One of the biggest points I emphasize when brought in to educate families on recruiting is the importance of finding the ‘right fit’ in college to play the sport their athlete loves.
Constantine High School in Michigan brings NCSA Athletic Recruiting in each year to educate their families. I had a great talk with Athletic Director Mike Messner about one of the greatest athletes in school history, Pete Moe. He was a 6’5″ quarterback in the 1990′s who could make every throw. He was an outstanding guard in basketball. He was First Team All-State in Class C in Michigan in both sports. The University of Michigan did look at him in football but felt his frame was not strong enough to handle the pounding a Big Ten quarterback would take, so that wasn’t the right fit. Former IU Coach Bobby Knight sent assistant coach Dan Dakich up to Constantine to personally evaluate Moe. IU didn’t feel he was quite what they were looking for to play at the Big Ten level.
I remember being in the Plymouth High (IN) gym one time when Dakich personally evaluated former Kevin Ault of Warsaw, who would go on to win the prestigious Mr. Basketball Award in Indiana. Even though Ault was a remarkable shooter, Dakich didn’t see him as a Big Ten player. I would imagine he didn’t think he was tall enough or quick enough. Ault eventually signed with Southwest Missouri State (now Missouri State) and coach Steve Alford. That was still Division One, but a different level of it. Families have to understand there are levels within levels at D1, 2, 3 and so on.
Getting back to Pete Moe. He was a remarkable athlete. He won the state championship in the 300 IM Hurdles. Still, Division One was not the right fit for him. He and his family could have been bullheaded and ended up with something D1, but he probably would have rode the bench. Moe eventually signed a full athletic scholarship with Division Two Northern Michigan University. He was a four year starter at point guard. Get that? He started all four years. He even played receiver on the football team after his basketball eligibility was up. He squeezed everything out of his experience. When he turns 50, he will have no regrets because he got the most out of his abilities. Moe is now successful in Sales in Oregon. His resume has always played up his college athletic accomplishments because he knows that separates him.
As outstanding an athlete as Moe was, he was not quite a high level D1 athlete as far as playing significant minutes. For him, D2 was the right fit.
A few days after speaking in Constantine, I was in Valparaiso, IN to speak at Wheeler High School, a class 2A school. Athletic Director Randy Stelter told me that since he had started as AD there in 1998 they have had two Division One athletes.
Two. Out of hundreds, make that thousands of athletes.
One was Vic Sikorski, who was the school’s first state champion in swimming, winning the 50 yard Free in 2008. He signed a partial scholarship with Valparaiso University over Purdue. His reason was he wanted to be a big fish in a small pond. Valparaiso was in the early stages of their swim program. He liked the fact that he could be a part of something in the building stage, as compared to going somewhere where things were established. Another swimmer might look at in a different perspective, preferring to go after the challenge of swimming in the Big Ten. Again, these are things every athlete and family have to go over, so that they find the right fit for their athlete.
The other D1 athlete in the past twelve years from Wheeler HS is Becca Bruszewski, who is in her senior season as a key player for the national powerhouse Notre Dame women’s basketball team. In many ways, she is an example of what a “D1″ athlete is. Physically, she stands out as Becca stands six feet one inch tall. She made All State three times in High School. She set eleven school records in basketball, including most points with 1808. She spent three seasons with Indiana Elite AAU team (through the Midwest Basketball Academy of Rod Creech in Mishawaka,IN)
Becca was such a remarkable athlete that she could have easily secured a high level volleyball scholarship. In volleyball, she was a three-time All-State selection, earning first-team honors as junior and senior. In that sport she owns school records for career kills (2,042) and blocks (452), as well as single-season kills (657) and blocks (139), and led. led Wheeler to four sectional volleyball titles and regional tournament berths.
THERE’S your D1 athlete. As Sullivan High School Athletic Director Otto Clements told me in August, “families sometimes don’t understand how elite the high level D1 athlete is.”
I was at Glenn High School in Walkerton, IN. Their last D1 athlete was Andy Groves almost a decade ago. He went on to pitch for Purdue on a partial baseball scholarship. You would have to go back forever for their last “fullride” D1 kid.
There are seven million kids playing High School sports. Less than 1 percent will get a full athletic scholarship at the Division One level. Your kid may not be a D1 athlete. If not, get over it. There are remarkable opportunities at all levels of college sports. I covered college athletes for 23 years as a Sports Anchor at TV stations across America. While I covered many D1 athletes that loved their experience, I found that the small college athlete usually had the better college experience. That’s why I get so frustrated with families and athletes that think D1 or nothing.
I had a long conversation with the mother of a very talented 9th grader who projects to be D1. The player is very tall, talented, and smart. She is one of those that stood out so much in Middle School that it is reasonable to project her to be a D1 prospect. One of the major reasons they are in NCSA is to help with the management of the process all four years of High School. One of the reasons I encourage people to start the PROCESS of recruiting early is so they can start putting a lot of thought into the eventual right fit. One in four college athletes quit after their freshman season, primarily because they screwed this up.
Even though this young lady could very possibly eventually play for one of the top D1 college basketball programs in America, that may not be the right fit for her. At this point, the mother told me, her daughter was much more motivated to still play D1, but at a strong academic school that is not one of the Top 25 programs, where pressure is constant. For example, Tulane. That’s a great academic school that plays D1. Are they going to be in the Final Four? Not likely, but it’s still D1. It’s good that the mother and daughter are starting to sort these things out early, rather than waiting until 11th grade.
Kids want different things. I was talking to the coach of a girl that is the Sectional champion in Cross Country. I asked him what his elite runner was thinking about as far as running in college. He looked right at me and said she would be interested, but not at some place where the pressure would be intense to maintain low times.
Another kid may want that pressure. This girl, according to the coach, wants no part of that stress. For her the right fit might be a top academic college where she could run at a very competitive level, but not at a place where the running expectations are all consuming.
Whatever is the right fit, I am a strong proponent that if you have been blessed by God with the physical ability to play your sport somewhere in college, you should look very seriously at doing so.
I attended a luncheon to celebrate the start of the basketball season for a NAIA school. I talked with one of the assistant coaches about their players that were seniors on last years team. He told me that all of them had been hired by outstanding companies and were employed in good jobs.
Remember, we are in a bad economy. Jobs are tough. This coach told me company leaders had watched them as student-athletes and wanted them in their companies. He told me how alums at the school look out for each other. It’s one of the major reasons to go to college, but when you have the God given athletic potential to be a college student-athlete, go for it because it will put you in better position for careers upon graduation. As Chris Krause’s book says, Athletes are Wanted.
I had the opportunity to speak to a group of wonderfully talented 8th grade soccer players as the U 14 Jr. Irish Fire Premier Soccer team of Craig Horvath. They asked me to speak to them after practice. I asked them where they wanted to play. Several said they wanted to play for North Carolina or Notre Dame. Those are the Giant’s of D1 women’s soccer. For them, recruiting really does start early. Programs like that identify prospects so early that they practically look at Ultra Sounds. I remember speaking at the Mizuno Mid East Regional Volleyball qualifiers in St. Louis. NCSA was brought in to deliver Recruiting Education to the families.
Several bigtime D1 coaches were watching an 8th grade travel team from Florida that had a girl that was a tremendous talent. She was so smooth I thought she was a 12th grader. I was courtside talking with an assistant coach from a SEC school that told me they had identified her when she was in 6th grade (!). Do I totally agree with how accelerated recruiting has become at the D1 level? No, but as one coach said, “that is the world we live in today.”
These are insights from being out there speaking on recruiting and constantly talking to families and coaches that are in the crosshairs of it. I hope you find these observations helpful. You can always reach me at cadams@ncsasports.org
Also, please share your insights down below. We all learn from the experiences of others that have gone through the process.
Charlie Adams
Senior National Educational Speaker – Bring Charlie to your School HERE!
Submit your Recruiting Information to the NCSA Athletic Recruiting Network HERE!
