High school athletes must demonstrate a higher level of maturity for college coaches than ever before

Two outside forces are major contributors to today’s high school athletes having to demonstrate a high level of maturity to college coaches.  The spate of troublesome behavior by college athletes having run afoul of the law and the proliferation of technology in recruiting are putting the pressure on young aspiring college athletes to be more attuned to their character and comportment.

When was the last week, if not day, that we’ve not been subjected to an expose on a college athlete that has tripped and fallen into the rubble of other ill-fated athletes unable to help themselves?  This has led college coaches to more carefully scrutinize the actions and attitudes of the prospects they target to recruit.  What’s on the line is more than wins and losses, but the coaches’ jobs as well.  And, in the world of college sports, the prime objective of any coach has sadly devolved to keeping his or her job.

There was a time when athletes’ antics had little or no impact on a coach’s employment status.  No longer.  Today, the character and actions of athletes are directly linked to their coach and that coach’s ability, or inability, to properly control their program.  Justifiable or not, coaches are coming and going faster than ever before in the history of college athletics.  And the acceleration of this revolving movement can be traced to who coaches recruit and how they manage those recruits once they arrive on campus.  Even the off-campus conduct or athletes is now inextricably tied to their coaches.

These are lessons which high school, not to mention middle school, athletes must heed and respond to with careful calculation regarding their own activities, the friends they cling to, and the trouble they purposefully avoid.  Without this type of planning, a promising athlete can be left at the wayside, quickly to be forgotten and passed on.

In this game, as it is played in modern recruiting, adults are on the hot seat.  It is they who must tend to the fire and make certain that their athlete does not stray far, if at all.  But, isn’t that the way human behavior has always shaken out – parents lead and their children follow; parents discipline and their children learn;  parents provide high expectations and children strive to satisfy.