Do Your Homework If You Want to Go to Right School

Sleepless nights. Lobbying from family and friends. Waiting by the mailbox for acceptance letters. Deciding between Nike and Adidas.

A day in the life of a college recruit?

No, it’s what an elite eighth-grade athlete goes through before choosing a high school.

Recruiting is illegal at the prep level. But a private school football coach boasted last week, “We have a banner class coming in.”

He wasn’t referring to the debate team.

In a matter of days, the first letters from private schools will go out informing eighth-graders whether they have been accepted for fall enrollment.

To reach this point, students probably have taken an entrance exam, been interviewed and submitted junior high transcripts.

“Height, weight and 40-yard time,” is not requested on entrance exams--yet.

Somehow, coaches know when a top freshman athlete enrolls. Word spreads fast in this era of youth club teams. Then come the high-fives and congratulatory phone calls from college coaches.

Those who thought Michigan-bound running back Justin Fargas of Notre Dame High felt pressure choosing a college, imagine what went through the mind of basketball player Harrison Schaen, a 6-foot-5 eighth-grader from Woodland Hills who decided between Harvard-Westlake, Santa Ana Mater Dei and Santa Monica Crossroads.

It’s not much easier than picking among UCLA, Stanford and Duke.

“I think it’s easier to select a college than a high school,” said Schaen’s father, Lionel.

Lionel said he will move his family next month to Orange County, where Harrison, 12, will repeat the eighth grade before enrolling at Mater Dei in the fall of 1999.

Harrison must be accepted by Mater Dei, a private Catholic school, but there’s a better chance of discovering life on Mars than the Monarchs rejecting a tall, talented basketball player with good grades.

“Mater Dei is a wonderful school with a fantastic basketball program,” Lionel said.

Harrison is being coached at the youth level by former Mater Dei assistant Pat Barrett.

The fact many people already know about Schaen is no surprise. Top athletes are identified at a young age because there are club teams and all-star teams for virtually every sport and every age. Players and parents discuss details of each other’s potential high school choices. Ideas are planted, perks explored.

In the 1990s, it’s rare to discover a prep coach engaged in illegal recruiting. Thanks to open enrollment, students can attend any school they want as long as there’s classroom space. Coaches don’t need to recruit--they let their players or players’ parents make the recruiting pitch.

There’s no such thing as an athletic scholarship at the high school level. It’s illegal. But how come top athletes don’t pay tuition at some private schools? The answer is financial aid.

Private school administrators insist money is given strictly on financial need, with no consideration for the student’s vertical leap or 85-mph fastball. Suspicion, though, creates enough conspiracy theories to fill an episode of “The X Files.”

Landing an outstanding basketball or football player is big news on campus. Softball players also have become a hot commodity, particularly pitchers.

Harvard-Westlake’s softball program will receive a giant boost next fall with the arrival of 14-year-old pitcher Elena Ferrero, the Wolverines’ most heralded incoming athlete since the basketball-playing Collins twins. She’s the best pitcher for her age in California and maybe the nation, and Harvard-Westlake got her when she enrolled at its middle school campus two years ago as a seventh-grader.

Ferrero’s presence almost certainly will motivate other top softball players to seek enrollment at Harvard-Westlake.

But getting into Harvard-Westlake is no easy task. There are only 40 openings for ninth-graders from 300 applicants for the 1998-99 school year at the Studio City school. Besides strict academic standards, there’s $12,800 a year in tuition. Unless you’re the CEO for Disney, filling out financial-aid applications is a must.

Parents and students will be hovering over their mailboxes waiting to hear from Harvard-Westlake this month. If you want to fill one of those 40 openings, being an all-star athlete helps immensely.

“We take extracurricular activities into consideration so long as they meet our academic standards,” said Brian Taylor, girls’ basketball coach and associate director of admissions at Harvard-Westlake.

Public schools have been waging a losing battle against private schools for athletes--until the last few years. Open enrollment and magnet programs are the public schools’ new weapons.

Open enrollment increases a public school’s boundaries, taking away one advantage long enjoyed by private schools. Magnet programs offer strong academic environments, giving parents the incentive to try a public school.

Last week, open enrollment closed in the William S. Hart District. Soon, letters will be sent to students seeking to attend schools outside their neighborhood boundaries. It’s the talk of the Santa Clarita Valley: Which top football player is switching to Hart? Who’s leaving Canyon for Valencia? Where’s the eighth-grade baseball phenom headed?

It’s part of life as a star athlete in the 1990s.

Eric Sondheimer’s local column appears Wednesday and Sunday. He can be reached at (818) 772-3422.