(Column)
Following church service on Sunday, one of my fellow members, David Jordan asked me a question that I had pondered a bit off and on. “Why did so many of Greenville Christian’s star football players decide to go to junior/community college?”
Time between his astute inquiry and me writing this column didn’t allow for an investigation into the matter. And like Mr. J., I had anticipated a bunch of Southern Miss, Ole Miss, Mississippi State and other division one schools as well as some SWAC schools being these prep standouts’ places of choice at the next level.
After covering this team for the past two years, they certainly have Division I talent at every position and to their credit, they have at least two players going to “Big Schools.” Being someone who really benefited from the community college experience, here’s my take on why players of this caliber might choose this route. First, I believe that going to community college affords them the best chance to start, contribute and play right away. Major college football is a tremendous leap from prep competition and a guy that was a four-year starter in high school could possibly find himself third or fourth on the depth charts of Alabama or LSU. The high school game translates a little bit easier to community college with regard to opportunity and comparative skill level.
Second, great athletes are not excluded from being normal kids. Between the ages of 17 and 19, many young men are simply not ready to be thrown immediately into a campus environment on 2,000 acres of land and back-to-back classes that are a half mile across camps from one another. The adjustment from high school where everybody knew your name to becoming a nine-digit number in the registrar’s office might be facilitated better at a Mississippi Delta Community College or Coahoma Community College where there is still a closeness among faculty, staff, and students.
Finally, these young men probably have done their research. Many division one college programs use community college as a pipeline to get experienced college players to provide guidance, skill, and leadership and their major stars head to the professional ranks. National Championship winning Georgia quarterback Stetson Bennett was once the quarterback for Jones Community College right here in the state of Mississippi. These young men with the advice of their coaches and families probably realize that no matter where they start, their talent will always find a place for them. And if they are blessed to go from community college to a larger program and beyond, they can be assured that there are currently eight NFL Hall of Famers who started in the ranks of community college.
