{"id":1871,"date":"2010-11-05T09:59:04","date_gmt":"2010-11-05T15:59:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.nsr-inc.com\/\/?p=1871"},"modified":"2010-11-05T09:59:04","modified_gmt":"2010-11-05T15:59:04","slug":"handling-adversity-key-for-college-prospects","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/handling-adversity-key-for-college-prospects\/","title":{"rendered":"Handling Adversity Key for College Prospects"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bouncing Back is an Underrated Trait<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Marion Jones<\/a> had the world eating out of her hands.\u00a0 She was widely adored after having captured five medals in the 2000 Sydney Olympics.\u00a0\u00a0As the world’s premier female track and field sprinter, she received $80,000.00 fees just to show up for races. Endorsement contracts poured in.\u00a0 Few women in the sports history have been more accomplished or popular.\u00a0 Life could not have been better.\u00a0 Then when the BALCO<\/a> scandal broke and Jones decided to lie to Federal investigators about her involvement with performance enhancing drugs,\u00a0Marion Jones’ perfect world suddenly crumbled all around her.\u00a0 Found guilty of lying\u00a0during a Federal investigation into BALCO, Jones was sentenced to six months in prison for perjury.\u00a0 She was released after serving five and a half months in a Texas facility.\u00a0\u00a0As critics and former fans watched, the\u00a0universal question\u00a0was apparent:\u00a0\u00a0How would Marion Jones react?<\/p>\n

While this example is extreme, it\u00a0does directly relate to high school recruiting in a very basic way —\u00a0it’s not a prospect’s mistake which interests a coach as much as how the prospect recovers from that mistake.\u00a0\u00a0Regardless if the error is physical or mental in nature,\u00a0on the court or off, it is more important to college coaches to see firsthand how a\u00a0prospect will respond.\u00a0 Therein lies a prospect’s true grit, character and competitive spirit.\u00a0 Coaches\u00a0want the kids with the intestinal fortitude and courage to face adversity head-on, dust themselves off and get their heads back into the moment.\u00a0 Coaches will pursue prospects\u00a0who\u00a0put errors behind them, maintain focus and a positive attitude, and don’t allow a mishap to shape the rest of their performance.\u00a0\u00a0It’s a\u00a0maturity factor needed at the college level.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Kids who fling equipment around in disgust, throw\u00a0temper tantrums, bark back at teammates and coaches, argue officials’ calls, or hang their heads\u00a0in shame after making even the smallest of mistakes put themselves at a clear disadvantage with college coaches.\u00a0 The next level is for young adults, not younger acting adolescents.\u00a0 Coaches need recruits who can represent in a positive light not only their team but also their college.\u00a0 There is a much larger cause and effect revolving around sports activities which college recruits are expected to understand,\u00a0yet \u00a0some youngsters simply don’t have the maturity to pull it off.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Mature prospects get the best shots at college offers.\u00a0 When coaches recognize\u00a0that kid has the physical ability and athletic character to play\u00a0intercollegiate\u00a0sports, they go after them.\u00a0 Coaches are attracted to maturity.\u00a0 They can envision that\u00a0athlete\u00a0on their team.\u00a0\u00a0Coaches can see these prospects\u00a0interacting with athletic department personnel,\u00a0accepting criticism in practice, and conducting themselves appropriately in\u00a0contests as well as off the court in social settings.\u00a0 These are the kids\u00a0which get recruited.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>As for Marion Jones’\u00a0recovery?\u00a0\u00a0So far she has proven worthy of our admiration once again.\u00a0 Following her time in prison, Jones has put her life back together, piece by piece, and she has done it with hard work, honesty and grace.\u00a0 She has fought her way back from what is perhaps the ultimate adversity to become a dedicated wife and mother of three, a community activist for young people and athletes, and she has accomplished what most people thought was impossible — she is once again involved in athletics at the highest level.\u00a0 She has worked her way into a reserve role with the WNBA’s Tulsa Shock<\/a>.\u00a0 That’s right, Marion Jones is back.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bouncing Back is an Underrated Trait Marion Jones had the world eating out of her hands.\u00a0 She was widely adored after having captured five medals in the 2000 Sydney Olympics.\u00a0\u00a0As the world’s premier female track and field sprinter, she received $80,000.00 fees just to show up for races. Endorsement contracts poured in.\u00a0 Few women in … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1871"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/29"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1871"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1871\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1871"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1871"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1871"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}