All the right moves?

Adam Candee

Thursday, July 24, 2003 | 9:37 a.m.

Not the silence again, Kevin Soares thought. Anything but the silence.

Loquacious Harvey Perry Sr. talks the orange off the rim when life is good between his athletic guard of a son and the Foothill basketball program. You'll know all about where Harvey Jr. is being recruited and what he thinks about everything from your practice setup to your substitution pattern.

But Soares already watched the father usher his heavily hyped son out of the Foothill program once, to Green Valley after his freshman year. This time, the Falcons' coach all but saw the U-Haul truck backing up to the gym.

"When you don't hear from him, you know he's up to something," Soares said of Perry Sr.

Always trust those instincts. About a month after Soares first heard -- or more aptly, didn't hear -- the rumors that Perry would transfer, word came from the family that Junior will play for Cheyenne this season. It will be the third time in as many off-seasons that Junior is switching schools, as he now heads to a school that featured another multiple-transfer player in Chris Fuller in last season's state title lineup.

"It's like a relationship," Perry Sr. said. "You choose something today. If it doesn't work out, you move on."

So it goes both in Las Vegas and around the country in high school basketball these days, where constant moves barely raise an antenna anymore. If they ever did, coaches no longer run the shell game of transfers, although they often benefit from the end result. Parents, relatives, and other friends and would-be handlers are the ones taking control in shifting between schools, although many in the know say it is a high-risk, low-reward proposition.

"(Parents) think by winning a state title, a college scholarship will come along with that," said Soares, a former Bishop Gorman and Nevada-Reno standout basketball player.

Perry is far from the only kid earning CCSD frequent flier miles in the off-season. It is hard to shield from a parent's eye the gleam of a college athletic scholarship, especially for less-privileged families. Parents eager to find the perfect situation that will propel their child into the spotlight start calling around the city in spring and summer, looking to see who will promise the playing time, teammates and college contacts that they feel their kid deserves.

It is most often referred to as "school shopping." It's now as routine as free throws in prep basketball.

"Everybody thinks the grass is greener on the other side of the hill," Durango coach Al LaRocque said. "I don't think that's limited to superstar players."

Happens all the time

All the way from his eighth grade year, when Senior said "the light came on" about Junior's talent, the kid has been hyped as the next big thing on the local scene.

"This kid has had the pressure of producing every year," Perry Sr. said.

He contributed as a freshman at Foothill, but was soon on his way to a higher profile school in Green Valley. But Junior sat the bench most of his sophomore season, in part because Gators coach Jim Allen reportedly had little idea of Perry's arrival until the beginning of fall practice. That encouraged no one in the Perry household, and it was back to Foothill last season.

It's simple to play this game in Nevada. According to CCSD records, about 300 athletic transfers were processed last year, the overwhelming majority of which justifiably happen with little fanfare. Provided you have a willing parent, the state's transfer rules are as lenient as anywhere in the country. A student simply must prove residence with a parent within a school's zone, and in most cases, it's enough to be eligible.

Parents know these rules and use them to the fullest, meaning that families can jump from apartment to apartment and coaches do not need to put themselves at risk by actively recruiting because the offers come to them.

"It's more initiated by parents than it is by coaches," Soares said. "I'd say it's about 80-20. As coaches, we work with what's dealt to us. You're not going to turn that kid down if he can help you win a championship."

During an open gym in June, one local coach even pulled a set of phone messages from his pocket and said they were almost all from prospective players' families.

"The parents basically have their nose out there looking for a better deal," LaRocque said. "Maybe some of it has to do with the high cost of a college education."

About his son's case, Senior said financial and personal reasons forced him to move closer to his family near Cheyenne in North Las Vegas. No matter what, he, said, they were leaving Henderson after this year.

But LaRocque said that before Junior went to Cheyenne, a representative of the senior-to-be called Durango, one of the city's programs known for basketball transfers along with Gorman and recently Cheyenne, to see if the Blazers were interested.

"Somebody called us about it," LaRocque said.

Foothill is not even one of the city's marquee programs, but Soares said he still gets feelers from parents. He said that before the previous school year, he met with Senior when the idea of returning to Foothill from Green Valley came up.

"Dad came in and talked to me and I told him what the deal was," Soares said. "(I told him), if you're not in it for the long haul, don't make the move. I guess things changed between then and the end of the season."

Senior feels he made the right move for Junior, saying that Foothill has "no talent and no fundamentals." Junior accuses Foothill of a "lack of discipline," while Soares said all he wanted was for Junior to focus on the individual skills that Senior said are not taught.

Whatever the reason, it is difficult to blame on parents for wanting to find the best situation for their children. The programs that are most noted for transfers also consistently produce college players and good opportunities.

Even the coaches who cry foul in this process will not take a hypocritical perspective. LaRocque has two daughters who will soon be involved in athletics.

"I would do anything to make sure they're in the right situation," he said, adding that middle-class homeowners have the toughest time playing the transfer game. "I would sell my house and move if I didn't feel they were in a healthy environment."

All the hype

He's up from the tarmac to cruising altitude in a second, Junior's 6-foot-4 frame launching from behind a Michigan player to swat a shot off the backboard in a Tuesday Open Division game at the adidas Big Time Tournament. It draws a big reaction from the crowd at Durango High School, and it does not escape the notice of dozens of college coaches.

Perry's physical abilities are what earn him recognition at the Nike and other summer camps where college recruiting heats up. That's where Senior comes in.

The elder Perry touts himself as an expert in the recruiting game, especially when it comes to his own recruit. Schooled in recruiting by Mitch Mitchell, Senior is known throughout the Valley for his fervor, inspiring his share of both praise and head shakes.

"I took a kid from North Las Vegas and made him into one of the top 150 kids in the country," Senior said. "Slam Magazine, getting letters from UCLA, Notre Dame -- evidently, Mr. Perry is doing something right."

Even Senior, who will again move his son to a new high school this year, understands that the high school game is secondary. He doesn't, however, believe that most of his fellow parents understand that concept and he cautions them about getting involved without having knowledge of the process.

"Scholarships are earned and won in the spring and summer," Perry Sr. said. "Harvey could end up at Vo-Tech. It doesn't matter."

In fact, Senior still thinks Las Vegas was not the best place for his son to play high school ball.

"If I would have done what I wanted to, I would have sent him out of town," he said.

If names are made from March through August, then legitimate doubt exists about what long-term impact a parent can create for a kid by moving him from high school to high school. In fact, there are many who believe that even the potential benefit of added exposure is outweighed by the character issues raised by consistent moves.

Northern Arizona University head coach Mike Adras, who won two state titles as Bishop Gorman coach in the late 1980s, said that a recruit's track record of moves factors into decisions.

"It affects me," Adras said. "I'd much rather get a young man who's been in one school. If a young man has moved from school to school to school in the same area, you better ask the questions (about why)."

College basketball recruiting expert Frank Burlison confirms that college coaches pay more attention to summer performance at talent-laden camps and tournaments than to any December auxiliary gym game. He said parents are mistaken in switching high schools to gain an edge, adding that it does more to hurt prep programs.

"You can understand why they'd be frustrated," Burlison said of coaches. "They invest the time both athletically and academically in these kids."

Easy, not free

Junior is an easygoing kid, seemingly friends with most of the players he walks by entering Durango's back gym after his Tuesday game. Smiles and complex handshakes exchanged, he seems content in the hoops lifestyle chosen by both Senior and Junior. Making new friends in the gym and at new schools isn't a problem.

"I'm a people guy," Junior said. "Everyone wants to know me."

In the basketball world, Senior makes sure everyone knows Junior, and the kid is just fine with that.

"He's taking care of everything for me," Junior said. "He's making my job easy."

The job is not so easy for high school coaches who do not know from year to year if players like Junior will be around. Fundamentals and teamwork are harder to instill when the faces constantly change, as evidenced by sloppy passing and optional defense on hodgepodge summer teams this week in town.

Both are things that do not escape the eyes of the college coaches, the ultimate gatekeepers in the transfer game.

"It's a loyalty issue, I would think," Adras said. "You want a young man who's going to be able to stick it out through adversity. As a recruiter, you really have to look at that."

Soares, who played for Adras as a Gael, accepts the reality of the day and age.

"Gone are the days where you are loyal to a high school," Soares said.

And here are the days when back-to-school shopping means that beside pencils and notebooks on the supply list, coaches and scholarships appear too.

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