Boarding School Football?

<p>Although, to throw a small bug in the ointment, a good friend played quarterback in the NFL after coming out of Exeter and Williams College (DIII). He wasn’t a superstar but made the “show” nonetheless. A few players come out of the Ivies and DIII to the NFL with some regularity (usually undrafted free agents). Not many (if any) are stars in the NFL but they received fantastic educations along the way. I believe Belmont Hill sent a kid to Notre Dame a few years ago, Hotchkiss has produced several DI, non-Ivy, players recently as has Salisbury and Trinity Pawling among many others. Yes, New England prep school football is nowhere near the talent level of SoCal, Texas or Florida. However, that does not mean that the door is closed to those who have the talent but also wish to pursue a strong academic track. Yes, picking a NE boarding school is not the fast track to a major conference but it is not a complete roadblock if your son is willing to take that risk. Just my two cents.</p>

<p>I agree with Imcrazy and Hola. You CAN do both, but you end up risking a lot and definietely not going the conventional way. If he’s been evaluated and he’s really good I don’t see the point of going to BS if you want him to go to a top football school. You can take the risk and go to BS and try to get into a top football school, but that would defeat the purpose “education first” and sending him to BS if he’s just going to shoot for USC or something.</p>

<p>If you TRULY believe in education first and everything later, then you would send him to BS, he would go to an Ivy,then try and walk on or earn a spot (late draft pick) on an NFL team. Personally as an athlete, I’ve evaluted myself in every single on of my sports, and I won’t be making a living with any of them unfortunetely. But I can get into a top college through them, so I decided on boarding school. </p>

<p>I wouldn’t throw away talent, that’s my opinion. Sure send him to a BS, but if he gets an offer from ND and Harvard, I’d go with ND. Your not screwed for life if you don’t go to an Ivy league school.</p>

<p>Going from prep school football to a big time college program isn’t impossible. </p>

<p>Take a look at these names:
Dean Steinkuler (Nebraska), the 1984 Outland Trophy winner and 2nd overall pick in the NFL draft;
Rashaan Salaam (Colorado), the 1994 Heisman Trophy winner;<br>
Josh Brown (Nebraska), current NFL kicker for St Louis Rams;
and Brady Bond (Oklahoma State), current 3rd year varsity starting offensive tackle. </p>

<p>What do they have in common? Did they go to boarding school? Nope… They each played high school football at tiny schools, so small that each team fielded only eight players rather than the traditional 11. But they were lucky. They were men among boys. They were budding legends surrounded by fields of corn, soy beans and alfalfa. So if high school players from an 8 man team in the middle of nowhere can make it to big-time college football, then so should players from bigger prep schools. But it won’t be easy… It won’t be easy because coaches / recruiters are incredibly busy and prefer to target recruiting efforts at big ponds with big (fast) fish like at Long Beach Poly, Del La Salle, Don Bosco or St. Xavier. Recruiters target the big schools because it’s more a efficient use of time and they have a better idea of how the athlete will do at the next level because they can evaluate the student playing with and against other tough, fast kids. </p>

<p>If your primary objective is to see your son benefit from a traditional prep school education and then see him play major college football, then I would suggest that he attend at least 3 major collegiate football camps during each summer so that he can be firmly on the recruiting radar. You also might want to consider a PR campaign where you can email / update recruiters (and [College</a> Sports: Rivals.com](<a href=“http://www.Rivals.com%5DCollege”>http://www.Rivals.com) & [Scout.com</a> - College and High School Football, Basketball, Recruiting, NFL, and MLB Front Page](<a href=“http://www.Scout.com%5DScout.com”>http://www.Scout.com)) with video clips and stats each week during the season. Consider including academic stats if Div I football schools like Stanford, Georgia Tech, Northwestern, Cal and Duke are on your target list.</p>

<p>Yes, some Division 1A Prep schools in New England regularly send 5+ players to D1 Football programs around the country per year. This is better than most schools in SoCal. ie. Loyola, Cal Poly, Notre Dame, St. Francis, Oaks Christian etc. Though, many of these players have done a PG year or have been help back a year in school to fully utilize their natural growth hormones as is done regularly in the So Cal HS world.</p>

<p>Is your son’s QB coach encouraging you to uproot your family and move them to a better district for HS football (as in Perry Klein) ? It is common advice from those guys, which I disdain, and could definitely be the motivating factor to look for a good East Coast BS program for him, rather than move the family up to De LaSalle or out to Oaks Christian land.</p>

To the Southern California parent, did you find a school yet? I too am looking for the same type of school for my son. He is very good football player; linebacker/running back. He goes to Westlake High School and they he is good enough for them to hold a spot for him but he needs more in other areas that they canj’t offer at this point.

This thread is 5 years old and said parent has not logged on in over 4 years, so I doubt you’ll get an answer. Use old threads for research only, but start a new discussion if you have a question/comment. Closing.