The Loud Americans: Football and College Recruiting for Dummies

Why do they put parents through college football recruiting!?! Its a long, complicated process with very little clear pathways. Maybe it would be easier the second time around but ... thats not in our future.

The good news is ... alls well that ends well.

As we've shared before, Jimmy has 4 goals in college. Play D1 Football. Get a degree in Political Science. Play jazz. Get into law school.

There are colleges that are good at one of the above, but not many that have the magic mix.

In the end, he narrowed it down to Valparaiso and Virginia Military Institute. Two VERY different college experiences.

With Signing Day looming (2/5) we decided to do back to back visits to compare.

Tom took Jimmy to Valpo and they pulled out all the stops...
We flew into O'Hare in Chicago landed in the middle of a snow storm got super lucky with an upgrade to an Audi 4 wheel drive vehicle, which was less then the small 2 door we had reserved and header south east towards Indiana.

The 1.25 hour drive took 2.5 because of the snow and Chicago traffic. On a side note we had lunch at the airport, Jimmy's new thing is that he loves eating at the airport, the Minnesota Wild burgers are really good. So we are in a snow storm and of course he is now hungry, 1 hour after lunch , and he needs chik fillet, the drive through had at least 40 cars, no kidding, so he settled for 3 chicken sandwiches from KFC.
We checked in to the hotel which had an Applebee's in the parking lot and he couldn't wait to get dinner, really. 12 chicken wings, a double burger later we were off to bed.

Saturday we headed over to campus and I must say the football program really impressed me, I wanted Jimmy to go here. The coaches, teachers and staff that we meet were all first class. We spent they day with the tight end coach Ed, who I loved, he is 25, newly married and super funny and was late for each place we were supposed to be, had a comment about every thing and was in the dog house with his wife of 45 days because he works to much, great guy.

The program is solid, and mark my words Valpo will be a contender in the coming years, the head coach is legit , focused, and spot on with his vision. The political science chair is a real odd ball, we spent about an hour with him and 20 mins in we were out of conversation material so he went off about the pros and cons of the school, town and how to catch the train to Chicago where the real fun could be had!

As we now know how this ends, I was bummed Jimmy didn't choose Valpro, it was a great atmosphere, campus, program and way closer than VMI. The good news is we have a couple of Jimmy's friends that are playing baseball for Valpo so we can keep up with hoe the football team is doing through them.

Tracy took Jimmy, the next weekend, to VMI. It wasnt an official visit but the admissions team did an amazing job of setting up all the right meetings. It was a long day but incredibly worth it. They met with Tom, the colonel of admissions and got all their questions answered about financial aid, campus life, etc. Next up was the head of the International Studies and Political Science department. They had grown this program in the last few years and there are some incredible opportunities and classes. Not to mention, there are endless politicians and judges that are VMI alumni. It was impressive! They also met with the pre Law advisor and she had great information about the best path to law school and which universities they have partnerships with (Harvard, University Virginia...not a bad dossier). There was a tour of the grounds with a cadet and other "tourists". The other people on the trip were very curious and really excited to hear that Jimmy was considering VMI. Of course, Jimmy was really impressed by the tour of the stadium, football facilities and loved meeting the coaches and players. They talked football strategy and usage of tight ends for an hour until the head coach came and called his position coach (Coach Moore) out for a meeting. But, the best meeting was with Col Brody. He leads Band Company and is the band director. He was hysterical and extremely accommodating. He snuck them into the barracks and the honor code court room. He said he'd do anything to help make sure Jimmy can play music in college and told him about all the travel they do (they play in the Rose Bowl each year, they've done Marqui Gras and he has a 3 year bucket list of international trips he wants to do before he retires). That meeting sealed the deal. Jimmy was officially in love with VMI. He could hardly wait to call coach back to commit but Tracy asked him to at least sleep on it. When Tracy asked what made him so sure he said "Jesus told me to take the hardest path to ensure success". Considering Valpo gave him merit $ and VMI did not, Tracy is convinced that Jesus wasnt an accountant.

But, they had some great meals in town and all the people they interacted with had nothing but good things to say about VMI. The town itself (Lexington) is extremely historic and cute and VMI sits dead in the center of it. And, it was such a treat to spend a full weekend with him just one on one exploring his future.

He waited until Saturday to call Coach and accept the offer. Then he planned out the rest of his communication. When he would call Coach D, when he'd let Valpo know, when he'd post to social media and what his message would be. We were sworn to secrecy until he executed his plan and he did it flawlessly. He was genuinely grateful in this discussion with Valpo, he was humble but excited in his announcement and he was/is extremely pumped when talking to friends and family.

Signing day was 3pm at the High School on 2/5 and again, he was magnificent. He thanked God, his teammates, his coaches, his family and talked about what he hopes to learn at VMI and why he'll give it his all. He even left the underclassmen an inspirational message about working hard, withstanding adversity and your dreams will come true. I wish I could figure out how to upload here but we did post it on Facebook so check it out.

Now, the real work begins. He has piles of paper work to fill out not to mention a military physical fitness test, a medical physical overhaul, paperwork on integrity and starting to follow their preseason training plan.

He reports for football 8/5, matriculation is 8/15 and school starts around Labor Day. Considering he's also doing a 2 week mission trip to the middle East, he has a very busy summer and he'll be gone before we know it.

There are mixed emotions all around. We are proud of him. Scared for him. Sad he's leaving. Happy he's following his dreams. Bummed he's not closer. Clueless on what life will be like without him around every day.

Jimmy - we are proud of you. Love you and beyond fascinated with what you'll do with this opportunity.

They rolled out the red carpet at Valpo - nice touch!