Unique team is on a mission
BevK January 23rd, 2006
http://www.mlive.com/prep…2020.xml&coll=2
Washtenaw Catholic Homeschool players out to prove they can compete
Another way to bring competitive sports to homeschooled students.
The uniforms are paid for with bottle drive money. Home games are played 40 miles away and traveled to in a 15-passenger van owned and chauffeured by an electrician who moonlights as a high school basketball coach.
When Andrew Williams nearly single-handedly constructed the Washtenaw Catholic Homeschool basketball program, he knew the Panthers would be anything but ordinary. Players like Williams, the team’s leading scorer and starting guard, knew what impression opponents would have.
“People think easy win,” said John Sharp, 16, who plays guard and forward for the Panthers. “They hear ‘home school,’ and that’s what they think.”
It’s important to note that this homeschool team can play public school teams and private school teams without those teams being affected by rules that prohibit it. That’s not true in all states.
There is nothing that prohibits Michigan High School Athletic Association member schools from scheduling games against home-school programs, with the results counting like any other game. MHSAA spokesman John Johnson said many of the association’s smaller schools face the same scheduling and facilities challenges encountered by Washtenaw Catholic.
