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Saturday, September 1, 2007
Longtime Friends Take on Life “After Sports”
Central Indiana, IN
By: Bill Benner
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Photo(s) By: Kyle Danztler/MyActionPortraits.com
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The numbers don’t lie.
According to the NCAA, of 7 million high school athletes in all sports, less than one percent will play professionally.
In boys/men’s basketball, only 3 in 10,000 will be drafted in the NBA.
In girls/women’s basketball, only 1 in 5,000 will be drafted in the WNBA.
In football, only 8 in 10,000 will be drafted in the NFL.
So when the NCAA says in its public service announcements that of its 675,000 student-athletes, most will go pro in something other in sports, it sure isn’t kidding.
In other words, both high school and college student-athletes – and their parents – better be prepared for the reality of a career in the “real world.”
Yet many do not, and end up disappointed, disillusioned and ill-prepared for life after athletics.
That’s where Sherard Clinkscales, Scott McGowan and Greg Hobbs come in.
In 1989, Clinkscales was an outstanding pitcher at Brebeuf Preparatory High School, destined for a scholarship at Purdue. His good friend was Hobbs, a four-sport star at Brebeuf and the 1989 Marion County Athlete of the Year.
After high school, Hobbs walked-on to the Indiana University football team, where he became friends with McGowan, who had been a three-sport standout at Ben Davis and became an outstanding football player for the Hoosiers, eventually signing as a free agent with the Cincinnati Bengals.
Three years ago, Clinkscales was serving as a scout for the Atlanta Braves. In doing so, he continually came across former high school and college athletes who had no idea what to do with their lives outside athletics. It sparked an idea to form a service-based company that would give advice, leadership and direction to those athletes suddenly cast adrift, their careers in sports over.
Thus, AfterSport Group (www.aftersportgroup.com) was born. Three years later, it has have contracts to perform seminars at 20 (and the number is growing steadily) college campuses, in addition to working with the NCAA, the Indiana High School Athletic Association and, most recently, USA Track & Field. This past January, Hobbs joined AfterSport. Based in New Jersey, he’s helping the firm get established with East Coast universities and colleges.
“Our whole focus is to help student-athletes make the transition from the locker room to the board room,” says McGowan. “We try to provide the skill sets that will enable high school, college and professional athletes to be successful beyond their playing careers.”
At the high school level, that means counseling student-athletes on the recruiting process, the transition from high school to college, balancing academics and athletics and financial responsibilities.
At the college level, AfterSport makes three to four visits to each campus. They introduce the program to each student-athlete in all sports, men and women. They try to identify potential career paths. They discuss networking. They conduct mock interviews.
“We talk to them about being ‘separators’, not ‘eliminators’,” says McGowan. “How do they separate themselves from the pack?”
“Their whole lives they’re told how to be good or great in the in the athletic arena. We tell them how to be good or great in the corporate arena.”
Not long ago, Clinkscales, McGowan and Hobbs were in the very shoes – or cleats or sneakers, if you will – of the young men and women they now address. Hopefully, their AfterSport messages resonate.
Because the numbers don’t lie.
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