Verbals: Corey Grooms

The careers of many young athletes begin when they are old enough to walk,often under pressure from parents and coaches. Millions of kids reach for the dream of super-stardom, but few achieve it. Most children know how expensive college can be and many parents find it nearly impossible to pay for tuition, fees, room and board without a scholarship. Striking a balance between competitive sports and having funis hard for children because their future livelihood depends on how well they do in the game of basketball.

The road from urban-America to a college basketball scholarship is full of many obstacles. The biggest challenge for an athlete is coping with the fact that their chances of getting the athletic scholarship are very slim. For example, according to NCAA statistics, only 10 percent (one in 10) of all African-American male students in Division 1 universities are athletes. In other words, most college-age African-Americans do not receive an athletic scholarship which indicates that 90 percent (nine out of 10) of them used their academic preparation in order to get into college. However, the image in the minds of many people is that African-American males use their physical abilities to go to college. This mis-perception is grounded in the skin color profiles that people observe when they watch big-time revenue producing college sports on television.

Urban-American athletes have another dilemma. They are told that they need to balance their athletic and educational development. The problem is that many urban-American athletes do not get to develop academically. They live in school districts that lack the proper supplies to be taught effectively, have insufficient staff members,and do not have the current technology in place that will enable them to achieve a level of success in the classroom or on standardized tests such as the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) and the American College Test (ACT). Their objective is to develop their athletic skills because it can get them into college and their goal is to get recruited by a top college that will provide an opportunity to play basketball.

Many basketball players are now preparing themselves to do one to two years in college at the most. Is it a risk? Yes, it most certainly is. Many basketball players would rather go for the riches now and learn Mathematics, Writing, and English after they sign their contract. Because of this fact, many basketball players have become vital components in the enterprise of professional sports before they reach the legal adult age. I’m all for basketball players striving for a spot in the N.B.A. The only problem is “what happens if you get injured and, at the same time, you’re academically unfit for a college classroom?” What happens next?

People often think that what they see and read in the media represents all college sports. However, this is not the case. The media, capitalism, and the commercialism of sports have created a distorted view of college athletics. Contrary to the
glamorous side of college sports that is viewed on television, most schools have very limited budgets and their programs often lose money because of the expenses that accrue when trying to maintain a sports program.

The majority of sports programs, regardless of levels and divisions, do not resemble those large revenue-producing, high profile sports that capture so much popular attention on television channels, radio stations, and in newspapers across the United States. The amount of money spent every year on intercollegiate athletics varies depending on the size of the college. Some universities receive $60 million and others get less than $15 thousand. In your mind, you are worth every penny but in the eyes of many athletic directors your athletic scholarship value has yet to be determined.

Corey Grooms is an educator, basketball historian and coach, student of the game, and a basketball writer. Although he covers all aspects of the business of basketball, the majority of his time is devoted to helping economically disadvantaged youth achieve their academic goals and ultimately compete at the highest levels of the game. Check out his blog at Basketball Chronicles: Information You Can Use For A Lifetime.