Not Quite a Full Ride

I dreamed of being recruited to play Division I College Basketball. Big deal. Haven’t I been rehashing my aspirations and disappointments as a motif on this blog? But what I didn’t know is that the typical four-year athletic scholarship, affectionately known as a “Full Ride” is actually a series of one-year scholarships. When you’re recruited out of high school, apparently you’re offered an opportunity to play your sport for free, one year at-a-time. You have to renew your scholarship each year technically and sometimes, if a new coaching regime replaces the old, you could go from Full Ride to Hitchike Home in a matter of seconds.

Two friends who played for Division I programs enlightened me on this fact and something just seemed deceptive about it. Better be on your p’s and q’s if you’re a big-time recruit. You could be out of a job by your sophomore year and in need of real financial aid on the FAFSA fast track. My “Spidey Senses” are tingling and telling me that the average high-end recruit in America is not so adept at navigating the financial aid world of loans and grants. So the miracle of attaining a free education is possible, all be it a long shot, and extremely fragile.

I’ve often thought about what I’d say to young athletes pursuing the Scholly (scholarship) en route to the ultimate prize, an athletic career. Peripheral vision would be my theme. It’s vital in every sport I can picture being played. But it’s just as valuable figuratively. Peripheral vision protects by granting you a split-second warning that may enable evasive action. Isn’t that why the good quarterbacks can avoid the sack on occasion? There is vulnerability in this world that is no respecter of persons. Young, old, healthy or rehabilitated the nemesis of our age could be the intentional ploys of deception coupled with self-seeking ambition. The unsuspecting prep icon is a ready example of how pride will hand you over to the wicked “for they cannot sleep till they do evil; they are robbed of slumber till they make someone fall.” Keep ya head up when you’re being wined and dined for your services.