The Things No One Tells You What College Athletics Can Do For You Professionally!!!

I am super pumped to see all the local kids committing to play college athletics on the early signing day. Congrats, and best of luck. For all those people out there that say "there are no college superstars out here or no one's going to play here or there" you did it!!!

Your journey is just getting started; as a former college athlete, I wanted to share my experience with you and how I look at things today!

What people don't get is that athletics is an amazing motivator for life. Not everyone is blessed with being in love with academics. For me, I needed athletics because I really wasn't motivated to go to college or study. Athletics gave me a purpose and the reason I stayed eligible and graduated.

If you had asked when I was in middle school, there's not one person who would have said that kid is going to play college basketball.In fact, the majority would have said there's no way he's going make the high school basketball team. 

As an undersized former D2 college basketball player and coach from when I was 13 years old, and even sooner I fell in love with March Madness, my goal was to make a cameo in the Tourney. 

There's nothing wrong with dreaming about playing college athletics or extracurriculars such as band, theater, dance, or cheering. 

 Just make sure that your actions equal your aspirations. Here's some advice for kids who want to take it to the next level. 

 Every day from the 7th grade on, everything I action I took was to get me 1-step closer to my goal. My grades stunk in high school. I had to go to JUCO and then transferred to arguably one of the top small basketball programs in the country Walsh University.

I had to go there as a walk-on. There were 5 point guards ahead of me, all recruited, 2 returning seniors, and 1 All-American. By the time we broke camp, I was the All-American's backup. I sat on the bench a lot that year. However, I increased my playing time over the following year, became a full-time starter, captain my senior year, and earned a little scholarship money. I went on to coach college basketball for 3-years. This is important, which a lot of people don't get. What I got from athletics serves me every day when I wake up, and I'm grateful for that...I needed to be more mature academically to get good grades and have the motivation to study. Still, I was mature enough to realize I needed to be part of something bigger, a team, and a passion for sports to get to and get through college. Most of you didn't need it...

I'd encourage you to share this with anyone thinking about college athletics in their mind.

Dream Big

OSU Football, Duke Basketball, Vandy Baseball, Uconn Women's- dream big. Most of you don't remember Bobby Hurley, All-America PG at Duke, with four straight trips to the Final Four. That's where I had my sites set on going. I ended up at D2 school. If I set my sites at the lowest level (quite possibly,), I would have only played intramurals.

 Actions and Execution 

You need to take one step closer to your goal every day. Working on your game, watching videos, connecting with coaches, eating right, working out, and even academics. At the same time, you need to be more concerned about putting the time in vs. clicks on videos, phones, or video games. This started for me around 12 or 13, and I lived it every day! You don't have to tell anyone about your dreams or aspirations, but you got to envision yourself and manifest your destiny.

People Will Tell You Daily...

"There's no one from here going to play (insert the sport and level D1)", going pro, etc. #1 use that as motivation. I heard this every day. My neighbor would say, "you are too small to play basketball. Focus on baseball" I wanted to prove him and everyone else wrong. #2 Some will believe what the naysayers are saying, and they win, and their dreams will evaporate. Statistically, the odds are not in your favor 1 - 5% of all high school athletes (possibly high as 7% in some sports) will go on to play college athletics, and even fewer will make it all 4 years. However, without dreams, we will not have any future college athletes, professional athletes, Olympians, doctors, lawyers, electricians, millionaires, etc. You get the point, don't let anyone crap on your dreams. Again I cannot stress this enough use this as motivation.

Humble Yourself

Yup, you were the man/woman on your HS team. You were the best, and no matter what division you go to, so was every kid there…If there's an opportunity to work out for college coaches and you weren't invited, YOU GO ANYWAY. Don't wait for invitations. Don't look down on the level or the school. Make connections, every coach and program is on social media, and their email is listed. Start young and go to camps. And if you aren't recruited or invited, you are not too good to walk on if you want it that bad!!! 

Don't Shit On Sub-Divisions

There are dogs at every level of college athletics, not just big boy D1 Saturday Afternoon football. Non-Power 5s, D2, D3 & Juco. Be prepared to get humbled very quickly if you are an 18-year-old kid soon to be facing a 22-year-old grown-up with 4 years of on-field experience, college strength training coaches, and just grown man experience and strength. I can still remember my first open gym at Walsh, I made the same move I made in high school that I took to Juco, and someone sent my stuff packing across half-court. I wasn't sure if I'd even ever end up playing the game was big and fast.

Transfer Portal

Now, with the transfer portal, more than ever, many schools are recruiting freshmen less because you can get a battled tested sophomore, junior or COVID-year senior. That's a fact, so just because you end up D2, D3, or Juco doesn't mean your ambitions for D1 are over. In fact, that journey is just starting. After my first year of Juco, I transferred and walked on my 4-year school.

100% Heart

You can tell by the time you are a sophomore and definitely a junior who will be gone by the end of the semester and who will make it in their freshman year. You need to realize that not being satisfied with playing time, position, etc., is a good thing, but getting on the field, especially as a freshman, is a very tough thing to do. Really I've only seen the elite. You've got to take it in stride and use it to continue to work. Be a great teammate, be involved on the bench, and go hard in practice, no matter what your teammates think of you as a practice player. The All-American I played behind made me come at him every day, so he would be better, and in turn, guess why he was an All-American? Because he was willing to do things no one else wanted to do. In turn that made me better!

Win the Mental and Physical Battle

I quit 3x in my dorm room in college but had great teammates that kept me going. Conversely, I had teammates throughout 4-years also just say this is enough. Basketball was an extremely long season. The grind, day-in-day-out. Physically it takes its toll, but almost more mentally, it gets exhausting. I've run a dozen long-distance races in my 30s and 40s. I don't complete those marathons without completing 4-years of college athletics. It taught me a mental toughness that frankly translates to business. Physically my first pre-season camp was the hardest I ever had to work on an athletic field. We were given running shoes for the track. Our practices looked more like track practice than hoops. After a 45-minute running session of sprints and long distances, we'd hit plyometrics for 45-minutes and/or the weight room. It was brutal. By the end, I had tendinitis in my Achilles' tendons. It would take me 30-minutes to get loose. I was lucky to have a 1-serious injury in my playing career, just a broken nose. It's cool that every time I look in the mirror, it's a reminder of my accomplishment.

 Playing Time and Not Making It

People in your hometown will talk a ton of shit that you went to this school or that school, and it's on (insert the level), and s/he's not really getting any playing time. Again use that as motivation to get on the field but also understand no matter what level you are playing at, it's really freaking hard to get playing time in college. And then some people don't last all four years for whatever reason...School, family, injury, or you just lose the passion for it. It's OK. Hold your head high because that's NOT a failure. That's a win in my book. You just went and put yourself out there.

By doing so, you are winning. One day you might look to start a business, and those same people will have the same feelings about you if you make it or you don't. They are going to be critical of you even trying. I feel these moments help you build for the future of not giving two shits about what someone else thinks about your success or failures. I sat on the bench during my Sophomore year. In my Junior year, I got about 12 - 15 minutes a run a night, and by the time I was a Senior, I was playing 20 - 25 minutes a game. Patience wins the day!

Competition

Realize the coaches that were amazing to you in the recruiting process are bringing in kids every year to take your spot. Iron sharpens iron. You are battling to compete in the weight room, pre-season conditioning, open gyms, practices, and games to keep and/or win a job. Every day I woke up, I went into open gyms and practices to physically and mentally destroy my competition and preserve my position on the team. I went for a kid's throat in an open gym because I thought he might take some of my time. Call it what you want, but that kid lost confidence and transferred. That's not the type of kid you want as a backcourt mate when time is running out and you are getting full-court pressed. Remember, I picked a school with 5-recruited scholarship athletes in front of me. Each year they brought in someone at the point guard position. I grinded through each and every one of them. They either flunked out academically, couldn't cut it on the court, or didn't have the patience to wait their turn. And the fact of the matter is this…This translates to life. In your career, you have got to be willing to get up every day and compete!!!! Don't shy away from the competition. 

 Time Management

In college, I chased the 4-Bs. This may offend some of you...But it was Books, Basketball, Beer, and Broads (ladies, I apologize). The good thing about basketball is that it takes up A LOT of time, leaving only a tiny amount of time for some of those other things. Again, life lessons here. You realize that while there are only 24 hours in a day, there's a lot you can pack in if you are NOT spending time scrolling TikTok or binge-watching the latest Netflix special. There just is…

 Fraternity

I am not the Greek Fraternity type but make no doubt about it. Our team was just that...Those that came and stayed and made it through you will share a lifelong bond that's extremely special. 

The End

There's always an end... For over a decade, every day of my life was dedicated to that one thing, and then it's over. And when it's over, I struggled, and I know a lot of athletes that do struggle. The horn sounds the final time, or the ump calls you out for the last time. No one prepares you for that moment. There's a silver lining where you will feel lost, but you will soon find yourself applying these things to your professional life and becoming a productive citizen. 

And employers love athletes, kids in the band, theater, gymnastics, dance, you name it...Why? Because you did something extra than just attending college, you did something that only a tiny percentage of the world participates in!!! Remember that and Goodluck to you. I'm here if you want to play one-on-one or just chat about your experience.