Offered Noah Cleveland, 6-9, PF, Normal Community

[Bird Friend]

Noah Cleveland, Normal Community - Prep Hoops

Noah Cleveland is a class of 2024 Illinois high school basketball player for Normal Community. Read more about him on Prep Hoops.

www.prephoops.com

 

[DWRedbird]

 

[RedbirdSoxFan]

 

[isuquinndog]

Link to the tweet just for verification purposes. Most people may not see it because he started it by mentioning ISU so it doesn't show up on people's timeliness unless you follow ISU basketball as well.

 

[cubird]

Heard this several weeks ago from one of his relatives. Maybe too much AAU ball.

 

[Adunk33]

I started playing hockey when I was 6. It became competitive/year round thing (while playing football, basketball and baseball) probably around 8 or 9. By the time I was 15, I was burnt out and hung up the skates. Now, I don't know if Cleveland got a break from hoops via other sports or activities but burnout in youth sports can be real. Especially in today's world where parents are having kids specialize at one sport very early on.

 

[jwa123]

I started playing hockey when I was 6. It became competitive/year round thing (while playing football, basketball and baseball) probably around 8 or 9. By the time I was 15, I was burnt out and hung up the skates. Now, I don't know if Cleveland got a break from hoops via other sports or activities but burnout in youth sports can be real. Especially in today's world where parents are having kids specialize at one sport very early on.

My 3 kids, with the exception my youngest, we’re not athletic - just like me . They did play sports growing up and the youngest even at the Dlll level. I insisted they play different sports because I thought it would help their overall physical development. What I was beginning to see happen and later came to full fruition with a couple coaches in that school district was those 2 coaches demanded their players only play one sport the year round. I’m too old and too far removed from youth sports now to know but how much responsibility lies with parents and/or coaches these days?

 

[Adunk33]

My 3 kids, with the exception my youngest, we’re not athletic - just like me . They did play sports growing up and the youngest even at the Dlll level. I insisted they play different sports because I thought it would help their overall physical development. What I was beginning to see happen and later came to full fruition with a couple coaches in that school district was those 2 coaches demanded their players only play one sport the year round. I’m too old and too far removed from youth sports now to know but how much responsibility lies with parents and/or coaches these days?

That's a fair point, and like everything, situations are situational. I don't have any kids of my own but I do have nieces and nephews. I've got a 10 year old nephew that would play football, basketball, and baseball if he was allowed. For whatever reason, his parents are really pushing him towards baseball, though they have completely shut the door on the other stuff. I'd say it's about 80% closed though.

Good point though on coaches vs parents. I've seen situations where coaches want players to do other sports to stay sharp as long as it's not during the primary sport's season.

 

[dpdoughbird06]

Ten weeks of senior league baseball is all I can take. I don’t know how these kids do it…

 

[TIMMY]

Here's the funny part. Well, not funny. Kinda sad. Most college coaches would rather see kids play other sports. But, club sports among other things have taken that away to a large extent. And overuse injuries have gone thru the roof. My urchins were both 3 sport athletes in high school. Both somehow still managed to get money to play in college. As an AD I created a 3 sport athlete award. Patches for their letter jackets and a bar for each year they did it. Participation went up. Except for golfers, but that's an activity, not a sport.

 

[DBird]

Here's the funny part. Well, not funny. Kinda sad. Most college coaches would rather see kids play other sports. But, club sports among other things have taken that away to a large extent. And overuse injuries have gone thru the roof. My urchins were both 3 sport athletes in high school. Both somehow still managed to get money to play in college. As an AD I created a 3 sport athlete award. Patches for their letter jackets and a bar for each year they did it. Participation went up. Except for golfers, but that's an activity, not a sport.

If I had not had a volleyball coach who told her players "no club not starting next fall" I may have had a few more great track teams in the spring instead of good ones!!! Dont make me go there again please

 

[jwa123]

Here's the funny part. Well, not funny. Kinda sad. Most college coaches would rather see kids play other sports. But, club sports among other things have taken that away to a large extent. And overuse injuries have gone thru the roof. My urchins were both 3 sport athletes in high school. Both somehow still managed to get money to play in college. As an AD I created a 3 sport athlete award. Patches for their letter jackets and a bar for each year they did it. Participation went up. Except for golfers, but that's an activity, not a sport.

Good for you!!!

 

[Trey_Guidry4three]

He will be back. That's a prediction I will stand by!

 

[Bird Friend]

I’m gonna leave him as offered. Things may change. He may find out he misses it too much . . . or he could find out he made the right choice. Wish him success either way.

 

[Bird Friend]

That's a fair point, and like everything, situations are situational. I don't have any kids of my own but I do have nieces and nephews. I've got a 10 year old nephew that would play football, basketball, and baseball if he was allowed. For whatever reason, his parents are really pushing him towards baseball, though they have completely shut the door on the other stuff. I'd say it's about 80% closed though.

Good point though on coaches vs parents. I've seen situations where coaches want players to do other sports to stay sharp as long as it's not during the primary sport's season.

I’ve always thought that if I were a coach (high school or youth), I would encourage—or even require—my players to participate in other activities, be it sports, music, theater, etc. If they wanted to focus only on one sport, I would want them to also consider martial arts or dance . . . because those do so much to develop core strength and balance, as well as mental agility. Those help you no matter what sport you play.

 

[Metamoron]

I had 2 kids play D3 sports. Not at a high level but competitive. First question from each of the coaches recruiting them was “what other sports did they play”. Those coaches knew that at that level, all around physical development was more important than 52 weeks of a given sport.

Good luck to him.

 

[Redbird28]

Interesting conversation, and I can speak to it across multiple sports, both school and travel.

We're walking the tightrope with my 8th grade daughter right now. She was the primary pitcher on our State Runner Up team for 1A Illinois school ball (Finished with a 17-3 record in the circle and slew of other top shelf stats), and she also plays basketball and volleyball. She's a tremendous shooter and has good handles and court IQ, but softball is still her primary sport in her heart. Last season in basketball, we finished 3rd in Class 3A at 7th grade state in basketball. We transferred schools before this year started and had the aforementioned success in softball, and now we are steamrolling everyone en route to what I imagine will be an undefeated state championship in Class 2A - the school she's attending went undefeated and won State last season as well so adding a kid that hit 50 threes as a 7th grader only helps them become even stronger and no one we've played has even been close to knocking us off this year. Not saying it can't happen, just saying it would be surprising if it did.

School ball aside, she also does travel softball which just wrapped for the fall, and for the past 4 years she was playing travel basketball on an Adidas sponsored Indiana Elite team. Her IE team approached us this offseason and wanted her to ditch softball and become fully committed to basketball. She told them no, and now will no longer play travel basketball as a result. It was tough to see her make that choice because I know what her potential is there and this program just turned out 3 D1 players (Loyola, Murray St., SIUE) plus the remaining roster minus 1 girl went on to D2/D3/JUCO from their 2022 team, but she did what she felt would make her the happiest and at the end of the day that's all I care about.

What I've seen so far through all of this is that the basketball coaches (both in school and on the travel circuit) are much more demanding of a kid to become focused in on one sport than what we have dealt with as far as softball goes. She doesn't do club volleyball, and only plays it during school season so I can't really speak to that sport at all. I can also say that I know first hand that ISU Softball really wants players that play multiple sports and I don't get the impression they are saying that just to say it.

As far as Noah Cleveland goes, I hope he finds the passion for the game that got him to play in the first place and he capitalizes on his god given gifts of height and athleticism. If he doesn't, then I hope he finds whatever drives him to be happy and successful and he enjoys what life has to offer.

 

[Bird Friend]

Both my daughters played volleyball and were setters. My oldest worked out with Kelly Rikli (setter for the Birds from 2001-2005), and was getting pretty good. She played club, but not travel. She also did music and theater—and we’re her truer passion—so travel v-ball was never really on her radar. So she slowly lost favor with the club and HS coaches, and gave up v-ball completely her soon year in HS. She never regretted the decision. Interestingly though, she missed the process of working on her skills. She loved that.

My youngest played v-ball, soccer, and ran cross country and track. Her sport of love was soccer. She played travel soccer, was even selected to work out with the Olympic Development club in Chicago. She gave up the Olympic Dev club after a season because the kids were all stuck-up rich kids from the Chicago area. She broke her foot the following summer. Then her local club folded and she was forced to switch to another club run by a coach who valued winning only.

She suffered a concussion her frosh year tripping over an opponent and played limited minutes after that as she worked through post-concussion protocol. Her HS coach was truly wonderful in working with her through it. She then pulled a hammy getting ready for club season. In her first game after being cleared for limited play (meaning brief minutes on defense on one side just to give others a breather) her club coach started her at center midfield. She was his most versatile player, after all. Her mom and I were livid. My daughter re-pulled her hammy and was out of the game before halftime. She also quit soccer before she went to bed, wit our blessing.

 

[RedbirdSoxFan]

For years Lincoln High School’s football team was horrible (actually not very good now). Coach Alexander did not allow his basketball players to play football (guess he didn’t believe in his basketball players playing multiple sports). Since they couldn’t complete with the teams in the CS8 they left. In 2023 they will be rejoining the CS8 Conference. I have heard he is now allowing his basketball players to play football. Hopefully this will help them to be more competitive.

 

[Adunk33]

bump. He’s playing again. NCHS is going to be very good this year.