Private prep schools help athletes better their chances
The current transfer portal era in college sport eventually has reached all the way to the high school level.
College Athlete Advantage, in a February 2025 article titled “The Transfer Portal Revolution,” pointed out, “The NCAA transfer portal has undeniably transformed college recruiting … High school athletes now face a more competitive recruiting process, where coaches may look to the transfer portal first for immediate help before focusing on incoming freshmen.”
This “revolution” prompted veteran basketball coach Milton Barnes to meet a need when Barnes established the Play Right Sports Academy, Inc. (PRSA) in 2016 in his native Michigan, a men’s basketball postgraduate preparatory program for graduating high school basketball seniors to improve their recruiting prospects.
Prep schools such as Barnes’ are becoming more popular these days as more high school athletes seem to be getting overlooked and bypassed in favor of “quick fixes” — college players who put themselves in the transfer portal looking for another school to play for.
PRSA began the second half of its inaugural men’s basketball postgraduate preparatory program (“Post-grad” or “PG”) season January 13 at Barnes’ alma mater Albion College, where he played and graduated (1975-79) after graduating from Saginaw High School in 1975.
“It offers a structured environment with college-level training, competitive games, and progress toward a degree or trade,” said a PRSA press release. The school sits on the Starr Commonwealth 305-acre campus in Albion, a former institution for troubled youth that closed about five years ago.
“Long story short,” Barnes told MSR last week by phone, “there’s a need, and I just feel God-driven to see how and where I can make an impact. I guess that’s become my new mission in life to see how much I can impact or expand my reach to make a difference in the lives of young people.”
He has coached at every level — high school, college, pros, overseas — since graduating from Albion (Mich.) College in 1979.
After college, Barnes began his five-plus decades in coaching as an assistant coach at Albion College (1979-80) before moving on to four other schools, including being hired as Clem Haskins’ top assistant at Minnesota (1986-1988). Barnes also was a head coach at Albion High School (1988-91); Eastern Michigan (1996-2000); Harlem Globetrotters (2000-2001); Greenville Groove of the then NBA Development League (now known as the G-League), where he won the 2002 league championship; and the U.S. Virgin Islands (2010-2014).
Barnes also was an NBA scout with the Minnesota Timberwolves in 2009.
“I think I’ve always been the guy that wants to try to impact the lives of young people,” Barnes reiterated. “One of the things that I realized, the trend and the landscape of where college sports is going, the NIL and the transfer portal, those two things are going to eliminate opportunities for high school kids, particularly, let’s face it, inner city kids, okay, Black kids if you want to be specific.
“We’ve played about eight or nine games up to this point, and we’ve only got probably about five or six games left to play between January and February,” said Barnes. “We don’t play high school [teams]. We play prep schools, junior colleges, or small college JV teams.”
Finally, Barnes reflected fondly on his days in Minnesota. “I would say Minneapolis and the University of Minnesota is a very instrumental part of my life in a lot of ways, but my biggest and fondest memory is the people like yourself, relationships that develop, the players that I coached … the people in the community. Even during my years with the Timberwolves, it holds a special place in my life.”
Charles Hallman welcomes reader responses to challman@spokesman-recorder.com.