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By LARRY VAUGHT

Contributing columnist

Scott Boley played in 81 college basketball games at Western Kentucky University from 1988-92 and scored 2,129 points at LaRue County High School. His daughter, Erin, was a standout at Elizabethtown High School and played for Oregon, Notre Dame and USA Basketball.

That’s why even though he understood it was probably the right decision for his son Cutter not to play basketball at Lexington Christian last season, that doesn’t mean it was easy for him.

“I went to high school games, and when I was there it was killing me,” Scott Boley said. “I would have loved to see him out there. He was not going to go to UK or Duke in basketball, but he could have been a college player.

“He is a good high school player and has hops unlike any other Boley. I enjoyed watching him dunk.”

However, Cutter Boley is also an exceptional football quarterback who just narrowed his list of potential college choices to 10, including Kentucky and Alabama. With the high-level demands on him due to football, the junior quarterback didn’t think he could devote enough time to basketball.

“He got invited to so many (football) things. It was not fair to a high school coach or players to say I need to miss all these things but I will play when I am here,” Scott Boley said.

Not playing basketball also gave Boley a chance to work on getting his body stronger and also work with national football analysts on reading defenses better — “board work” is the term college coaches use.

Both areas of work paid off and Boley should be cutting his college list to five this week and might even be ready to make his college commitment. His final 10 schools were Alabama, Florida State, Kentucky, Michigan, Miami, Notre Dame, Oregon, Penn State, Tennessee and TCU.

Scott Boley remembers when his son sat down with then Alabama offensive coordinator Bill O’Brien to do the board work.

“I know football pretty well, and I leaned over to my wife and asked her if they were speaking Chinese. People do not realize how in-depth that position gets,” Scott Boley said. “He did really well at that, but coming from a Wing-T (offense) and since his father cannot really teach him a lot about offense, I knew that was something he needed to work on,”

Notre Dame coaches told Scott Boley they had never seen any high school quarterback do as well on the “board work” as Cutter Boley did with them

“It’s not like he was bad at reading defenses but getting that kind of praise is another good affirmation you are making progress with the work you are doing,” Scott Boley said. “College coaches have been blown away not only by how he throws the ball but also his knowledge on the board work.”