Willamette Week| News| Politics

As Oregon high-school hoopsters enter "March Madness" it's no surprise that people are talking about Brandon Brooks. But it's his grade point average, not his scoring average, that is the focus of their attention.

When Brooks left Grant High in December, things looked bleak for the hoops phenom who led the city in scoring last year as a sophomore ("The Education of Brandon Brooks," WW, March 4, 1998). After shooting an air ball in the classroom last spring, the 5'10" guard was ineligible to play during the 1998 fall semester, and it looked very much as if his entire junior year would be lost. According to information obtained by WW, when Brooks transferred from Grant on Dec. 11 he had a 1.0 grade point average.

So it was a big surprise to hoop insiders when Brooks turned up on the court in late January wearing the blue and gold of the state's second-ranked team, Jefferson High (where he played as a freshman). "Initially, it was a big topic of conversation among PIL (Portland Interscholastic League) coaches," says Wilson boys basketball coach Scott Akers.

Coaches and athletic directors around the city were upset because they thought Brooks was making a mockery of the new school-board rule that raised academic standards for athletes. Previously, players needed only a 0.71 grade point average to be eligible, but last spring the school board raised the bar to 2.0 (or 2.5 if the player has one "F").

Most officials support the higher standards, but they also think they wouldn't even have to deal with them if not for a few high-profile players--chief among them Brooks and former Lincoln standout Salim Stoudamire. (Stoudamire, cousin of the Blazers' star, now attends Lake Oswego High.)

"What happened with Brandon Brooks and Salim Stoudamire obviously had a lot to do with the board passing the new rules," says Kendra Gardner, athletic director at Cleveland High. So when Brooks suited up for Jefferson, it didn't take long for questions from around the league to reach PIL athletic director Greg Ross.

Ross looked into the situation and found nothing amiss.

"The bottom line is he's got his grades from Jefferson," Ross says. "I've gone over this with a fine-toothed comb. It checks out."

Jefferson athletic director Billie Frazier says Brooks arrived ineligible, "but he did the work he needed to do." Frazier says he would never jeopardize his school's standing for one player--particularly one who draws as much attention as Brooks. "The last thing we would do is something that would hurt our ball club," he says.

Still, it's unlikely that Brooks could have played for any other team in the city. Jefferson is the only high school that operates on nine-week semesters, which, Ross says, means that students there can gain--and lose--eligibility faster than anywhere else. By transferring from Grant in mid-December Brooks effectively wiped out his 1.0 GPA and was able to suit up at the end of January.

At least one coach, however, thinks Brooks' off-court moves are harder to defend than his on-court ones. "I kind of feel like this young man has figured a way around the system," says Benson coach Don Emry, whose team defeated Jefferson Saturday night for the city championship. "The school board did what they could; other people have allowed him to filter around those rules."

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Willamette Week | originally published March 3, 1999