“Basketball was only a very small part of his life,” former assistant Ellis Woods told Wilson. “Joe was a wonderful educator and a coach second. He adored the kids. He wanted these kids to move on and succeed in life, and for the most part that’s what happened. That’s what he should be remembered for: the teaching of life lessons through basketball.”
Cardinal's 1995-96 team capped a run of four straight Section 6 championships with an 88-17 record over that span. He was reassigned to Burgard after the state championship and coached four more seasons before retiring with more than 200 wins.
More on Kincannon, Stiles: It looks as though Buffalo schools administrators might weather the storm in the aftermath of Jayvonna Kincannon's highly suspect seven-week suspension (later commuted to five) and the firing of volunteer assistant basketball Coach Michelle Stiles, but it was nice to see columnist Donn Esmonde step up in today's Buffalo News to reinforce how lousy the whole deal looks.
"There is plenty that is wrong with this picture," he wrote. "If (Principal Crystal) Barton and other school officials cared more about ethics and integrity than about retribution, they would see it. If (Superintendent James) Williams and other school officials truly had the best interests of students at heart, they would remedy it. Of course, if those qualities guided these officials, they would not have damaged this coach and these kids in the first place."
Recruiting hoax: The reporting on the story is ongoing, but we have a candidate for the title of most elaborate hoax ever associated with college football recruiting. For now, though, it's impossible to tell who did what to whom.
Offensive lineman Kevin Hart of Fernley, Nev., announced his choice on Friday in a school gymnasium packed with family, friends and media. He was about to become the first Fernley athlete to receive a full Division I football scholarship directly out of high school and committed to Cal over Oregon. Several others shools were purported to have shown interest.
"They really sold me," Hart said. "Coach [Jeff] Tedford and I talked a lot, and the fact that the head coach did most of the recruiting of me kind of gave me the real personal experience."
But Hart may have been the victim of a prank, because Cal wasn't recruiting him. If the player's comments over the weekend are accurate, somebody had apparently been impersonating Tedford and there never was a scholarship offer — or any official contact — from the Cal staff.
Fernley's Mark Hodges, who has been a football coach for more than 20 years, says a "law enforcement investigation" is now in progress. There are a lot of questions being asked, including how or why Hart would commit to a school without taking any official visits anywhere. The Lyon County School District issued a news release yesterday saying it has been unable to verify Hart was ever offered a scholarship or letter of intent to play football by Cal, Oregon, Nevada, Washington or Oklahoma State.
