April 27, 2003
Chicago Tribune
By Michael Hirsley
When Jim Goranson was unhappy with his playing time on Illinois' football team, he went back to Chris Krause and the recruiting service he felt had helped him get there. "I called Chris last year and told him I wanted to transfer," said Goranson, a 2001 graduate of Elk Grove High School, where he played linebacker and tight end. "He resubmitted my material and I got five or six calls the next day." Goranson wound up at Georgetown last season, one of the quality schools he liked the first time around as a high school graduate. He received a need-based scholarship that covers a bit less than his Illinois scholarship. Although he was not a Georgetown starter at defensive end, he got more playing time in the Division I-AA program than he had at Division I-A Illinois. "I've played football since I was 6 years old, and I love the game," Goranson said. "When you're not playing, it eats at you." He credits Krause and his Chicago-based National Collegiate Scouting Association with helping him keep his football passion alive, even though he was not in the top echelon of players. College football's annual rite of passage, signing high school players to scholarships, operates alongside a growing industry of recruiting services. The companies' purpose is to help the scores of non-blue-chip athletes who are not on Division I-A major colleges' wish lists find teams that want them in Division I-A, I-AA, II, III or NAIA. A lot of people love "Cinderella" sports stories. But before the namesake heroine charmed the prince and left her glass slipper as a calling card at the ball, she needed help just to get to the palace. Similarly, unheralded athletes may need help designing a vehicle to get them into college sports. But unlike Cinderella's fairy godmother, recruiting services cannot
