I’m sure you’ve thought about it at least once: sitting with a select few of your classmates in front of a backdrop featuring the school logo as you sign a National Letter of Intent while listening to the applause and flashing of cameras. Maybe you’ve gone as far as picturing yourself on the field, standing in an enormous stadium filled with thousands of screaming fans, with their eyes all on you. The hard work and dedication day in and day out on the field and in the gym for all four years of high school have led you to this moment. Now, it’s time to take the next step and progress to the next level: collegiate athletics.
At Jesuit, student-athletes dream of continuing their athletics and education at the next level, which is why they work so hard in the hopes of attracting attention from a college scout. It’s common vernacular for prospective collegiate athletes to talk about how many “offers” (basically letters from colleges offering a scholarship for that student to come play at that particular college) they have received, and sometimes the more talented athletes will have to take time to narrow down their list of multiple offers to select one before National Signing Day. In fact, many colleges often have to compete with each other in order to gain a player’s commitment. Regardless, the college athletics process is a stressful, yet rewarding one for the players. The stress comes from deciding which school has the best to offer, not only athletically, but also academically. The player also wants to play for colleges that have openings in his specific position, where the player could possibly become a starter in his junior or senior year. All these factors are important, but once the decision is made, the player gets to relish in the fact that he is 1) getting the opportunity to play collegiate athletics, an opportunity that many dream of but only a few achieve; and 2) he gets to follow his dream and continue his education FOR FREE. Those two rewards seem to be the most important factors for high school athletes with ambitions of collegiate recruitment.
In Jesuit’s case, the school “has averaged 27 college-bound student-athletes over the last five years” with “a school-record 37 athletes in eight different sports continue[d] athletics at the collegiate level” during the 2012-2013 school year, according to the Jesuit Today Impact Report 2014-2015. As of February 2016, nineteen members of the Class of 2016 have already signed National Letters of Intent to attend several different colleges, with more possibly to come by the end of the year. Jesuit really prides itself on having many successful student-athletes who go on to compete at higher levels. After all, one of the tenets of the Profile of the Graduate at Graduation is “Physically Fit.”
It is interesting to note, however, what happens to the alumni once they go to college on their scholarships. One would simply accept the idea that they would work their way up throughout their college years and eventually become a starter senior year, similar to how high school athletics work, for the most part.
However, that idea couldn’t be further from the truth.
From following multiple alumni who have continued their education and athletics at the collegiate level, I have noticed that there is no set trend or correlation between the grade level of the player and his chance of playing. In other words, some players may start freshman year while others may never get a snap at all. It all comes down to the college’s team and the number of injuries or the depth at a certain position. Take Bo Schneider ’15, for example. Schneider came off a sensational season his senior year and signed with the UCF Knights, and right away he was the starting quarterback for the Knights in the opening games of the season, making everyone back at Dallas Jesuit very proud to see his success. Bo got the chance to start due to a number of injuries at the quarterback position and due to his excellence at the position, making him the best candidate to play the position in the eyes of the coaches. When the starting quarterback came back from injury, however, Schneider was relegated to his backup position but is still working hard in hopes of one day leading his team on the field again. On the other hand, Jake Oliver ’13 (yes the Jake Oliver who broke the Texas high school football receptions record) is currently a junior at the University of Texas at Austin, and has only gotten playing time as part of the special teams unit on a few occasions (although to his credit he did recover a fumble for his team). My point in these two examples is to show that college teams will do whatever it takes and use whatever players are at their disposal in order to win games. UCF needed Schneider at the QB position, so he got the starting job while a big school with a big recruitment program like UT simply had a larger number of wide receivers, and the coaches thought that other receivers besides Jake would help the team win games.
Furthermore, the downside to college athletics as a whole is definitely the moment when the player realizes that he simply cannot compete at the collegiate level anymore, and has to give up his dream. This is a very depressing moment for the player, and it is hard for him to finally hang up the cleats and be done with it. For example, two very talented and bright Jesuit alumni from the Class of 2013, Jordan Mastrogiavanni and J.J. Gustafson, had both signed NLI’s to continue their football careers at Texas A&M. They both enjoyed pretty successful careers as freshmen (Mastrogiavanni even started as a true freshman at linebacker for the Aggies, to the delight of all his Jesuit Dallas fans), but after that first magical season, Mastro had to call it quits, but he is still currently continuing his education at A&M. Gustafson also got some snaps as a sophomore and junior but has also recently hung up the cleats. However, both athletes were incredibly grateful for the experiences they had as part of a college football team.
This is not to say that all athletes who graduated from Jesuit quit their sport a few years into college. For instance, Kellen McAlone ’14 is doing very well as a receiver at The University of Pittsburgh, and Steven Spieth ’13 is also currently playing basketball for Brown University. Marty Murad ’12 got his first snaps last season on the University of Arkansas football team. Jesuit has had many successful athletes play all throughout college and some even in the pro’s (Jordan Spieth ’11 anybody??) and as a community, we are very proud of the efforts those young men take to represent their alma mater at the collegiate level.
Overall, college athletics will continue to be a dream for many but reality for a few. I would invite those prospective collegiate athletes to reflect on why they want to pursue a higher level of competition, and most importantly if they really want to actually play at the next level, spend a great deal of time reviewing prospective schools and their athletic programs to make sure it would be a good fit. College athletics are tantalizing, so don’t jump to conclusions about the glory of being a college athlete without reviewing the possible repercussions.
