Author Topic: Another student who opted NOT to return...  (Read 4105 times)

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Offline Ursus

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Another student who opted NOT to return...
« on: January 22, 2012, 02:04:19 PM »
    According to Raff, his parents sent him to Hyde because, "my dad went there as a kid, and my parents thought I was hanging with the wrong group of kids, and I wasn't doing that great in school."

    So on Jan. 15 of last year, Raff was sent off to a boarding school that, according to its website, is a "network of public and boarding schools and programs known widely for its successful and unique approach to helping students develop character." But Raff didn't enjoy his stay in Maine, claiming that it was way to strict and that there wasn't anything fun to do.

    "There were athletics, but
it wasn't good out there," Raff said.[/list][/size]
A classic understatement, I would say...

From the sound of the article below, Tyler seems to be "developing his character" just fine on his own terms. No brainwashing needed! :D

Good thing that Tyler's parents came to their senses.

Ah, well... Hyde's loss, the Whippany Park Wildcats' gain!

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Daily Record
Raff a welcomed return to Wildcats

9:08 PM, Jan. 19, 2012

Tyler Raff, who played soccer, basketball and lacrosse for the Wildcats, missed his junior season on the hardwood because he had been sent to the Hyde School, a boarding school in Maine.

According to Raff, his parents sent him to Hyde because, “my dad went there as a kid, and my parents thought I was hanging with the wrong group of kids, and I wasn’t doing that great in school.”

So on Jan. 15 of last year, Raff was sent off to a boarding school that, according to its website, is a “network of public and boarding schools and programs known widely for its successful and unique approach to helping students develop character.” But Raff didn’t enjoy his stay in Maine, claiming that it was way to strict and that there wasn’t anything fun to do.

“There were athletics, but it wasn’t good out there,” Raff said.

So when he came home for summer vacation on June 2, he begged his parents to let him return to Whippany Park. And good news for both Raff and the Wildcats, his parents relented and he transfered back for his senior year.

In the fall, Raff wasted no time on the soccer field. He set a school record for goals with 31 and had 20 assists, and was named the Morris County Coaches Association’s Player of the Year.

And when it was time for basketball season, no one was happier to have the guard back than coach Jeff Kleinbaum.

“He is a very big part of our team,” Kleinbaum said. “He usually brings incredible energy and he’s a superior shooter. One of the best shooters in the county. He’s a long range shooter, and always a danger to shoot threes. He's an uplifting, energetic guy. He gets lots of steals, he’s aggressive and he’s a real good scorer. Him and (junior guard) A.J. Holleran are the leading scorers.”

The Wildcats started the season 4-0 before losing to Madison by one point 64-63 in the championship of the Whippany Park Holiday Tournament. Whippany Park picked up wins in its next two games for a 6-1 record until falling to Mountain Lakes in overtime last Friday. Then the Wildcats fell again to undefeated Morristown-Beard on Wednesday, but Raff was on the bench due to a strep throat.

“We were doing pretty good until last few games,” Raff said of the season so far. “I think we can easily compete (with Mountain Lakes), we just played a bad game. If we play up to our potential we can beat them. But we’ve been letting teams back in when we should be destroying them.”

The Morris County Tournament seeding meeting is this weekend, and Raff said believes that Whippany Park can turn its string of bad losses into meaningful lessons and move forward.

“I think we're going to get pretty far,” Raff said. “We’re definitely going to make it to the quarterfinals. I don’t think we’re going to be in the top eight, but I think we’ll win our first game and I think we’ll be better than the next team we play, but after that the games are going to be tough.”

No matter how tough the tournament and the rest of the season gets, Whippany Park is still a strong shooting and defensive team that has only gotten stronger with the return of Raff.

“He brings a lot to the table. We’re real happy to have him back for a lot of reasons, basketball being one of them,” Kleinbaum said. “We’re happy to have him back because he comes from a good family and he’s the kind of kid we want at Whippany Park as well as being a good athlete."

MCT seeding

The Morris County Tournament seeding meeting will take place at 1 p.m. on Sunday at Morris Catholic High School.

The preliminary round has to be played by Jan. 28. The first round will then be completed by Feb. 4, the quarterfinals will be held on Feb. 11 and the semifinals will be Feb. 18. All games will be at the higher seed. The MCT final will be on Feb. 25.

The top seed will most likely go to Morristown-Beard, which as of today is still undefeated at 11-0. Morris Knolls, which lost in the first round last year, beat Mendham on Wednesday night, and the Golden Eagles’ 11-2 record will probably land them No. 2.

“I’m not even worried about that,” Morris Knolls senior guard Niko Kotoulas said after Wednesday’s game. “We can get whatever we want, one, two, three, four. We don’t care, we’re just going to take one game at a time.”

The MCT title is what Morris Knolls is gunning for, and so are a number of other teams. Mendham beat Roxbury for he championship last year, and will probably land the No. 3 seed, or at least nothing higher than fifth.

Morristown-Beard and Madison both lost in the quarterfinals last season, and both teams are having successful seasons so far. But many coaches going into the meeting will probably have the same mindset as Morris Knolls coach Ken Ferrare.

“We’re just going to go in there and see what happens,” he said.


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