The Republican wants parents, coaches and athletic directors to contact the sports department if a high school student-athlete is planning to play sports in college.
Has anyone noticed the push The Republican sports department and masslive.com have been making the last month or so?
Anyone?
Since January, we’ve been encouraging people to contact us regarding high school athletes playing at the next level. Plain and simple, we want to know where local athletes will be playing in college.
Think we don't care? Think again. We’ve been running a graphic every week in The Republican with some of the bigger announcements. And even better, on masslive.com we’ve been posting any sort of information we get regarding high school athletes playing sports at the next level.
Is an athlete interested in a college? We’ll post it.
Is an athlete committed to a college? We’ll post it.
Did an athlete sign with a college? We’ll post it.
We have an ongoing list running on masslive.com. People can to the website’s high school page, click on the recruiting icon on the left, and info on kids and their future athletic college plans pops up. That’s cool. And the way format is set up, people can click just on a specific sport if they would like. It’s easy.
The Republican has also stepped up its coverage of attending official announcements. We can’t get to all of them, and we have to use our discretion, but if we know about an official signing we’ll at least consider sending a reporter, or in the least we can call the athlete afterward to get some sort of reaction.
We’ve gone to a few ceremonies this winter. We were at Central when Sacoy Malone signed to play football at Maine, and we were at Belchertown when Madison Granger inked her name on a National Letter of Intent to run at Duke. We’ll be at Minnechaug Regional next week when Lauren MacLellan signs to play soccer at Boston University.
So parents, coaches and athletic directors, shoot an email to sports@repub.com or give us a call at (413) 788-1210. We want to know where the local student-athletes will be playing in college. Not too many people get to play sports in college, so why not give them a little pat on the back for making it.
BE CAREFUL: On the subject of playing sports in college, a story that surfaced this week should make every high school athlete interested in playing sports in college take notice.
Jontrey Tillman of Louisiana, one of the top defensive backs in the country, thought he was all set to attend and play football next season at Stanford University. He made his official visit to the school prior to the football season, committed to Stanford, and stayed in contact all season with the coaching staff. An assistant coach even made a trip from California to Louisiana to visit with Tillman in mid-January.
In Tillman’s mind, he was good to go to Stanford. He didn’t make any other official visits and he didn’t listen to any other offers. All he had to do was sign his National Letter of Intent with Stanford.
But Tillman overlooked one thing. Last week, one week before the signing period for football, Tillman received a phone call from Stanford saying he wasn’t going to be accepted into the school. The recruiting rug, so to speak, got completely pulled out from under him.
Granted, Tillman will land someplace, and probably someplace very good because of his ability. Still, with his high school days winding down, he has to start his recruiting process all over again.
The lesson of the story? Always have a back-up plan and keep options open. Until a college has officially accepted a high school athlete, that high school athlete isn’t a member of that school, regardless of what a college coach might say and regardless of an athlete’s ability.