Fork Union/Tabor/Milford Academy

[Brad82]

Any one familiar with these prep schools players last season? Rhode Island signed a total of 7 combined.Would like some feedback.

[colgate13]

Any one familiar with these prep schools players last season? Rhode Island signed a total of 7 combined.Would like some feedback.

Milford Academy is near Colgate. It moved up here from down state a few years ago. Local folks haven't been to happy with some of it.

From what I understand, it's a football factory with no focus on academics. We can't even look at kids from there. Very talented kids - we just can't touch them because of grades. Take a look (http://www.milfordacademy.org/2005Schedule.html)at their schedule last year. They're beating many I-AA JV squads...

Take a look (http://www.milfordacademy.org/2005%20Scholarships.htm) at where many of their kids signed. Those three you signed are probably good players. Just got to keep them on the straight and narrow.

[Leopard's Claw]

I agree with c13's assessment.....Milford used to be in Milford, Ct, but closed their doors a few years ago due to financial struggles and an aging physical plant...for about 6 straight years, our JV would play them in September. Perennially strong team, but a bit of a cowboy outfit.

[I-AA Fan]

Fork Union is highly prestigious. New York I think.

[Brad82]

How about Trinity-Pawling Prep school?

[Husky Alum]

Fork Union is in Virginia.

I'm from Milford, CT and back in the 60s my dad was the SID/Assistant AD there, so I know a smidge about the school.

Milford started as a college preparatory school and was pretty prestigious until the early to mid 1970s. At that time, the baby boomers had all gone through prep school, and Milford lost its prestige (I had an uncle who went to Milford and he showed me his yearbook and his classmates all went Ivy/PL/Johns Hopkins type places). The football team would play St. Thomas More, Cheshire, Bridgton, New Hampton, Andover, places like that.

Once the boomers left, Milford was stuck with an aging campus, and no real way of attracting students to what used to be a snooty prep school, so it became - for lack of better words, a football factory. The school would get kids to come in and pay for some pretty good coaching (Bob Griffin from URI was the coach there for a while, and they had some guys who eventually coach at Syracuse and in the NFL on staff there), and play against Ivy and PPL jayvee teams. Back when schools like Pitt and Maryland and Penn State had JV teams, the Falcons would play them as well. They'd also play Army Prep and Navy Prep. About 6-8 Falcons played in the NFL, from what I remember, and Nebraska, Syracuse, and URI always seemed to take a bunch of their kids.

Most of the students would disappear after the NCAA signing date, as they were simply at Milford to play football and get their SAT's up to a point where they could accept a scholarship - so you're not dealing with Rhodes Scholars there.

In the mid 1980s, the school got into prep school baseball and basketball and hockey. At a significant cost to the school. The best known basketball player to prep at Milford was the late Yinka Dare - who went on to infamy with the Nets.

When the school stopped baseball and hockey, it had significant debts, and with students mainly only there for half a year, it couldn't pay its bills, so the school sold its assets to the City of Milford in order to pay off its debts.

I actually practiced with the Milford team for a month before I left for college, as I was unsure if I wanted to give college FB a go after knee surgery. Let's just say some of the kdis I practiced with were great players, borderline nice people, and had very low morals.

Milford relocated a couple of years ago to upstate NY.

[WCU LawCat]

WCU signee Adam Herns of Milford is listed as a DB but will start out as a QB. Was a three star by rivals in 2004 and commited to Syracuse. Loved Western and will be given a chance to play QB. He will most likely NOT be reshirted due to his insane athletic ability.

I could see why it would be tough for a high academic school like colegate to get kids from a school that takes HS props and works with them...probably one reason you don't see Furman take JuCo transfer's

[Tribefan]

I am from CT so I know a little about some of these institutions.

Milford started way back and was closely affiliated with Yale. Milford Academy is ruled by it's football program. It has an enrollment of about 100. Students go there for one reason. To get eligible. They play football, play hoop and get eligible. That is it. It is a bit of a sad story about when the place moved to NY. They were running out of money, and they literally could not afford to feed their students properly. They also could not keep the heat on either. I heard rumors that the coaches were taking students home with them on the weekends and feeding them. Unreal huh?

At some point the school paid off their tax debt by giving the town of Milford their buildings and they moved to somewhere in NY.

Trinity-Pawling is located in Pawling, NY which is close to CT. It's a four year all male prep school. They play in the Erickson League which is comprised mostly of other 4 year prep schools such as Hotchkiss, Taft and Salisbury. Some of these schools will have several PGs who have already graduated from High School and are either trying to become eligible or are trying get better scholarship offers.

[HiHiYikas]

Fork Union is highly prestigious. New York I think.
Fork Union is in VA, near Charlottesville, more or less. I don't know much about the place, but I've spoken in several churches near the school and the area is very rural. People talk about the school with a "not what it used to be" kind of tone, but I'm not sure they're referring to the football program. They probably get a lot of kids from the Richmond, DC Metro, and the Tidewater VA area.

I think ASU has one or two Fork Union kids.

[ngineer]

Fork Union has the reputation of being a 'holding tank' for kids who 'aren't ready' for college, yet and need to get their grades up or grow up. Not much of an academic reputation.

[blukeys]

Fork Union has the reputation of being a 'holding tank' for kids who 'aren't ready' for college, yet and need to get their grades up or grow up. Not much of an academic reputation.


Are you saying Lehigh would not take a kid form Fork Union or Milford????

[colgate13]

Are you saying Lehigh would not take a kid form Fork Union or Milford????

Don't know as much about Fork Union as Milford, but I've heard we can't touch them with a 10 foot pool and the school is literally 30 minutes away - tops!

[Mr. C]

Fork Union has helped produce some great I-AA players. Ever heard of Dexter Coakley? The year Coakley played there, he was the fullback, blocking for future VMI great tailback Thomas Haskins and future Virginia Tech QB Jim Druckenmiller. How's that for a backfield?

[DTSpider]

The two big prep schools in terms of post-high school but before college in VA are Fork Union and Hargrave. Players there generally either (1) didn't make SAT or grades to get in at either Tech or UVA or (2) went to a really small high school and want to get more exposure. Both are military schools.

UR's Stacy Tutt went to Fork Union as did Lance Gray (starting linebacker). Both did fine at UR.

[ngineer]

I'm not saying quality football players can't come out of these schools. In fact a good number have been produced, but a large number of them were sent there to get 'their acts together.' Some kids mature (physically and mentally) later than others.
As for Lehigh taking a student from any of them as asked, above, I would assume it all depends on the kids scores, grades, etc. The formula in the PL is there for all schools to see. If one school thinks another school is admitting someone that doesn't meet the criteria, it can be challenged and examined.

[ChickenMan]

UR's Stacy Tutt went to Fork Union as did Lance Gray (starting linebacker). Both did fine at UR.

UD also has had a few from Fork Union in the past and they too did 'fine' at Delaware.