How many go to the next level?

Here is something I use in my interview packet. I have no idea what year it is from :

Balancing Academics and Athletics: What Is Truly Important

Extra-curricular athletics must always be viewed as a supportive activity to the primary mission of any educational institution. The primary mission of any educational institution must be academic and personal development of its students. In public education, the integrity of the academic mission can never be compromised. The future of our students and our society as a whole demands that the molding of the intellectual capacity of all students and is central to personal student success. The role of extra-curricular athletics involves providing opportunities for extended character development through structured athletic competition.

This philosophy is supported by a study conducted by the University of Washington. This study projected the likelihood of a high school varsity athlete receiving an athletic scholarship to a higher educational institution and later moving on to the professional ranks. This study illustrated the following statistics.

1. 59% of all high school varsity football and basketball players have the belief that they will receive a college scholarship upon graduation.

2. In actuality, 98.6 out of 100 varsity high school athletes involved in all sports will never play in the college ranks.

3. Also, only 1 out of 12,000 college student athletes will ever have the opportunity to become a professional athlete in any sport.

4. For the sport of football only 1 in every 5,200 college players will have the opportunity to become a professional in their sport.

5. At present, 67% of all players in the National Football League (NFL) do not possess a college degree.

6. Currently the average playing career in the NFL last only 3.5 years.

The message from these results are clear. The academic mission is of greatest importance to all students regardless of their god given athletic talents and playing field accomplishments. Additionally, of all “Top 10” ranked academic students at the high school level, 98% of both boys and girls are involved in 2 or more extra-curricular school activities, annually this points to the importance of extra-curricular activities being in support of positive academic success.

Just a reflection of the attitudes mentioned in this article.

www.aspeneducation.com/article-entitlement.html

Hell, I had a senior backup OL at a Div 1AA school who just "knew" he was going to the "league". "Coach, I don't need a good grade in Speech class..when I make it to the league I will get training and all that stuff". I replied "Billy, you are a back up offensive lineman as a Sr. at _____(Div 1AA school) university. Unless you are joining the League of extraordinary idiots...I have no Idea what you are talking about"

Coacha i agree with you. seems kids are focused on the next level a lil too much rather than enjoying the time and opportunity they got now.

and great stuff kylem.

and im kinda goin on an aside here but i believe all kids need to learn the story of Marcus Dupree. That ESPN 30 for 30 on him was amazing.

I use this information on a slide of a powerpoint at our annual player/parent meeting. The slide is a message to both the players and parents that high school football is more than likely going to be the highest level of football that the kids will play. This is one more reason I give them for putting everything they have into their high school football experience because it will be the last time they will play this great game. They could potentially have the chance to play basketball, baseball, wrestle, golf, run, swim, bike, hunt, fish, etc. during their adult life. There are leagues, open tournaments, etc. for those activities. That is not necessarily the case for football. This is it.

Coaches,

I've just been fortunate to have been hired for my first HC job and I'm going to use much of this information when I hold my introductory meeting with the parents next week. There were three levels of interviews for the job -- AD/Faculty committee, 1-on-1 with Principal and 1-on-1 with Superintendent. At each interview I was asked, "How will you assist players in the college recruiting process and in acquiring scholarships to play in college?" I had to stifle my disbelief that this was on the short list of administrative concerns. It's the concern of unrealistic parents, of course, and unfortunately our administration has given them an open line to complain about what they believe was a shortcoming on the part of our last coach to draw attention from colleges. I'm sure I wasn't hired because I promised I'd have Nick Saban sitting in every living room within a year. In fact, I pretty much fumbled that question in every interview because I didn't know how to say that the vast majority of our kids will never play in college and that we need to be developing them as best as we can for their life beyond football. So, long story short, thanks so much for giving me data I can use when I meet with the parents to show them that, although we'll do our best to get their kids to the next level, there is a reality we must remember that says few will ever move up.

Thanks again for the great thread...

Very True.

You're right Coach. With those helicopter dads that are out there this information is a "double-edged sword," catch 22...basically a no-win situation. Those dads believe their kid is the chosen one and nothing or nobody, including their high school coach, is going to change their mind about it or screw it up for their kid. What can we do about this? Absolutely nothing but count the days until their senior year rolls around and whatever was meant to happen does.

Obviously the blame is coming our way as head coaches if those kids come up short of their dad's goal. We can't change that perception. But for those parents that can be influenced by the reality check this data presents, I believe we have a responsibility as head coaches of our programs to educate players and parents about football prospects after high school.

Nothing we do will ever be supported 100% but as long as we have a majority who understands why we're doing it then I believe we've performed our responsibilities and communicated effectively.