How many kids actually get college scholarships?

How many kids actually receive college scholarships?

Not many……

We were talking about this yesterday with Page basketball coach Robert Kent at the Julius Brooks signing and the number of kids actually getting those scholarships may surprise you.

Julius Brooks had offers from around 26 schools with total monies on the table coming in at over 2 million dollars. Those calculations from Page Athletic Director Rusty Lee.(Number of colleges-each scholarship value offered per year-times four)

But how many Guilford County kids will receive basketball scholarships at the end of this, their senior year in 2009?

We only came up with four male names with maybe a fifth pending.

Julius Brooks(Page) to Loyola of Maryland, Keith Manley(Grimsley) to Gardner Webb, Wally Jones(Ragsdale) to Linclon University in Tennessee, and Javan Mitchell(Greensboro Day School) to Louisiana Lafayette.(Jay Leiws from Greensboro Day School may be pending.)

As you can see and to put this in the old Godfather’s terminology, “Scholarshipping Ain’t Easy”. The numbers are few and far in between. There’s a ton of great basketball talent around here, but it “Is Not” (Ain’t) easy to get a scholarship.

How many kids played basketball this past seaon when you look at all the public and private schools in Guilford County?

Quite a few, and maybe 80-100 seniors out there and only four scholarships! Somebody better get to work in the classroom, four out of 100 does not make for very good odds…..

Just four percent(4%) and as Coach Kent noted, you have to tip your hat to Brooks, Manley, Jones and Mitchell for beating the odds and ending up headed off to college with those scholarships. The guys had to have both the basketball and academic skills to get in on the deal.

Lesson for today-“Scholarshipping ‘Aint Easy”!

Editor’s Note:
(Possibly poor grammar, but it does help to personify the key point.)
*****I had always been taught that Ain’t ain’t in the dictionary, but today I looked it up and there it is on page 27 of the Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary at the Greensboro Public Library. So ain’t is in the dictionary although it does say the word is widely disapproved and is considered a nonstandard part of the American English Language.

You learn something new every day when you read and I must say I have seen Julius Brooks a number of times this Spring at our downtown public library studying and working hard so he would be ready for college. He paid the price and now he will see a return on his investment.*****

+++++And another thing….Back when I went to school/college they gave out three-quarter scholarships that were worth about a thousand bucks. My how the times have changed!+++++