Westerville South High School will host a free seminar titled Guiding the College-Bound Athlete from 7:00 to 8:00 p.m. on Monday evening, February 26, in the school auditorium, located at 303 South Otterbein Avenue. It is open to all Westerville City Schools parents and student athletes in grades 8-12.
The road to college for athletes is no longer lined with traditional mile markers. It used to be that batting averages, points per game or yards per carry paved the way for sports stars. Nowadays, one more percentage is carrying more and more weight. It’s called the grade point average.
The days of athletes dreaming to “Be Like Mike” and parents’ hopes of having it pay for an education and a lucrative future for their child-student-athlete have vastly changed over the last generation or so. On fact, there is a lot more work to hitting a home run that just hitting home runs.
Guiding the College-Bound Athlete will provide information and topics for every student-athlete in middle and high school and their parents to educate and prepare them for opportunities and careers after graduation. Many student-athletes who aspire to play at the college level are not familiar with the ins and outs of academic requirements and eligibility as they need to be in order to pursue their goals.
Guiding the College-Bound Athlete, a program designed by Rick Wire, President of Dynamite Sports, a Pennsylvania-based corporation, is the father of nine-year NFL veteran Coy Wire. This seminar will provide families with information about the availability of athletic scholarships and the realities of the college recruiting process.
Rick Wire found himself looking for answers when his then eight-year-old son, Coy, started talking about being a college football star. Wire had not attended college himself and decided he had better start preparing for the future. He questioned other parents who had been through the process, looking for pros and cons and ways to prepare financially. In the end, his son Coy earned his scholarship to play football at Stanford University. Then in 2002, Coy was drafted by the NFL in the third round by the Buffalo Bills, where he played for six seasons and then finished his career for the past three seasons as a captain and player rep with the Atlanta Falcons.
Rick used his study to become a speaker and expert in college athletics and its recruiting process. Then he created the Dynamite Sports Educational Recruiting System, which combines academic preparation and athletic training with marketing and recruiting strategies to navigate through the process. The plan provides direction to high school athletes and parents, and staff development training and resources to high school coaches and counselors to help all parties make knowledgeable choices and decisions in college athletics and recruiting.
Sue Ramsey will present the hour-long seminar, and students who attend will receive a free ACT/SAT resource valued at $350.
For further information about the seminar, please contact Westerville South Athletic Director Josh DeVoll at devollj@westerville.k12.oh.us.