From the outset, it sounded too good to be true. A man showed up at the home of Brad Johnson — not his real name — representing a recruiting service. For an hour he sat in Johnson's living room, promising to contact dozens of college coaches in a rigorous search for an athletic scholarship for his son.
Finally, he pulled out a contract for Johnson to sign. As Johnson read the document, his eyes stopped at one line: $1,999.
"It was the first time there was any mention of money," says Johnson. "He wanted me to pay him $2,000, and there were no guarantees."
In our increasingly sports-centered culture, parents spend thousands of dollars for sports camps, weight programs, nutritional supplements, speed development programs and private coaching. Why not pay a recruiter to recruit the recruiters?
"If the kid has to pay, it's not worth it," says Shane Schut, director of football operations for the University of Utah. "All that paper they send out ends up in the garbage."
Paul Tidwell, BYU's recruiting coordinator, says much the same thing — "I've got a stack of letters from (recruiting services) right here on my desk. Honestly, the majority of them, I just throw them in the garbage. If the kid is a sophomore and I read through his profile and saw something that's interesting, like that he was a varsity starter and he's 6-4, 280, I'll pass it on to the coach who recruits that area. But I can't think of a kid who got a scholarship here (through one of those services)."
The truth is, all college assistant coaches are assigned to recruit certain areas and assess talent. In case they miss something, they subscribe to their own recruiting services — services that charge the university, not the recruits. If a talented athlete is still overlooked, he and his parents can do the same thing the recruiting services are charging them $2,000 to do — contact the coaches themselves.
"Dads are becoming agents for their kids," says Tidwell. "They go to the (high school) head coach and get tape of their sons and make 40 DVDs, which cost peanuts, and send them to the schools they're interested in. They're marketing themselves, and it's a lot less expensive. It's smart actually."
Tom Starr, vice president of College Prospects of America, which has been in business for 21 years, agrees that athletes and their parents can market themselves; he also believes that the recruiting for major college football and basketball is so sound that if an athlete is good enough, he will be found. But he thinks his service has something to offer student-athletes who compete in the so-called minor sports or those who must rely on interest from smaller schools beyond their geographic area.
"There are more than 2,000 colleges and universities that compete in sports," he says. "I guarantee you that the average person couldn't name 50 of them beyond the ones they hear about. People come to us for the same reason they go to H&R Block . . . They just don't have the resources and data that we have."
Most people can do their own taxes and their own proactive recruiting; it's a matter of money and convenience.
"I used to get calls from recruiting services all the time," says one Utah high school athletic director, "but I put them off so much they gave up. They call the coaches instead. But no one here is interested in doing it. Everyone here thinks it's a waste of money for the kids."
One recruiting-service Web site boasts, "A college for every athlete!" They promise to contact hundreds of colleges. Some of the recruiting services, in an apparent effort to make more money, represent athletes who have no chance to get a scholarship.
Says one Division I college coach, "We get some of these (from recruiting services), and you're looking at some of these kids — their pictures and stats — and you're saying, you gotta be kidding. The kid's paying this much money (to the recruiting service), and he's a 5-foot-11 offensive lineman with arms as skinny as a wide receiver's. Some of these services are suckering the kids."
"My personal feeling is that it's an awfully high price tag when there are other avenues," says Dave Wilkey, assistant director of the Utah High School Activities Association. "Some of (the recruiting services) are good and some are just plain exploitative, but all of them cost a lot of money, and you have to ask yourself at what cost (is it worth it). You may pay $2,000 and never get a scholarship, and if you get one you've already paid $2,000. There are so many other things you can do and these days it's easier than it's ever been."
Coaches recommend that overlooked athletes who think they can play at the next level, send video (or DVDs) to colleges, not lots of paper.
"Film is what matters," says Schut. "If a kid wants to get himself exposure, he should get good highlight film and game film and send it out."
For his part, Johnson declined the offer of a recruiting service for his son. "They told me I was making a huge mistake," he says.
Deseret Morning News columnist Doug Robinson is also a high school track and football coach.
E-mail: drob@desnews.com