Several days later, out of the clear blue, the young athlete was called by a private college on the east coast—not an Ivy League school—and told the young man they had heard about him and wanted to know if he would send some highlight video of himself playing.
Bully.
The young man decided upon a regional school, went there, and graduated. He is now pursuing his future career in medicine.
What does all of this mean? Well, it means that each state usually or generally grabs up kids in their own respective backyard before looking elsewhere. Athletes who are labeled phenomenal or extraordinary—the Blue Chip variety—are snatched up by the Big Boys (the Ohio States, Michigans, Texas, Floridas, and Georgias). If your son or daughter hasn’t heard from any of those prior to their junior years in high school, don’t count on it happening thereafter.
If it’s from one of the elite east or west coast schools, just remember what F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote in The Great Gatsby: “The rich,” Fitzgerald said, “are different from you and me.” The rich, I might add, want to keep it that way.
By Wayne Dominowski
