My biggest reason to get into recruiting is for my love and passion I have for not only the game, but also the players.  I grew up in small town in Oklahoma where if you weren’t the star quarterback or star point guard the odds were that you weren’t going to play college ball.  It’s the sad truth.  For myself, coming out of high school I wasn’t recruited and neither were most of my friends who were college worthy. We all had to make our own way through the process of playing at the next level. The thing that I want to accomplish with recruiting is giving athletes, who are good enough to play at the next level, that chance to be recognized.

I want to put the kids who bust their butts day and night into college perusing the sport that they love. It’s not a job for me, it’s a passion. One of my favorite quotes in life,” You miss 100% of the shots that you never take.” I believe that this quote can be applied anywhere in life.

Some athletes think of themselves as someone who may not be the prototypical athlete and you may not think you have a shot at the next level. I’m here to help you get that shot that you never thought was possible so how about you and I shoot these shots together! I’m Cason Troutman, I’ve played basketball my entire life. The goal was to play in college, but a knee injury sidelined me. I joined the military where I did six years in field artillery.

In that time, I’ve refereed and coached basketball. I’ve also played two seasons of semi-pro football as quarterback in Oklahoma.  I’m very competitive and will do everything in my power to get you to the next level.

Keith Merriman was born to be involved in sports. Born in Harlem, (NYC), he was raised in the Brownsville section of Brooklyn, NY. He started playing football with youth league teams at 12. He played with the older groups because he was too “big” for his age group.

He went on to star at DT/DE at Brooklyn Technical High School in NYC, then earned a full scholarship to Syracuse University where he earned 2 letters. Keith went on to become a graduate assistant football coach at Syracuse for two years. He worked on a staff that included Jerry Angelo (former Chicago Bears GM), Nick Saban (Alabama), Tom Coughlin, (Giants and Jacksonville Jaguars), and Bob Sutton (Kansas City Chiefs).

He moved on to coach the defensive line at Morgan State University for 6 years. In 1987, Keith became the Head Football Coach at Thomas Jefferson High School in Brooklyn NY, where he served until he was injured in an accident in 2010. He has recovered from his injuries and has his eyes set on doing what he can do to help get young people in  college.

I’ve always worked in the office environment doing administrative work and working with a variety of different people who helped shape me throughout my career. I’ve worked at well-respected colleges and universities in the city of Cleveland (Ohio).

I knew working in office administration was something that would take me to new heights when I was a student at Jane Addams HS in Cleveland. The name of the school has since changed to Business Careers Center. I signed up for a two year program in Data Processing. Data Processing courses included computer programming, data entry, business math and business typing. I actually did very well with computer programming but chose the data entry as my main course of study.

I studied Office Administration at Cuyahoga Community College-East Campus and started working at temp agencies in the beginning then was hired for a full time office position at a local insurance agency and loved it. From then on I gained so much experience and training in the field throughout the years.

My last job was at Cuyahoga Community College-East working in the Office of the President with a group of co-workers who were outstanding people and who I miss. I am semi-retired as of March 2013 but work part-time at a permanent supportive housing building as Front Desk Associate. EDEN is the name and they provide housing for the homeless and help them to get back on their feet and continue on with their lives.

I started working with Al Woods off and on throughout the years. At first I would just help with little tasks because I was working full-time when Woods Recruiting first started and I believe Al was working part-time also. I didn’t start full-time work at WR until my last job in 2013 and have been going strong since then.