My recruiting story starts early on. I attended various “exposure camps” such as Michigan, Nebraska, and some professional sponsored ones as early as the age 12. From those camps your information was supposedly sent out to hundreds of colleges, but even though I got numerous awards (Top Safety, Top Running back, Top 15 Club), I never heard from any schools.
Because I attended a school in the Chicago Catholic League, I was unable to participate in varsity athletics until my sophomore year in school. But, when I did become a sophomore I was immediately put in the starting lineup as Quarterback for a team that went 9-0 the previous year and advanced to the state quarter finals the previous year. Given the history of success and the fact I had soon-to-be college star, and current Chicago Bear, Garrett Wolfe, in the backfield with me, I thought these factors alone would give me plenty of exposure. This is all not to mention that our head coach had the guts to tell us that his main goal was to get us into college and play football. With potentially a dozen players that should have played in college, and maybe a handful that could have played scholarship ball, I was the only one to get any “ride”.
After a couple visits and just a few handwritten letters sent to the house, Fisher DeBerry visited the school and then my house. The Air Force Academy ended up being the only team among Northwestern and University of Illinois to actually make an offer for a full ride. This is even though I thought the other schools were interested, just because they sent me information.
I went through the process completely oblivious to what I should have been doing. Everything I’ve been taught since being with NCSA on the recruiting process I had no idea of when I went through it. I just wish I would have known about the NCSA advantage when I went through the recruiting process.