College Commitment: Are They Too Young?
Jason Roberts, NATS Staff Writer
Monday, February 23, 2009
David Dodd of CBS Sports writes recently about David Sills, a youngster already being described by some as gifted enough to “very well redefine the quarterback position one day,” as well as a talent “well on his way to becoming one of the most polished, pro-ready prospects ever to be recruited out of high school.”
Think the description reads like any of the countless other blurbs found on the Internet highlighting that small number of high school athletes with the physical talent and mental adeptness to be regarded as one of the most elite college football recruits in the entire country?
Think again.
After all, Sills, as Dodd notes, is a mere 12 years old – a sixth-grader, the sportswriter points out, that is still three years away from even having the chance to play football at the high school level.
That a boy as young as Sills is already receiving accolades as glowing as the ones mentioned above is for some frightening and beyond the realm of comprehension.
Scarier yet, however, is the fact that Sills could soon be identified as a player eligible to receive a scholarship offer from any university of interest as an extension of legislation reviewed and passed by the NCAA in mid-January, which now allows those playing basketball in the seventh-grade to be legitimately regarded as “prospects” of college programs.
Says Joe D’Antonio, chairman of the NCAA Division I Legislative Council, of change to the rules regarding recruitment of college basketball prospects, “It’s a little scary only because – we talked about this – where does it stop? The fact that we’ve got to this point is really just a sign of the times.”
D’Antonio suggests that there is legitimate reason to be concerned that the same regulations adjusted by the NCAA for recruitment in college basketball could easily be carried over into college football.
It is the same reasoning forwarded by Dodd in his article, a sentiment which acknowledges the troubling realization that, “With football players getting bigger, stronger and faster at a younger age, some coaches, some day, will feel it is necessary to recruit middle-school athletes.”
Steve Clarkson, head of a California-based quarterback university, is currently working with Sills. Initially concerned with what appeared to be the overzealousness of the youngster’s father, Clarkson decided to research the situation further, a move which eventually resulted in Clarkson electing to take Sills on after he determined the father definitely “was on to something” when it came to his son’s talent.
Sills’ father, a Pop Warner football coach in New Castle County in Delaware, initially made contact with Clarkson due to the fact that in a league characterized to a large extent by playbooks which place a heavy emphasis on running the ball, his son instead found tremendous success throwing it – so much so that through six games as a fifth-grader in 2007, Sills had nine total touchdown passes to his name.
Dodd writes that there was a certain something about Sills’ ability to grasp playing the position of quarterback at such a young age that his father, David Sills IV, found incomprehensible. It was uncanny; here was a youth football coach with a son who somehow possessed an inherent understanding of the mechanics of football far beyond his years, a circumstance Sills IV himself was forced to admit “he just didn’t know” how to deal with. Thus, enter Clarkson.
Clarkson admits he didn’t “really take it seriously” at first when he got word that Sills IV was interested in having the head of the Air 7 Quarterback Camp work with his son. Clarkson tells the University of Delaware student newspaper, The Review, “Parents don’t understand the commitment involved. I assumed [Simms IV’s inquiry] was like the others.” And, at first, after returning Simms IV’s calls and agreeing to allow his son to attend camp, it appeared that Clarkson had hit the nail right on the head. Through the first couple days, Sills “looked like any other quarterback his age,” Clarkson tells The Review. Yet, by the third session of the four-day long camp, things somehow came together for Sills, with Clarkson impressed how the youngster played through fatigue even though visibly tired.
Three weeks after the camp ended, Clarkson flew out to Sills’ hometown of Bear, Delaware to watch the youngster play on his own turf. It was a trip which Clarkson states left him “pretty astonished,” and well convinced that Sills was “ahead of the curve because of his knowledge at his age.” Clarkson tells Sports Illustrated, ”Basically, it’s like taking trig when you’re in basic math. For [Sills] to be able to define the concepts and apply them is truly remarkable.”
Clarkson still remains at points at a loss of words when it comes to describing Sills. Nevertheless, the former San Jose State quarterback strongly believes that his pre-teen protégé definitely has what it takes to make it as a prized player in high school and beyond. “The kid is on his way to being the greatest high school recruited quarterback ever. He is really going to be something special.” That being the case, Clarkson tells Dodd that if the NCAA elects to make a change to the current rules regarding colleges going after prospective candidates to play football at such an early age, the training and experience Sills and others like him are currently receiving will make it “a lot easier for [athletes like Sills] when they are recruited.” Clarkson continues on, stating that kids like Sills find the success they have because “at such a young age that they’ve become perfectionists at it.” Recruiting, subsequently, just becomes part of the process of learning how to play the game. Clarkson elaborates, noting gifted young men like Sills “talk to older kids. You have all the numerous outlets that cover recruiting. [Being recruited] just [becomes] easier to deal with.”
Given that Clarkson has worked with NFL and college stars like the Pittsburgh Steelers’ Ben Roethlisberger, Arizona Cardinals’ Matt Leinart, Virginia Tech freshman Tyrod Taylor, and Notre Dame freshman Jimmy Clausen, it is perhaps not surprising to hear the Pasadena, California native makes the claims he does above about Sills.
Yet, the question remains: Is it a legitimate option for college football programs to go after talent as young as Sills? Or is the possibility of beginning the recruiting process to play at the NCAA level at sixth or seventh-grade a self-indulgent practice that treads dangerously close to notions of exploitation of gifted, yet nevertheless, still maturing young athletes?
Michael Husted of Active Recruiting is a strong supporter of the latter, telling Active.com, “Allowing 14-year olds to make a college commitment is very premature. Many things can and will happen over the next few years to that athlete [that could change his mind].” Though speaking directly to the subject of recruiting youth to NCAA basketball programs, Husted adds, “Both the parents and athlete should be patient. If he or she is getting an offer that early, chances are there will be many more to come. He may go from wanting to be an astronaut to wanting to be a doctor in those two or three years and thus feel another school may best suit him academically.”
So too is Steve King, vice president for a Huntington Beach, California data-management firm, whose son Taylor was one of the first junior high players ever to be recruited to play basketball at the college-level before ever entering into the ninth grade. Initially committing to UCLA, King’s son reopened his search two years later, eventually signing with Duke and ending up at Villanova. King tells SI.com he regrets allowing his son to sign a commitment to the Bruins at such a young age, due to the fact that it took away from “a valuable learning experience” which he feels is embodied in going through the conventional recruiting process. “There is a lot to be said about the process,” King states. “It helps these kids take information and make sound decisions. Let’s face it. These kids in eighth grade, they aren’t making those decisions. The parents are.”
Terrelle Pryor’s high school coach may not necessarily agree entirely with King’s viewpoint on the subject, but nevertheless told ESPN.com last year (as quoted by Louie St. George III of The Daily Times) in the midst of the race to sign the highly-touted quarterback from Jeanette High School, “Terrelle’s felt the pressure to make an official decision. So much is going on. This is a lot for an . . . athlete. It’s confusing, and with all the media, it’s muddied the waters.”
Keep in mind that Pryor, at the time, was already 18 years of age . . .
But for every Michael Husted and Steve King, there is also someone like Tanesha Boatright, mother of University of Southern California Trojans’ basketball commitment, Ryan Boatright, who at the age of 14, signed with USC even before coming to a conclusion as to which high school he would attend. In an interview with ESPN.com Boatright’s mom expressed, “Whether [USC] offered him something at 14, 16, 18, what is wrong with it? What if it was a scholarship for good grades? Wouldn’t that be exciting? My son makes good grades and he is good at sports. Hey, he’s a good kid. He’s been trained to work hard and study hard.”
The media circus which accompanied the University of Kentucy’s Billy Gillispie’s landing of 6’4” shooting guard, Michael Avery, in May 2008, highlighted much of the same type of sentiment surrounding Avery’s commitment at the age of 15 as that expressed by Boatright’s mother above.
Regardless of where one stands on the issue, what seems clear in relation to the issue of recruiting young athletes just beginning middle school is a statement which SI.com includes in an article written about early recruitment of basketball players by schools like the University of Kentucky: “As the pressure to win increases, and competition for the top prospects grows fiercer, coaches are trying to lock down prized recruits as early as possible – even if it means making commitments when the recruits are barely old enough to be prized.”
With the NCAA moving to allow the recruitment of student-athletes as young as 12 to 13 years old in basketball in the middle-portion of last month, there seems little doubt that a similar shift in area of college football cannot be too far behind.
And if and when it happens, you can bet that one of the first players to be effected with be an incredibly gifted young man with surfer-blond hair and a cannon for an arm in the small town of Bear, Delaware bearing the name David Sills.
