A New Ballgame for High School Athletes

Sam Sullivan leans forward and tells how it used to be.

“Kids cared about playing for their school. They cared about winning a championship,” says Sullivan, basketball coach at Fremont High for 20 years. “Now, everybody is concerned about ‘me.’ Everybody is playing to get a scholarship.”

Sullivan is speaking of a change in high school sports. In many cases, dreams are no longer of a championship or a varsity letter but a letter of intent.

A meteoric rise in college tuition has made financial concerns predominant for parents, many of whom see an athletic scholarship as the only way to cover the staggering cost of a major university.

Top athletes say that with the increased financial concerns, sports are a grueling year-round endeavor--a serious job. Classes may end this week for most Southland students, but those dreaming of an athletic scholarship know their work is just beginning. In the next two months, many of them will:

* Participate with traveling all-star club teams, in order to compete year-round and earn invitations to prestigious camps;

* Transfer to a new school in search of a better program to showcase skills to college recruiters;

* Hire former players and coaches to receive individual instruction on specific aspects of their positions;

* Enlist the help of recruiting services--headed by entrepreneurs seeking profit from the search for scholarships--the newest of which, for a fee, will put information about a player on the Internet.

“It’s all part of the game now,” Sullivan said.

In interviews with 44 notable Southland prep athletes and their families, 50% of the parents said the goal of their children’s athletic career was to compete in college and 25% said it was to compete professionally.

Parents also stressed that the escalating cost of college--up 234% nationally at public four-year universities from 1980-81 through 1994-95--makes it imperative that their children be positioned for a scholarship.

Said Mike Marquand, whose daughter, Allyson, is a Irvine University High cross-country runner, “[Athletic scholarships] have increased the pot of gold at the end of the athletic rainbow. Instead of at the end someone patting her on the head and saying, ‘You have accomplished a lot in your high school years,’ now, the benefit is very substantial.”

But although many parents say an athletic scholarship is the only way their children can attend a top college, the odds are not in their favor. There are about 10,000 scholarships available for women and 20,000 for men offered by about 800 NCAA Division I and II schools. In 1995, there were 3.5 million boys and 2.2 million girls participating in high school sports. Even with further compliance of Title IX, meaning an increase in scholarship opportunities for women, only one in every 190 high school athletes will earn a scholarship.

“It’s like people who think they are going to win the lottery,” said Linda Wendt, academic advisor at Capistrano Valley High in Mission Viejo. “There are parents who have the feeling that athletics are the way in.”

Here is a closer look at four ways the game has changed for high school athletes hoping to increase their scholarship chances.

CLUBBING IT

Dartgnan Stamps says he gets calls every day in his office at Top Prospects Inc. from parents wondering if he is the youth basketball coach who can get them what they want.

“A scholarship,” Stamps said. “That’s what everyone wants. And, they know AAU, club teams . . . that is where you get scholarships.”

With that in mind, many athletes are playing year-round, pouring both money and time into prestigious club teams.

Practically gone are the days of college coaches sitting at high school games, eyeing the talent. Instead, they take in competitive club and AAU events, such as the volleyball festival in Sacramento; the 16-18 AAU girls’ basketball nationals, this year in Chattanooga, Tenn.; and the myriad boys’ basketball tournaments. And if an athlete wants to be seen, he or she better be there.

“The majority of national recruiting is done at the club level,” said USC volleyball Coach Lisa Love.

Added Pam Walker, UCLA women’s basketball assistant coach, “I would say 90% of recruiting is done during the summer.”

In the last decade, the NCAA has tried to protect prep athletes during the school year. In 1994 it limited men’s basketball coaches to two evaluations per student-athlete during the academic year, and specified only a 20-day evaluation period to shop for players.

That change, and others, have left summer as the substantial recruiting season. Most basketball camps and tournaments are held in July; it is no coincidence that is an open month for recruiters.

Because of this, athletes serious about college scholarships must compete year-round.

Consider the schedule of Riki-Ann Serrins, goalkeeper for the Shamrocks of the Mission Viejo Soccer Club.

In 1994, Serrins traveled to Bakersfield and Boca Raton, Fla., for Olympic development program tryouts and camps in the fall. The high school season lasted from November to March. The day after playoffs ended, her club team began practice for the State Cup in April.

The Shamrocks won the State Cup and advanced to the regional championships in Boise, Idaho, in June, which they won. In July, Serrins participated in an Olympic development camp in Oregon and a few weeks later traveled with the Shamrocks to West Palm Beach, Fla., for the national championships.

In all, the Serrins family estimated expenses related to Riki-Ann’s soccer career in that one-year period at $10,820. It paid off. She has accepted a scholarship to Maryland.

“It was worth it,” said Phillip Serrins, Riki-Ann’s father.

In some instances, athletes must choose between their club and high school teams.

Jenn Detmer, Courtney Hall and Crystal Crawford, who play on the Thousand Oaks High girls’ basketball team, missed practice before a Southern Section playoff game last winter because they were late returning from a volleyball tournament in Las Vegas with their club team, the Hermosa Beach Spoilers.

Even though Detmer averaged 20 points and 10 rebounds and Miller was the team’s second-leading rebounder, Coach Chuck Brown benched them for the start of the game against Huntington Beach Edison and Thousand Oaks lost, 45-31.

“They broke a team rule by missing practice, and the rule had to be enforced,” Brown said. “It was very discouraging and very disappointing to all the girls.”

But it was also a rewarding move by Detmer, who earned a scholarship to Stanford.

“I did feel like I let one of my teams down, but [the Las Vegas tournament] was the first time [Stanford coaches] really saw me play,” Detmer said. “I feel I made the right decision.

“Everybody at school thinks high school sports are supposed to be No. 1. But club is where you get a scholarship.”

Said Stamps: “[Club play] is crucial because all club teams play during live period, when college coaches can come out and watch kids play. High school is mostly during a dead period.

“Plus, with club teams, you may have seven or eight players who are worthy of a scholarship playing at once. [College recruiters] can see a lot of good players in one place.”

For all the added pressure and increased time commitments, high school athletes don’t seem ready to step back from sports.

“I get days where I need time off,” said Glendale Hoover track star Bridget Pearson. “I’ve gotten tired in two or three meets. But it’s my life.”

Said UCLA’s Walker, who coached at St. Bernard, Van Nuys and Hart High: “When I was a high school coach, I didn’t want to admit [what a big role club coaches play]. But now that I am on the other side, I have to admit [club teams] are a necessary evil.”

TRANSFER TIME

It took Brett Saari one layup drill to determine that his daughter Jennifer, then 12, would have a hard time getting a scholarship if she went to Barstow High.

“I took Jennifer with me to see a [Barstow] summer practice and she started making layups,” Saari said. “The coach said, ‘Gee, how were you able to get her to do that?’ I thought, ‘Oh my gosh.’ ”

Two hours away was Brea Olinda High, where girls’ basketball success is measured in state titles won, not layups made.

So Saari’s wife and three children moved into a two-bedroom apartment in Orange County and Jennifer enrolled at Brea Olinda. Brett Saari stayed in Barstow for two years, running his electronics store and seeing his family on weekends. Last year, with Jennifer starting for Brea Olinda, he sold the business and took a job as a salesman at an electronics store in the Brea area.

“Ten years from now, if Jennifer has gone to a good school and is happy, then it has been worth it,” he said at the time.

Jennifer Saari has since signed a letter of intent with Pepperdine.

Each fall, more Southland athletes, as if following a migratory pattern, transfer for athletic reasons. That group includes the high-profile athletes and the no-names, and most switch hoping to find, as the Saaris did, a better athletic environment.

“Over the last few years the number of transfers has absolutely increased,” said Barbara Fiege, Commissioner of the City Section. “In my opinion it is [because of] the desire on the part of the student and the parent[s] to strive toward an athletic scholarship.

“Kids are transferring without a lot of thought about academics or what they leave behind. And it is a statewide problem. At every meeting of the 10 [state section] commissioners, [transfers are] always the No. 1 topic.”

Since 1992-93, athletic-related transfer requests not involving residential changes have increased 9.1% in the Southern Section, the California Interscholastic Federation’s biggest with 496 schools, according to Commissioner Dean Crowley. Fiege said the City Section has also experienced a significant increase, though the section does not keep a record of transfers by reason for leaving.

Football player Austin Moherman attended three schools in a four-month period.

In the spring of 1995, Moherman was a two-year quarterback starter at Mission Viejo High. But he left that June after Coach Bill Denny refused to spice up his team’s offense, as requested by Darrell Moherman, Austin’s father. Austin Moherman transferred to Los Angeles Wilson, a move Darrell said was made in part to further his son’s football future.

One game into the 1995 season, the Mohermans were unhappy with the Wilson program and Austin enrolled at Mission Viejo Capistrano Valley.

Said L.A. Wilson Coach Eddie Martinez: “When I went to the office on Monday morning, [after the season opener], [Austin’s] father was there and he had that look on his face. I knew something was up. He said, ‘We’re leaving. It’s not going to work out.’

“I was just standing there and I didn’t know what I could do. ‘It’s just not going to work out.’ That was the only explanation I got. They got the whole thing done in 15 minutes. Bam! Bam! Bam!”

The exit of the 6-foot-5 quarterback, as dramatic and unexpected as his entrance, was a severe blow to Wilson, which finished the 1995 season with a 4-6 record. But the moves did not hurt Moherman’s future. He got a scholarship to Ohio State.

“A lot of the time, when a kid transfers now, it’s not the team, but whether he can shine,” Martinez said. “Those things come up now as opposed to 15 years ago when kids felt like my school was my school.”

Said Irvine High football Coach Terry Henigan: “Basically, parents are telling you, ‘Start my son, start him at the right position, make sure he’s happy, keep him drug-free, keep him eligible and, by the way, make sure he gets a scholarship.”

Even those doing the transferring acknowledge it might not always be the best course of action.

“Did [Austin] benefit from the transfer?” Darrell Moherman said. “No. It would have worked out just fine if he had stayed at Mission Viejo [High]. . . .

“Each person has to figure out what’s best for their son or daughter. . . . We did what we thought was best at the time.”

GETTING PERSONAL

The minute Joe Borchard stepped onto the playground in San Gabriel, he realized he was in for more than child’s play.

Brigham Young quarterback Steve Sarkisian walked by and smiled. Borchard, a 6-foot-4 quarterback from Camarillo High, turned and spotted Keith Smith of Arizona, then Billy Blanton of San Diego State and Pat Barnes of Cal.

The phone call had come out of the blue, the caller identifying himself as Steve Clarkson, personal quarterback coach. “I’ve heard good things about you,” Clarkson told Borchard. “How about spending an afternoon engaging in some friendly passing competition with other top QBs?”

At the end of the workout, called the Air 7 Quarterback Challenge, Clarkson told Borchard he’d like him as a client. Borchard looked to his father for approval, got a nod, and said, “You bet.”

“It seemed so obviously a good idea,” said Joe Borchard Sr., Joe’s father. “We were entering a whole new world.”

And with that, Borchard joined many of the best high school and college passers in the state, who pay $50 an hour for the former San Jose State quarterback to teach them quarterbacking fine points. Borchard has since received a scholarship from Stanford.

“If it weren’t for sports, none of our kids would be able to attend a four-year college out of high school,” Joe Borchard Sr. said. “They would have had to go the junior-college route and work their way through.”

Clarkson is one of a growing number of personal coaches. Once the domain of tennis and golf instructors, personal coaching has branched into nearly every sport.

“It’s not a knock on high school coaches,” said the mother of one prominent softball player. “They have an entire team to deal with, plus other responsibilities. For the kid who really wants to learn the intricacies of her position, one-on-one lessons are the way to go.”

Many parents gladly pay. Larry McEwan estimates he has spent $2,400 in a year on lessons from Clarkson for his son, Scott, a senior quarterback at Thousand Oaks High.

“Well worth it,” Larry McEwan said.

Why? Besides sharpening McEwan’s skills, Clarkson helped him get a scholarship to UCLA last spring by steering the quarterback to a camp there and introducing him to Coach Bob Toledo.

“My high school coaches do a great job, but I wanted that one-on-one time improving my skills during the off-season that I’d heard Steve could give me,” McEwan said. “He’s improved my mechanics and he put me in a position where I could be seen by UCLA.”

Clarkson built his business, Air 7, to the point where he hired former quarterbacks John Walsh of BYU and Tom Ramsey and John Barnes of UCLA to give lessons.

“[Personal coaching] is just going to get bigger because there is a need for it,” said Clarkson, an assistant coach at Carson and Palisades highs before starting Air 7 in 1988. “With college tuition so high, parents do whatever it takes to improve the odds of their child getting a scholarship.

“It has become no different than giving your kids piano lessons.”

The largest personal coaching business in the Southland was built in 1988 by former minor league baseball player Nez Balelo and high school coach Bryan Maloney. They bought West Coast Baseball School for a few thousand dollars from a group that included Bret Saberhagen.

Today, the Agoura-based school has six locations and 22 instructors--mostly former minor leaguers--who provide private lessons to about 1,000 youngsters a year.

“This school takes a person with marginal-to-good talent and brings them to the next level,” said Jon Schaeffer, a Stanford catcher who took lessons at West Coast while attending Harvard-Westlake High.

Private instructors doing brisk businesses dot the Southland. Former major league pitchers Clyde Wright and Don Aase have instructional schools in Orange County; former major league infielders Kelly Paris and Rob Nelson teach hitting; former minor league pitchers Mark Davis and Alan Jaeger are booked with lessons.

Richard Hickey of Mission Viejo, who charges $25 for half-hour lessons, has seen an increase in girls seeking private instruction.

“Fifteen years ago we had primarily male students, but then girls’ scholarships came in,” he said.

Parents will turn to someone with a sound reputation, even if the coach has not indicated a desire to give lessons. Bob Johnson, father of former quarterbacks Rob and Bret Johnson, found himself in demand four years ago when he resigned after 13 years as El Toro High football coach.

“Parents asked me if I would be interested in coaching their sons,” he said. “I didn’t know a thing about what to charge.”

Johnson’s background makes him sensitive about interfering with a client’s high school coach and he gives lessons only during the off-season.

“The coach is who you are playing for, not me,” Johnson said. “But any coach would be short-sighted, I think, to have a problem with a kid working with [a personal coach] during the off-season. He’s only gaining.”

WWW.SIGNME.COM

Bill Rasmussen’s most successful brainstorm brought around-the-clock sports to cable television. His light bulb has blinked on again, this time to use the Internet to make recruiting more efficient for athletes and colleges.

Rasmussen, who 18 years ago founded ESPN, last fall launched SportsPiks, an online database service that enables college recruiters and high school athletes to get together in the privacy of their home computers.

Eventually, he believes, no deserving athlete will be overlooked and no scholarship money will go unused.

“The future of recruiting is tied to technology that offers the ability to transfer information swiftly and accurately,” he said. “The Internet exposes kids to many more colleges and universities. And the colleges are eager to find as many recruiting avenues as possible.”

SportsPiks has distributed access numbers to 2,400 athletic programs at 1,800 colleges and universities, with plans for every program in the nation to gain access within three years. A trend already has developed: The smaller a program’s recruiting budget, the more likely it is to go online.

“There is a gender twist, with women’s coaches looking at it much more actively than men’s,” said Steve Olsen, SportsPiks’ vice president and general manager. “Divisions II and III and NAIA schools use it more frequently than Division I. In Division I, the nonrevenue sports get the most use.”

For a $30-$50 fee, an athlete can send a personal profile to the database available to college coaches, who pay nothing for the service. Athletes will know which coaches read their profiles and can communicate with colleges via e-mail. The profiles can be updated periodically for an additional fee.

“The kind of people I think it will help most are not the elite athletes everybody knows, but second-tier athletes who will go to lower Division I or Division II programs,” said Tracy Bunge, the Kansas softball coach. “For someone like myself it will enable me to recruit in areas of the country where I don’t have any personal contacts.”

Athletes, however, have been slow to respond to SportsPiks and its two major online competitors--Online Scouting and All-Sport Recruiting. SportsPiks, for example, has fewer than 1,000 profiles on its database and only about half a dozen softball players have received scholarships.

“Ourselves and others doing this are one to two years ahead of our time,” Olsen said. “We are all experiencing the same thing. We haven’t found the magic bean to get to a huge number of student-athletes. The trick is to reach Mom and Dad, and they may not know what the word ‘Internet’ means, let along have a home computer.

“In the long run, the probable way this will work for us and others is to make the site free and become advertising supported by large companies.”

Online recruiting’s biggest difficulty is ensuring the integrity of the profiles, which are simply resumes drawn up by the athletes with input from their high school coaches. If players exaggerate accomplishments, colleges following up with a phone call or recruiting visit are wasting time.

“Say I find 15 players who say they are 5-9 and good in the air,” said USC women’s soccer Coach Jim Millinder. “Fine. Who is grading this quality? Is it the quality I’m looking for?”

Said Rasmussen: “By having the coach and athletes sign the profile, we think in many cases we’ve solved that problem. But it’s not fail-safe at this point.”

Questionable validity is the knock on conventional recruiting services that for $200 to $1,500 will distribute an athlete’s profile to colleges the old-fashioned way: through the mail. It is difficult for the services to generate as much business as possible while promoting every client as a legitimate college prospect.

Times staff writers George Dohrmann, Chris Foster, Steve Henson, Ara Najarian, Jason Reid, Steve Springer and Wendy Witherspoon contributed to this story. It was written by Dohrmann and Henson, and researched by Paul Singleton.

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The Race for Scholarships

The odds aren’t very good for a high school athlete aiming for a college athletic scholarship. The approximate numbers on available scholarships (using 1995 numbers for high school athletes):

WOMEN’S SCHOLARSHIPS: 10,000

MEN’S SCHOLARSHIPS: 20,000

HIGH SCHOOL BOY ATHLETES: 3.5M

HIGH SCHOOL GIRL ATHLETES: 2.2M

PROGNOSIS: One out of every 190 high school athletes earns a scholarship