Academics often win out for prep recruits

For a time, the lure of college athletics enveloped Meranda Maley.

The former Alonso High basketball and volleyball standout spent the majority of her high school summers attending camp after camp, honing her skills and preparing herself for the possibility of life in a college uniform of some type.

One day she decided no more.

"I enjoy basketball and volleyball a lot and found it fun to just go meet people," Maley said. "I enjoy the traveling aspect, (and the camps) did make me better. … But once I got to my senior year, I realized the number of people who make it in college and go beyond that are very slim and after that I felt school was more important."

Once she graduated from Alonso in 2007, she matriculated to the University of South Florida on an academic scholarship, earning a Bachelors of Science degree in biomedicine. She's now in her second year of pharmacy school at Florida A&M.

Through AAU basketball, Maley, 22, met athletes who played on the larger stage and it was from their tribulations Maley came to her decision.

"Some of the best players I played with in high school weren't even in the starting lineup in college," said Maley, who had a volleyball scholarship offer from Florida Southern in Lakeland. "I realized a lot of them were very good, but they still weren't good enough to play at the college level.

"Then I heard so much about how they say sports is your life in college and a lot of them weren't pursuing a major they wanted to. They were pursuing something that was easier just so they could play sports."

Tom Stager would appreciate Maley's intuition.

He's coached at least 50 softball players to Division I and II scholarships and has watched some of those careers flourish, while others have fizzled.

Stager, a travel softball/baseball coach and parent of three, is no longer shocked when an athlete gets to a school and realizes it isn't the life they want.

"I've seen girls go to college and realize they're not as good as they thought they were and quit in college," Stager said.

Stagers' two daughters, Ashley and Courtney, earned scholarships to play softball at Florida State. Ashley was a four-year starter at shortstop, while Courtney played one season. She eventually left the program and school altogether.

He's a firm believer in coaches being upfront with parents and players when it comes to playing in college.

"A coach has got to be honest," said Stager, who coaches his 10-year-old son Derick on the West Florida Elite baseball team. "A parent, they're not going to see it. They believe their kid is the best and that's it. As a coach, you've got to tell the parent, 'Hey, I'm going to be honest, you're daughter's not Division I, she's Division II,' or, 'Your daughter's not top-level Division I, she's low-level.' "