If they can play, chances are they don't stay

Not if you’re Ken Still, the Boston Public Schools athletic director. Still enrolled his son, Nkosi, at Newton North High School through the Metco program, then transferred him to Tabor Academy. Nkosi now plays football for Brown.

Dennis Wilson, the boys basketball coach at Boston’s Madison Park Technical Vocational High School, also had a choice. His son, Tyrik, graduated this month from Newton South through Metco. Tyrik hopes to play basketball next year at Division 1 Winston Salem State University.

Time and again, whether or not they work in the Boston schools, parents in the city with athletically gifted children have sent them elsewhere in the hope of maximizing their potential. Their children’s flight to private, parochial, and suburban Metco schools has drained the Boston public schools of all but a few of the city’s best athletes.

“It’s too risky to keep your kids in public schools around here and expect them to get athletic scholarships to Division 1 schools,’’ said Abner Logan, the boys basketball coach at Burke High School, who lost one of his best players, James Kennedy, to Cushing Academy.

“It’s a shame,’’ Logan said, “but it has come to that.’’

Still and Wilson played sports at English High School in the 1960s.

“People say, ‘How come your son didn’t go to Madison Park?’ ’’ said Wilson, who has retired from teaching history at the school. “I tell them, ‘If you go to Newton, Weston, or Wellesley, the education, the resources, and the curriculum are like night and day.’ ’’

One of the best football players from the city this year was Darryl Cato-Bishop of Roxbury. He played at Lawrence Academy and received a full athletic scholarship to North Carolina State. One of the best basketball players was Jamal Coombs-McDaniel of Dorchester. He played at the Tilton School and received a full athletic scholarship to the University of Connecticut.

Notable among the city’s best young hockey players were Jimmy and Kevin Hayes of Dorchester. Their parents sent them to Noble and Greenough. Jimmy, an NHL prospect, played at Boston College last winter as a freshman, while Kevin played as a sophomore at Nobles. Kevin already has committed to BC.

“Most of the Boston public schools don’t really have strong athletics or academics,’’ said their mother, Shelagh Hayes. “Nobles enriched my sons’ lives academically, athletically, and socially. . . . It would be hard for the Boston public schools to measure up.’’

A number of other college basketball prospects from Boston played elsewhere this year, including Gerard Coleman, who went from West Roxbury High to Tilton, and Shabazz Napier, who went from Charlestown High to Lawrence Academy.

Hockey coaches in the Boston schools said all the top college prospects in the city are playing elsewhere. So are some of the best football players.

“The prep schools are constantly scouting and recruiting our kids,’’ said Mike Rubin, the headmaster and former basketball coach at East Boston High School.

Only two students in the Boston schools received full athletic scholarships this year to Division 1 schools: Charlestown distance runner Omar Abdi (University of Arkansas) and English basketball player Parris Massey (Sacred Heart University). English baseball catcher Nelfi Zapata was drafted by the New York Mets.