Shelley: The high school recruit meat market

I know I’m still pretty young in my career progression and that I probably don’t have all the prerequisite sports editor qualities that most of my colleagues have.

What I mean by that is if it doesn’t deal with high school sports or college football, there’s a good chance I don’t care about it as much as other sports guys at other newspapers do.

The Major League Baseball playoffs really don’t concern me this season. I couldn’t tell you more than half of the guys in the NASCAR chase for the cup right now. And I’m completely unaware of the NHL.

But there’s one characteristic of sports writers that I feel has rubbed off on me. And that’s my propensity to judge high school athletes as potential college recruits.

With web sites like rivals.com and scout.com, it’s easy to get a feel for what kind of athletes Division 1 schools look for.

I’ve found myself picking out county players I feel may be able to take that next step and see some time playing college ball.

But it goes beyond simply which players have the best stats on each team. Each position in college football has a specific body type or build that is sought after.

Just because a running back racks up 100 yards per game doesn’t necessarily mean he’s a potential college player.

They can be too small, too big, too short, too tall, a little slow. There are so many factors that go into it.

The recruiting scene has genuinely become a meat market of sorts. And I feel bad a lot of times because I dismiss a high school player’s skill because he doesn’t fit that college player mold.

Some of the best players in this county don’t exactly look like college players, but I would be willing to bet they would still succeed at that level.

So here’s where I draw a nifty little parallel. Just humor me for a minute.

In a way, I’m a lot like those athletes. I don’t generally fit the mold of those established sports writers. But that doesn’t make me a bad one right?

I like to think I’m pretty good at what I do. From time to time, you the readers remind me that you enjoy these often incoherent ramblings that appear on the side of this sports section every week.

It gives me a big head, I’ll admit. But nothing will lift your spirit more than someone giving you a compliment, undeserved or not.

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been having a bad week only to have someone come up to me on Friday night and tell me they enjoyed my column on diets, the spread offense, my playing days or whatever inane drivel I type up every week.

It makes a difference in my performance.

And it makes a difference in the performances of high school players too.

Every player has good games and bad games, but when you get those good games and people recognize it and let you know, it’s quite an uplifting feeling.