Scholarship chase can be costly dream

For Denise LaFave, the cost for her child's happiness and supporting her athletic gifts work hand-in-hand.

LaFave, a bone marrow transplant nurse coordinator at the Moffitt Cancer Center, makes roughly $75,000 a year. She's a single mother of three children, with one already in college and two in high school. Her youngest child, a 15-year-old daughter, was diagnosed with autism. LaFave, 45, doesn't collect child support and moved here from Texas in 2002.

For the past two years, however, she's paid close to $11,000 to support the softball dream of Jordan, her daughter and a Durant High senior. The costs of playing on a high-level travel team, equipment, travel and personal coaches have drained her savings account. Each year, her income tax check goes directly to her daughter's softball expenses.

In addition, Denise sends out a letter to friends and family asking for donations to fund Jordan's softball expenses.

"If you get $50 from 10 people, that's $500. That's a hotel cost," Denise said.

LaFave is one of many parents who is willing to do whatever it takes for a child to obtain an athletic scholarship, although statistics prove such efforts are usually futile.

The National Federation of State High School Associations said 7,628,377 students participated in high school sports during the 2009-10 season. However, around two percent of those high school students received athletic scholarships to compete in college, according to the NCAA.

During that season, 1,109,278 children played football across the U.S. and 316,937 were seniors, according to the NCAA. However, only 18,947 were awarded scholarships, meaning only six percent of youngsters nationwide who played football had their education paid for through athletics.

"Parents are looking at high school sports as a financial endeavor and what they can get out of it,'' Hillsborough football coach Earl Garcia said. "Not all of them are doing it, but it does happen."

With National Signing Day on Wednesday for several sports, including football, many local athletes will sign to continue their athletic dreams in college.

Even if high school athletes are among the fortunate two percent who obtain scholarships, most families do not realize there is a catch.

There are 468 students receiving institutional athletic scholarships at the University of Florida, but with the exception of football and basketball, few of those athletes are on full-ride scholarships, according Stephen Orlando, a school spokesperson.

According to a joint study conducted by the National College Players Association and the Ithaca College Graduate Program in Sport Management, student-athletes in Division I who received a "full scholarship" were left with an average shortfall of $2,951, or $14,755 over five years.

Jordan, who signed a letter-of-intent to play for Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville in November, soon will face that shortfall.

Her college has the second highest amount of out-of-pocket expenses for scholarship athletes of any Division I school in the country at $8,019 per year. The school has offered to pay 70 percent of her expenses, according to her mother.

"For the first calendar year, we're expecting to pay around that amount," Denise said.

Denise said once Jordan gets her driver's license, she will qualify for in-state tuition, which will be less expensive.

The price of obtaining a scholarship goes beyond finances.

Exposure is the key to high school student-athletes earning athletic scholarships. While there was a time high school athletes were multi-sport standouts, most specialize in one sport in hopes of increasing their scholarships odds.

"There is just so much now that is available for kids that want to concentrate on one sport," said Clayton State men's basketball coach Gordon Gibbons, who previously coached at Jesuit and Tampa Catholic. "I just think the combination of parents and coaches, they don't tell the kids necessarily that you have to do this or have to do that, but they try to show them that if you're really going to make it, and maybe get that pie-in-the-sky scholarship, you have to concentrate on one sport.

"There is just so much more available in terms of training for kids that they get pulled into specializing. Playing out-of-school basketball is usually bigger for the kids than their high school teams. They travel all over the country in summer basketball. On your high school team, you're worried about if you can get a bus to take you from Tampa to Brandon, but this summer you're going to Vegas. For the kid, there are just so many opportunities out there now that it's hard not to specialize."

Former Blake and current Winthrop University point guard Andre Smith specialized in basketball through unexpected family help. Charles Smith, Andre's older brother and assistant coach at Blake, witnessed most high-level prep stars developing rapidly because they worked with personal trainers. He didn't want to see his brother left behind.

"I wasn't able to pay a personal trainer, so I became a personal trainer," Charles said. "I became a skill coach. I learned about training athletes, plyometrics and weight training, I went to seminars. …That's how I've been doing this."

The Smiths' father, Charles Smith Sr., is responsible for introducing Andre to basketball. He died in a car accident a year before Andre entered high school, where he blossomed into one of the state's top players. In 2010, Smith signed a full athletic scholarship with Winthrop.

But as Gibbons stated, specialization is key.

For Andre Smith, focusing solely on basketball started when he entered the AAU circuit in the fourth grade. By the time he was in the sixth grade, Andre was playing against some of the of the top future stars of high school basketball, such as former Ft. Lauderdale Pine Crest standout and Detroit Pistons rookie Brandon Knight and Winter Park's Austin Rivers, the National Player of the Year who is at Duke this season.

As an eighth grader, frustrated with the path he had started, Andre questioned the rigorous schedule of traveling to various AAU tournaments around the country, countless hours practicing at the park after school and on Saturdays.

"I couldn't do what (my friends) were doing," Andre said. "I had to be in the gym when they weren't in the gym. I couldn't do what the regular crowd did because that would take up time from me getting better."

The pressure Andre faced to obtain a scholarship has led many families to Dr. Patrick Cohn, a sports psychologist who runs Peak Performance Sports in Orlando. Cohn specializes in helping parents understand how to encourage their children to play sports without putting unnecessary pressure on them.

"Parents have to ride the fine line between support and pressure," Cohn said. "Support means helping the kid get to practice, assist them with aid for the equipment, assist them with the additional coaching they may want. Be a cheerleader as opposed to a coach.

"To keep it fun, parents need to encourage them to perform for themselves. They're not performing for other people. The purpose is to have fun and if they're not having fun anymore, it's OK to stop."

Andre knew playing basketball would mean losing certain pleasures that make teen years memorable, but decided to stay the course.

"I saw there were other kids out there doing the same thing," Andre said. "I knew that if I wanted to play college basketball, I had to take basketball seriously. All of the money that was spent, it's pretty good to know that I'm going to college for free and (Charles') money wasn't spent in vain."

Denise LaFave does not believe her efforts to help her daughter obtain a softball scholarship are in vain.

"In five years, her softball days are done," Denise said.

The dream, the chase, is priceless.

"It's all going to be worth it in the end," Jordan said.