DENNIS SILVA II | STAFF WRITER
It doesn’t make sense to Sean Patterson.
For five years, Patterson and his family called the Rio Grande Valley home. It’s where his middle son Shea — an All-Valley quarterback as a freshman at Hidalgo three years ago and now attending IMG Academy as the No. 4 overall recruit in the Class of 2016, per CBS Sports’ 247sports.com — grew up.
Over that half-decade, Patterson saw many young, talented football players in the Valley. And even today, after moving his family out of the Valley because of a job transfer in the summer of 2013, he still sees diamonds in the rough, an “untapped resource.”
“There are just too many kids from the Valley that play their last game of football and are never heard from again,” Patterson said.
Patterson said recruiting is a process, one that began well before Shea, a University of Mississippi verbal commit, even touched the football field at Hidalgo.
It’s a process, or an understanding of it, that Patterson believes is holding the Valley back from reaching similar heights, particularly in football and basketball.
“There are kids slipping through the cracks because of a lack of a process,” Patterson said. “But you can’t tell me out of 1.3 million people (in the Valley), that there’s not a handful of NCAA Division I, I-AA players out of all those high schools.”
Alandra Speights agrees. Her son, McAllen Memorial running back Trevor Speights, is entering his senior season with the Mustangs with nine offers, including elite programs like Stanford and Texas A&M. Since Trevor’s seventh grade year, Speights has followed the same steps Patterson took for Shea: make a highlight film, send it to coaches, make sure Trevor attends the right camps, connect with college coaches and follow through.
“The school district, the coaches … they all need to have a better understanding of the recruiting process,” Speights said.
Speights and Patterson know Valley kids grow up with a geographic disadvantage. Home is deep south Texas, a considerable distance away from premier markets like Houston, Dallas and even San Antonio.
“We do have kids that can play at the next level,” Speights said. “Yes, it’s an uphill battle, and yes, it’s a lot of hard work. But you can accomplish a lot.”
Duke Pistokache, father of Joaquin and Jesse Pistokache, saw older son Joaquin have trouble garnering looks by NCAA basketball scouts despite finishing his high school career as Sharyland High’s all-time leading scorer. So Duke encouraged a different route for Jesse, who played at three schools during his four years of high school — including Sharyland High his freshman and junior years — in an attempt to get noticed. It worked.
Though Joaquin is playing Division I basketball as a walk-on at University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, Jesse earned a full scholarship to DI Richmond University, where he will compete as a point guard starting this season.
“The foundation of being able to play the game is laid at an early age,” Duke said. “Getting Jesse out laid a true foundation so he could play at a higher level.”
Each student-athlete will have a different process in their respective recruiting experience. There is no set guideline for how to go about it.
What follows is a general plan that parents, coaches and student-athletes can adhere to, based on the recommendations and experiences of those who have seen it work.
>> ACADEMICS
Without the grades, the prospect of playing college sports is nonexistent.
Grades are the No. 1 thing recruiters ask about when looking at a kid. It’s important for coaches, players and athletes to get acquainted with the NCAA clearinghouse (requirements for eligibility for potential college athletes) and familiar with the sliding scale (colleges consider a higher GPA better than a test that can be perceived as bias. The higher an athlete’s GPA, the lower the test score can be).
“The No. 1 thing is educating the parents on the prerequisites, whether it’s the clearinghouse, getting transcripts uploaded, filling out questionnaires on college websites, having your test scores available, or whatever,” said Edinburg High baseball coach Robert Valdez, who has sent 21 players to play college baseball over the last seven years.
Speights knows how important academics are. Stanford has more than eight offers for the running back position, but only Trevor and another recruit have the grades to take advantage of that. Still, a talent like Trevor, a Class 6A first team all-state selection last season, is an exception in the Valley.
“The majority of our kids in the Valley are going NAIA or NCAA Division III,” Mission Veterans Memorial football coach David Gilpin said. “We’ve had one kid, for instance, who went Division I in my six years here. A lot of the money for these kids wanting to play at the next level will come from academics.
“At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter where the money comes from — athletic, academic or via grants. That’s all money that doesn’t have to be returned, that’s not financial aid or out of the parent’s pocket.”
>> START EARLY
Parents, athletes and coaches shouldn’t wait to send out a prospect’s highlight film to colleges and establish relationships with colleges and their coaches.
Too late could mean an athlete’s junior, and definitely their senior, year. There’s no such thing as too early.
“Three stars is probably all a kid from the Valley can have the rank of (from recruiting web sites) because of the stereotype,” Speights said. “The stigma is real, no matter how salty we get about it. There is a certain belief about players in the Valley. So getting a head start in any way is huge.”
Former Sharyland High baseball and football standout Tres Barrera, a junior catcher for the University of Texas, says recruiting at a young age is the norm.
“I started getting recruited when I was in seventh grade,” Barrera said. “My dad took me to camps and clinics around the country, and got me exposed to a lot of college scouts. I remember going to California and Florida to play with some of the best prospects in the country.”
Starting early doesn’t just mean on the field. It involves taking tests sooner rather than later.
“Kids wait way too long to take their ACT tests,” said Ben Lopez, recruiter for Lindenwood University’s NAIA and NCAA Division II athletic programs in Missouri. “The kids get a 17, and they need a 20. They wait until their senior year, April, May or June to take it, and that’s not going to happen, not unless you’re really, really smart.”
>> TRAINING
It’s essential that student-athletes get their body in the right shape and are disciplined.
Athletes can browse the Internet and watch people train to learn how to do it right. They can mail away for training packages. If they can afford it, there are plenty of personal trainers at gyms all around the Valley.
“When Shea started training, there was duck tape with rocks on the corners and he had made his own speed training ladder,” Patterson said. “He spent $15 from a birthday present on a jump rope.”
Jesse Pistokache learned about work ethic as a fourth grader under a personal trainer. But he was also a student of the game of basketball, and that’s where his game evolved.
His emphasis was on learning the game from a skills perspective, particularly moves and footwork, and shooting. In high school, he made at least 250 shots per day. During a six-week stay at Richmond for a summer camp last month, he made 400 shots each night during a two-hour time limit at the gym.
“I’m big on YouTube, now and then,” Jesse said. “I’d get on YouTube and just search stuff. I’d type in ‘Kobe Bryant Footwork,’ for instance. I’d search for ballhandling drills. Working on skill is a big thing, especially in the Valley.
“There are tons of kids in the Valley who can run faster and jump higher than me, but the difference is I know how to play the game. I learned how to do moves, how to get open, how to jab step into a pump fake. It sounds simple, but you have to know how to play basketball.”
>> GET A PLAN
A parent and the student-athlete should find a position and sport the athlete can succeed in. They should be realistic about the types of colleges and camps the athlete wants to attend. It’s also important to make an athlete’s coaches aware of the kid’s goals, in coordination with the school counselor.
“Things don’t just fall into place,” Patterson said. “Get a plan together.”
Jesse Pistokache goes by a simple motto: keep your head down, stay in your lane, work hard and pray harder. It’s a summarization of his experiences during his recruiting as a high school student-athlete, and it’s what he promises to abide by at Richmond.
“Just work hard and don’t listen to the positive or negative stuff, keep your head down and have a disgusting work ethic,” Pistokache said.
Mikey Lopez’s plan was to leave the Valley for more exposure.
The Mission native left during his eighth grade year to play for Austin’s St. Stephen’s Episcopal School and compete for Lonestars in club soccer.
Lopez, now playing for Major League Soccer’s Sporting Kansas City, believes he would have never earned a college scholarship offer from the University of North Carolina had he stayed in the Valley because club soccer allows for a significant showcase and good connections.
Paths like his and Pistokache’s, however, differ from other success stories like J.J. Avila, who played all four years of his high school basketball at McAllen High and also played for the South Texas Hoopsters, the Valley’s AAU team, and former Sharyland High baseball standouts Barrera and Eric Gutierrez. Avila recently played pro basketball in Belgium, while Barrera and Gutierrez are enjoying standout collegiate careers for the Longhorns and Texas Tech, respectively.
“There is no such thing as a perfect roadmap,” Jesse said. “There’s no real best way; everyone has their own path.”
>> BE PROACTIVE
Speights took initiative in Trevor’s recruitment. She emailed colleges early and often. She attended camps with Trevor and wouldn’t leave until she had introduced herself and gotten phone numbers from coaches. She had Trevor attend Rivals camps for exposure purposes and Football University (FBU) camps for skill purposes.
Speights said the key was establishing relationships, and being aggressive about it. She encourages social media use, and Trevor has received a couple of offers simply from direct messaging with coaches.
“Don’t wait for coaches to come,” Speights said. “Go to them. Be in their face. Force them to give a kid a look.”
Whatever it takes. The process to getting a student-athlete noticed by colleges, and hopefully recruited, is not difficult. But it is demanding and relentless.
“The Valley has missed the boat on getting our kids scholarships and to the next level,” Speights said. “It’s easier than most people down here think it is. That comes from misperception, like believing it’s on the coaches or it’ll fall out of the sky just because you put a video on YouTube. But it’s easier than we think. You just have to commit to it.”
For more stories, videos, photos and graphics covering recruiting in the Valley, visit themonitor.com/recruiting