<p>Roger, it seems that study and play better, + a bunch of other things is my plan right now.</p>
<p>Those 5’10" running backs have 50m, 100m, 200m dash speeds that would be competitive for track titles. Are yours on par with high school state and regional champs yet? Your running competition is at Junior Olympics about now. </p>
<p>Since you cannot depend on size, pursuing speed could help your cause.</p>
<p>I would just say for your best interest do not depend on a football hook to get you into college. </p>
<p>“It will happen” is not good enough.</p>
<p>If you care more about playing football in college, look at smaller schools. I know a girl who didn’t even place at state or xc, but she’ll be running next year because the competition is so small (15,000 students).</p>
<p>15,000 students at the whole school, not the number of kids they were considering for xc**</p>
<p>Also, to put ivies into perspective:
I went to school with a girl who just graduated that didn’t get into Stanford we literally everyone was extremely shocked. She is still doing great, she got accepted into MIT, but let me tell you about her.
She was valedictorian, had a 4.0, took 8 AP classes and 2 honors (so every single one offered at my school), had 200+ volunteer hours, varsity xc 4 years, varsity track 4 years, was in 12 clubs, held leadership positions, and had amazing SAT scores. I’m not sure her exact numbers, but she was a national merit scholarship winner. 1.5 million students are entered each year and only the top 1% get it. She was in the top 1% of 1.5 million students across America and didn’t get into Stanford, which is generally considered less than Harvard.</p>
<p>“Division I prospects are often on folks’ radar by 8th grade.”</p>
<p>Perhaps there are some Division 1 football prospects on the radar by 8th grade, but I think you’ll find that to be rare in football. Too much growth takes place between 8th grade and 12th grade. (8th grade is Pop Warner football, remember). Many 9th grade superstars in football have finished growing. Most boys grow significantly between 9th and 12th grade, and continue to add weight/bulk after entering college (that’s why so many superstar can’t-miss prospects from high school don’t make it in college).</p>
<p>I added 30 pounds to my size and 15 yards to my field goal range between 10th grade and 12th grade, which was the difference between being an unknown in 10th grade to nearly breaking state and national records in 12th grade. Spencer Gloger, who didn’t start in his junior year in high school, grew from 6-2 to 6-6 by the following summer, and started for Princeton as a freshman. Their head coach spotted him at a basketball camp in the summer before his senior year. He also turned down a basketball scholarship UCLA to come to Princeton, and played pro ball in Europe after graduation.</p>
<p>It’s way too difficult to tell whether a 15-year-old will develop the size, physique and speed to be a college football player, unless he’s already playing close to the college level at age 15, which is extremely rare.</p>
<p>Most football players need to make some kind of mark in 11th grade to get recruited, although that is not a hard and fast rule. Summer camps are a good way to get discovered and evaluated, especially in the summer before 12th grade. As I think someone said, there is an Athletic Recruits forum on College Confidential, but I would wait a year before spending much time on there if I was entering 10th grade. Concentrate on doing better in school and on the football field in 10th grade.</p>
<p>The biggest thing to bear in mind is that there is a huge jump from high school sports to college sports. Most players are stunned at how good you need to play Division 3, especially for football, because nearly all Division 3 schools recruit (for the most part, high school sports are really pretty bad, so it’s easy to excel at them, at least compared to the college level). The jump between high school and Division 1 football, even Division 1AA, is enormous. </p>