One of the most popular stories on Your Kid's Not Going Pro in 2014 was the tale of my son, a soon-to-be-senior in high school, getting recruiting letters from small-college, nonscholarship football programs despite the fact he barely played. National Signing Day has come and gone, so perhaps you're wondering: did my son follow the siren song of the right to be nominally be a college football player, and did I elect to pay for that privilege? Certainly, Augustana College in Illinois would love to know, because the school (independent of the football team) keeps sending him another notice that the hard-and-fast deadline for applying and getting scholarships has just been extended for the umpteenth time.
Before I announce my son's choice, I'd like to share a note I rececently received from someone who had just read a story about my son's experience as a college football "recruit." As I noted previously, small schools are using their football programs (and other sports) as a lure to attract students who otherwise wouldn't consider a school they probably never knew existed. As Augustana put it, instead of watching football, you could play football. I wasn't so sure. But perhaps I shouldn't be quick to dismiss this dance as a means to raise revenue, and instead look at it the way Brian Threlkeld -- friend of Rob Cushman, up until recently Augustana's head football coach -- as the opportunity it may well be:
I read with interest your account from last year, of attending, with your son, Augustana’s one-day program for prospective students interested in playing football. It caught my eye because the head coach, Rob Cushman, is an old friend of mine. (You may well have heard that Rob resigned in December, after last season.) He was a 5th-year senior cornerback at the University of Puget Sound, then an NCAA Division II power, when I was a freshman, going on 37 year ago. (I keep thinking that arithmetic can’t be right, but the numbers work out the same, each time I check . . . .)
Rob is a great guy. He wasn’t the most outstanding athlete, but he was smart, disciplined, and intensely competitive. He’s also funny, a terrific raconteur, and a real showman. He came to Augustana as an assistant about 7 or 8 years ago, when I was living in Urbana [Ill.] (I moved to State College in 2013, as my wife has a job here). I drove to Decatur [Ill.] to catch a couple Augustana games while Rob was an assistant, and when he took over as head coach I caught a good number of their games in Bloomington [Ill.] and Rock Island [Ill.].
It was intriguing to read about your son’s interest in playing college football, even though he hasn’t (or hadn’t yet, at that point) achieved eye-catching stardom as a high school player. When families now have to pay such outlandish sums of money for a child to attend a private college, it’s fair to ask if it’s worth it, for a son to devote so much effort to playing football, if, as you noted, he may be 10th on the depth chart. (Although with 22 starting positions, it’s likely that most players are at •worst• in 5th or 6th position, even with a 120-man roster.)
Of course, it’s likely the lower rungs of that hierarchy are heavily populated with freshmen and sophomores. I suspect that most players who stick it out through their senior year will probably end up, if not starters, then high on the depth chart, likely seeing a fair amount of playing time as a substitute, and on special teams. In such cases, it’s really an individual student’s call, whether that sort of sacrifice and delayed gratification is worth whatever the perceived rewards may be.
In any event, I hope your son is enjoying his last year of high school, and is starting to sort out his college options, into some order that makes sense to him! The concept of the kind of tryout day-camp that Augustana holds, where high school students can run through drills for a college’s coaches, is part of the contemporary landscape that seems really strange to me. But if that sort of thing helps his ultimate decision, and perhaps can point him to a college with a football program that’s a good match for him, then that’s all to the good.
I’ve been trying to think if my experiences might be illuminating for you guys, in some respect — but I keep being struck by how different the landscape is today! When I matriculated at the U. of Puget Sound, for instances, college costs were maybe a tenth of what they are today. And the means by which high school players at all levels of accomplishment “market” themselves to colleges were positively primitive.
I had not been a starter on my high school team, but my coaches encouraged me to look seriously into playing college football. They knew I was a late developer with respect to strength and coördination, and that I had good tools to work with — a big frame, good speed and agility, a strong work ethic, and healthy aggressiveness on the field. One important thing my head coach told me was that small-college football is the level at which the game is, for the players, the most fun (and I think he was probably right).
Fall of my senior year, I went to an open house at UPS, attending classes, going on a campus tour, and that sort of thing. The football coaches held a presentation for applicants who were interested in playing; they showed some game films, talked about the program, took questions — and that was it. The next spring, I visited campus again, and stopped by the fieldhouse to chat a bit more with the coaches. They basically knew diddly-squat about me, other than that I was tall, and (I suppose) •looked• like I might be athletic; they couldn’t make any promises, but assured me that if I enrolled, I was welcome to walk on.
For me, it worked out well, and I wouldn’t have traded it for anything. I started three years (I was an offensive tackle); we had terrific teams, making the D-II playoffs one year (and being in contention the other years); I made friends for life; and I earned Academic All-America recognition as a senior. My experiences turned out better than I could have dreamed. But, ultimately, I think the decision about whether to play in college is irreducibly an individual one, for a student who is serious about getting a good education in college. I hope that, when it comes down to it later this year, you all will feel you’re in a good position to be confident about whatever your son’s decision is.
Best wishes,
Brian
I'd like to thank Brian Threlkeld for allowing me to post his letter. It's definitely worth thinking about, if your child is passionate about a sport, that maybe riding the bench on the lower rungs of college might be something they would enjoy. At least they're still part of a team. And you never know where just showing up might lead you -- as Augustana makes clear in its facilities, its best-known player, former NFL quarterback Ken Anderson, had to write a letter to the coach asking if could play there, and the coach said he could -- as a defensive back.
Alas, my son has elected not to take advantage of that opportunity, even though he has some interest in becoming a coach as well as a high school history teacher. He kids that with Rob Cushman out at Augustana he's no longer interested. Seriously, though, the college activity that is a must for him is Army ROTC (he's an officer in his high school Junior ROTC), and Augustana, like a lot of small schools, doesn't have that program. Instead, my son has decided to go where he started, and ended, his college search: Ohio University. He won't be playing football, but as an Army ROTC cadet, he could have the chance to fire a cannon after the team scores a touchdown.
This isn't exactly National Signing Day level, but we did make a video where he announced his decision. The only football involved is that he pulled from his little helmet collection to show his selection.
