Syl,
I lived in Beaver County during Sean's HS career, with apartments in two different school districts at different times, neither one Blackhawk.
At the time, since Sean was a Pitt recruit, I was a Miller fan,too.
But, among the fans of other local schools, and with my co-workers at the J&L plant, John Miller was certainly NOT universally popular. He was a very good coach, but he recruited players from other high schools, using very similar techniques as the stories in another thread on charter and other non-public schools. For every John Miller fan, there was an equally feverish detractor.
JOTS was an AAU program run by a local businessman, J O Stright. He recruited Tino Hunter and Danny Fortson to literally move into his home and play at Shaler with his son. Stright was a Pitt fan at one time until Pitt wouldn't offer his son a scholarship. Some Pitt players joined with him in an anti-Paul Evans effort. Evans was universally hated by his players. JOTS became a nationally recognized AAU power, drawing every significant regional player possible.
He was close with Huggins and Calipari and funneled players to both. JOTS sent 45 players prior to 2006 to D-1 schools. 8 went to Huggins. 1 to Pitt. Blair became the 2nd but after JOTS folded after Herb Pope punched the coach at a late season tournament in Florida. It was a betrayal by Pope since Stright had brought him back to Pittsburgh from DC and had been his mentor. Stright had actually phoned Pitt to announce Pope's de-committal. Pryor abandoned Stright too and switched his emphasis to football.
