“I worry that Jadyn Davis and other thirteen-year-olds–who are being watched, graded, and packaged–will place everything in the basket of football.”
Jadyn Davis is an eighth grader at Providence Day School in Charlotte. Because he won’t turn fourteen until August, Jadyn and his family are discussing whether he should repeat the grade. If he does, he’ll have one more year to add to his 6′ and 155-pound frame.
Davis hyped up on Twitter
Earlier this month, James Coley (UGA quarterback coach) saw Davis play at a football camp in Athens, GA. Impressed, he offered him a college scholarship. Four days later, Davis was at another camp in Alabama. There, the Tide’s Nick Saban offered Davis a scholarship.
While details of the offers were not disclosed in what I read in the newspaper, it’s evident that young Davis “is already a ‘name’ on the college recruiting circles,” so says Adam Hastings, coach at Providence Day.
“It is unusual (for a kid, like Davis, to receive offers so early),” Hastings said. “But college recruiting is an unusual animal today.” He goes on to say that “to me, it’s crazy that recruiting has gotten so fast, but it’s the reality of today.”
Translated: “the unusual animal” of college recruiting means that two nationally known programs think nothing about making offers to a thirteen-year-old who can “throw a smooth, easy ball.”
If this type of marketing of a young man is our reality, then I suggest we, as a nation, are in dangerous waters.
According to what was reported in the Charlotte Observer, Davis attended the Athens camp to show his talent. The Alabama camp was likely for the same reason. College programs are selling themselves, and they’re finding young, budding talent. No wonder Coach Hastings referred to the situation as an “unusual animal.”
Now, I think it great that Jadyn Davis has both talent and a love for football.
Football may be his avenue to a life of quality. But that is all football is—a way to better things–one being a sound college education. Having said that, I worry that he and other thirteen-year-olds–who are being watched, graded, and packaged–will place everything in the basket of football.
I also worry that they will repeat a middle-school grade to add another year of physical growth–not because it will help them academically. And, most of all, I cringe when a respected high school coach calls all this ‘our new normal.’ It’s abnormal when a culture accepts and supports the virtual bidding for babies, and when people put their trust in the only adults in the room—coaches.
