MaxPreps Online Database

We live in a time where a MaxPreps online reporting tools is taking center stage with our student athletes. This is a terrific service for the college coaches to scan the nations farm lands and find that diamond in the rough high school athlete who stand out statistically night after night in football, basketball, baseball etc. Boys and girls sports are represented and in great detail.

What isnt well documented in what we could find at least is their academic standing. If I were an athletic director at a division one College such as Ohio State, Notre Dame, USC, Stanford or CAL Berkeley, I think I would want a little more than the statistics achieved in a game or season. We would love to see MaxPreps and other online services (RIVALS.COM) spend more time on the academic portion of the child (let's not forget they are kids) performance and have a complete picture.

One thing we just can't seem to let go of is that all elusive "free ride" that parents believe exists for their child if they get noticed by a division one college. They spend 1000's from age 4 to 18 perfecting little Suzy or Johnny on the fine art of throwing a soft ball or shooting a basketball. Then they get their super star into the high school of their choice (Gilroy High School in California actually had 3 competing school baskeball players transfer all at the same time from different schools all in the same year but the school didn't recruit anyone right?). This is out of hand. It was actually followed up in the San Jose Mercury news with an interview from the head basketball coach of Gilroy HS talking about how challenging this situation was to have all these super star's playing together and managing the emotions of the intersection with his regular players. Sorry but this one never seemed quite right to most in the area. What were the odds?

Get's back to the point above. We have placed such an emphasis on the free ride that services like MaxPreps and others tend to over heat the problem and create more drag on the families and thus children from just being kids and enjoying their early years as such. For the lucky 1-3 percent of America's teens that make it to Division One with a full ride sports scholarship we tip our hat. But beware, your stats are now in the hands of the sports agents and as we are seeing there are traps everyhwhere as one Reggie Bush is going through from USC. Innocent until proven guilty but look at the drag on his life in perspective.