Since I don't really know who will all read this yet, I'll start at the beginning of our recruitment journey. I'm sure many of you are at differnet stages in what you actually know about what's been going on. And I'm not going to go into too much detail, because who really wants to hear it from me anyway? Marshall is the real authority on these stories! Plus Tina and I have started and are working on a Recruiting Scrapbook that will follow us around so hopefully all of you will get to see that someday as well.
So here goes:
Last spring we started visting colleges. Let's just say when we started we were a little inexperienced about how the whole “getting recruited by D-1 colleges” thing is supposed to work. Well, we learned fast.
The first visit Marsh and Mom took was to Tulsa at the end of March. Unfortunately, I was in a wedding that day and missed the visit so there are no pictures and none of my amazing firsthand account information to share. You’ll have to contact the other 2 members of my family for information on this visit. All I gathered from it was that Tulsa University is a private college so everything they have is fancy and new, of course. But mom did enjoy the coaches.
The second visit we took (which I was actually at!) was to a spring practice at KU (on my birthday!!) We arrived at the field and they had to let us in the locked gates—I guess practice is top-secret at KU or something, but we felt pretty special. There was only one other boy there wandering around with his dad, so we definitely stuck out like a sore thumb. We had probably only been there 15-20 minutes when Coach Mangino approached us, shock our hands, and personally offered Marshall his first D-1 full-ride scholarship. This moment was one that all three of us will probably never forget. The rest of the day we spent touring the facilities, meeting tons of coaches and players, and just getting acquainted with KU in general. Marshall’s recruiting coach, Coach Blaney, was so friendly and answered all our questions. All-in-all the day turned into more than any of us had ever hoped for. We went home with a D-1 player in the back of the tahoe. Crazy.
Next we traveled to K-State for a quick in-and-out visit. We were there on a Friday, but we had to hurry because Marsh had a track meet in St. John that afternoon and then after the track meet we drove to Olathe because we were headed to Columbia the next day…..it was a LONG 24 hours…
Anyway, K-State was interesting. I think they had already offered (don’t quote me on that) so we were just meeting more coaches and players and seeing more facilities. The best part of this visit was meeting Coach Prince and visiting with him in his office. What an intelligent man!
Mizzou was next. We attended Junior Day there which included a Spring Game (even though it was probably 30 degrees…Ok not that cold, but still cold..) and meeting more people. The coaching staff there was SO amazing. Marshall had the best time with his recruiting coach, Coach Hill and the LB coach, Coach Steck--such fun people that were excited about Marshall. It always filled me with pride to see college coaches gushing over my brother. Of course I knew he was amazing, but I’m a little biased, being the big sister and all....
Camps started next. We did camps at Mizzou, TCU, KU, and of course: OU!
The OU visit and camp all happened in one outing to Norman, and what an experience that was. OU is a place you just have to experience for yourself, and hopefully many of you will get that chance in the upcoming years! To see Marshall compete with 400 hundred other athletes at such a prestigious camp was breathtaking. We met Bob Stoops more than once over our stay there, and got to know Marshall’s recruiting coach, Coach Wilson, quite well. Getting offered by Oklahoma, in Coach Stoops’ office, by Coach Stoops himself = WOW!! I can’t explain it any better. By this time too Marshall had gotten to know some of the other boys being recruited by these schools and had made friends with them. It was cool to see the friendships and connections happening.
Oh, we visited TCU too! TCU is in Fort Worth so we were able to see some Texas family and Dad’s best friend, and our good friends the Johnson’s were able to come with us! It was an amazing day. Not just because Marshall rocked at the camp, but because we got to spend time with some amazing people that we don’t get to see near enough.
June 19th! Marshall officially committed to OU!
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