In August of 2007 my parents made the decision to use NCSA to aid in my college recruiting. During my conference call with Bob McDole I remember he asked me if I was committed to playing football. My answer was a confident “yes”; little did I know how much my commitment to football would be tested. Coming into the football season I knew that I had to play my best each and every game. However, more important than my performance on the field was my performance in the classroom. I put as much effort into my schoolwork as I did in my training for football. After a successful football season my attention turned to finding the right college for me.
In early January I was contacted by Langston University in Oklahoma. They were very impressed by my game film and wanted me to attend a combine the following weekend. They told me that they were willing to give me a full scholarship as long as I performed well at the combine. I spent two days preparing mentally for my opportunity to show my abilities. I wasn’t worried about the physical aspects of the combine because I had spent the previous three months preparing my body. At the combine I was the most serious and intense person there. My approach was that my performance would directly influence the amount of money I received and I needed to take advantage of this situation and dominate my competition.
After the combine the coaches from Langston told me that I did great and they wanted me to come for a visit. The next week I visited the campus for the weekend along with the other recruits. I approached the visit like an interview, I was on my best behavior so that I wouldn’t give the coaches any reason doubt me. The other recruits did not feel the same way I did. On the first night all of the other recruits went out to party On the last day of the visit we all had a one-on-one meeting with the head coach, at that time we would also be told how much scholarship money we would receive. In my meeting the coach told me he was very impressed with me and felt that I would be a very good football player. He also revealed to me that the coaches were taking notes on who was out all night partying. Those recruits were not receiving as much money because their lack of judgment posed a risk to the team, I on the other hand would be receiving a full scholarship. When I returned I knew that I had a big decision to make. After three weeks of decision making I chose to sign with Langston.
Looking back at my decision now I see that I made my decision based upon money, not on facilities, academic standards or strength of the program. When I arrived in August it quickly became apparent to me the decision I made. The weight room was so small that the football team would be split into two and each group would workout at different times. Three days into practice all of the walk-on players were told to turn in all of their equipment because they did not have enough for the starters, if they still wanted to play they could come back in a month and they might have enough equipment. The most disturbing thing about the team was the lack of leadership from the players. The seniors were skipping meetings and practices instead of being an example to the younger players that did not know how to prepare for college football games. Two weeks into camp I made the decision that I needed to get out of this situation as soon as possible. I made contact with NCSA to find out what my options were. Fortunately for me if I was able to withdraw from school the next day I would be able to maintain all of my eligibility. The hardest part would be getting the head coach to release me from my scholarship.
Once I got back home I started looking for schools to attend in the fall, unfortunately every school’s admission deadline had past.
I decided to get a full time job to occupy my time; I also met with my trainer to take advantage of this opportunity to get in the best shape possible. When my trainer and I started I was 290lbs and 17% body fat, when I started school the next semester I was 230lbs and 10% body fat. I did a lot of soul searching to make sure that mentally I still wanted to play football in college, and after all that had happened in the previous six months I still had the desire to play. I contacted NCSA to inform them that I wanted to be recruited again. I knew that this time it would be a little harder to find a team interested since I had left a school the previous year.
Within the first month I received about 10 calls from prospective schools, the downside was they all wanted me to walk on. I was not looking to walk on, I wanted to find a school that was willing to offer some scholarship money but it did not have to be a full scholarship. Three weeks went by and I did not hear from any schools, I knew that I was good enough I just had to find the school that would give me an opportunity. I finally got the call I was looking for, it was 9:30 p.m. on a Tuesday night when my phone rang. It was the offensive line coach at Dickinson State University, he told me he was on the NCSA site and ran across my profile and just wanted to see if I was still interested in continuing to play football. I knew immediately that this was the opportunity I was looking for. The starting center from the previous season had graduated and there was a spot open, everything seemed like it would be a great fit. The only thing was the school is located in North Dakota; I quickly got over that because everything else was great. Before I would commit to the school I made sure find out about the academic standards, facilities and the success of the program. I was happy to find that everything was to my standard and the school would even give me scholarship. First I had to speak with the head coach because he had to agree on giving me a scholarship. After an half hour conversation he told me that he thought I could make an impact on the team and they would be in touch soon. Two weeks later I received my letter of intent and with no hesitation I signed it.
If I could give some advice to a college recruit it would be to stay patient and ask a lot of questions. It was my lack of patience that got me into this mess; fortunately I was able to fix it because others may not be as lucky. When I applied patience to my second recruiting experience I fared much better and found a great school that I see myself attending for the next four years. Asking a lot of questions is the best way to ensure that there are not any surprises after a letter of intent has been signed. I wrote my questions down and asked them to each coach that called me. Afterwards I would compare their answers and get an idea of what I could expect. When I used these skills I found that the recruiting experience was very easy and there was no fear of the unknown. I only wish I had done this the first time and avoided learning a hard lesson.
