Leading off today: The story flew under the radar screen last week because it didn't appear in a major publication, but I would be remiss if I didn't call your belated attention to the latest installment in one of the juicier ongoing high school sports sagas.
To the surprise of absolutely no one, there's bad blood between the family of girls basketball player Sky Lindsay and the coaching staff at national powerhouse Christ The King.
Zachary Braziller wrote the story in The Queens Courier on Thursday, and the inside scoop can be categorized as ugly with a capital "U."
Lindsay, you'll recall, disappeared from the CTK lineup on the eve of the playoffs late this winter. The story at the time was that she had a back injury, but that didn't really pass the smell test for two reasons:
- Lindsay's absence from the bench for most of the postseason games.
- A report that she had stormed out of practice the night before suffering the mysterious back injury.
When Braziller caught up with the St. John's recruit last week, Lindsay maintained that she had suffered a back injury and criticized head coach Bob Mackey for allegedly trying to coax her into playing while hurt.
At that point, I thought the reporter was going down the path of a one-sided sob story that would paint Lindsay as the victim. Well, that lasted about one more paragraph as Braziller started dissecting the stories told by the player and her mother.
He made note of the fact that Lindsay didn't attend the huge majority of playoff games and said her mother, Amelia Lindsay, accused Mackey of favoring UConn-bound guard Lorin Dixon. Now, I don't know if Mackey is the type of coach who plays favorites but I can tell you that, if he was ever painted into a corner and had to pick one of his two star guards, then Dixon was the keeper of the bunch. Her speed, creativity and relative discipline are going to cause major headaches for college opponents over the next four years.
