UGK

Man, you're just so smart. You must have been heavily recruited yourself. I'm pretty sure I know the difference between a "letter" from a collge, and an "offer". I had three clothes baskets full of letters and questionaires from every college in the nation. Did every one of them truly pursue me to the point of offering a scholarship....absolutley not. The only DI schools who offered me scholarships were UTEP, New Mexico State and the Air Force Academy.

If you want to hear my personal recruiting information.......here ya go!

Going to the Air Force Academy isn't like any other school. (except Navy/Army) in the fact that it's not truely an athletic scholarship because all cadets receive a scholarship from the Air Force to attend if you are selected. This is whether you are a student athlete or not. I was offered preliminary entrance into the Academy my junior year, based on ASVAB scores, GPA, SAT etc. There's several items that have to be completed to finalize acceptance including more testing, congressional letters of recommendation, essays etc. After thinking the AFA was the best option for me throughout my junior year, (which at the time was my only true option) I was leaning against it because of the six year enlistment requirement after graduation. At this point I was still getting "letters" from tons of DI schools, so I figured that better options would exist come my senior year, so I dropped out of the 18 month long acceptance process after a hitch in the process.

By the time my senior season came around, i'd hit several camps during the summer and was still getting some attention, but the Texas, LSU, and Florida letters weren't coming any longer. Several DII/DIII schools (including (SW) Texas State, SFA, and Northwestern State) offered. I was offered by UTEP in October (Coach Reffett) who was part of Charlie Bailey's staff. I really had no interest in going to school in El Paso (despite that a former HD teammate was there and getting playing time at defensive tackle) and was still getting interest from a couple other WAC and Big West schools. Colorado State called and told me that they'd give me preferred walk-on status, but they were not extending me an offer. On Halloween, I was offered a full ride to New Mexico State University. Two weeks later, I verbally committed to NMSU. I informed other schools that were still calling that I was committed to the Aggies. SFA and NSU rescended thier offers eventually as they informed me that it was late in the process and they would like to offer other kids if I was strongly committed. (as well as UTEP) I did not hear from (SW) Texas State. Things were good. Las Cruces was a cool city, nice campus, and good engineering school.

I got a call a few days before Christmas from Tony Samuel. He informed me that he was the new head coach at NMSU, he'd been hired to replace Coach Hess, and that unfortunately he was not going to be able to honor my scholarship offer. He told me that he was going in a different direction with the program and that he hated to do it, but he had some other players in mind that he need scholarships to be open for. WTF, for real? So now the big signing day thing at the library, and all the hoopla....gone. Don't even have an offer anymore. I hadn't signed, only verbally committed. I was screwed.

I jumped on the phone and call Coach Reffett at UTEP. All scholarships were already accounted for. Come walk-on....no thanks. What now? I call Kris Hacher who was one my contacts at (SW) Texas State. I let him know what was going on. He was like, man I'm not sure what we can do. Coach Heldsuer and 3/4 of the staff had been fired like three weeks earlier. (actually before the end of the season). That's why I didn't hear anything from Coach Everett Todd who was my recruiter. I was told that my name was still on the offer list and that as far as he knew, the offer was still on the table. He faxed me the paperwork, and I signed a letter of intent with Southwest Texas State University. Needless to say, it was very sketchy at best. A new staff hadn't been named, and the old staff was completly fired. So scholarships were in limbo for the most part.

I'm tired of typing. Needless to say, the new coach (DeBesse) didn't honor my scholarship when he took over. I reached out to John Pierce at SFA and ended up going to Nacogdoches.

I dont' know why I even typed all this crap. Just know that I didn't just "choose" to not play DI. I had a crazy set of circumstances that not alot of ppl have probably had to deal with. Part of it was my fault. If I'd had been better, then I wouldn't have been caught between a rock and a hard spot right before signing day. Recruiting was much different 15-20 yrs ago than it is now. Camps weren't as big of a deal, no YouTube or social media, and a much smaller window with coaches not being able to contact players directly until after there junior year. There have been dozens of kids come through HD that had DI talent. Guys that were way better than me. A high SAT score and 4.0 gpa helped me alot I do know that.

And there are tons of small school teams that have very talented individual players, that don't equal winning teams. Especially if that player is not a skill position player. That may have been the dumbest thing you said.

Look at Whitewright in 2012....led by All-Everything QB (and future University of Texas starter) Tyrone Swoopes. They finished 1-9 in 2A. I'm pretty sure he's DI talent and he didn't equal wins and he was the most important player on the field, the quarterback!

Really??

Hey 55. I typed in HD All-State lineman. I think I found a video of you pass blocking.

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=gNcsWkocknU

That right there is funny!!

What did I do to get drug into this?? lol. And you may want to recheck your consensus

Already checked...talked to lots of folks who played against you and 55 back in the day. They all said y'all were garbage.

I heard bobcat55 didn't even play. I heard he was a tuba player. Just saying...

I think he might have been on the team, but the consensus around southeast Texas is he and 9 were not very good players

BISD ALLEDGELY still has Coach Magee on the payroll and Coach Atkins will win his case against BISD Admin. If they dont hire him they'll settle out of court because its a slam dunk case. Then that leaves a need for another new HIRE. That adds up to 3 coaches getting paid WOW !!! Just an observation and a opinion..... :ph34r:

Southeast Texas at work

Chester86 I hear what you are saying the problem is you do not have the right story. People will say he lift for this reason or that one. I am from Deweyville and my kids go there so I will tell you why he left.
It did not have any thing to do with a hard district are him having to paint the field the bottom line is OUR community, NOT every body but as a hole does not support Athletics. He had only a couple of coaches to help him and could not hire any cause there was no openings to put them. In Deweyville when a coach no longer wants to coach he are she does not coach but yet gets to stay and teach when the AD is not happy with A coach for what ever reason they do not coach BUT THEY stay and teach SO YOU HAVE NO PLACE TO HIRE ANY MORE COACHES. That my friends is the biggest reason he lift in my opinion Then there is the money when you do the math and add the hours he putts in to the money he makes he would be lucky to be making minimum Wage Then when the subject was brought up to get him more money, some of the teachers and Principles got pissed off cause in there eyes THE AD should not be making more than them Cause they been there for years THIS HOLE SCHOOL DISTRICT IS PATHETIC.

+10,000

As of Monday night Livingston AD and HC became open, I had heard wind of it over 2 weeks ago but couldn't believe it. Hate to see it happen, but those things happen in this profession, gook luck to coach Rowe.

Livingston is in dire need of new facilities

Tried to ask about this last week...Some how the topic that I started was deleted. But here we are...

Too bad for Fancy. Nice guy, a few demons I guess.

Good to see your first post on here and Smoaky was to stir the pot about a guy who has done a phenomenal job at Colmesneil..obviously you get a kick out of someone else's misfortune. Good luck finding another coach that can go 10-2 at that place.