Education Fuels Recruiting Dreams
January 5th, 2009 - byAccepting a full scholarship to California in front of your entire school sounds like a high school athlete’s dream. However, the pursuit of this dream turned one high school recruit’s life into a nightmare.
It was almost a year ago when the bizarre “recruitment” of Kevin Hart became a national story. Kevin had a dream of playing division 1 football, but was not being recruited by any schools. He was so caught up with playing division 1 football that instead of pro-actively calling schools he began to lie. Eventually his lies spiraled out of control, to the point where he had his parents, coaches and school all convinced that he accepted a Division 1 scholarship to Cal.
Of course, there was only one problem; he didn’t. Soon Cal contacted his high school coaches and let them know the truth; they had never heard of Kevin Hart. At first Kevin made up a story of being duped by a recruiting service, however after about 24 hours it became clear that the entire process was fabricated.
Outside The Lines caught up with Kevin recently to check on his progress.
You keep hearing about a lack of understanding about the recruiting process. A number of parties were extremely naïve as to how colleges recruit. They never took the time to find the proper education or guidance. Kevin never took any steps to let coaches understand his interest. He never contacted any schools. He was never realistic in looking at options. He didn’t take academics seriously.
His parents and coaches never supplied him with the guidance or realistic evaluation he needed to become a successful recruit. Unfortunately, this doesn’t come as a surprise. The simple truth of the matter is that it is not their responsibility to have an in-depth understanding of recruiting. That is exactly why families turn to us for our expert analysis and recruiting curriculum.
Luckily, Kevin got a second chance to play college football and to receive an education, but all of the distress he caused could have been avoided with proper recruiting education.
