Deseret Morning
News, January 5, 2007
There's no place like home
for talented Mero hoopsters
By Wade Jewkes
SANDY — There are not
many families who can claim four boys who are all
exceptionally gifted basketball players. Furthermore,
the Mero family is set apart by one additional
discriminating factor: They are home schooled.
Mother Sally is
committed to the home school program and two older
daughters were home schooled in addition to the four
sons. She said, "If there is something that they
wanted to know about and I wanted to know about it,
then we learned it together."
By now the routine is
established and her primary role is to act as an
advisor or consultant. She conducts tests and turns in
grades to Jordan High School.
"The best part
about it," said Sally, "they don't have to
get up at 6 a.m."
Evan, who is 16, chimed
in with: "It is the only thing we have ever
known."
Home schooling and
playing sports do not go well together but it can be
done as proved by the Meros. Cameron, the oldest son,
played two years at Jordan and made the All-State
team.
He left for an LDS
mission immediately after his playing days were over
and when he returned he still had the itch to play
basketball. He scouted several teams and chose Alameda
College in Oakland to try out. He started at point
guard on an all black team and was doing well when
social conditions proved too difficult to continue.
He currently attends
Salt Lake Community College and has talked to a number
of college coaches around the state about playing.
Why did he go to
Oakland knowing what he would face there?
"I like the
challenge of being challenged," he said.
Because of his abnormal
circumstances and the sequence of events, he is not a
known basketball commodity and it will be an uphill
battle to continue his playing career. But he may very
well be up to the challenge.
Brigham, the second
son, is 18 and currently starting at Jordan High
School. At 6-3 he can play just about any position but
his athleticism relegates him to playing inside and
defending the other team's best scorer. As such he is
not as involved with the offense and averages 10-11
points per game. He can play inside or outside.
Asked whether or not he
shoots the 3-point shot, he replied, "As often as
I can."
The Meros are putting
together a highlight film of his spectacular slams.
"He has springs in
his legs," says his mother.
As for learning the
game of basketball, the Mero boys are also home
schooled. Or perhaps more appropriatetly
"driveway schooled." They are all dead-eye
shooters — from 3-point range or any range for that
matter.
Youngest son Joe stands
6-2 at 14 years old and has traveled on AAU teams to
play in Las Vegas. Yes, he can shoot the three, but he
expects to still grow another 4-to-6 inches and be a
versatile player from the inside as well.
Evan is 16 years old,
stands 6-4, and starts on the Jordan junior varsity.
He sees some varsity playing time as a sophomore. In
his own words he does "everything well." He
claims to "finish well" also. He averaged 25
points a game last year on the sophomore team.
Father Paul sums up the
basketball philosophy of all his sons:
"They are all team
players," he said.
And there is one family
rule that applies to everyone: "We all take
personal responsibility."
Nothing less would be
expected from young men who learn the game of life
from such a perspective.
Utah suffers from several education
paradoxes, but the one we always hear about — lots of money
thrown at public schools but low per pupil funding — isn't one
of them. It's a false paradox, as is its latest variation,
"Paradox Lost." Statistical anomalies are hardly
policy paradoxes and, in these cases, neither portends an
existing or looming crisis in education.