits while being recruited by the Huskies...including a tour of the ESPN studios in Bristol, CT.
It is a dubious relationship for these AAU coaches...who probably work more with the kids on Select and other all-star teams than their high school coaches do. I recently spoke with a former high school assistant coach who flat out told me...
"We only get these players 5 months a year at best. A lot of them play all year round and their AAU coaches don't have nearly the restrictions or limitations enforced upon them that we do as academic institutions. I've been involved in situations where we are coaching our tails off in the huddle during timeouts at games and the AAU coach of a kid is up there in the stands shouting out to the kid to do something different when we break from the huddle. The relationship with some of these kids and AAU ball starts way before they become freshmen in high school. I can guarantee you that a former UofL men's basketball recruit was basically shopped around thru the AAU guys and the kid's parents to several institutions before they got the deal they wanted from one of the schools. The kid ended up going there, and it wasn't Louisville... and having a pretty good four years. Pure coincidence, I'm sure...but the kid's dad ended up with a new job at probably twice the pay he was making before the kid went to college."
So, parents...in addition to encouraging your son or daughter to hone their sport skills...you might also want to brush up on your collective bargaining skills and buy a trench coat and wide brimmed hat. The good thing is that it will probably never infiltrate women's sports to any major degree. The bad thing is that it will probably continue to grow in men's athletics until the NCAA comes down with great vengance on the snake oil salesmen and dream weavers out there in the bushes posing as AAU handlers and coaches.
Written by Paul
5/8/10
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