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The latest basketball phenom to announce the always-anticipated verbal agreement to accept a sports scholarship and attend a major university is Ryan Boatright.
This 14 year-old young man has chosen to follow the much hyped O.J. Mayo and leave his hometown of Aurora, IL and head to beautiful Los Angeles to attend USC in the fall of 2011.
In case you forgot what year it is, let me break this down. This freshly graduated middle-schooler has verbally agreed to attend the COLLEGE of his choice on a basketball scholarship.
Not adolescent dreams of someday donning his favorite school’s colors while he sips on a carton of chocolate milk, Boatright has set it in virtual imaginary stone. Now that Ryan has finally made the second major decision of his academic life, choosing which high school to attend in the fall, after choosing his college, he now has to live up to the adult expectations now placed on him to become the player USC coach Tim Floyd envisions.
It is a verbal agreement, which can be backed out of by either side in the future, but it does solidify in the inexperienced kid’s head that his destiny has to be playing basketball at a major Division I university in the spotlight.
This kind of pressure begs the question; does he know what the hell he’s doing?Or better yet, does he know how to solve problems on differentiation of trigonometric functions? Ok, I forgot that stuff by now, too, but…my guess is that he doesn’t, and he probably shouldn’t yet, just like he shouldn’t be inking in his future, meeting with coaching staffs, or choosing which number he will try to retire of the Cardinal and Gold of USC.
Floyd discovered Boatright at the Trojans’ elite basketball camp that included highly touted high school players. Somehow, it was possible to become impressed with the youngster’s apparent skills, eventual build, and hopeful level-headedness to offer him the scholarship.
"In recruiting," said one assistant coach of a top-10 program, "it's all about being first. If you get in on the kid in eighth grade, you're first."
Since being first to nab a player in a field that also has junior elite basketball camps for prospects ranging from 5th to 8th grade is so important, coaches are better off going after long shot hopefuls and backing off if they don’t develop the way the crystal ball predicted.In other words, they don’t care, they’re trying to do their jobs of getting the best players years and years down the line, overlooking that they’re feeding kids adult sized portions of life.
Since coaches don’t have to care, then someone should.
At age 14, most young athletes have a one-track mind, concentrating mostly on going pro, getting paid, and figuring out a signature celebration when they make a game winning shot. When these healthy dreams become a reality to a KID, their realm of reality and real-life link their minds in this fantasy for the rest of their lives.
This is where we constantly see the newest trend of young rich athletes acting like kids and never growing out of their adolescence. Young Ryan Boatright can now start assembling his entourage and security team from his middle school friends that like to fight for no reason. Ask Allen Iverson.
Adults who have experienced this crucial part of life are the ones that should be responsible enough to pull the reins, refocus their children’s minds, and let them know there’s more to a young Black man’s life than becoming a pro athlete.
Although it’s a beautiful thing that he’s not making headlines for selling drugs or getting shot at the way many headlines target our young men, we can’t let them forget there are more ways to be successful than simply going pro.Ryan’s mother proudly proclaimed, "Whether USC offered him something at 14, 16 or 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. He's been trained to work hard and study hard."
As soon as he gets that scholastic scholarship offer and he has to make that tough decision of choosing between his jumper or a career as a future surgeon is when I’ll be happy he’s truly made the right decision for himself.
And not Tim Floyd.
“Keep talking, it’s the only way they’ll ever hear you.”--JJJ