Scholarships pave the road to college for talented CHSL athletes

Metro area -- For  high school students who didn’t bury, but multiplied their God-given talents in athletics, comes the opportunity to play at the next level.

The road to playing sports in college, and maybe for fame and glory beyond, is paved with scholarships.

Presently in the Catholic League, about 60 boys and girls – about 5 percent of the league’s participants in sports (that number is expected to increase as some students are still in the decision-making process)  – have accepted scholarships to ply their skills at the college level in 11 sports, representative of the wide-range offered in the CHSL: baseball, cross country, football, golf, hockey, lacrosse, rowing, soccer, swimming, track, and volleyball.

The Recruiter: Tom Kempf

The process starts with the recruiter.

For the past eight years, Tom Kempf has been the assistant coach, and recruiter, for the men’s basketball team at Aquinas College in Grand Rapids. Aquinas is a member of the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), not as familiar to most fans than their much larger counterpart, the National Collegiate Athletics Association (NCAA).

Both governing bodies have their own academic and amateur standards for freshman participation in intercollegiate athletics as well as guidelines for coaches, counselors, administrators and parents.

The “biggest difference” between the two, says Kempf, are the rules regarding contacts with the athletes.

“I can visit or talk to a player or parents or coaches anytime, any place,” says Kempf. The NCAA has restrictive rules regarding such contacts.

Kempf has a list of 25-30 prospects currently, “but I’m always looking around to add  to the list.” He watches hundreds of games in and out of the basketball season. He checks out amateur and recreational league games and basketball camps.

“Surprisingly, a lot of kids will recruit you,” he says. ‘They’ll check out colleges, send in videos and stuff about themselves through the internet. We get a lot of that.”  That’s how a sophomore from Georgia on this year’s  team came to his attention.

While his beat is the entire state, his familiarity with the metro Detroit area comes from the 20 years before he joined the Aquinas staff when he was athletic director, coach and teacher at Ann Arbor Fr. Gabriel Richard, where he coached the boys basketball team to the Class D state title in 1991 and the girls basketball team to the 1993 state championship.

One of his successful recruitment efforts this year was the signing of Vaughn Avecilla, the 6-foot-3 point guard from Warren DeLaSalle, who helped lead the Pilots to their third straight Catholic League A-B championship and 13th consecutive state district title.

“He is a perfect fit for our program,” says Kempf. “He has high basketball IQ and that intangible quality of being coachable.”

Avecilla will join another CHSL alumnus on the Aquinas roster, Jake Shockey, a 2008 graduate of Orchard Lake St. Mary’s.

Aquinas can’t compete against full-ride scholarships offered by NCAA colleges, Kempf says. “We are limited to the equivalent of six full-time scholarships . . . what we offer is the opportunity to get a degree and a chance to play for a winning program.”

The recruitee: Allen Robinson, Jr.

Penn State let Allen Robinson, Jr. know they were offering him a football scholarship to play for the Nittany Lions in a message left on the family’s phone at 6:45 in the morning on the Saturday after Thanksgiving Day.

Robinson, however, had something of more immediate concern on his mind: he and his Orchard Lake St. Mary’s teammates were preparing to battle East Grand Rapids that evening for the state Division 3 championship.

He accepted the offer of a full ride scholarship in a return call the next day. In mid-December, he and his parents made an official visit to the campus. Robinson and other scholarship winners met with legendary octogenarian coach, Joe Paterno, for about  “10-15 minutes – he welcomed us to the Penn State family,” and while he went on a tour of the campus, his and other parents enjoyed a reception at Paterno’s home.

Robinson – who entered St. Mary’s as a 5-foot-7, 115-pound freshman and blossomed into a 6-foot-3, 195-pound All State wide receiver and safety – wasn’t on Penn State’s mind until Eaglets Coach George Porritt pointed him out to recruiters pursuing another St. Mary’s player, Robert Bolden, who was Penn State’s starting quarterback as a freshman last fall.

Robinson was swamped by letters and phone calls from nearly two dozen colleges, including every Big Ten school. “But there was something about Penn State, a better bond . . . it’s more than football. I can become something in life (he plans on majoring in communications).”

Robinson begins his Penn State adventure with summer classes June 26.

The prospect: Kellen McCormick

The basketball season is never over for Kellen McCormick.

“I’m in the gym every day. I don’t miss a day,” says the slender 6-foot-8, 190-pound junior centerpiece of the Pontiac Notre Dame Fighting Irish.

Well, he allowed himself a week off after the Irish lost to Detroit Country Day in the regional finals to complete an 18-6 season, “but after four days, I had to get back . . . my dad stresses in workouts that you take a day off, someone down the street will pass you by.”

And yes, his “dad” is Tim McCormick, the 6-foot-11 hometown legend at Clarkston High, an all Big 10 at Michigan, and for eight years, in the NBA.

In addition to duties as an analyst on ESPN and ABC basketball broadcasts, he runs popular motivational and leadership workshops for professional athletes, where, according to his website, he espouses the principles of a different NBA, the Never Be Average game plan, “a call for each of us to look deep within ourselves and know that we’re capable of doing more.”

Kellen, who averaged 19 points and six rebounds a game this season, has attracted the  attention of Division I recruiters since his sophomore year. “I’m lucky to have my dad around. He helps me keep a level head.”

He’s had contacts with Northwestern, Iowa, his dad’s alma mater Michigan (“a little bit”), Boston College, Yale (“a lot”) and Notre Dame, to name a few. He visited Butler, the NCAA finalist the last two years. “Coach Brad Stevens is a classy guy,” Kellen says.

His dad’s take on all of this: “You’ll end up where you’re supposed to be.” Kellen says “I want to go where I’ll be comfortable.”

Observers call Kellen a “pure shooter.” During the summer amateur season, which includes tournaments (and more exposure) in Orlando and Kentucky, he’ll be working on “becoming a better defender and rebounder. I made huge steps in both areas this year, but I can get better.”

Spoken like a true disciple of NBA.

For more information about the college recruiting process, log on to www.mhsaa.com/Schools/Students/CollegePrep/InitialEligibility.aspx