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D.C. Players Are Going Public
Dunbar quarterback Nathan Bussey steps up his effort during a recent workout. Bussey has several Big East schools interested in him, along with Illinois of the Big Ten.
(Mark Gail - The Washington Post)
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Austin, for example, opted for Coolidge after the Colts hired Jason Lane as coach before Austin's freshman year. With a coach he knew and trusted, his decision wasn't as difficult.
"It probably would have been easier to go off to a private school," Austin said. "I thought to myself, 'If I get an 'A' at Coolidge, it's the same as an 'A' anywhere else.' All I needed was a chance to play, and I took advantage of it."
Allen Chin, executive director of the DCIAA said: "Our JV program 10 years ago was non-existent. We had kids coming out of middle schools [and into public high schools] that had no skills."
It shouldn't come as a surprise that the District produces strong football talent. According to a 2004 study by recruiting Web site rivals.com examining where the NFL players come from, the District spawned more NFL players per capita than any U.S. state (17.52 per million population; Mississippi was second at 17.06).
Major colleges, however, still stayed away because many of those players had trouble qualifying academically. Mid-major programs were usually the ones that took chances on those types of recruits because they accepted players who were "partial qualifiers."
"We're recruiting the inner-city kids now," said Virginia Tech assistant head coach Billy Hite, a District native who played at DeMatha, and has been with the Hokies since 1978. "It used to be we couldn't take them because of grades."
Players are also staying at public schools because their options are now a little more limited. It used to be that if a player hit a late growth spurt or developed his skills later, he could transfer to a private school in the middle of his high school career.
"We had a number of kids come in as 11th graders," DeMatha Coach Bill McGregor said. "Several a year."
Three years ago, though, the Washington Catholic Athletic Conference passed a rule that required any student who transferred into one of its schools after the 10th grade to sit out of athletic participation for one year.
"For the most part, if you don't get them in by ninth grade, you can't get them," Gonzaga Coach Kenny Lucas said.
As a younger generation of coaches has taken to the sidelines of D.C. public schools, they have brought with them an understanding of NCAA eligibility requirements. Jefferies and Lane, for example, have academic coaches on their staffs who explain the sometimes confusing NCAA rules to players and parents.
"Your mama and your grandmamma, those were your academic coaches," said Lane, who played at Ballou before graduating in 1988, and first hired an academic coach last year. "Academically, we can't compete with DeMatha or St. John's, but we've improved drastically."
Benn said: "The equipment, the guidance, the exposure, the private schools give you all that. [D.C. public schools] had a bad reputation of guys not working hard. But we love to compete, and we're showing we can do it now."
