By Troy Vincent
NFL Player Engagement
Our son just picked Penn State as the place he will further his education and football career.
His choice marked the end of a long and winding recruiting journey, which my wife Tommi and I navigated with him following the roadmap that the three of us created together.
That plan for Troy Jr. consisted of a number of documents, including a matrix made up of 20 or so categories that we considered keys to the college experience, a report that I compiled on our short list of finalists and another that included 15 recruiting questions all parents should ask.
This plan and process proved invaluable as a teaching tool, and we consider it an absolute necessity for parents of student-athletes during the recruitment process. Important enough, in fact, that I shared our story on a recent panel entitled “College Recruiting of Student-Athletes” at the Heels and Helmets organization’s 2013 Ladies Training Day in Washington, DC.
As a panelist, I told the audience that our spreadsheet included areas such as academic reputation and support, class size, geographic location, culture, coaching, and job placement. Then we created a scoring system where, for instance, the value of the education got the top grade with 10 points, the same as the alumni network, while the weight room, for example, was assigned five points.
Our questions for institution representatives from both the academic and athletic areas that we met with ranged from “What type of academic environment do you support? and “What is the graduation rate of the program? to “How is practice handled when there is a conflict with a class? and “What is the workout schedule like during the off season? These are questions all parents should ask.
The three of us all had our own priorities that we contributed to the documents.
For me as a father, categories included the value of a degree from a particular institution, the football culture, and the alumni network.
For Tommi as a mother, precedence was given to location and integrating socially into the general college population.
For Troy Jr. as the student-athlete, it was off-field topics like academic prestige, campus life and alumni network, and on-field areas such as the football brand, and team facilities.
But individual input was worth it since having this process and paperwork proved vital after we narrowed down the dozens of universities recruiting Troy Jr. as a defensive back to just 12 that we would visit. From those, we selected our finalists (North Carolina State, Georgia Tech, North Carolina, Wisconsin (my alma mater), Michigan State, California Berkeley, Maryland, and Penn State).
It was at this point that I compiled my extensive report on these institutions, combining my personal NFL experience of working with the schools from a Player Engagement perspective with a variety of other research tools from rankings to enrollment ratios, all rooted in our son selecting Sociology as his major.
When it was all said and done, the school with the most check marks from a family perspective in our matrix, complemented with the answers to our recruiting questionnaire, was Penn State.
Troy Vincent (left) at the NFL Prep 100 in Baltimore, MD.
It was simply the best overall fit based on the combination of great academics and athletics, and Troy Jr. particularly liked their strong support system that would force him to be his best since he will not settle for anything less.
Not surprisingly, we as parents were looking at what is important for our son to achieve lifetime success since we could look beyond the glitz and glamour to determine what this decision means for Troy Jr., not only at age 17, but at age 35, 45, and 55.
Yet, we also took into account the realities of the 21st Century Athlete, and welcomed knowing what their needs and wants are, from fitting in with fellow students to fitting in the best looking uniforms.
For our son, like many his age, he was thinking about what the decision means for him today and will his team win now.
We all want to win, but not just today or tomorrow’s game, but during our entire life, so identifying what is important for lifetime success was foremost in our approach.
And it was here that Penn State shined by meeting our requirements for academic excellence, collegiate culture, and a wonderful student-athlete experience.
PSU also has the highest graduation rate for African-American athletes of any institution in the United States and the largest alumni network in the country, which is particularly influential in the Northeast Corridor where we live, and where our son may want to live.
Additionally, we removed from our decision process the horrific actions of one individual and were not going to punish the university for the scandal. Instead, we focused on the fabric of the people we met in State College.
That included Head Coach Bill O’Brien and his staff, as well as Athletic Department personnel and academic advisors. But we have all been in the game long enough to know that turnover can happen, which is why we looked long-term in choosing the institution itself above all other considerations and individuals.
It was a choice that was made by Troy Jr., but knowing that it was one of the most momentous decisions of his life, we had to provide final parental approval.
So when he chose Penn State, he came to us before announcing it, and asked if we were comfortable with where he wanted to matriculate.
By then, of course we were, since we had all taken this long family trip together and, even though we arrived at our destination exhausted, getting there using our navigation system was a wonderfully rewarding journey.
But even bigger travels lie ahead after Troy Jr. completes his senior year in high school, since his first game as a Nittany Lion in September 2014 will be in Dublin, Ireland.
An excursion that already excites him since he has never been out of the country, and which we all believe is the perfect kickoff to his Penn State story.
Related Resources and Articles:
Recruiting Questions for Parents
QA: Troy Vincent Happy to be a Penn State Lion