OT: Recruiting Process (long, sorry)

[cuseincincy]

This is not in regards to any SU recruit (yet?) so I placed on this board. Last night I began the first step in the recruiting process for my oldest son who will be a junior OL this year. I received a call from a national recruiting service telling me they had received my son's "file" and needed more information. I learned a lot of information, some of which kind of surprised me. According to this recruiter they receive 2,500 recruiting files every day and last year 17,000 athletes that they evaluated ended up with some type of college scholarship (all sports). They also told me that it is not unusual for some players to receive scholarship offers even before they ever played a down of varsity football! I was told this in response to my statement that it was a little soon to know how good my son will be since he mostly played JV last year and only got in a handful of varsity plays. He also told me that based on my son's size (6'5" 250 lbs) that D2 and D3 schools would already be interested in him based on that and their experience with our HS.

I have no idea how good my son will be but he certainly has the potential based on his size, the coaching he will receive and the competition he will face this year. In the past 10 years or so our school has sent OL to Ohio State, Louisville, Illinois, 2 to Toledo, Ohio University, Miami O, Butler, Valparaiso, Buffalo and several more to D2 and D3 schools. This season he will play against senior DL that have committed to Pitt, Florida, Michigan St, and Miami O. (luckily the Florida and MSU kids will only be a scrimmage) Some of the juniors he will face are already being recruited by Ohio St, Virginia, Akron, Miami O, UK. One of our biggest rivals has a 6'7" 295 lb junior with offers from 1/2 the Big 10, only kid that ever made my son look small.

Needless to say I'm looking more forward to this HS football season than any before. I honestly only hope he stays healthy and has fun. If I were a betting man I'd guess at the end of this process my son will not end up playing football in college as I just can't bring myself to think he will be good enough to play D1 and I don't think he wants to play D2 or D3. I think he'd rather go to Ohio St (god forbid) and watch from the stands than to go to Ohio Dominican and play football. (For those that don't know the only similarity is that both schools are in Columbus OH). Like me, I don't think he can see himself going to a college that is smaller than his HS. If he is good enough for MAC level I could see him doing that.

Sorry for the long post. Go SU! And oh by the way, yes my son's dream school to play for would be our Orangemen.

 

[oldpinepoint]

Your approach is on the money. Just encourage him to have fun. If he loves the game enough maybe he will decide to play d2 or d3. Mt Union would be a great place to play.

 

[kcsu]

Best of luck to you Son it will be fun to follow his progress. Thanks for sharing

 

[007]

This is not in regards to any SU recruit (yet?) so I placed on this board. Last night I began the first step in the recruiting process for my oldest son who will be a junior OL this year. I received a call from a national recruiting service telling me they had received my son's "file" and needed more information. I learned a lot of information, some of which kind of surprised me. According to this recruiter they receive 2,500 recruiting files every day and last year 17,000 athletes that they evaluated ended up with some type of college scholarship (all sports). They also told me that it is not unusual for some players to receive scholarship offers even before they ever played a down of varsity football! I was told this in response to my statement that it was a little soon to know how good my son will be since he mostly played JV last year and only got in a handful of varsity plays. He also told me that based on my son's size (6'5" 250 lbs) that D2 and D3 schools would already be interested in him based on that and their experience with our HS.

I have no idea how good my son will be but he certainly has the potential based on his size, the coaching he will receive and the competition he will face this year. In the past 10 years or so our school has sent OL to Ohio State, Louisville, Illinois, 2 to Toledo, Ohio University, Miami O, Butler, Valparaiso, Buffalo and several more to D2 and D3 schools. This season he will play against senior DL that have committed to Pitt, Florida, Michigan St, and Miami O. (luckily the Florida and MSU kids will only be a scrimmage) Some of the juniors he will face are already being recruited by Ohio St, Virginia, Akron, Miami O, UK. One of our biggest rivals has a 6'7" 295 lb junior with offers from 1/2 the Big 10, only kid that ever made my son look small.

Needless to say I'm looking more forward to this HS football season than any before. I honestly only hope he stays healthy and has fun. If I were a betting man I'd guess at the end of this process my son will not end up playing football in college as I just can't bring myself to think he will be good enough to play D1 and I don't think he wants to play D2 or D3. I think he'd rather go to Ohio St (god forbid) and watch from the stands than to go to Ohio Dominican and play football. (For those that don't know the only similarity is that both schools are in Columbus OH). Like me, I don't think he can see himself going to a college that is smaller than his HS. If he is good enough for MAC level I could see him doing that.

Sorry for the long post. Go SU! And oh by the way, yes my son's dream school to play for would be our Orangemen.

best of luck this season, CiC

 

[HtownOrange]

Thanks for sharing. Best of luck to him and may you have good advice for him through the process.

 

[OttoinGrotto]

Cool post. Although as his dad might not be a bad idea to put it in his head that going to a smaller school on scholarship > going to a bigger school and paying tuition and getting student loans.

 

[KaiserUEO]

good luck!

i agree with the thought of going to a big school for the experience over playing at a small school.

and yeah, if i went to a college smaller than my HS i wouldve gone nuts.

im going in reverse here......

 

[CuseTroop]

Good luck, keep us posted!

 

[shantydaze]

I had one offer from a NAIA school in Iowa to join the football team and turned it down to go to P5 school. I knew I was going to continue going to school for an advanced degree and felt a larger school would better prepare me. I have never regretted my decision, especially after talking to the five or six friends that did play college ball at Division III and NAIA schools. Each of them complained that the camaraderie and teamwork was largely missing. Even though the likelihood of any of their college teammates playing beyond college was very remote, many guys on the team were selfish and cared less about making the team better than making themselves look better. It was a huge disappointment and took a lot of the enjoyment out of the sport for them. The only guy I knew who had fun played at a D-II school.

 

[Lou_C]

Best of luck, sounds like it will definitely work out for him no matter what, and it will be a flattering experience for him if he does draw some interest.

I think any other sport, the opportunity to get a full ride would be worth going to a smaller school. Hoping my daughter can get a running scholarship like that.

But football, not so sure, just for the physical toll it takes. Maybe something like wrestling as well, I'm don't know enough about it. I wouldn't blame him at all for passing on continuing football if it's going to be anything less than a magical experience (if D3 football doesn't sound magical to him).

 

[Crusty]

Just enjoy the journey.

 

[javadoc]

Thanks for posting - great read, and best of luck to you and yours.

And that post isn't long - it barely qualifies for "clearing the throat" in my book.

 

[retro44]

Make sure you ask every school on what their policy is for when a player does get injured...like does he still keep his scholarship or do they recommend that he moves on and so forth.

I had a very good friend who played major d-1 football in the eighties who blew out his knee and they took away his scholarship. Then his son was being recruited a few years ago and he quickly eliminated schools right off the top.