READY OR NOT: Pie-in-the-sky assessments can mean pie in the face on signing day

Brian Harrison had no trouble attracting attention from some of the country's top college baseball programs -- and no trouble telling them "no," either.

Coaches of nationally ranked teams such as Clemson and the University of South Carolina were among those who recruited the former Hilton Head Island High School shortstop and the most recent Island Packet/Beaufort Gazette Area Player of the Year. But the Seahawks' 2007 salutatorian wasn't sure he was good enough to earn playing time as a freshman in programs of that stature.

"We talked and decided that if he could find a good Division I program where he could play right away, if he's good enough to eventually go to the next level, then the pro scouts would find him," said Harrison's father, Jamie. "So then it became a matter of finding the right academic mix."

Jamie Harrison said his son found it at Furman, where he enrolled this fall, choosing a program that has never appeared in a College World Series over at least a few schools that have worn grooves in the road to Omaha.

The Harrisons' logic defies many aspiring college athletes, several local high school coaches said. Harrison was good enough to earn a scholarship from a big-time program but felt more comfortable at a small one; more typically, players overestimate their ability, then scramble for a place to play because they wouldn't give less prestigious programs the time of day.

"The big thing is accepting your ability," said Ray Yost, Hilton Head Christian Academy's first-year tennis coach, who spent 15 years as head man at Division II Mercyhurst College. "Kids don't understand or don't know the type of talent there is at colleges and don't know how to relate to it. They can waste a lot of time trying to get recruited by schools where they won't ever play or won't even get a scholarship offer."

A recent survey by The Island Packet suggests many high school student-athletes are not prepared for the recruiting process because they don't know about eligibility requirements, scholarship stipulations or recruiting rules. (To view the survey and results, visit islandpacket.com.) A Beaufort County Board of Education member and former volunteer assistant coach at Hilton Head High suggests many student-athletes don't know something even more important.

Thyself.

"Kids struggle to accept that they're not Division I, top-caliber talent," said Bob Arundell, a longtime assistant for the Seahawks' football and basketball squads. "Once, we had a (football player) who was getting some interest from The Citadel and a few other schools of that nature. He blew them off because he wanted to go to Clemson or USC. They weren't interested in him, but he told the smaller schools he wouldn't be coming there, so they went elsewhere, too.

"Needless to say, the kid wasn't very happy on signing day."

MAKIN' IT

Statistics compiled by the NCAA indicate only 5.7 percent of high school football players make it to college programs (with or without a scholarship) and only .08 percent who play high school football will play professionally (in the NFL or elsewhere.) In men's basketball, the number is even lower -- only 3 percent will play in college and only .03 percent will play professionally.

Yet some athletes seem oblivious to these odds.

"It's very hard for some of these kids to understand that being the best in a very small pond in a relatively small state doesn't mean they're a big fish nationally," said Arundell, who played a role in getting several Hilton Head High athletes recruited during his 20-year association with the school. "We try to tell them they're not competing against kids on their team; they're competing against kids nationally."

Hilton Head High athletics director and boys basketball coach Greg Elliott says aspiring college athletes can get instant perspective by asking themselves two questions: First, how many people have you played with or against who have gone on to a powerful Division I program? And second, what makes you think you have the talent to do what the vast majority of high school athletes will not?

Indeed, elite talent is truly that ... elite:

• Hilton Head Island native Dan Driessen and his nephew Gerald Perry spent a combined 28 seasons in Major League Baseball in the 1970s and 1980s, but only three of the nearly 200 baseball players who have taken the field for the Seahawks since 1991 have even been drafted, none higher than the 26th round. (Harrison was picked 29th by the Pittsburgh Pirates this past June but did not sign.) None have made it to the major leagues.

• Former Hilton Head High standout Wayne Simmons was an all-American linebacker at Clemson and member of Green Bay's Super Bowl XXXI championship team ... and also the only Seahawk to have ever played in the NFL.

• Hilton Head High hasn't produced a single NBA player.

• Not since Raymond Robinson in 1997 has the Seahawks' leading rusher gone on to play for a school in the Football Bowl Subdivision, formerly known as Division I-A. Neither has the Seahawks' leading batter in baseball or its leading scorer in basketball signed with team from a major Division I conference over that 10-year span.

To further illustrate the point, Robinson is a member of the school's athletics hall of fame, placing him among a tiny percentage of those who have played sports at Hilton Head High or its predecessors, McCracken and the original Bluffton High School. Although he enjoyed a standout college career at North Carolina State, he couldn't latch on with an NFL team.

"I think a lot of guys in high school think they're going to do this and do that," said Robinson, now a mortgage banker in Charlotte. "They think they're going to go pro one day, but they don't realize how hard it is just to make a starting lineup in college."

WHAT'S THE POINT?

Dave Adams, who coached Robinson at Hilton Head High before becoming the first football coach and athletics director at the new Bluffton High School, agreed many local athletes have difficulty gauging their own ability. He said one reason is the rise of off-season travel teams catering to high school-aged kids.

Adams doesn't question that select teams make high school athletes better by offering opportunities for additional playing time and coaching. However, because these teams are more prevalent than they were 10 years ago, they also are less "select" than they used to be. Inclusion on such teams might also be more an indicator of ability to pay for the experience than ability to play for a college.

"They get on these teams and believe because they play for this select team or that select team, they will have no trouble getting a college scholarship," Adams said. "Some will, but a lot won't."

Athletes and their parents often get the wrong impression from recruiting letters, as well, Adams said. It's not uncommon for athletes to receive bulk-mailed literature after their freshman seasons, particularly if they've attended colleges' summer camps. However, those letters usually are designed to pique a player's interest in a particular school; they are not an indication a scholarship offer is forthcoming, Adams said.

To demonstrate, Adams once filled out a recruiting questionnaire for a non-existent student at a summer clinic attended by many college coaches. When computer-generated letters began arriving for the phantom athlete at the school's address, Adams used them to demonstrate to his players the letters aren't all they appear to be.

"At that point, the coaches still don't really know you exist," Adams said.

A phone call from a college coach, on the other hand ...

"In football, July 1 after your junior year is the first day you can be contacted by a college coach," Adams said. "If your phone rings on July 1, you're probably a Division I athlete. If it doesn't, you're probably not."

That doesn't mean you can't play in college, said Yost, the Hilton Head Christian coach who also runs a recruiting service catering mostly to tennis players. Scholarship opportunities abound at NCAA Division II schools, he said, and Division III schools shouldn't be overlooked either.

Although Division III schools don't offer athletic scholarships, their coaches can be adept at steering athletes toward other types of scholarships and grants. Athletic prowess might also give a student-athlete an edge with the admissions office, Yost said.

"To be eligible in Division III, you just have to be admitted. Those schools still have quotas or slots for kids who might not otherwise be allowed in," Yost said. "There might be two slots for tennis, two slots for swimming, one slot for field hockey, where a coach can ask to have a player admitted that otherwise would not be allowed into the school.

"At other schools, the coach might not have slots. But kids interested in going that route need to know that and need to know to ask."

Those indirect routes can lead to college rosters.

College of Charleston basketball coach and former Hilton Head Island resident Bobby Cremins noted that players eligible for academic money are more desirable walk-on candidates at Division I and Division II schools. Adams, whose son David Jr. was a highly recruited cross country runner at Clemson, said good grades can open doors for athletes in non-revenue sports, who seldom receive full athletic scholarships.

"A lot of kids and parents get hung up on the ego thing of wanting an 'athletic scholarship,' " Adams said. "But if you do your research, a lot of times you can find a place to play and a place to get a lot of your school paid for through academic scholarships and grants.

"If your goal is to play in college and to get some or all of your schooling paid for, who cares if you do it with an athletic scholarship or not?"