09/22/2026
Per NCAA website: Probability of Competing Beyond High School.
Men’s Basketball:
High School participants in the United States (540,704)
NCAA participants after high school (19,617)
Overall high school to college (3.6%)
High School to NCAA D1 (1.1%)
High School to NCAA D2 (1.1%)
High School to NCAA D3 (1.3%)
Football: high school participants in the United States (1,029,588)
NCAA participants after high school (83,794)
Overall high school to college (8.1%)
High School to NCAA D1 (3.4%)
High School to NCAA D2 (2.1%)
High School to NCAA D3 (2.3%)
There are 8 million students currently participating in high school sports in the United States, only about 550,000 will compete at the NCAA level.
7% go on to play a varsity sport in college at any level NCAA D1, D2, D3, NAIA, and JUCO.
Less than 2% of high school athletes go on to play at an NCAA D1 school.
Roughly 2% of high school athletes earn an NCAA athletic scholarship.
Football: Around 7% make the jump to college.
Basketball (boys): About 3% reach the college level.
Basketball (girls): About 3.5% reach the college level.
This is free information that I wanted to share because I feel to many players and parents are being mislead. I want to help our Franklin County players and parents as well as anyone looking for information or help with understanding the recruiting process. For a while now, I have thought about holding some type of clinic, informational meeting, or open forum. I am going to put pen to paper and plan on doing this because I feel that I am doing a disservice to my community. Some of you are definitely being lied to and spending money and more than likely will not receive the results that you are promised.
First, I have never been one to say or think that I know everything. My experience is this, I played football at the collegiate level for two years at a NAIA school which is now NCAA D2. My son, who will tell you himself, I had a huge role in his training and recruiting process. He went on to play four years of college football at the NCAA D3 level. I will not go into a lot of specifics as far as his stats, achievements, or accolades but you can definitely Google him. (Sometimes people say Google me and they probably shouldn’t, but you can find his information.) Along the way, I have helped several high school football players with their recruiting and they have went on to play at the collegiate level. Note: I helped, but I wasn’t the sole person who got them there. It takes more than one person to do the work and I’ll never take all the credit.
I have coached basketball from 2004 to present, and over that time it has been many different levels from middle school to varsity head coach. During my time at Carlisle School I had the opportunity to coach a few college level basketball players and coach against many college level players and coaches. Did I do all the work helping those players get to college? No, but I did do my part. There were some players from other schools in the surrounding areas that I helped with the basketball recruiting process.
So, what I am trying to say is that I have the experience and knowledge of what it takes to be a collegiate athlete. I will not crush your dreams of being a college athlete, but I will not sell you a lie either. I can provide you information that I know and what I don’t know I will get you the information that you need.
I never get on social media and boast about this or that because I don’t need to do that to validate myself as a coach. All I am trying to do now is be a resource for that family who really doesn’t know how to go about the recruiting process. Yes, I will be brutally honest with you and your athlete, but it is really what most people need. I see and hear about players transferring to different high schools in order to earn a scholarship or play at the next level. We can talk about that as well because I’m not against it if it makes sense for the player and family.
Part of my plan is to reach out to some college football and basketball coaches that I know. It would be great to have them come to FCHS and talk to our parents and players. Also, if any of my former basketball players who played in college are interested in helping, I would love for you to be a part of this opportunity as well. Any football players who I trained or helped with your recruitment process I need you too!
This is not going to happen overnight, but my plan is to provide this for our community by the end of the 26-27 school year. If you ever have any questions please feel free to reach out.
