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Recruiting Fair Gives Lesser Lights Another Opportunity To Shine

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By ADAM ADKINS, The Tampa Tribune

Published: February 3, 2008

Riverview's John Green was impressive this season.

The senior running back had 731 rushing yards and three touchdowns against competition in the state's largest classification, and he did it while splitting time in the backfield with one of Hillsborough County's top backs, Jahleel Addae.

Green carried himself well off the field, too, maintaining a 3.0 grade-point average, according to Sharks coach Dan O'Regan.

"He's a great player," Addae said of Green. "He's elusive, strong, tough to bring down. He's like a Clinton Portis-type of back. I think he'll be a great runner at a university or college that picks him up. He's probably the best sleeper in the '08 class in the state of Florida, I think."

But college programs aren't beating down Green's door.

Wednesday will be a big one for many high school football players across the Bay area as they sign college scholarships on National Signing Day, the first day recruits are permitted to sign national letters-of-intent. However, National Signing Day doesn't signify the end of the recruiting process.

In fact, many players will enter the recruiting process long after the glitz and glamour of Signing Day passes, and many players in Hillsborough County will do so thanks to the annual recruiting fair at East Bay High, now in its 10th year.

The two-day event, scheduled for Feb. 16-17 and sponsored by the Tampa Chapter of the National Football Foundation, with assistance from the Hillsborough County Athletics Department and the Tampa Bay Sports Commission, brings in dozens of Division II, III, NAIA and junior college programs for, in some regards, a last-ditch effort to help area players like Green who weren't as sought-after in the recruiting process.

"This is a big, late push," O'Regan said. "So many schools come to these things. They college programs can just come in and soak up any of the kids who fell through the cracks."

According to East Bay coach Brian Thornton, who will host the event for the eighth consecutive year, the recruiting fair was a necessary event for Hillsborough County. He said there were a number of football players being overlooked because their physical makeup or academic standing didn't fit what most major college programs were looking for, but the players could fit into a program somewhere.

"There were a lot of opportunities that weren't being taken advantage of," said Thornton, a former assistant at then-Division III William Penn University in Iowa before coming to East Bay.

The recruiting fair operates essentially the same way as a job fair. On the first day, high school football coaches representing six counties (Hillsborough, Pasco, Pinellas, Manatee, Sarasota and Hernando) will set up at booths. College coaches will stop and relay what they're looking for. If the high school coach has a prospect, he shows some film and the player's transcripts.

If the college coach likes what he sees, the recruit and his parents are invited back for the second day of the recruiting fair. That day, college coaches are set up at booths and meet with potential recruits to discuss options.

The recruiting fair is by invitation only. Players and parents are not permitted to show up without notification from their respective school's coaching staff. Thornton said there can be more than 600 parents and players combined attending on the second day.

Hillsborough County director of athletics Lanness Robinson said Friday his office has received confirmation from between 40 and 50 college programs planning to attend. Thornton added he has received confirmation from an additional 15 to 20 programs.

Most of the college programs represented at the recruiting fair don't offer athletic scholarships, but they can put together packages consisting of academic and need-based aid in an amount that is substantial, coaches said.

While Hillsborough County might have 45 to 50 high school football players sign on National Signing Day, Thornton said the number who will sign as a result of the recruiting fair is significantly higher.

"At least double; heck, it might even be triple the number of kids who get a place to go and play and get an education through this fair compared to those who sign on National Signing Day," Thornton said.

Armwood coach Sean Callahan routinely has multiple players sign college scholarships on Signing Day. Not counting lineman Matt Patchan, who has already enrolled at Florida, Callahan is hoping to have at least four sign Wednesday - running back Eric Smith (committed to Auburn) and kicker Wesley Skiffington (committed to Stony Brook) have lined up their schools, while defensive linemen Sergio Joyner and Josh Alston also could finalize plans by then.

Callahan is heading to the recruiting fair with the intention of landing offers for at least that many - and possibly more - of his other seniors. That includes players such as linemen Devin Core, Juan Gorostiaga and Eric August, linebacker Chris Greene and defensive back Jared Green.

Hillsborough assistant Dean Eychner will be there, too, pitching the abilities of seniors such as defensive backs Erik Fennell and Dan Mosquera and linemen Mario Gallon and Antonio McKay. Those players "for one reason or another" didn't garner interest, Eychner said.

Most of the county's other football programs follow suit, and all think the recruiting fair is a great tool.

"It's great. We've gotten kids in every year," said O'Regan, who will also pitch, among others, linemen Rashaun Byrd and Jamaul Butts and defensive backs Derron Doby and Quinn Polite. "Every one of our seniors that we've pushed and there was an interest in have gotten multiple offers from different places."

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