Check the Rules Early If You Plan College Try

Joe Filson, a guidance counselor at Golden West College, thought he knew just about every registration form and trick of the trade to help students get into four-year colleges.

Then last spring, his son John, a lineman on Loara High’s football team, received offers to play collegiate football. The Filsons quickly discovered they had a lot to learn.

Like so many student-athletes, parents and even school counselors who consider themselves well informed, the Filsons became aware that playing sports in college these days isn’t simply a case of showing up and strapping on the helmet.

The lengthy eligibility process can be a confusing labyrinth of NCAA regulations and individual college entry requirements that sometimes conflict with each other.

The process involves specific course requirements, core classes, qualifying test scores and, for those who desire to play Division I or II, registering with the Initial-Eligibility Clearinghouse--which has the final, sometimes painful, word as to whether a student-athlete will play major college sports at all.

Slip up along the way and the chance of a lifetime may be lost.

“It was a time-consuming process. There’s a real learning curve,” Joe Filson said. “If you’re a parent that has had two or three kids that, perhaps, have gone through this process already, you can gradually learn. But for a new parent, going through this can be bewildering.”

John Filson eventually chose Claremont-McKenna College, a Division III school, because he liked the idea of attending a small college, but not before he hired a professional service to help guide him through the paperwork. These services, which have cropped up in the last 10 years or so, typically charge $300-$1,500 to promote and guide prospective college athletes.

But what if you can’t afford that for a shot at your dream? Do your homework and don’t wait to get started, experts say.

“You have to start thinking about this no later than your sophomore year in high school,” said Jim Wachenheim, a former assistant football coach in charge of recruiting at the University of San Diego. He’s also a representative of the Online Scouting Network, a company that provides help to prospective college athletes. “Way too many kids wait until the summer of their senior year [to plan for college].”

In a nutshell, to be eligible to play sports in college as a freshman, the NCAA requires the student be a high school graduate, have a grade-point average no lower than 2.0 on a 4.0 scale, a passing score on either the SAT or ACT, and passing grades in at least 13 “core” academic classes, such as math, science and English.

The necessary score on the SAT or ACT depends on the student’s grade-point average. Someone with the minimum 2.0 GPA would need a minimum score of 1,010 on the combined verbal and math sections of the SAT, or a minimum 86 combined score on the four-part ACT. Whereas someone with a 2.5 or better GPA would need only an 820 on the SAT or a 68 on the ACT.

It is recommended that the tests be taken as early as possible after July 1 of what will be a student’s junior year, and he should continue to take the tests to improve his score, or at least until he gets a passing score, said John Dempsey, a regional director for College Prospects of America. His company, for a fee, will help a prospective athlete look for scholarships as well as obtain and process the necessary forms and applications.

According an NCAA student handbook, students can take the SAT as often as they want and submit their best score on each section--verbal and math--no matter when they achieved it.

Long popular on the East Coast and in the Midwest, the ACT is gaining in popularity among students on the West Coast, Dempsey and others said.

“The ACT is easier to pass,” said UC Irvine men’s volleyball Coach Charlie Brande, who since 1985 has conducted a class on how to qualify for college for members of the Orange County and Balboa Bay volleyball clubs, which he owns and operates. “It is more straightforward. It’s a very objective test and I think it is easier to score well on it.”

Different colleges have different entry requirements, and students should learn what those are. At Notre Dame, for example, where Mater Dei running back Mike McNair will be heading this fall, incoming freshmen need an additional three core classes above the NCAA’s requirements.

“Well over half of the incoming freshman class that attempts to come here, I have to say no to them,” said Dan Saracino, Notre Dame’s director of admissions. “We require a minimum of four college prep-type courses each year of high school.”

Brande says students can get tripped up by the Clearinghouse.

No later than the fall of their senior year in high school, students must register with the Clearinghouse if they intend to play at the Division I or II level. For a one-time fee of $18, the Clearinghouse is supposed to collect records of the students’ academic standing and forward that information to colleges where students have applied.

Begun four years ago and operated by a private company contracted by the NCAA, the Clearinghouse has been criticized for slow and sometimes inept processing.

In perhaps its most famous case last spring, the Clearinghouse invalidated the SAT scores of former Mater Dei basketball player Schea Cotton, who planned to attend UCLA, ruling that Cotton had improperly received special accommodations each of the three times he took the test.

Cotton subsequently enrolled at St. Thomas More, a prep school in Oakdale, Conn.

Brande said two prospective walk-on volleyball players at Irvine were denied eligibility by the Clearinghouse, despite having already been accepted at the university. In one case, Brande said the Clearinghouse had duplicate files on the player, one of which contained nothing more than his name. For the other, the Clearinghouse questioned whether a high school college-prep English course met NCAA requirements.

John Filson’s decision to play at the Division III level spared him problems with the Clearinghouse, Joe Filson said.

Last week, about a year after John initially applied, Joe Filson called the Clearinghouse just to see if it had gotten around to handling his son’s file yet. He said he was surprised to learn his son’s records had not yet been approved because the Clearinghouse was reviewing two English courses John took at Loara.

According to Tustin Athletic Director Al Rosmino, who has guided Times’ Glenn Davis Award-winning running back DeShaun Foster through recruiting paperwork, the definition and content of the 13 NCAA-required core classes isn’t specific.

“I don’t think the Clearinghouse has been as expedient as most at the NCAA thought it would be,” Rosmino said. “It’s a big hang-up for a lot of kids. Some colleges aren’t getting the right information and they eventually come back to the high school athletic director to get what they need to help a kid be eligible.”

Bob Oliver, NCAA director of membership services, said the NCAA is working with American College Testing of Iowa City, Iowa, which runs the Clearinghouse to iron the bugs out.

“We grossly underestimated the amount of work involved in this process,” Oliver said. “The initial purpose was not to be reviewing courses, the purpose was to gather information and then render a decision [on eligibility]. It wasn’t supposed to be an agency that would have to review the courses that the high schools were submitting, but that is what it has become.”

Oliver said the NCAA is about to publish more streamlined definitions of what the NCAA will count as a core class and will send that to 24,000 high schools around the country. The NCAA has established a toll-free, automated telephone number (1-800-638-3731) for individuals to monitor their own processing, he said.

Student-athletes should not expect their coaches or high school counselors to know everything, experts say. Typically, coaches are just as ill-prepared as most parents to tackle NCAA rules and regulations. And school counselors handle several hundred students, each with different needs.

“The high school counselors are more interested in getting students into the University of California and state college systems,” said Dempsey of College Prospects of America. “They’re not too worried about what the NCAA requires. That’s the kind of thing that you have to be aware of yourself.”

Brande suggests students know their options, then regularly visit their high school counselors. They may have information on additional scholarships available to athletes who plan to walk-on or are receiving partial scholarships, or what additional entrance requirements are needed at a particular school.

Also, Division III and National Assn. of Intercollegiate Athletic (NAIA) schools have their own rules, and many of them have even more strict entrance requirements than many NCAA Division I and II institutions.

“It’s important to establish a relationship with with your school counselor,” Brande said. “It’s important that the counselor knows that they have a responsibility to stay updated on what is going on as far as the NCAA is concerned in this growing world of athletic opportunity.”

Woodbridge Athletic Director Dave Cowen, who has counseled many athletes on eligibility rules, says all the information needed to prepare students to be eligible for college is available with hard work and research.

“One of the things that is nice in our area is that UC Irvine and Irvine Valley College and others have college workshops that deal with this very thing,” Cowen said. “That’s a place to start where you can go and be exposed to all of the information you need to know, and any questions you have can be answered.”

A word of caution, however. If you are a high school athletes, be sure that the seminar or workshop is in compliance with NCAA rules, which are very strict about when a college coach can have contact with you. If college coaches are expected to speak at a seminar, for example, and high school athletes are expected to attend, that could be a recruiting violation. If there are any questions, contact the NCAA at (913) 339-1906.

The NCAA also publishes the Guide for the College-Bound Student-Athlete, which is free and usually available in high school guidance or counseling offices, or by contacting the NCAA directly at its Overland Park, Kan., headquarters. Updated annually, the guide provides information from core-class and grade-point average requirements to test-taking and rules about recruiting trips.

Steve Robitaille, father of Woodbridge softball player Christy Robitaille, who has signed to play at Cal State Fullerton in the fall, suggests parents who have had children who have gone through the athletic recruiting process are good resources. For one thing, he said, if a school wants your child badly enough, it will help walk you through the eligibility process.

“The schools themselves will tell you what to do, but you still have to have all that other stuff in hand,” he said.

Wachenheim suggests prospective student athletes have a yearly planner that keeps them on track so that everything is completed on time during the sometimes hectic senior year.

Dempsey agrees, saying that ultimately, prospective student athletes have the future in their hands.

“Bottom line, take care of yourself,” Dempsey said. “If you are capable of going to college, you should be able to figure all this out by yourself.”

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If You Want to Play . . .

Here’s what prospective student-athletes must do in order to practice, compete and receive athletic scholarships as college freshmen:

* Register with the NCAA Initial-Eligibility Clearinghouse ($18 one-time fee).

* Graduate from high school.

* Have a minimum GPA of 2.0 (on a 4.0 scale) in 13 core academic courses.

* Achieve a passing score on the ACT or SAT. The minimum test score needed is based on a sliding scale linking the prospective athlete’s GPA with the test score needed to be declared eligible. An athlete with a 2.000 GPA would need a minimum of 1,010 on the SAT or an 86 on the ACT. An athlete with a 2.500 GPA or higher needs a minimum 820 on the SAT or 68 on the ACT.*

Core Courses

* At least four years of English

* At least two years of math (including algebra and geometry)

* At least two years of social science

* At least two years of natural of physical science, including one lab course, if offered by any high school the athlete attended

* At least two years additional courses in English, math or natural or physical science

* Two additional academic courses in any of the above areas, or foreign language, computer science, philosophy or comparative religion

NOTE: A partial qualifier who has passed required core classes, graduated from high school and has a minimum 2.525 GPA and minimum test scores on the SAT of 810 or ACT of 67 may receive institutional aide, such as a scholarship, but is not eligible to play as a freshman and will have three remaining seasons left, unless obtaining a baccalaureate degree, whereby a fourth year of competition could be granted.

* For more information: Call 1-800-638-3731 for a free guide to NCAA rules.

* The highest scores on the verbal and mathematics section of the SAT or highest scores on the four individual tests of the ACT may be combined to achieve the highest scores.

SOURCE: NCAA