“I’ve hired a recruiting coordinator to help us through the process. Brandon Rigby has gone through this process himself. Why don’t you tell everyone what we should be looking for on a trip?” I suggested.
“First of all, you get five official visits to campuses. An official visit to a college campus is paid for by the college. The college can pay for transportation, room, and meals while visiting, and reasonable entertainment expenses, including three complimentary admissions to one home football game.
“Unofficial visits are a little different. The athletic department is allowed to give you each up to three tickets, but no other perks or gifts.
“I would suggest that for unofficial visits you make the travel close enough so that you can drive. I would keep the official visits for the trips you would need to fly to. That’ll save you the cost of airfare. Another suggestion is that you go only when you have home games. I tried the away game and then travel to a campus bit, and it makes for a long weekend. Plus, you’re not going to want to do it every weekend.
“For the juniors, I’d recommend you save your official visits for your senior year,” Brandon said.
“What can we expect on a visit? And what’s different with an unofficial visit?” Ty asked.
“Good questions. The only difference between an official and unofficial visit is you pay for the trip, hotel room and food. Everything else is pretty much the same, but they may give the official visitors preferential treatment.
“All colleges do their visits a little differently, but you can expect them to be mostly the same. You’ll arrive either the night before or the morning of the game, and they’ll show you the athletic facilities. You’ll get a tour of the campus. Someone will be introduced to you as your chaperone. This is usually a player who plays your position, and with whom you can talk frankly about what it’s like to go to college there. Of course, you’ll watch the game. The evening activities are a little looser. I strongly suggest you not drink, because Sunday is almost always breakfast with coaches and recruiting staff and then they’ll evaluate you. Trust me, being hungover is not the way to make an impression,” Brandon shared.
Brandon took over running the laptop as we picked the colleges we wanted to go see. Jim got the first picks because he was the lone senior. He cherry-picked Alabama, Ohio State, Notre Dame, and USC first, and then added Northwestern—because his sister went there—Michigan, Michigan State, and Missouri. I added Oregon, Florida, Florida State, Stanford, and Kentucky. Others added Wisconsin, Iowa, Nebraska, Texas, Auburn, and Georgia.
“I want to use my Mom veto power,” Mom said. “Florida and Florida State are off the list. I watched an episode of Outside the Lines on ESPN.”
She gave me a dirty look because I was shocked that she watched ESPN. Then she continued.
“They did a show on crimes committed by male college football players and basketball players between 2009 and 2014. Ten big-time programs were featured. Florida led the way with 80 athletes named as suspects in 119 crimes. FSU was number 2 with 66 athletes and 107 criminal incidents,” Mom said.
I was amazed that she’d even watched the show, let alone remembered the stats. Anyway, she continued with her reasons for the veto.
“I also read where several FSU players were arrested in separate instances this summer, two of which involved hitting women at bars. One player was caught on the bar’s security system punching a woman. He was a freshman, and they kicked him off the team. Because of all the problems, their head coach had to ban the team from going to bars.”
“That being said, the numbers in the state of Florida might be inflated compared to other areas, because state laws vary in how much information a police department has to release about an incident. I know for a fact that Notre Dame students have unusually good protection as far as what can be released about them,” Kendal said.
We then made a list of open dates and the possible games we might see. Everyone voted, and we came up with the following schedule:
September 5 – Stanford at Northwestern
September 12 – Oregon at Michigan State
September 26 – BYU at Michigan
October 3 – Alabama at Georgia
October 17 – USC at Norte Dame
October 31 – Rutgers at Iowa
Jim planned on making his official visits for three of the first five games. He would make visits on his own to Ohio State and Alabama. Jim had gone to a lineman camp this summer and was rated one of the top five tackles in the Midwest. All the schools we were going to had offered him an official visit—it wasn’t something that you could just call up and request.
We had a long discussion about Alabama at Georgia. The guys were torn between going to that game or going to the Iowa at Michigan game instead. We would need to fly to Atlanta. They calmed down when Brandon found a special on flights for $49 each way on Southwest. I would make sure Brandon upgraded us, on my dime, because Southwest had festival seating. An upgrade would assure you got on first and got to pick your seat. At least the first row and exit row had enough room for my legs, and I suspected Jim and Wolf would have similar issues flying coach.
Brandon said he would start to organize everything and got everyone’s contact information. I found out that Lily had given Alan access to my social media accounts because five minutes after the meeting, it was posted everywhere. A grin crept onto my face when the recruiting phone started to go off. Kendal rushed over and dropped it in Brandon’s lap.
“Good luck,” she said and waltzed away.
“Welcome to the team,” was my only advice.
I figured better him than me.
◊◊◊
Chapter 2 – A 50-50 Chance of Survival Sunday August 23
Mona invited herself over. I told her if she could get past my guard dog, she was more than welcome. I swear Duke would help a thief find all the good stuff if they scratched his ears. Scratch his back, and he would go home with you.
“How’s my favorite head cheerleader?” I asked as I gave her a hug and kissed her cheek. “Make yourself at home.”
“I’ve come to make you a deal,” Mona said.
“Okay, what can I possibly do for you?” I asked.
“You can date me.”
“Not that I’m saying no, but why would I want to date you when I’m a free agent?” I teased her.
“Dating the head cheerleader has benefits for the star quarterback. The first is I know you aren’t interested in a girlfriend right now. By declaring me as your girl, it’ll take the pressure off of you. I would even be willing to waive exclusivity in our arrangement. We could do something similar to what you and Peggy Pratt had,” Mona said.
“What if I want to be exclusive?” I asked.
“Don’t tease me, David. We both know you could never keep up your end of the bargain.”
I could tell I’d made a misstep. I did like Mona but was very sure I didn’t feel the same for her as I had, or still did, for Peggy.
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to be a jerk. Tell me what you want,” I said.
“I want you to help me become Homecoming queen. The last two have been people you were tied to, and I know you got Peggy elected. I want to have my turn.”
Someday I would look back at what Mona just said and laugh. I didn’t think being Homecoming queen would mean a whole lot after we left high school. I envisioned her filling out her application for a job and listing that and ‘head cheerleader’ as experience.
“What if I just put out the word you were to be elected?” I offered.
“No, I want the whole deal. I want to date the quarterback, be Homecoming queen, and win State. I want my senior year to be something I’ll always remember,” she said.