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Who's to Blame for the Kevin Hart Recruiting Mess?
Hilliard, OH
Saturday, February 09, 2008
Who's to Blame for the Kevin Hart Recruiting Mess? Everyone.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Amidst all the hubbub around the recent football recruiting fiasco concerning a young high school student named Kevin Hart (who faked his own recruitment, culminating in a fake press conference), I got to thinking: What lessons can be learned from this sad spectacle? Hereafter, I found three:
1. We have created a media monster with regards to college football recruiting. Young men, most aged sixteen to eighteen years old, are thrust into the limelight, evaluated from every possible angle, and overloaded with predictions and rankings regarding future success. Coaches clamor, internet message boards become filled with speculation and predictions of the next big recruit, and media outlets swarm to these young men, most of whom are just learning how to shave, drive a car, and work a minimum wage job.
2. This story is about a failure of leadership on two fronts. First, this young man's parents should have played a role in his recruitment, at least to the extent that they would have known that a lack of official visits from coaches was a sign that their son was lying. Had they been more involved, they could have prevented their son from making himself the subject of ridicule (so much so that he hasn't yet returned to high school classes). Second, Kevin's high school football coach failed him in his role as a leader and exemplar. Shouldn't a lack of phone calls and visits from any major program coaches been a sign of something amiss? Apparently not. His coach was caught up in the emotion of having a player supposedly being recruited by big-time programs.
3. We as a society need to let young men be just that: young men. Few of these recruits find success on a large scale at the collegiate level, and the recruiting gurus seem to rank somewhere between psychics and astrologers in terms of their predictive accuracy. We do these young men no favors by teaching them that athletic ability is their sole ticket to success, and that success comes easy.
Dr. Leif H. Smith is the President of Personal Best Consulting, a performance and management consultation firm located in Hilliard, OH. His clients have included The Ohio State University Department of Athletics, The University of Iowa, Duquesne University, and other collegiate programs. He regularly consults with athletes at all levels, from amateur to professional, and has worked with hundreds of athletes, teams, and coaches to improve performance, on and off the field.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Amidst all the hubbub around the recent football recruiting fiasco concerning a young high school student named Kevin Hart (who faked his own recruitment, culminating in a fake press conference), I got to thinking: What lessons can be learned from this sad spectacle? Hereafter, I found three:
1. We have created a media monster with regards to college football recruiting. Young men, most aged sixteen to eighteen years old, are thrust into the limelight, evaluated from every possible angle, and overloaded with predictions and rankings regarding future success. Coaches clamor, internet message boards become filled with speculation and predictions of the next big recruit, and media outlets swarm to these young men, most of whom are just learning how to shave, drive a car, and work a minimum wage job.
2. This story is about a failure of leadership on two fronts. First, this young man's parents should have played a role in his recruitment, at least to the extent that they would have known that a lack of official visits from coaches was a sign that their son was lying. Had they been more involved, they could have prevented their son from making himself the subject of ridicule (so much so that he hasn't yet returned to high school classes). Second, Kevin's high school football coach failed him in his role as a leader and exemplar. Shouldn't a lack of phone calls and visits from any major program coaches been a sign of something amiss? Apparently not. His coach was caught up in the emotion of having a player supposedly being recruited by big-time programs.
3. We as a society need to let young men be just that: young men. Few of these recruits find success on a large scale at the collegiate level, and the recruiting gurus seem to rank somewhere between psychics and astrologers in terms of their predictive accuracy. We do these young men no favors by teaching them that athletic ability is their sole ticket to success, and that success comes easy.
Dr. Leif H. Smith is the President of Personal Best Consulting, a performance and management consultation firm located in Hilliard, OH. His clients have included The Ohio State University Department of Athletics, The University of Iowa, Duquesne University, and other collegiate programs. He regularly consults with athletes at all levels, from amateur to professional, and has worked with hundreds of athletes, teams, and coaches to improve performance, on and off the field.
Leif Smith
President
Personal Best Consulting
Hilliard, OH
614-870-8742
614-870-8743
