Columnist Dean Juipe: Recruiting process can start early

Dean Juipe

Wednesday, Nov. 17, 1999 | 11:32 a.m.

Dean Juipe's column appears Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. His boxing notebook appears Thursday. Reach him at juipe@vegas.com or 259-4084.

Christopher Leak just had his 15th birthday.

And he just completed his freshman football season in Charlotte, N.C.

He's a young and supposedly gifted quarterback, perhaps with unlimited potential.

Last summer, while still 14, Leak's name surfaced within certain national circles. Before taking his first snap in high school and two years before he could even take his initial driver's license test, Leak did something no one his age had ever done -- or perhaps even considered -- before.

He signed a scholarship to attend Wake Forest University.

For those sensitive to the notion of colleges recruiting athletes at an earlier and earlier age, alarms went off. The double-edged sword they wielded stressed that Leak not only was far too young to make such a commitment, but that Wake Forest was equally in error for committing a scholarship to someone who hadn't even thrown a high-school pass.

Mini-inquiries followed and led to a revelation or two, such as 19 of USA Today's 25 boys basketball stars and 22 of its 25 girls basketball stars having committed to a specific college prior to their senior years. Also, and returning to football, Penn State had committed 21 of its maximum 25 scholarships for next year before this season had even started.

Driven by competition, the belief is that college recruiters have been instructed to go after -- and reach agreements with -- youngsters they once followed with only passing interest.

But UNLV head coach John Robinson doesn't think the problem is as serious as some imply, and, at the very least, he's unwilling to follow the trend. Tempted or not, he's not signing the 12-year-old whiz kid who threw for six touchdown passes in last week's Pop Warner game at Lorenzi Park.

"Maybe in basketball where a kid is 7-foot tall in the seventh grade, you can see he might be good," Robinson said Tuesday. "But in football you can't tell very much about a youngster at an early age.

"We don't start our recruiting process until the player becomes a junior in high school."

While youngsters can attend camps sponsored by college coaches, those coaches are forbidden by NCAA edict from having direct contact with a potential recruit before the player's senior year. But, as seemingly happened in the case of Leak and Wake Forest, there is nothing preventing the youngster's parents from seeking a premature deal with a university.

And therein lies Robinson's real complaint. "Parental ambition" is what he calls it.

"That's where the problem is," Robinson said. "If you ask me, the best thing any parent can do with a child who is athletically inclined is to teach that child to love the game.

"You look at any of the great athletes who became superior in a sport and they always loved to play the game."

By the time he reaches Wake Forest, Leak may love football or he may be burned out. He may be an excellent physical specimen or he may be prone to injury. He may be the next Dan Marino or he may lack either the ability or the desire to play at a higher level.

But he's going to college and he'll be on the Demon Deacons' 2003-04 roster whether he -- or the team's coach at that time -- likes it or not.