HuskerFan86
02-10-2003, 12:50 PM
Fast-breaking toward youth
BY JENA JANOVY
WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITER
Josh Dotzler was an eighth-grader when the college recruiting letters started arriving.
They weren't high-pressure recruiting pitches or scholarship offers. Just letters from coaches who wanted to introduce themselves, say a few nice things about their basketball programs and let Dotzler know they'd been watching him.
Funny. He hadn't even suited up for a high school game.
Abby Henry is getting the letters now. She's a 14-year-old eighth-grader at Riverside Middle School in Oakland, Iowa. The letters are from coaches who just want to introduce themselves, say a few nice things about their programs and let Abby know they're watching her.
Again, not a minute on the high school hardwood.
Welcome to the new world order of college recruiting.
This rite of passage once was reserved for the most elite high school athletes, a time for the top juniors and seniors to bask in the attention of college recruiters. Now, coaches are beginning to identify talent at a younger age, sometimes as early as the seventh grade.
Athletes are beginning to make college choices earlier, too, as Dotzler did. The sophomore point guard for Top 10 No. 6 Bellevue West became the youngest player to accept a scholarship offer to Creighton University when he gave his oral commitment on Jan. 27 to Bluejay Coach Dana Altman.
It's not that high school juniors and seniors are being passed by for the sake of youth. Indeed, juniors and seniors remain the primary focus of recruiters. And it's not as if seventh-graders are receiving scholarship offers.
But across the country, particularly the highly competitive athlete markets on the East and West Coasts, some coaches are racing to see who can make a connection with the next generation. The next Kirk Hinrich or Diana Taurasi.
The trend is not universally welcomed by coaches, parents and athletes. Some fear the attention creates too much pressure on young athletes and can produce unreasonable expectations and eventual disappointment.
Others, however, say the prospect of earning a college scholarship is worth it, that such a carrot is great motivation to work hard and improve. Keep it in perspective and an athlete will learn the value of hard work and dedication needed to achieve a goal.
Besides, for more than a decade, colleges and universities have been inviting junior high students interested in science, mathematics, engineering, music and art to attend summer workshops and camps tailored to their interests.
"I think recruiting at a younger age is probably better," said Henry, the 5-foot-6 shooting guard for Riverside. Her goal is to play Division I basketball.
"If I know people might be looking at me at a younger age, it motivates me to keep working harder so when I'm older I might have a chance to go to college on a scholarship," she said. "It's not too young to start thinking about college."
Henry is considered one of the top young players in the area, along with eighth-grader Kelsey Woodard, the younger sister of Creighton freshman and 2002 All-Nebraska captain Kristi Woodard; and eighth-grader Brooke DeLano, a 6-1 post player from Bennington.
Omaha Central guard Crystal Howard, now a junior, began getting recruited as a sophomore, and Millard South freshman Yvonne Turner undoubtedly is on college coaches' radars.
South Sioux City product Katie Robinette, now at Iowa State, attracted even more interest.
In one of the most high-profile battles for a junior-high recruit, some of the nation's elite women's basketball programs are in hot pursuit of a 13-year-old Delaware girl, Elena DelleDonne. The seventh-grader already has received letters of interest from Duke, Penn State, Villanova, Delaware and defending NCAA national champion Connecticut.
On the boys side, Cortney Grixby, now a junior at Omaha Central, had major-college athletic scholarships worth a quarter of a million dollars in hand before he turned 16 a year ago. He'd been offered full rides in two sports - from Nebraska, Colorado and Iowa in football and Nebraska again in basketball. His younger brother, Ronnell Grixby, now a seventh-grader, already is being talked about as a prospective Division I scholarship athlete.
And there are more and more stories of area boys making early college choices. Along with Dotzler, there's Roy Enright, who committed to Nebraska his sophomore year at Omaha Burke, and Adam Haluska, who committed to ISU before entering his sophomore year at Carroll, Iowa.
Creighton Women's Coach Jim Flanery said the trend is "a little overboard."
"It allows the schools with the most resources another advantage because they can get out and watch those kids," he said, "and I think it puts too much pressure on kids at too young of an age."
Nebraska Women's Basketball Coach Connie Yori called the trend a "conundrum."
"You just don't know ethically at what age you are going to say that's too young," Yori said. "Unfortunately, we've gotten to this stage where it is getting really quite early. In some circumstances, there are still good players out there who aren't being recruited until their senior year or the summer before. But the more elite players are getting more attention early.
"So where do you draw the line? Do you start picking out two athletic parents and start recruiting out of the womb? . . . I figure when we get to the state where we're recruiting seventh-graders, then I think I'm in the wrong profession."
NCAA recruiting rules take effect when a student enters ninth grade or plays on a high school team as an eighth-grader. There's nothing to bar contact before that.
For now, Henry puts the letters in her dresser drawer at home.
"They just say what's been going on in the past for their basketball teams and they ask questions about my school and my favorite subject and how tall I am and what position I play," she said. "I filled out the question sheets and sent them back. I like bigger programs, like Duke and Tennessee, but I want to stay closer to home, so I like Creighton and Nebraska. It's exciting to get them."
BY JENA JANOVY
WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITER
Josh Dotzler was an eighth-grader when the college recruiting letters started arriving.
They weren't high-pressure recruiting pitches or scholarship offers. Just letters from coaches who wanted to introduce themselves, say a few nice things about their basketball programs and let Dotzler know they'd been watching him.
Funny. He hadn't even suited up for a high school game.
Abby Henry is getting the letters now. She's a 14-year-old eighth-grader at Riverside Middle School in Oakland, Iowa. The letters are from coaches who just want to introduce themselves, say a few nice things about their programs and let Abby know they're watching her.
Again, not a minute on the high school hardwood.
Welcome to the new world order of college recruiting.
This rite of passage once was reserved for the most elite high school athletes, a time for the top juniors and seniors to bask in the attention of college recruiters. Now, coaches are beginning to identify talent at a younger age, sometimes as early as the seventh grade.
Athletes are beginning to make college choices earlier, too, as Dotzler did. The sophomore point guard for Top 10 No. 6 Bellevue West became the youngest player to accept a scholarship offer to Creighton University when he gave his oral commitment on Jan. 27 to Bluejay Coach Dana Altman.
It's not that high school juniors and seniors are being passed by for the sake of youth. Indeed, juniors and seniors remain the primary focus of recruiters. And it's not as if seventh-graders are receiving scholarship offers.
But across the country, particularly the highly competitive athlete markets on the East and West Coasts, some coaches are racing to see who can make a connection with the next generation. The next Kirk Hinrich or Diana Taurasi.
The trend is not universally welcomed by coaches, parents and athletes. Some fear the attention creates too much pressure on young athletes and can produce unreasonable expectations and eventual disappointment.
Others, however, say the prospect of earning a college scholarship is worth it, that such a carrot is great motivation to work hard and improve. Keep it in perspective and an athlete will learn the value of hard work and dedication needed to achieve a goal.
Besides, for more than a decade, colleges and universities have been inviting junior high students interested in science, mathematics, engineering, music and art to attend summer workshops and camps tailored to their interests.
"I think recruiting at a younger age is probably better," said Henry, the 5-foot-6 shooting guard for Riverside. Her goal is to play Division I basketball.
"If I know people might be looking at me at a younger age, it motivates me to keep working harder so when I'm older I might have a chance to go to college on a scholarship," she said. "It's not too young to start thinking about college."
Henry is considered one of the top young players in the area, along with eighth-grader Kelsey Woodard, the younger sister of Creighton freshman and 2002 All-Nebraska captain Kristi Woodard; and eighth-grader Brooke DeLano, a 6-1 post player from Bennington.
Omaha Central guard Crystal Howard, now a junior, began getting recruited as a sophomore, and Millard South freshman Yvonne Turner undoubtedly is on college coaches' radars.
South Sioux City product Katie Robinette, now at Iowa State, attracted even more interest.
In one of the most high-profile battles for a junior-high recruit, some of the nation's elite women's basketball programs are in hot pursuit of a 13-year-old Delaware girl, Elena DelleDonne. The seventh-grader already has received letters of interest from Duke, Penn State, Villanova, Delaware and defending NCAA national champion Connecticut.
On the boys side, Cortney Grixby, now a junior at Omaha Central, had major-college athletic scholarships worth a quarter of a million dollars in hand before he turned 16 a year ago. He'd been offered full rides in two sports - from Nebraska, Colorado and Iowa in football and Nebraska again in basketball. His younger brother, Ronnell Grixby, now a seventh-grader, already is being talked about as a prospective Division I scholarship athlete.
And there are more and more stories of area boys making early college choices. Along with Dotzler, there's Roy Enright, who committed to Nebraska his sophomore year at Omaha Burke, and Adam Haluska, who committed to ISU before entering his sophomore year at Carroll, Iowa.
Creighton Women's Coach Jim Flanery said the trend is "a little overboard."
"It allows the schools with the most resources another advantage because they can get out and watch those kids," he said, "and I think it puts too much pressure on kids at too young of an age."
Nebraska Women's Basketball Coach Connie Yori called the trend a "conundrum."
"You just don't know ethically at what age you are going to say that's too young," Yori said. "Unfortunately, we've gotten to this stage where it is getting really quite early. In some circumstances, there are still good players out there who aren't being recruited until their senior year or the summer before. But the more elite players are getting more attention early.
"So where do you draw the line? Do you start picking out two athletic parents and start recruiting out of the womb? . . . I figure when we get to the state where we're recruiting seventh-graders, then I think I'm in the wrong profession."
NCAA recruiting rules take effect when a student enters ninth grade or plays on a high school team as an eighth-grader. There's nothing to bar contact before that.
For now, Henry puts the letters in her dresser drawer at home.
"They just say what's been going on in the past for their basketball teams and they ask questions about my school and my favorite subject and how tall I am and what position I play," she said. "I filled out the question sheets and sent them back. I like bigger programs, like Duke and Tennessee, but I want to stay closer to home, so I like Creighton and Nebraska. It's exciting to get them."