Monthly Archives: February 2011

The Destruction of the High School Student Athlete

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For a great deal of high school student athletes in this country, sports means everything to them.  Athletics is a means of freedom for many young people and without it; there may not be hope for the future and some of them will struggle throughout their lives.

In my lifetime, I have come across many high school and college athletes who did not get the maximum potential out of their athletic careers.  Without achieving a certain level of greatness, many of these athletes experience a lifetime of disappointment and frustration.

Throughout the history of sports, many athletic careers have been destroyed, not by what you may think is the obvious reason, a career ending injury or a crime that sent them to jail or prison. No, and athletic career can be destroyed by a jealous or despicable high school coach who feel that it’s necessary to sabotage the student athlete’s dream of athletic success.

It does happen all the time; the athletic success derailed by a high school coach, school administrator or some unknown individual out for revenge or just plain jealousy.

There are millions of stories of high school student athletes who were extremely talented, but who received absolutely no help or guidance from their high school coach.  Those student athletes’ careers ended at the high school level all because of a mean and evil high school coach.

This kind of thing also happens in college, where you’ll have some jackass college coach who will do whatever it takes to ruin that athlete’s career.

I’ve seen it happen; a college coach will sit a player on the bench never to play that player.  I’ve seen it with my own eyes while in college, where players are frustrated with the system or the coach and they just quit.  Being a student athlete in college and you quit playing your sport that you’ve worked your entire life to be apart of is extremely devastating to that athlete.

The fact that you were forced to quit is sometimes a life changing decision because as athletes, we are trained to never quit-to never give up.  Athletes are conditioned to give everything they’ve got to their sport no matter what.

For an athlete to make the decision to quit in college is a horrible decision to make and no athlete should ever be placed in that situation, but it does happen and surprisingly it does not matter how big or small the college or university.

Sometimes there really is no life after sports for most of these young athletes. The reason I say that is because so many athletes put everything they’ve got into being the best they can be athletically.  When you work to develop your athletic skills from a very early age all away through high school and into college sports, it’s very hard to quit.

The devastating part about athletics is how ugly it could be.  For all the joy athletics can bring there is often a side that we don’t hear about; how careers end, how players end up lost without athletics in their lives.

I’ve known many athletes who were very talented, who were the absolute best at basketball, a star in football and baseball but they seemed to be fish out of water when they could no longer play their sport.  I believe the reason is because of the passion athletes have developed over a long period time towards their sport.

After a period of athletic development, the passion for sports turns into love and sometimes love is hard to give up.

The destruction of the high school student athlete starts in high school, that’s when everything counts towards college.  When you enter your freshman year of high school your academics count towards college and everything you do is recorded on your transcript which is a permanent record.

If you do poorly academically or are persuaded to take classes that are not going to help you get into college then this could have a harmful affect on student athletes’ academic futures.

A sport, to an athlete, is like oxygen to the rest of the world; without it you will not live very long.  I think sports have that kind of affect on athletes. Sometimes if you’re doing well athletically, it’s like you have more oxygen, you feel unstoppable without it, you go through life in slow motion always searching for that burst of oxygen.

Final thoughts: When athletes train themselves for a long period of time to become athletes, it’s almost hard to think about doing anything else in their life.  Hearing the cheering of a large crowd at a basketball game is an incredible sound and feeling.  You know they’re cheering for you because of a great play you made or something outstanding you did.  Nowhere else in life are you going to run across that experience! Only athletics can do that for you.

I think that’s why you see so many former athletes who are coaches or who are involved in some type sport; it is just so they can stay close to the game.

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My Second Question of The Day:

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My second question of the day: Should high school sporting events be televised locally and nationally?

There are a lot of high school football and basketball games on ESPN these days and I do from time to time find it entertaining.  What are your thoughts?

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4 College Recruiting Tips to Think About

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The college recruiting process is not an exact science. Basically, the process works differently for each and every high school student athlete and their parents.  Every student athlete is different; from their size to their weight, athletic ability and academic standing.  With all of those factors, it’s clear that the process to get recruited for college will be challenging for student athletes and the parents who are assisting them.

Strategies are critical in making the recruiting process work for you. Coming up with a plan of action and sticking to that plan to completion sometimes is hard.  A lot of times when I write about ideas and recruiting tips for student athletes, I will also include parents because I believe it is a working partnership between parents and student athletes during the college recruiting process.

I thought I would come up with some ideas that could help jump-start the process for the parents. Some of these suggestions are not brand new but there always has to be a starting point in the college recruiting process.

1. Networking with college coaches: From the very beginning of the college recruiting process I believe this is most critical.  There has to be a starting point in the college recruiting process so why not come up with a strong list of college programs.  With your strong list of college coaches, a student athlete should also write a handwritten letter to each and every coach on their recruiting list of interest.  Most of the time, you will get a return letter of some sort from a college program; some may write you back and then some may not.  I believe writing a letter can be very effective because it is the personal touch from a student athlete to a college coach.  If a college program is interested in you and they write you back a handwritten letter, this is a strong starting point to begin the college recruiting process.

2.  Facebook can be an excellent place to network with college coaches: Many college programs have Facebook pages now, and that makes it easier to connect with college coaches. You can share information much faster then before. Millions of high school athletes are on Facebook and student athletes understand how the social networks works.  So it’s a no brainer for student athletes to easily network with college programs there.

3. Email still has value as a way to network with college coaches: Email, if used correctly, can be a very effective tool in passing information back and forth between student athletes, college programs and parents.  Be very careful how you use email because if you start out emailing college coaches, it may become extremely challenging to get through.  Many student athletes, high school coaches and parents are emailing college programs every day and if they don’t know who you are chances are your email may get lost in the sauce of all the other junk that comes in every day. Be smart when using email!

4.  Build a huge list of college programs: Many high school student athletes and parents sometimes are only interested in college programs that they have heard of and are in their home state.  I think you should expand the list of college programs to include all of the college programs in the surrounding states.  For example, if you live in Ohio then you want to look at college programs that are in Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Michigan, Kentucky and maybe Indiana.  This would give you a large selection of college programs to network with.

The reason for creating a large list of college programs is because every coach has different recruiting needs.  Every situation when it comes to recruiting is different; some college programs may respond to you quickly in terms of showing an interest in you and other college programs may be a little slow to respond.  By expanding your list of college programs, this will give you a larger pool of opportunities to pick from. If you have a small list of college programs could be leaving money on the table.

Final thoughts: I’ve said this a million times: the college recruiting process is like a jigsaw puzzle with a million pieces. It will take you a long time to put that puzzle together.  The college recruiting process is not easy and most of the time it does not make any sense. It’s important to remember to come up with strategies that can help you make the process of going from high school athlete to college athlete smoother.

If you are a blue-chip high school student athlete then the strategies will be of no use to you but most of the student athletes who are looking to play in college are not blue-chip superstar ball players so they will need as many strategies as possible to get recruited for college.

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Antonio Cromartie’s Eight Baby-Mamas

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The NFL football player, Antonio Cromartie, has eight children with six different women.  How can a man be a real father to that many children from that many different women?  How much money in child support is this stupid man paying every month to support these eight children?

Any woman who would look in the direction of Antonio Cromartie is asking to be the next baby mama.  The San Diego Chargers got rid of this guy because of all the drama he was creating by having all of these children with all of these different women.  They sent him packing to the New York Jets. He may be a good football player and I hope he has a long career because child support is not cheap.

Antonio Cromartie is not the only professional athlete who has a lot of baby mamas. Many big money professional athletes have a lot of children with many different women and they act like it’s no big deal.

Professional athletes and, more importantly, African American athletes, seem to be the ones who are pumping out these children from many different women while on road trips all over the country.

I often wonder how so many African American professional athletes end up with no money and in jail when their careers are over.  It seems to me that someone somewhere should be talking to these ball players about their responsibility to be men and a being a father to all these children.

There is no way that Antonio Cromartie and many other idiots like him can be good fathers to these children that they have had by multiple women.

The thing about professional athletes is they feel invincible because of their superior athletic skills, their power and their strength along with the multimillion dollar contracts but that doesn’t give them the right to mess up somebody’s life by getting them pregnant, kicking them to the curb and not owning up to their responsibilities.

These professional athletes who have the spotlight on them all the time because of their outstanding athletic ability, are now having the spotlight on them shine even brighter because they have become baby-making machines.

The women who get mixed up with these men have eyes but they cannot see what they’re getting involved with.

Many of these women get caught up because it’s a professional athlete and they have a lot of money.  I think some of these women are at fault because they do go after these athletes like a shark in the water who can smell the blood. In these cases, the women smell the money.

We all know that professional athletes are targets for these unscrupulous women; that’s a known fact. Women have tracked these men into having babies so they can collect large child support payments every month.  Some of these child support payments can be as much as $50 – $60,000 per month.  Maybe it pays to be a baby mama.

If the women know that this athlete has babies by other women, why would they even get involved with these worthless men in the first place?

The bottom line is that’s a lot of children for one man to support. The impact on all of these children will more than likely be felt for years to come and that’s really sad.

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My Second Question of The Day:

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My Second Question of The Day: Should college scholarships be guaranteed for 4 years?

Currently, the way it stands now is a college scholarship is only guaranteed for one year and renewable at the coach’s discretion for the following season.  Your thoughts.

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My Dinner with Three Living Athletes

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If you could have dinner with three living athletes, who are they and why would you have dinner with them? They can be college or pro athletes and it does not matter what sport, male or female. Maybe there are three athletes that most grew up idolizing and are now given an opportunity for dinner or just one night and I’m wondering what would you all talk about with the athletes you choose. I’ve been pondering this subject for a long time because there are so many great athletes and sports to choose from. Personally, there are little stories behind each of the athletes I’d choose:

Willie Mays: Growing up, the very first baseball game I ever went to see was with Willie Mays. I was about 8 years old at the time. My father, mother, brother and myself all went to the game played in San Francisco which was where we lived at that time. All I can remember about the game was that it was cold, it was in June and it was the first game of a double-header. We stayed for some of the second game but then we left.  We saw Willie Mays play.  At eight years old, this was my first real introduction to professional sports of any kind.  Back in those days, baseball was still America’s past time and free of any illegal drug use and corruption by the players and the owners. At the time we saw Willie Mays play, it was near the end of his great Hall of Fame career.  Six years later, Willie Mays was playing for the New York Mets in the World Series and it wasn’t the same Willie Mays; during that time it was clearly past his prime.

Hank Aaron is next on my list. Back when I was in college, Hank Aaron came to West Virginia State College during my junior year to give a speech so naturally, most of my teammates wanted to hear the speech. I really don’t remember too much about what he said. I do remember that we were all told to not ask him for an autograph. So Hank Aaron did his speech and they showed that homerun he hit and all that; anyone who knows baseball has seen that homerun a thousand times. No big deal right? The speech was no big deal and Hank Aaron seemed a little nervous anyway. He was reading it from a piece of paper.

When the speech was over, Hank Aaron was just standing there and I must have been 12 to 15 feet away from him. I was looking right at one of the greatest baseball players of all time and there was no way in hell I was not going to get an autograph even though they told us to more or less stay away from him. I mean, what were they going to do to me? I was a junior and the basketball season had just ended so they couldn’t kick me off the team or make me run after practice or any of that and I didn’t care if they did any way. I was going to get an autograph from Hank Aaron!

So, there I was with about 3 or 4 of my teammates standing around talking, “What should we do?”, one of them said to me. I said. “ I don’t know about you but I’m going over there!” And so I did. I began walking towards Hank Aaron and the other guys followed close behind me like we were in some kind of trouble. I was thinking for a minute that some armed guards would come out of nowhere and shoot us down or something!

I mean, that was Hank Aaron I was walking towards! So I get there, my teammates right behind me and then Hank Aaron, the greatest baseball player of all time, says to us, “ Hey fellows! What’s up?!” and we all smiled with joy and relaxed and knew that it was all good! We were not going to get into any type of trouble! Hank Aaron signed my program that I had in my hand, which I still have to this day in a frame in my office. Six or seven years later I was living in Cleveland, Ohio and Hank Aaron’s book had just come out. “If I Had A Hammer” and he was having a book signing in downtown Cleveland, OH. By the time I arrived downtown for the book signing the line was literally around the block so I said forget it. All I can say is I had Hank Aaron’s autograph from years ago and that is good enough for me!

Muhammad Ali: We all know he’s the greatest boxer of all time but why I would want to sit down and have dinner with him is because of his incredible life. I want to know what it was really like in boxing during his career. My story goes back to the 1980’s and I was with my uncle. We were traveling from Chicago to St. Louis on business. My uncle was in the radio business at the time and was an up and coming on-air radio personality.

That evening, we were at the home of another radio friend of my uncle’s.

I was about 19 years old and still a kid so they were off doing whatever .My uncle’s friend had films of all of Muhammad Ali’s fights. Back in those days, there weren’t DVD’s and videotapes and the cassettes were still a few years away from being really out. So, there I was with all of Ali’s fights on film. It was amazing to see this stuff! The films were very clear and most were in color. For hours and hours I watched all of these fights. I must have been up all night watching. It was unbelievable to me because at that time, they never showed his fights T.V. like they do now.

There were some of Muhammad Ali’s fights shown on T.V., but it was more like the live fights and not a re-broadcast or anything. Now there’s Pay Per View and HBO if you want to see boxing on T.V.

Those are the 3 great living legends that I would want to sit down and have dinner with and a good conversation. It would be great to hear their stories of the ups and downs that they had to deal with. There are many other great athletes I could have it listed here but I could only pick 3.

Now, I want to know who are the 3 living legends that you would like to sit down with and have dinner?

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Cole Krizancic High School Basketball Player

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Cleveland.com

Is this high school basketball player the real deal out there on the basketball court or is he just another player looking to fit in?

Do you think Cole Krizancic is a major college recruit? Do you think this young man has the skills, the talent and the ability to compete at the major college level?

What are your thoughts on Cole Krizancic? Has he proven to be a legitimate college recruit or is he all hype and no action?

Is Cole Krizancic being recruited by the right college programs or is he slipping through the cracks of the college recruiting process?

There are many extremely talented high school basketball players out there, is Cole Krizancic one of them?

In terms of skill and talent level, do you think Cole Krizancic is one of the best players in his state?

There is much information all over the Internet about talented high school basketball players.

Do you think Cole Krizancic is receiving his fair share of high school basketball recruiting coverage or do you think more can be done in terms of his getting the right exposure on the Internet and exposure to college programs on his behalf?

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