Recruiting Confidential: A Father, a Son, and Big Time College Football

by David Claerbaut

What is it like to be a heavily recruited high school football star? James and step-dad Dave learn the ins and outs of the college courting process and share their inside story in Recruiting Confidential . With all the controversy surrounding NCAA compliance breakdowns, booster bribes and big time pressure in coaches and athletic staffs to bring the best of the best to their institution, how do this father/son duo navigate the murky waters of big promises and big expectations? Claerbaut reveals in honest reflection how the schools go about bringing star players to their team, what impressed them and what turned them off to various coaches and campuses. As the journey to a college decision nears, father and son discover a bond that has developed and hopefully will grow as James announces to the world where he will spend his college days―on and off the field.

Genres: Sports

224 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2003

Reviews

[Alex · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book. One of the very few insider accounts of the college recruiting process, told from the perspective of a stepfather, it is an entertaining read and really sheds a spotlight on the meat market that is recruiting and how certain schools dismiss their prospects like so much unwanted baggage. A true eye-opener.

[David Ward · Rating 1 out of 5]

Recruiting Confidential: A Father, A Son, and Big Time College Football by David Claerbaut (Taylor Trade Publishing 2003) (796.33263). I gave this book the lowest rating of any I've ever read. To start with, the title is all wrong. The author, had he been honest, would have left out any reference to "a son" or to "big time college football" and called this simply "Recruiting Confidential: A Father" to correctly reflect where all of the author's attention is directed. The schools referenced herein are in no way "big time college football schools," and the author hardly refers to or pays any attention to the thoughts or opinions of his son the recruit. Think about it, fellow reader: if this were any kind of collaboration, wouldn't the recruit be credited as a co-author?

And the choice of vocabulary! To call the prose purple would be to insult the color purple. Here's the author on page two of the text: "In fact, James dispenses words about as liberally as the nineteenth-century robber barons dispensed raises to their employees. This has been a matter of some mirth between us." Are you kidding me? This sounds like a comic book.

Here's some dialogue from the first chapter: "'We've got to find a Steak 'n Shake on the way home,' I said to James, referring to a fast-food chain heavily concentrated in the downstate Illinois area. We had fun playing detective. Exit after exit was dominated by Burger King, Wendy's and McDonald's restaurants. We, however, would have nothing but Steak 'n Shake. 'There's one,' James called out, pointing in the distance. Indeed it was, and soon we were seated as I watched him crunch through his steak sandwich and eat his fries. 'The flavor of the vanilla in their (Steak 'n Shake) shakes is really good,' said James as he drained the final drops." Recruiting Confidential, pp.12-13.

There's a reason, sports fans, that you've never heard of this book: too much father and not enough son. My rating: 2/10, finished 10/10/13.

[Kyle Pennekamp · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book's subtitle should actually have been: "How a man tries to convince you he's really, really, he promises, not living vicariously through his stepson as they visit college programs that are not at all "big time."

[Pat · Rating 1 out of 5]

too much father son. not nearly enough recruiting