Bobby Mouat is playing football at LaGrange College. How he got there is quite the story…..
“All we care about is to get our son and daughter something we never had,” said Bruce Mouat, the father. “That is an education in College.”
Flash back to Labor Day weekend of 1984. Bruce and Lisa were 18 and 19 years old, in love and destined to get married. They were going to enroll in College the Tuesday after the Labor Day weekend. Everything was perfect. Then, over that weekend, they pulled into the parking lot of a convenience store in Baltimore. Nearby they noticed a group that had obviously been partying pretty hard. A troublemaker in the group came over and was determined to start something. He claimed their car almost hit him, which was ridiculous. The hoodlum was dead set on creating a bad scene. Words were exchanged and in the blink of an eye the bad guy pulled out a gun and started firing into the car.
“To hear yourself scream at that level is something you never forget,” said Bruce. Glass shattered everywhere. People ran. Within seconds it was over. Lisa slumped over and said she had been hit. Blood was everywhere.”
“Thank God that Baltimore County Hospital was across the street,” said Bruce. “The guy had used hollow point bullets. A fragment of one hit her aorta. I got her in just in time to save her life. I don’t know if you remember the ‘Members Only’ jackets from that time, but I took mine off to wrap her. When I ran into the ER with her, the Police and other medics made me go into another room after I had given the staff my wife, and immediately strip down. They had to know that I was not hurt.”
“It was a nightmare. Needless to say, we did not enroll in College that Tuesday.”
Bruce says it took six months for Lisa to physically recover and over a year to overcome the hardest mental part of the recovery. Within that year her mother died of a massive stroke while playing cards and his Dad died in his arms from mesothelioma.
“It was a terrible time in our life,” said Bruce, “but it galvanized what has been a strong marriage ever since. To think that we were days away from enrolling in College, and then for all that to happen. We never did go to College, but it made us more determined that our kids would one day.”
Bruce and Lisa left Baltimore and settled in southern Georgia. They have two children. Their daughter is, true to their promise, attending a small College now. Their son Bobby was a hard working football player for Tiftarea Academy.
As a 12th grader, he was a 5’10” 205 pound inside linebacker who was constantly trying to improve any way he could. His dream was to be a college football player. He did not have the God given size or abilities to play on scholarship Between the Hedges in Athens for the Georgia Bulldogs or feel Nick Saban’s glare during practice at Alabama. He was a D3, NAIA and possibly D2 prospect, which was fine with him.
“He will be the first college athlete in our family,” said Bruce, at the time.
Recruiting was going nowhere for the Mouat family. “We live in rural Georgia,” said Bruce.” There are more dirt roads in our county than paved ones, no kidding. Our son plays for a school in Chula, Georgia. Not many College coaches have heard of Chula.”
They heard how NCSA helps families manage the recruiting process and matches College coaches with qualified student-athletes. They did an evaluation call.
“That Matt Roe of NCSA was tremendous,” said Bruce.
They came on board in April of his junior year and life has not been the same since.
“We could not duplicate the experience NCSA has given us,” said Bruce. We would have no idea how to get his name out to even a portion of what happened after his first distribution through NCSA. When we look at the viewership log so far, my wife and I feel it is the best investment we have made in our lives. I mean this could be a life changing event for our son and our family. The affect will be on generations to come, from where he goes to College.”
“He had over 200 College football programs look at his Player Profile. Some just look. Others have actively recruited him. The staff at the NCSA office in Chicago is always accommodating and things get done in a timely manner with a genuine care. That’s the way it comes across to me. We own a small Snap On Tools franchise. They have a great brand with name recognition which, to me, is a lot like NCSA”
“I love working with the people at NCSA. The program works.”
Bobby has had multiple scholarship offers. One school called six times. Projected to be a small college player, he ended up signing with LaGrange College in Georgia, a NCAA Division 3 member and a part of the Great South Atlantic Conference.
“What I have learned about recruiting,” said Bruce, “is you have to do the work as well. You can’t just get into NCSA and sit back.”
While he was going through recruiting, Bobby wrote the following account of some of the things they have been doing that have resulted in scholarship offers:
1 -“We targeted schools provided it had a major I was interested in. We contacted head coaches, recruiting coaches and position coaches and pasted our ncsa link to our email introductions. We followed up any contact with a thank you email.
2 – Took a trip to New England and visited 3 colleges in 4 days. Vermont, Mass, and Pennsylvania. My father and I took thank you letters to give to coaches as we left. We met with coaching staff, took copies of ncsa highlight video and one full game video. We met with Admissions and followed up visit with thank you emails when we got home.
3 – I actively tried to improve my SAT and ACT test scores as I was diagnosed with ADHD last year and have struggled slightly to have the grades I want. I have made great improvements in school and have impressed my teachers. Although I never had terrible grades I am doing much better and have a lot more confidence. I have qualified on SAT for a lot of schools but feel I can do better on SAT and ACT to increase my chances.
4 – I am committed to the process and I am a first generation college bound student. My parents have committed all their time to helping and these three are by far not the only things we are doing.
– Bobby Mouat, 12th grade Linebacker, Tiftarea Academy Football (now a College Football player)
During his senior year, I talked with Bobby about his perspective of being a High School athlete in NCSA. This is what he said at the time:
“It’s made a huge difference,” said Bobby. I have gone from pretty much not being recruited at all to a lot of schools. Every day I log on and look at the different schools and look at the Coach requests. I have found that they are looking for good athletes who are good students. We worked hard to make sure my video was up. I think it has had a great effect. In my video I played 3 or 4 positions and a lot of the College coaches tell me they find that very attractive. I have always loved playing football and I want to keep playing. I love the competition and always trying to get better.”
“What I like about being in NCSA is there is so much information at your fingertips,” said Bruce. “It is a blessing. You have to do the program for it to work. You can’t have an incomplete Profile. It would be like having a restaurant without a menu.”
“The resources offered were life changing.”
Charlie Adams
NCSA Recruiting Expert
cadams@ncsasports.org
NCSA's Charlie Adams helps families to understand the recruiting process
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