Darrell Moody: Hawks must move down in baseball and softball

Hug High School asked the NIAA if it could play as an independent in softball starting next season, but according to published reports, the item was tabled.

The Hawks, at least in the 10-plus years I’ve been in Nevada, have been pretty crummy in softball. If they don’t have the numbers, it’s grades that derail them. This time it was the numbers.

After Carson knocked off Hug 16-2 last Monday, four players quit the team, leaving the team short-handed. Rather than bring players up from the JV program and drop the JV team, Hug has elected to forfeit the remainder of its varsity games.

“It was some kids making some decisions, and I’ll leave it at that,” Hug AD Marv Mercer told the Reno Gazette Journal. “It just happened really abruptly, and we felt it was in everybody’s best interest not to play varsity anymore.”

I agree with that decision even though it screws the teams that have yet to play Hug. It’s way too late in the season to go out and get nonleague games to fill the gaps. Most teams are already at their limits. Besides, the varsity team was outscored 63-4 in its last two series against North Valleys and McQueen prior to the Carson game(s). The second scheduled Carson game wasn’t even played.

The baseball program is no better. More than once Hug hasn’t even fielded a varsity program. This year, the schedule has had to be rearranged because the Hawks don’t have enough players to play a JV and varsity game on the same day. Really? Is baseball that unpopular in the innercity, or are kids just too lazy to work hard and try to improve. If you have athletic ability, you can play baseball, and there are plenty of good athletes on the Hug campus.

I have two thoughts on the subject.

The first is to allow Hug to drop down to 1A or lower with their baseball and softball programs, and either find a 1A school willing to play up or just go with 11 baseball and softball teams in the large-school conference.

The second is to drop the two programs at Hug, and if there are kids that want to play either sport, get a multi-school waiver just for baseball and softball players and they can go play at North Valleys or whatever school is closest to them.

•••

It appears that the University of Nevada has come to its senses in the case of basketball star Cole Huff.

When Huff wanted to transfer to a school closer to his Southern California home, Nevada barred him from going to any Mountain West, Pac-12 or West Coast Conference school. The ban left him with ability to only play in the Big Sky and Big West.

Apparently the sides have come to an agreement. Huff is now able to transfer to non-Mountain West Schools in SoCal (UCLA, USC, Pepperdine, Loyola, and San Diego). Restrictions still bar him from playing for 10 of the Pac-12 schools and the rest of the WCC, Apparently he can still go to any Big West school no matter the location.

Huff is still a target for some Midwest schools, including Nebraska.