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Sunday, February 4, 2001

Smaller players may have to settle on smaller schools
5-9, 170-pound Miller center Gonzalez knows desire to play in college isn’t always enough
By Lee Goddard
Caller-Times

David Adame/Caller-Times

Miller football player Robert Gonzalez will have to decide which of the two Division III schools to attend. Unlike some other recruits, Gonzalez has a limited amount of choices when it comes to where he can go to play football.

Robert Gonzalez can't make a pile with his recruiting letters and dive into it. He couldn't comfortably lie on top of them for a posed photograph like so many top recruits can. He can't wallpaper his entire room with letters from colleges that want his playing services. And he can't fill a scrapbook with them, either.
   But those letters - two of them - place him among select company.
   The Miller High School senior is vying for one of approximately 16,200 openings that freshmen fill yearly in all divisions of NCAA football. According to a recent study conducted by the NCAA, less than six percent of the 281,000 senior high school players will ever participate at any level of NCAA football.
   Gonzalez - a 5-9, 170-pound offensive lineman - wants to be among them.
   "Not too many people make it beyond high school football," said Gonzalez, a center for the Buccaneers. "You just have to have the desire to play."
   Sizing up his options
   Gonzalez isn't short on desire, but he is on size. Offensive linemen his height and weight usually are not highly sought, so Gonzalez has narrowed his playing possibilities to smaller colleges.
   In contention for his services are Division III Macalester (Minn.) College and Kansas Wesleyan University, which is not affiliated with the NCAA, but rather the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), an alliance of small colleges.
   Since his sophomore year, Gonzalez realized if he was to play college football, it would not be in front of large crowds in Austin or College Station. When he was pegged to play a big man's position, he began to think small college.
   "Once I was switched to center (from defensive end), I pretty much knew it was going to be hard to get colleges to look at me just because of my size," he said. "With the quickness I had, I thought I would've moved somewhere else, like linebacker. But I figured I still can go to college with the athleticism I have."
   Had he but been a couple of inches taller and a few pounds heavier, Gonzalez may have played at a higher level, Miller coach Jim Gupton said.
   "If he was 6-3, 235, that would be a completely different story," Gupton said. "Even 6-1, 230 at center, he would go to a major college. He's super smart, and center is one of those positions that you really don't care about size as long as there aren't mistakes."
   Gonzalez also has been smart about playing college football. While he is excited about the chance to play Division III or NAIA, he knew a football scholarship would be a longshot.
   Just as well. The NCAA study has all types of sobering statistics for those inclined to believe their son is a scholarship-caliber player.
   Numbers game

There were 114 football-playing member schools in the NCAA's Division I during the 2000 season, said Jim Wright of the NCAA's statistics bureau.

In I-AA, 122 schools fielded football teams, not all of which awarded athletic scholarships.

Division II had 155 teams, almost all of which award athletic scholarships.
   On average, Division I colleges will have 18 to 25 scholarships available for football players, with a limit of 85 overall on the roster.

With junior college players taking some positions, it's generous to assume that 114 schools can give out 20 scholarships on average to freshmen.
   That would be less than 2,300 Division I scholarships available for freshmen out of the approximate 281,000 football-playing high school seniors.
   Roughly 80 of the I-AA schools award football scholarships, and many of them not full scholarships, but partial. While many Division II colleges give athletic scholarships, many are partial awards.
   There is also the NAIA, which, director of Legislative Services Robert Rhodes said, has 82 member schools that have football, the majority of which award some athletic aid.
   Harsh realities
   So just being considered for any type of football scholarship is quite a feat. Kingsville's Bryan Hall, who has had interest from Division I, I-AA and II schools, is one such potential statistic-beater.
   "I consider myself fortunate," said Hall, a tight end prospect. "Just to be considered for a scholarship is an honor. It would be great not to have to rely on loans and instead get the chance to earn a scholarship."
   That's not the case for everyone. Players like Gonzalez, who is interested in majoring in aeronautical engineering, will look to academic grants available at non-scholarship I-AA and II schools, as well as at the 227 football-playing Division III schools.
   Sometimes, it's tough for players and parents to realize that's the route they must take.
   "I think a lot of people have higher expectations than what are realistic," Rivals100 recruiting analyst Bobby Burton said. "These players have been great, but what they don't know is they are now stepping up in competition. Parents haven't seen anybody better than their son. Or they have, and he's two towns over. There's a reason these statistics are that way."
   Fortunately, Gonzalez's parents seem as levelheaded as he is when it comes to his football career. His father played semi-pro football, and knew his son had to work hard to compensate for his smaller stature.
   "My dad was a little undersized," Gonzalez said. "He told me all the time I was undersized and had to work a lot harder than everybody else."
   That hard work should pay off. Whether Gonzalez joins over 16,000 peers in filing into the NCAA football ranks, or if he goes to the NAIA, Gonzalez will get the chance to ply his trade as a quick, smart center.
   And, like Hall, he feels fortunate.
   "I think you pretty much know most of the people that come out to the games (at small colleges)," he said. "It's kind of like high school football. It's local sports. It's like a pride-of-the-school thing.
   "Some people perform better in front of a small audience," he added. "Some have got to have that big audience out there just screaming. Some, it doesn't matter as long as they are playing football. That's my category."
   And that's one category the NCAA can't measure.


Staff writer Lee Goddard can be reached at 886-3613 or by e-mail at goddardl@caller.com

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