RE: Rice Kids
ok i'm going to address a bunch of points here......
WRC....i understand headcount sports. my wife was one of the ladies that fought rice(and WON) to get more money for off campus housing for not just the non-headcount sports but for ALL athletics. yes i fully understand that non-headcount sports have a harder time, but that is across the board at every single school and they are still getting some of the best talent around. you are giving excuses to why they aren't going after kids, stop it. with regard to football and running track, once again you are incorrect. while i was at rice we had several football guys run track and it was never a problem. they went to football workouts AND they did track workouts. my son who has committed at this time, was asked if he wanted to run track at said school, he said yes...they HEAD COACH was very excited and said he was HOPING he would say yes because he feels that my son would be a great addition to the men's track team as well. jamal charles while at ut was able to run track also. mack brown didn't want him running hurdles but never had a problem with him running the 60, 100 and 200. i can go down the line of football guys that also ran track, they are okay with it long as you're still getting your weightlifting with the football team. so again those are excuses.....we need to stop with it and address the lack of doing things a better way.
RiceLad and OO....two part answer.....keeping up with rice kids isn't easy....keep up with their parents. if you know where they stay it's easy to send a form when you are asking for money that simply asks do you have any kids and what age are they, what extra-curricular activities they are in. i mean i came up with that literally as i was typing by they haven't come up with that in all these years...cmon now. next they wouldn't track kids from birth until recruitable age, that is just truly doing too much. you start with ex-athletes. am i saying that non-athletes can't have athletic kids? no i'm not, but generally speaking genetics travel, just saying. so if you start with our ex-athletes..have them be a part of the school, know their family, know their kids, you don't have find out about them, you ALREADY KNOW about them. there is no way that any ex-athlete should go to their sports front office and they NOT know who they are. i know for a fact that my friends at other schools do not have to introduce themselves when they arrive at their schools. they walk in and are greeted with first name hellos, etc. our relations are terrible and they think a bbq or tailgate where they ask you for money at the end is going to make it better.
actual relationships aren't being built. they build them with the select few that they feel can do something for them. ND, Izzo, Sendejo etc. those guys are high profile so they without a doubt build a great relationship with them, but what about LaDouphyous McCalla? Julian Duncan? Jarret Erwin? Joe Bob Thompson? Julian Duncan was the first black person to be head of marketing for an NFL team.... has a son and a daughter(both are young). He's in Fla but he loves his school. keeping up with ex-athletes kids isn't hard, they aren't trying and don't want to. in the process they are alienating their alumni, but from where I stand they truly don't care how we feel about them pushing us away. they don't seem to truly care about forging real sustainable relationships....they just want our money and if you aren't giving them tons of money or can get them tons of money, they are uninterested in actually building a relationship with us.....
finally...i will repeat once AGAIN. i could careless if they recruit my sons or not. it means so very little to me. taking that stance makes it seem like i feel like my son is missing out on an opportunity. whether my sons get scholarships or not they will go to school, so there are no missed opportunities over here. RICE is missing out on being better. it's about being able to upgrade your talent or at worst continue getting good talent. we aren't doing that and from an alumni's standpoint, NOT a parent, it's frustrating. like i said my son has already committed at this point and my youngest is a freshman(I'm telling you right now....he will also go to a D1 school...he's ranked as the #9 RB in the area in his class). has little to do with my kid and more to do with my school being the best it can be. if you can find me 3 moves later to ask me for money, i think you know if i have child that is an elite athlete.
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