Here's a long rant on this guy, because there's issues here that affect me....or actually, my kids....I guess I look at this all differently. My son attends the HS that is the main rival for the HS that Emery attended. My son's school consists of kids coming from lower-middle class to middle class families, Emery's school consists of kids from middle class to extremely WEALTHY (big money...1 percenters).
His HS, Lone Peak HS (where Chris PoPoola's son played last year), is the closest thing to Gorman HS as there is in Utah (another HS called Timpview is similar, but they're the 4A equivalent, and LPHS is the 5A school). The main difference between Gorman and LPHS is that LPHS kids, for the most part, live in the HS boundaries. What puts them over the top is Utah schools are "open enrollment", which means, as long as the school isn't "full", enrollment-wise, with students living in the HS boundaries, the remaining slots can be filled with students from anywhere in the state, if they're willing to commute. This just equates to them being able to recruit. Our HS has consistently lost football and basketball players to them, because our HS is less than 2 miles away from theirs, and money talks.
With a school like LPHS, which is filled with, at least 75% of kids who's parents went to BYU...that's a guess, but can't be far off.....you get an extremely arrogant/proud bunch of tools (parents and players) that are associated with the school. Their favorite chant is, when losing, "That's allright, that's okay, you're going to work for us someday" (Gorman student section may have chanted something like this, if I recall correctly, back in my HS days). LPHS' fanbase has an air of superiority about them and they don't care, they relish in it. It doesn't matter if their best players aren't wealthy, or from their HS boundaries, they know their wealth will bring in the best players (like Frank Jackson/Duke commit). It taints everything about them....even when they have pretty good kids from their boundaries like the Haws brothers (who have that blue collar work ethic), the crap that goes on their makes them all stink.
I just don't like the guy because of the above and the nonsense he pulled in HS (Emery was a cheap player, and was ejected from the last game between the schools for this same type of thing that happened in the clip above).
At the same time, the culture in Utah (especially Utah County) is an "us against the world" dynamic coupled with a very sheltered existence/small town feel. The mentality is that on a level playing field, their team (BYU is a microcosm of this) should come out on top....why? because these are the best players many of them have ever followed....the world, outside their bubble, is inferior and they're ignorant to it because of the superiority complex.
Now a guy like Emery, isn't a horrible guy, but him coupled with his HS and College fanbase....it's a crappy mix. Anytime I've ever gotten in one of these guy's ears, I've told them they need to get out of Utah.....accept one of those Pac12 offers (of course I always tell them UNLV is the best choice
), because it's really the best way for them to maximize what they are as a player, instead of being delusional about who they are by staying home at BYU and living/playing in the same bubble they did in HS. I'd take Emery any day at UNLV, because he's hella competitive and can shoot the ball unbelievably well....AND because he'd be a different player outside the bubble. However, right now, he's just a delusional idiot that will stay at BYU and try and be Jimmer.
Okay....deep breath, got that off my chest......but wait there's more.......
If that rant wasn't long enough, here's my boy's personal experience with LPHS....my son's HS baseball team fundraiser raised close to $9,000 this year. Lone Peak's fundraiser (Lone Peak HS is Emery's school) raised close to $60,000 earlier this summer, and on top of that, they had ANOTHER fundraiser golf tournament about a month ago and they raised ANOTHER $30,000.
LPHS is using their funds to try and show up everybody else, and improve their "clubhouse", a clubhouse already has individual player lockers, and flat screens (nobody else even has a clubhouse, I mean it's HS baseball). Our school uses our funds to hire a trainer (crossfit type) and our boys get up at 5:30am every morning, during off-season, and work their butts off....fortunately, we have a 10x better coach than LPHS, one that's more blue collar and hard working than what they'll ever have (because they couldn't handle it)....our JV team beat their Varsity team twice in a Legion-like game this summer/fall (not to brag but my son hit one out on one of their better pitchers in one game....okay, I guess I am bragging).
We have a state championship caliber team, and our underclassmen are huge contributors to it. The Sophomore class is the best our coach has seen in his 10+ years of coaching (and our HS won state two years ago). Fortunately we have a guy leading things that has created a culture of success....so much so, that we keep getting kids leaving LPHS boundaries to come to our school for baseball, most of them are the entitled types that just don't have the work ethic though....but it's sure nice to see LPHS get a taste of their own medicine in one sport.....even though most their kids were on the best travel teams that money can buy, they still can't hang.
Since my novel is now over, I'm going to go shop it around to publishers....thanks for the read, lol
His HS, Lone Peak HS (where Chris PoPoola's son played last year), is the closest thing to Gorman HS as there is in Utah (another HS called Timpview is similar, but they're the 4A equivalent, and LPHS is the 5A school). The main difference between Gorman and LPHS is that LPHS kids, for the most part, live in the HS boundaries. What puts them over the top is Utah schools are "open enrollment", which means, as long as the school isn't "full", enrollment-wise, with students living in the HS boundaries, the remaining slots can be filled with students from anywhere in the state, if they're willing to commute. This just equates to them being able to recruit. Our HS has consistently lost football and basketball players to them, because our HS is less than 2 miles away from theirs, and money talks.
With a school like LPHS, which is filled with, at least 75% of kids who's parents went to BYU...that's a guess, but can't be far off.....you get an extremely arrogant/proud bunch of tools (parents and players) that are associated with the school. Their favorite chant is, when losing, "That's allright, that's okay, you're going to work for us someday" (Gorman student section may have chanted something like this, if I recall correctly, back in my HS days). LPHS' fanbase has an air of superiority about them and they don't care, they relish in it. It doesn't matter if their best players aren't wealthy, or from their HS boundaries, they know their wealth will bring in the best players (like Frank Jackson/Duke commit). It taints everything about them....even when they have pretty good kids from their boundaries like the Haws brothers (who have that blue collar work ethic), the crap that goes on their makes them all stink.
I just don't like the guy because of the above and the nonsense he pulled in HS (Emery was a cheap player, and was ejected from the last game between the schools for this same type of thing that happened in the clip above).
At the same time, the culture in Utah (especially Utah County) is an "us against the world" dynamic coupled with a very sheltered existence/small town feel. The mentality is that on a level playing field, their team (BYU is a microcosm of this) should come out on top....why? because these are the best players many of them have ever followed....the world, outside their bubble, is inferior and they're ignorant to it because of the superiority complex.
Now a guy like Emery, isn't a horrible guy, but him coupled with his HS and College fanbase....it's a crappy mix. Anytime I've ever gotten in one of these guy's ears, I've told them they need to get out of Utah.....accept one of those Pac12 offers (of course I always tell them UNLV is the best choice
Okay....deep breath, got that off my chest......but wait there's more.......
If that rant wasn't long enough, here's my boy's personal experience with LPHS....my son's HS baseball team fundraiser raised close to $9,000 this year. Lone Peak's fundraiser (Lone Peak HS is Emery's school) raised close to $60,000 earlier this summer, and on top of that, they had ANOTHER fundraiser golf tournament about a month ago and they raised ANOTHER $30,000.
LPHS is using their funds to try and show up everybody else, and improve their "clubhouse", a clubhouse already has individual player lockers, and flat screens (nobody else even has a clubhouse, I mean it's HS baseball). Our school uses our funds to hire a trainer (crossfit type) and our boys get up at 5:30am every morning, during off-season, and work their butts off....fortunately, we have a 10x better coach than LPHS, one that's more blue collar and hard working than what they'll ever have (because they couldn't handle it)....our JV team beat their Varsity team twice in a Legion-like game this summer/fall (not to brag but my son hit one out on one of their better pitchers in one game....okay, I guess I am bragging).
We have a state championship caliber team, and our underclassmen are huge contributors to it. The Sophomore class is the best our coach has seen in his 10+ years of coaching (and our HS won state two years ago). Fortunately we have a guy leading things that has created a culture of success....so much so, that we keep getting kids leaving LPHS boundaries to come to our school for baseball, most of them are the entitled types that just don't have the work ethic though....but it's sure nice to see LPHS get a taste of their own medicine in one sport.....even though most their kids were on the best travel teams that money can buy, they still can't hang.
Since my novel is now over, I'm going to go shop it around to publishers....thanks for the read, lol
