Recruiting Confidential: A Father, a Son, and Big Time College Football

By David Claerbaut

Book Overview

What is it like to be a heavily recruited high school football star? James and step-dad Dave learn the ins and outs of the college courting process and share their inside story in Recruiting Confidential. With all the controversy surrounding NCAA compliance breakdowns, booster bribes and big time pressure in coaches and athletic staffs to bring the best of the best to their institution, how do this father/son duo navigate the murky waters of big promises and big expectations? Claerbaut reveals in honest reflection how the schools go about bringing star players to their team, what impressed them and what turned them off to various coaches and campuses. As the journey to a college decision nears, father and son discover a bond that has developed and hopefully will grow as James announces to the world where he will spend his college days-on and off the field.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1589790251
• ISBN13: 9781589790254
• Release Date: September 2003
• Publisher: Taylor Trade Publishing
• Length: 224 Pages
• Weight: 1.26 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 6.1" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

Quick read!

I, too, enjoyed this book. I was less putoff by the author than other reviewers although I can certainly understand some of their points. Still, he's a father looking out for his son and, well, I guess I could understand the lengths he went to help and protect his son during the recruiting process. By the end I was really pulling for the kid to do well and I was anxious to read his decision. You really can't ask for more from a Sunday afternoon read. I had wished for a different ending but, hey, it's not my life!

Dynamite Book

Recruiting confidential is just a great book. It operates at two levels. It is a dynamite sports story, and at a deeper level, a terrific family drama. I really liked the HONESTY and SENSITIVITY with which James' dad writes the story. He explains how he was adopted and how "blood" means nothing to him as far as being a dad is concerned. If you read between the lines you can tell that something horrific happened with James' father and that the bond James has with his dad is now as important to him as it is to the author.The inside football stuff is just first-rate. Instead of the same old "rip city" treatments of big-time recruiting, you see it from the inside. You ride in the car with James and his dad, you go to the schools, and meet the coaches. You experience the highs and the lows as they happen. Best of all, you can't put it down, because you want to know how it will end. Get this one, it's a treat.

Good book.

Good story about how a kid gets recruited to play college football. The recapping of his high school games gets tedious though. Either buy it or go to the library because it is worth reading.

Great story, bad narrator...

I too loved the premise of this book. You will get an inside look at the college recruiting process, a thing most of us won't get a chance to be involved with. I wish the kid in the book a lot of luck, and hope his college career works out. But the father in this book really brought it down. He seemed arrogant and downright mean towards some of the college recruiters, especially the Harvard guy. Here is this offer to get your kid into Harvard on a full scholarship and the father seems annoyed with the recruiter because he calls all the time. I wish I were so lucky. Did you know that the father was an athletic director at a college? Well, if you don't he will tell you a dozen times in the book. If the ego was put aside this would have been a perfect 5.

If you have a child being recruited, buy this book.

I live in the Chicagoland area, so I was intrigued but not too optimistic about how the book would be. That doubt was quickly put away after the first few chapters. Claerbaut does a very good job of keeping the reader interested by blending different plots and ideas together. This book could fall into many different genres: sports, nonfiction, advice/"how to", father-son bonding, etc. But amazingly it still follows a very linear storyline. I was surprised at how many facts about college football history that he included, therefore appealing to me as an avid sports [history] lover. Also, the stepson-stepfather bonding is heart-warming, especially if you have a similar background such as I do. But the real treat is how much you can learn about the recruiting process. If my father had this when I was being recruited, I probably would have gotten to play in college. Read it for entertainment, but be sure to read it for advice if you're parenting a recruit. After all, it is their future.