Some schools cancel games due to LaMelo
Ball’s pro experience concern powerhouses
LaMelo Ball made a surprising decision to return to a U.S. high school last week, announcing that he was enrolling at SPIRE Institute in Geneva, Ohio.
The youngest Ball brother had spent the past year competing overseas and in the JBA league as a professional, but the Ball family contended that LaMelo wasn’t compensated. While SPIRE (which doesn’t compete in an official high school governing body) cleared LaMelo, opponents are already dropping out of their scheduled games against the team.
Shortly after Ball’s announcement that he was returning to high school, famed Indiana powerhouse La Lumiere canceled a game against SPIRE that was scheduled for Tuesday. La Lumiere has produced players such as Jaren Jackson Jr., Michigan’s Jordan Poole and current five-star prospect Keion Brooks. La Lumiere dropped out of the game because it wasn’t going to compete against a school with a professional player.
On its website, SPIRE Academy says it is a “national & international academy for high school and postgraduate athletes. Academy is focused on performance training for all athletes & sportsspecific training in swimming, track and field, & basketball.”
One of the main reasons that SPIRE was an ideal fit for LaMelo was the opportunity to compete against elite high school talent. That hope took another hit when Oak Hill Academy (Mouth of Wilson, Virginia) dropped out of its game Dec. 3 against SPIRE.
Oak Hill is led by Cole Anthony, a top 3 player in the class of 2019, but the school was not willing to play if LaMelo was on the court. According to head coach Steve Smith, LaMelo playing in the game, even if he didn’t get paid as a professional, would have jeopardized his entire team’s eligibility in the Virginia Independent Schools Athletic Association (VISAA).
He told The Washington Post, “I just told them, ‘We can’t jeopardize our school and our association and our affiliation with conferences,’ ” Smith said. “They understood. I said we can play them if (Ball) doesn’t play, but they weren’t willing to do that.”
VISAA guidelines require its members to only play non-conference schools that adhere to its eligibility rules (Section 7). LaMelo’s questionable eligibility for high school athletics was too much of a risk for Oak Hill.
Still, some are schools willing to take on LaMelo and SPIRE. LaMelo’s high school career started Saturday in a game against the Hill School in Pennsylvania. LaMelo scored 20 points and added 13 assists in a victory.