In 1998, Coach Jim Caldwell offered North Carolina native Chris Leak a non-binding scholarship to Wake Forest University. Leak was an eighth-grader at the time. He went on to lead his high school team to three consecutive state championships before choosing to attend the University of Florida instead. In 2006, Leak led the Florida Gators to a National Championship. One year later, he played his first professional season with the Chicago Bears of the NFL. Leak then played for several teams in the Canadian Football League before ending his career in the Arena Football League. Leak later took a position on the sidelines, working as a wide receivers coach for his alma mater, UF.
Coach Lane Kiffin made scholarship offers to both Evan Berry and David Sills. In 2009, while coaching the University of Tennessee Volunteers, Kiffin offered a scholarship to fourteen-year-old Evan Berry, the younger brother of All-American Eric Berry (then a member of the Tennessee program). The next year, however, Kiffin moved on to coach the University of Southern California Trojans. In 2010, Kiffin once again went to the publicity playbook, offering a scholarship to thirteen-year-old quarterback David Sills. At the time, Kiffin, who saw Sills’ YouTube workout video, had not met the young man in person.
“The scholarship offer has always been a dream of mine. I didn’t want to give up a chance like that,” David Sills told Comcast Sports Network at the time of the offer. “Other people don’t like the commitment at a young age. But I think it’s for the best right now . . . It does put a target on my back while I’m playing. But I’m just going to go out there and do what I can do.”
The University of Southern California replaced Lane Kiffin in 2013, which invalidated any offer to Sills. Kiffin later became an assistant coach at the University of Alabama. In 2015, Sports Illustrated named Evan Berry an All-American based on his performance as a defensive back and fleet-footed kick returner. David Sills chose to join the University of West Virginia Mountaineers football program.
In 2014, the New York Times reported that fourteen-year-old soccer star Haley Berg was already weighing offers to attend several universities, making Berg one of the first female athletes to have her early offer publicized.
“When I started in the seventh grade, I didn’t think they would talk to me that early,” Berg told the Times. “Even the coaches told me, ‘Wow, we’re recruiting an eighth-grader.’”
Early scholarships may be more prevalent among female athletes than male athletes. In 2014, the National Collegiate Scouting Association, which helps athletes navigate the recruiting process, published numbers on offers made prior to an athlete’s junior year in high school. For female lacrosse athletes, 36 percent of scholarships were early offers (compared to 31 percent for males). In soccer, it’s 24 percent (8 percent for males), volleyball, 23 percent (18 percent for males), basketball, 18 percent (5 percent for males), and field hockey, 15 percent.
The NCSA reports that 4% of male football scholarships are early offers. Football is undoubtedly the lowest on the scale because it is difficult to forecast future success in the sport—one in which physical growth will influence an athlete’s performance. Of course, in Top Prospect, the emotional growth of our protagonist is just as big a factor.