But the four shared many of the same experiences as well, and each had his own advice to pass onto other high school athletes who may someday face their own choices when it comes to a college athletic career.
Catholic High tight end Mitch Joseph and offensive/defensive lineman Josh Dworaczyk both signed national letters of intent and received scholarships to play at LSU. St. Martinville tight end/defensive end Wilson Youman signed with Oklahoma State. New Iberia Senior High running back Vetric Sam signed with Navarro (Texas) College.
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College interest
Recent trends in college recruiting have schools pursuing players at younger ages, attempting to get them to commit to the school as early as their junior seasons. While they cannot sign letters of intent or scholarship papers until February of their senior year in high school, a verbal commitment is a pledge to sign said papers with the understanding that the college will follow through on its commitment to offer an athletic scholarship.
With that in mind, universities use their summer camps as recruiting and evaluating tools. Those camps, whether they are general camps or for specific positions, are often a player’s first exposure to the college atmosphere, and to the coaches who will recruit them.
LSU invited the 6-foot-5, 245-pound Joseph to its junior day the summer before his junior season. After that they offered him a scholarship and last April he pledged to sign with the Tigers, following through this year. Dworaczyk drew the attention of the LSU coaches at a camp for linemen before his senior season, committing that summer and also following through this year.
“Whenever I committed, other people (at other colleges) were telling me, ‘Are you sure you want to go there?’” said Joseph. “I still got a few letters after I committed, but as the weeks went by they didn’t send as many.”
Schools usually send letters out to players they have an interest in, to gauge whether those players are interested in return.
“I got a lot of letters (starting) my sophomore year,” said Sam.
Dworaczyk’s experience was different from that of Sam and Joseph, who both got letters fairly early.
“Mitch was getting letters early on,” said Dworaczyk, a 6-foot-6, 265-pounder. “I wasn’t hearing anything. Then I started hearing from Auburn. All the first letters you get are questionnaires. I was excited. All of a sudden my mailbox was full.”
Those summer camps are critical to players, Dworaczyk added.
“You’ve got to sell yourself,” he said. “Go to camps, junior days. Go to all the camps of schools you’d like to (play for). I went to a Rivals.com junior day in Mississippi that really opened my eyes up. They go over everything you’ll see (while being recruited) and it was pretty much what they said.”
Dworaczyk’s first offer was as a defensive lineman from Northwestern University.
“My biggest thing was, if I hadn’t gone (to the LSU line camp), if you had asked me last year, I would’ve said I’d go to college as a defensive end or defensive tackle,” Dworaczyk said. “But the (LSU) coaches have seen a lot more than me, and they felt I’d be better on the offensive line.”
Youman agreed.
“The main thing is to get into as many camps as possible,” he said. “I only went to two or three. The more camps you go to, the more experience you get. My little brother (Xavier) is about to go through the same thing (going into his senior season). I definitely would’ve gone to more camps, and tried to get in touch with more schools. That’s what we’re going to do with my little brother.”
Recruiting trips
High school football players are allowed, by NCAA rules, one official recruiting trip to schools of interest during their senior season. They may make unofficial visits at any time, but only during official visits are colleges allowed to house and feed the players, take them on campus and facility tours and provide them with seats for games.
Most official recruiting visits follow similar patterns, said Youman, a 6-4, 240-pounder.
“All of them are just about the same,” he said.
That includes pairing up a current player on the team with the recruit as a host. That player is usually either someone who plays the same position, or someone the player may know already.
“Mine was Mark Snyder, a redshirt freshman offensive lineman from West Monroe,” said Dworaczyk. “They look for someone similar to you. Mitch’s was Zhamal Thomas (an offensive lineman for New Iberia Senior High).”
Typically a recruiting trip will begin on a Friday evening and last through about noon Sunday, Joseph said. The first thing schools usually do with the recruits who are visiting on a particular weekend is to feed them, and to show them the campus.
“First you go to the hotel everybody is going to be staying at, and then you go to a room where all the players meet and the coaches greet everybody,” said Joseph. “They show you around campus, all the things that might be important to you, like the academic center. (At LSU) they had a couple of professors in the stadium one time and asked what majors we wanted to have. I think every school probably has a similar process.”
Sam, who did not academically qualify for a Division I scholarship, still went through a similar recruiting process at Navarro.
“You get to meet all the players and coaches first,” he said. “They showed me around.”
Academic requirements
The NCAA has different academic requirements for its various levels of competition, with Division I held to higher standards but allowed to give more out, and to more players, in financial aid.
For a freshman to be eligible this year, he must successfully complete 14 core courses including four years of English, two years of math (Algebra I or higher), two years of natural/physical science (one year lab if offered by their school), one year of additional English, math or natural/physical science, two years of social science and three years of additional courses from any of the above, foreign language, or nondoctrinal religion/philosophy.
Students also must meet core grade-point averages and standardized test scores (SAT or ACT) on a sliding scale to be eligible to play as a freshman. Students with higher GPAs may score lower on the standardized tests, while those who have lower GPAs must score higher on their standardized tests. For instance, a student with a core GPA of 3.550 or above need score only 400 on the SAT (combined verbal and math only) or an ACT total of 37 for the four sections of the test. An athlete with a 2.0 GPA must score a 1010 math/verbal combined SAT or an 86 ACT sum total to qualify.
High schools generally have a faculty or staff member who handles grade requirements and keeps students informed of NCAA requirements, and the NCAA has its NCAA Clearinghouse that also evaluates students’ core courses and lets them know if they are meeting the requirements.
“Last year around this time, our athletic director (Terry Roussel) came to me and had me fill out paperwork with the Clearinghouse,” said Dworaczyk. “I had to send in my transcripts, and if I would’ve been too low (on the core requirements), they would have told me what I needed to take. You usually do it your senior year, but you can do it your junior year and it costs about $10. It’s best to get it done as early as possible.”
Roussel said that Janell LeBlanc with the CHS guidance office deals with the student athletes to make sure they meet the requirements to qualify to play in college.
“At school, the guidance counselor said I had to register with the NCAA Clearinghouse,” said Joseph. “I also asked one of the academic counselors at LSU and they said I didn’t have anything to worry about.”
Colleges also provide guidance.
“When I went to Southern Miss, they had an academic advisor set up and told me what classes I had missed and what classes I needed to take,” said Youman.
Greg Boudreaux deals with the NCAA requirements for students at NISH.
“I instruct all the coaches that if they need help they should come see me,” said Boudreaux. “We put them on a track to meet the requirements. We supply the state of Louisiana graduation requirements and the NCAA Clearinghouse supplies the core courses they need to take.”
Boudreaux said that it is up to the individual players, or their parents, to come to him with any questions they may have regarding eligibility and classwork. Once they approach him, he does his best to make sure they know what coursework they need to complete.
Things like biology of human activity and African-American studies, for instance, meet the core course requirements. Physical education, woodworking and business math do not.
Final advice
Different aspects of the recruiting process stood out to each of the players.
For Youman, waiting until the end of his senior football season to make his final recruiting trips and make up his mind was the right choice. He took his trip to Oklahoma State in January after missing a couple of earlier dates because of bad weather, and opted to sign there in large part because of the opportunity to play earlier than if he’d signed with LSU or another school.
“Going into their senior year I’d tell players to basically just live in the weight room,” he said. “Don’t give up. There’s going to be times you’d like to give up but you can’t.
“For my little brother, I’d just tell him don’t make any decisions quick. That’s one thing I’m glad I did. I waited until the last minute and it opened more doors for me.”
Joseph said that talking to his parents was a big part of his decision, though they didn’t pressure him to attend any school in particular and left the decision up to him.
“I just talked to them, seeing what they thought,” said Joseph. “I looked at Notre Dame and Florida. Arkansas I looked at because I went to a camp up there a couple of years ago. I just think you should follow your heart. If you’re not sure, look into every college you’re interested in.”
Dworaczyk also got some advice from Butsy Walet, who coaches the defensive line at CHS. One of Walet’s former players, Mark Roman, went from NISH to LSU, and is currently playing for the San Francisco 49ers. Dworaczyk’s older brother Jake also went through the recruiting process and is now pitching at Nicholls State University.
“You’ve got to pay attention to all the details,” said Dworaczyk. “How is the student body? You’ve got to be able to see through all the glory and glamour. Until you sign the scholarship, all you’re going to see is the glory and the good.”
Sam has been told that the University of Texas and LSU plan to keep tabs on him at Navarro and may offer him a scholarship once his two years there are complete. His advice to younger players is to make sure their academics are in order.
“If I knew my it my freshman year, none of this would’ve happened,” he said. “Now I’m trying to tell young people the same thing. There’s a freshman on my track team who’s a real good one right now and I’m trying to tell him.”
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