The careers of many young athletes begin when they are old enough to walk,
often under pressure from parents and coaches. Millions of kids reach for the dream
of super-stardom, but few achieve it. Most children know how expensive college can
be and many parents find it nearly impossible to pay for tuition, fees, room and board
without a scholarship. Striking a balance between competitive sports and having fun
is hard for children because their future livelihood depends on how well they do in the game of basketball. The road from urban-America to a college basketball scholarship is full of many
obstacles. The biggest challenge for an athlete is coping with the fact that their
chances of getting the athletic scholarship are very slim. For example, according to
NCAA statistics, only 10 percent (one in 10) of all African-American male students
in Division 1 universities are athletes. In other words, most college-age
African-Americans do not receive an athletic scholarship which indicates that 90
percent (nine out of 10) of them used their academic preparation in order to get into
college. However, the image in the minds of many people is that African-American
males use their physical abilities to go to college. This mis-perception is grounded in
the skin color profiles that people observe when they watch big-time revenue-
producing college sports on television. Urban-American athletes have another dilemma. They are told that they need to
balance their athletic and educational development. The problem is that many urban-
American athletes do not get to develop academically. They live in school districts
that lack the proper supplies to be taught effectively, have insufficient staff members,
and do not have the current technology in place that will enable them to achieve a
level of success in the classroom or on standardized tests such as the Scholastic
Aptitude Test (SAT) and the American College Test (ACT). Their objective is to
develop their athletic skills because it can get them into college and their goal is to get
recruited by a top college that will provide an opportunity to play basketball.
Many basketball players are now preparing themselves to do one to two years in
college at the most. Is it a risk? Yes, it most certainly is. Many basketball players
would rather go for the riches now and learn Mathematics, Writing, and English after
they sign their contract. Because of this fact, many basketball players have become
vital components in the enterprise of professional sports before they reach the legal
adult age. I’m all for basketball players striving for a spot in the N.B.A. The only
problem is “what happens if you get injured and, at the same time, you’re
academically unfit for a college classroom?” What happens next? People often think that what they see and read in the media represents all college
sports. However, this is not the case. The media, capitalism, and the commercialism
of sports havecreated a distorted view of college athletics. Contrary to the
glamorous side of college sports that is viewed on television, most schools have very
limited budgets and their programs often lose money because of the expenses that
accrue when trying to maintain a sports program.
The majority of sports programs, regardless of levels and divisions, do not
resemble those large revenue-producing, high profile sports that capture so much
popular attention on television channels, radio stations, and in newspapers across the
United States. The amount of money spent every year on intercollegiate athletics
varies depending on the size of the college. Some universities receive $60 million and
others get less than $15 thousand. In your mind, you are worth every penny but in
the eyes of many athletic directors your athletic scholarship value has yet to be
Why are you putting blogs like this up. There is a whole lot of possible great players including myself but still no college basketball has yet open doors. I respect your words and everything but sometimes you coaches pass by true athlete that need and want it more than everyone.
The blog is to inform players how competetive it is in the basketball world, especially when it comes to securing a scholarship. If you read the articles in its entirety you will actually learn a lot about the college recruiting process and why some people get selected and others do not. Many times it is the academic GPA and/or academic promise in combination with athletic skills that gets a person a scholarship not the other way around. The blog sheds light on why students from many academically deficient neighborhoods fail to secure scholarships. The problem does not stop there. There are many athletes that go to junior college and excel athletically but have a hard time securing scholarships because of their low GPA and/or lack of an Associate Degree. As I stated before, my post are designed to educate those who may not know the difficulties that are ahead.
Coach Grooms. You blog is poignant and accurate considering the continued growing affect that the media has on society. There is a clear yet erroneous value that "sports and entertainment are the only way to make it out" in urban black culture. Much of that is born of society's streotype of the "black male athlete myth"(Black females are attending college at a 2 to 1 ratio over black males). Even in contemporary America most images of successful blacks centers around sports and entertainment.The same bares out with latinos also. Sure there are some examples of successful blacks outside of these areas but few. As a result, these communities place a heavy burden in these areas and as you noted the opportunities are few statistically. I believe the major obstacle for urban students(and poor students in general) is not school resources but rather this culture that is subscribed to by everyone in the student's sphere. You have teachers and administrators who lower the standards for these students, thinking that they are doing them a favor. I encountered this on countless occasions as a student, advisor, and teacher. Often , they will get extra lax with athletes, "knowing that athletics is the only thing that keeps the student even in school". In these scenarios , all that happens is that the inevitable is delayed until end of high school or maybe college....these kids do not have the academic skills to make it. You have parents, guardians, and other "advisors" that send the message that you're the next star and you just have to "want it bad enough". So what happens if they are injured as you note, they become part of the surplus labor population in our society. This population who struggles daily to make ends meet.
Young athletes reading your blog should seek to make themselves marketable, to borrow a term from the business world or be a "complete player" if that terminology is more appropriate. Be a strong student! That means seeking help when you truly need it and realizing your weaknesses. Be a solid citizen! Ge
