It’s been more than five months since Rashad Vaughn left Robbinsdale Cooper High School for a prep school near Las Vegas, Nevada, but his path to Findlay Prep, a hotbed for some of the nation’s top prep players, is suddenly back in the spotlight.
A Star Tribune article titled, “‘Package deal’ for former Cooper star Vaughn draws scrutiny” takes a look at the relationship between Vaughn and Peter Kaffey, a mentor to Vaughn and former Cooper assistant basketball coach, who became an assistant coach at Findley Prep shortly after Vaughn transferred to the school.
According to the article, Kaffey declined an opportunity to discuss how he got the coaching job at Findlay Prep, but he insists didn’t lure Vaughn to the school. Instead, he simply provided Vaughn with an “honest opinion.”
“Rashad made that decision [to leave Minnesota]. I just gave him my honest opinion,” he says in the article. “With Rashad, [my role is] all about life lessons” and teaching him “a lot of things, from going to church every morning, stuff like that — just teaching him how to be a good person. ” He added that some people “hate the fact that I’m helping some kid — this kid — reach his goal and be somebody special.”
One-day after the Star Tribune published the article, Vaughn tweeted the following:
Lol Gone take more than that to stop me. Star tribune some clowns #clowns
— Rashad Vaughn (@ShowtimeMr1) December 19, 2013
Back in November, Vaughn explained his decision to leave his high school in Minnesota to the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
“The high school (basketball) was good (in Minnesota), but it wasn’t really a challenge,” Vaughn said. “So I just came out here to get a challenge, play the national schedule. You’re basically going against pros in practice and in games, so that’s why I really came out here.”
ESPN Recruiting Nation lists Vaughn as a five-star recruit and the No. 17-ranked prep player in the country for the Class of 2014. Many of the best college basketball programs in the country, including the the University of Minnesota, have offered a scholarship to Vaughn.
Despite questions being raised about his relationship with Kaffey, Vaughn is still dominating on the court. According to Max Preps, Vaughn is averaging 22 points per game this season.
