Subscribe to the NCSA Blog13 Year Old Commits to Tennessee
June 30th, 2009 - byMany times when I talk to recruits and their families they are stunned when I ask them if they have received any scholarship offers yet.
Their usual response is, “What offers? The senior season hasn’t even begun yet! The coach can’t even call yet!”
They fail to recognize that a college coach can actually offer a scholarship at any time they want. The recruiting continues to accelerate to the point where many athletes receive scholarship offers well before a coach can call them.
Yesterday, the college football recruiting process officially crossed a new line when a 13 year old (take a minute for that to set in) committed to Tennessee. Evan Berry the younger brother of Tennessee star Eric Berry has decided to follow his brother to Tennessee despite not playing a down of high school football..
“Yes, I committed to Tennessee,” Evan said. “It’s the only college I know right now and it seems the best for me. My dad went there and my brother is there now. I know I can do the same things there. I have a real friendly relationship with the coaches there. I know I don’t know them too well but I know I will have plenty of time to get to know them.
“I want to play in the secondary and I want to play for coach (Monte) Kiffin.”
Is this an extreme case? Of course. But, it represents an overall trend that is very real. Unless student-athletes are at the head of the curve they will likely far behind. Not taking the recruiting process seriously at an early age can cost a student-athlete an opportunity to play at the next level and thousand of dollars in scholarship dollars.
June 30th, 2009 at 11:23 am
As the founder of NCSA tells everyone, “no one ever started too early and no one ever got too much help.”
June 30th, 2009 at 12:53 pm
My 8th grade,14 year old son attended a D1 college “camp” he is a catcher and ss. His times matched those of seniors in HS.The coach approached us and said he would verbally commit my son now.I assumed he was joking…we kind of laughed,thanked him for the compliment.
As he continued to say he would be watching him closely. Maybe he was serious after all ! I just didn’t think it was possible…now I know!
June 30th, 2009 at 1:10 pm
My 16 year old son is a member of a D1 – AAU team and I told him that we would start after he took the ACT. Sounds like I did not give him the right advice. He will be in the 11th grade in the fall and is currently attending Lighthouse Christian Academy homeschool with a GPA of 3.65 and making the most of high school. His personal advisor has him academically projected through the end of the 12th grade. Because of his school schedule, he is able to attend a lot of basketball camps from New York to South Carolina. Attending reputable camps will get your name out there and you will receive invites to other camps. My advice to any child that has a passion for a sport, don’t put the obstacle of not being picked to play on a high school team set you back. You can do anything if you put your mind to it. In my son’s case I got on the AAU website and enrolled him as a member, then we created a special profile email and sent it out to 20 different coaches through the website. About 5 responded and we took it from there. He has been playing actively since May 2009 and the coach wants him on his team next year.
June 30th, 2009 at 10:22 pm
You can commit at 2 years old and it means nothing until you sign your letter with the NCAA. Not the coach.
July 2nd, 2009 at 7:13 pm
Too young!!! Parents shouldn’t be so excited that they don’t look at the big picture, I f the child is that good they will keep looking at him for years to come.