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Common mistakes we see repeated over and over again by prospects and parents alike

We have seen, and even perpetrated, many of the issues we will highlight in this public service announcement. We wish it weren’t so. However, you reading this can certainly learn from our mistakes.

HB Lyon, Scouting Dvision, KPGFootball

We have come up with what we think to be a fairly apt analogy for recruiting. We are gong to use some photographs borrowed from the internet to make our points.

This article is not really about dating. It is about recruiting.

We hope you get the thinly veiled analogy here. We have tried to make it fairly plain.

The first photograph is of Hollywood actress, Scarlett Johansson. She is pictured to the right of this particular paragraph.

Scarlett Johansson is beautiful, famous, and someone who is likely to gain you money, fame, and notoriety if she were to just have dinner with you. She is similar to signing a scholarship to play football with an FBS, Power-5, program.

She is beautiful. She is famous. She is on TV quite a bit, as will you also be, provided the two of you enter a committed relationship. She will raise your public profile.

Does this sound familiar? These are similar attributes one enjoys signing a scholarship to play Division-1 football at the FBS, Power-5 level.

Of course, what are the chances you will EVER meet Scarlett Johansson, much less date her? Equal to roughly the same as the chances a Kentucky HS prospect will sign a grant-in-aid to play football at the Power-5 level. The chances are not impossible, but not probable; certainly remote.

The next lady we are using as an example is Ms. Kentucky’s, Ramsey Carpenter, from Ohio County. It is our contention dating Ms. Carpenter would be analogous to signing a grant in aid to play at the FBS low to mid-major to the FCS level of Division-1. Her picture appears to the lower-right of this paragraph.

Ms. Carpenter is also a stunning beauty. If you manage to get involved with her, you may be on TV some, but not all the time. She is beautiful. She is regionally, though not nationally, famous. She will raise your regional, public profile.

You probably won’t net much money from your involvement with her, at least not nationally, but there will be some mild, yet still ascertainable, fame and notoriety realized from just the two of you sharing dinner.

There are those who firmly believe Ms. Carpenter is even prettier than Scarlett Johansson. There are those who would prefer getting involved with Ms. Carpenter over and above Scarlet Johansson.

The position of those people is entirely legitimate. The preference is entirely understandable. Dating a Hollywood starlet, and everything it entails (and requires), isn’t for everyone.

The last person we are depicting for our analogy is a stock photo of a Google search entitled, prettiest girl in high school or town. We don’t know this young lady’s name, or if she is even a real person as opposed to an artificially created image.

We believe the privilege of dating her is analogous to signing to play football at either an NCAA-II or III or signing somewhere to play at the NAIA-level. Still a desirable happenstance, still quite an achievement.

This young lady is very pretty and could well end up the love or your life. There is a certain amount of hometown celebrity which comes with dating her and many of your friends will be quite jealous.

You likely won’t ever get on TV dating her; but, you might well be in the local newspaper, or on local radio, as a result of this entanglement.

There are young men who prefer her to Scarlett Johansson and Ramsay Carpenter. They want a solid, productive, and loving relationship without the attention which may come from involvement with the other two.

There are those who firmly believe the “girl next door” is prettier than Scarlett Johansson or Ramsey Carpenter. There are those who would prefer getting involved with our hometown beauty over and above Scarlet Johansson and/or Ramsey Carpenter.

The position of those people is entirely legitimate. The preference is entirely understandable. Dating a Hollywood starlet, or even a “Ms. Kentucky,” and everything it entails (and requires), isn’t, after all, for everyone.

Now we have our “cast of characters,” what is our point. The point is simple.

Many of you are running around hoping to “catch on” with the “girl next door” but every time we look at your social media feed you’re chasing Johansson and Carpenter all over the place. Ms. Johansson doesn’t know you exist, much less envisions the two of you having a committed relationship, and Ms. Carpenter barely knows you’re alive.

The girl next door actually is attracted to you and wants to have a committed relationship going forward. How far are you going to get with telling her she just isn’t good enough, pretty enough, or enough of a celebrity for you? What do you think she will say when you tell her, “you know what; I think I can do better than you. Should it turn out I can’t, I will circle back around and we can go on together from there.”

Do you expect that to work? How long and how hard are you going to chase the pipe-dream, turning up your nose at quite the opportunity, and life-changing experience, your home-town beauty both promises and is more than capable of providing?

We suggest to you that when you arrive back on the front door stoop of the girl next door you will find she has moved on to other suitors. After all, her dance card isn’t empty. Lots and lots of young men would be thrilled to get in a committed relationship with her.

We see prospects doing this all the time. There is a prospect we follow who was on a visit to a small college he professed to really covet. While on the visit, his social media posts were awash with him at Power-5’s and wearing their team gear.

The off-shoot of all this is the “girl-next-door” school didn’t offer. Our guy was left to wonder why?

If you have ever done much dating, you can likely answer his inquiry.

Word to the wise…

This is Fletcher W. Long, reporting for KPGFootball, reminding you to PLAY THROUGH THE WHISTLE!

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