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Football
vs. Friday Night Showcase
Florida Atlantic University Athletics
Staying Close to Home
1/9/2001 12:00:00 AM | Football
July 11, 1999
Boca Raton News
Over a five-year-period more than 1,500 of Florida's best athletes are forced to leave their home state to pursue their dreams. These young men are compelled to leave mom and dad, girlfriends, brothers and sisters, coaches, these great fans who have cheered for them every Saturday. We watch Florida's football talent fly off to distant lands. Each year, 300 of our sons travel more than 1,000 miles round trip from home to college campus just for the opportunity to continue their education and play college football on scholarship.
When selecting their college teams, most of these young men do not realize that each and every year they will have to retrace these steps three times round trip between home and campus. The high school senior doesn't know that he will have to spend $2,000 on winter clothes. He's unable to imagine the difficulties and expense mom and dad will face driving thousands of miles round trip to see him play on Saturdays. What a sorry state of affairs it is for our talented football athletes to leave the State of Florida.
When their son chooses his college, surely mom and dad never give it a thought that he, in all probability, is going to meet that beautiful young lady on the far away campus and the inevitable will result, marriage. As a student athlete, he will make a name for himself in Louisville, State College, or South Bend. The opportunities for work will cause him to start his career in that far away land. Before we realize it, the grandchildren will be living far out of distance for weekend visits. Grandma and grandpa will be lucky to see the their namesakes once a year.
The opportunities for our homegrown talent to be able to stay at home to fulfill their dreams of being collegiate football players have doubled since Central Florida and South Florida began their football programs. Yet, Florida still has the distinction of having the lowest opportunity for home state boys to play football at their state universities. This situation is totally unacceptable.
In August, 2000 Florida Atlantic University will recruit not only the 30 scholarship athletes allowed by the NCAA, but we will open our doors to more than 100 walk-ons. They too will have the opportunity to continue their education and to pursue football aspirations within driving distance of their own homes.
No round trip tickets. Tank tops and sandals will suffice. The people who cheered our player in little league through high school will continue to cheer. He will meet his bride in the sunny State of Florida, she just might be an heiress from a fine family. South Florida will benefit from our best and brightest. Grandparents choose to babysit at their own pleasure.
It is for these reasons, we're confident that FAU will attract 30 of Florida's highest caliber prospects to pursue their football passion, not at U of L or Penn State or Notre Dame. The Big Bad Burly Birds have begun this exciting up hill struggle to national prominence.
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