Holy Cross fails to overcome the latest “evil empire,” Evangel Christian, (enrollment 38, 9-12, with a basketball roster of 14), who wins the Boys “A” State, 65-62, despite a 49 point outing from Jacob Meyer.  Unfortunately Evangel is the latest in a long line of small private schools who use their private school status to gather superb athletes forming a powerhouse basketball program with the promise of providing exposure in order to obtain college scholarships for their players, and compete for state championships.  It’s highly unlikely that Mr. Holtz would allow us to operate in this manner, which then creates an uneven playing field. This started back with University Heights, who brought in International talent, and won eight All “A” State titles from 1990 to 2010, followed by Rose Hill, led by O.J. Mayo, who created an overpowering AAU team and were able to keep them together at Rose Hill until that situation imploded and they reinvented themselves in Ohio, and then later Cordia, a private boarding school in Hazard, where Roderick Rhodes, a former UK player housed some of the best basketball players from around the country, and attempted to prostitute the system, and now Evangel Christian, the most non-traditional and non-legitimate basketball academy to compete, and now “win” what is meant to be a competition among we small schools who build our enrollment with home-grown, or somewhat homegrown players.  As we have all come to learn, so long as there is an advantage to be gained by skirting rules, or back-door dealings, it will continue to take place.  I hope they are proud of themselves.