Why won't Mid Penn Teams seek Competition????

I often wonder to myself, why kids in the Harrisburg, PA area often get stuck playing lower level basketball after high school.....   Is it because they just aren't talented?   Or maybe it has something to do with location, kids would rather stay close to home.....    I'm really not sure, but whatever the reason may be, we have to figure out a solution fast.....
I was once told by a wise young man "It's OK to be a copycat, just make sure you copy the right cat" .....   There's other cities all around America like Chicago, NYC, Philly, Detroit, Columbus, LA, etc...  I can go on and on about the kids that play HIGH level basketball from those cities....  But it's not just one or two kids, they have MULTIPLE kids year in and year out....

One thing I know from growing up in NYC is that you have to play the best in order to be the best....   When I stopped to think more and more about that statement, I came to the conclusion that too many local teams in the Mid Penn have no desire to play against the best teams....  Most Coaches in this area only like to participate in local events against the same teams that they'll see during the regular season....  My question for that is "HOW DOES THAT GET YOUR TEAM AND PLAYERS BETTER?" 

Now don't get me wrong, there's teams such as Harrisburg who always look to seek the best teams, or Susquehanna who traveled to Florida one year back in 2008 to play some serious competition....  What about everyone else???? 

There's a tournament at Harrisburg HS this weekend in which Chester and a couple of out of town teams will be there to compete...  Now Chester is coming off of an undefeated season and is the #1 ranked team in PA, but the local teams have no desire to attempt to play them....   A big time event in your own backyard and you're hiding????   If these coaches aren't looking to improve their teams in the off season, then why are they hired as coaches?   Too many guys are getting jobs because they're friends of the AD or has a buddy on the school board.....   It would be nice to see more coaches with qualified backgrounds in the basketball arena heading these schools.....  

If the only way these kids will get to see competition is aau basketball or summer camps, this area will continue to be behind everyone in Basketball.....   We are at least 2 decades behind these other cities when it comes to getting exposure for College...  This is why our best players year after year go to schools like Siena, Bucknell, Vermont, Rider, mostly low to mid major schools...   Nothing wrong with those schools but the best players in Philly are going to Temple, Villinova, Pitt, Rutgers, Kansas, Arizona....   you get my point....   I don't think that those kids in Philly are that much better than the Central PA kids, they just get more exposure....

Perfect example is last year in the AA playoffs, Pine Grove is playing against Vaux which featured All American 6'4 pg Rasheed Jordan who is being recruited by every school in America....   Pine Grove had a player named Larry Zimmerman who totally destroyed Vaux and gave Jordan 40 points plus got the win....    Zimmerman was never heard of and ended up going to Prep school for football but why is it a kid like that hasn't been heard of?    Lack of exposure....

It will be interesting to see how things turn out in the next 5 years as we try to help more of the youth get out of town and see other competition...  It sure would be nice to get more help from HS coaches though....

Feel free to comment....

Coach Little