"Recruiting Fair" Gives Area Athletes a Football Future

GREENACRES, Fla. - Seventeen years ago, John I. Leonard athletics director Scott Siegel and a group of local coaches noticed a disturbing trend developing amongst high school football players in Palm Beach County and the Treasure Coast.

"We had so many kids that weren't gettting the opportunity to go to Division I schools," Siegel said. "They were either falling through the cracks or somehow they were just being bypassed."

Siegel and the group of coaches sprung into action, mailing postcards to about 450 Division II, Division III and junior colleges, inviting them down to Palm Beach County to meet some high school seniors that had not yet found a college home.

"We could guarantee them some warm weather and some really good football players," he said.

On Wednesday -- and now for the 17th-straight year -- Siegel and John I. Leonard high school hosted what's become known as their annual "recruiting fair," and it has exploded in popularity.

Forty-two colleges sent representatives to Greenacres for the two-day event, and 37 area high schools were there as well, meeting recruiters and showing film of their unsigned players.

"This is awesome," said Forest Hill head coach Chris Kokell, in his first year with the Falcons. "To see kids get into college - look around this room, it's filled with people, and every person here is probably sending five or six kids to school.

"So that's 300-something Palm Beach County kids, some of them who come from nothing, that go get the opportunity to change their life and their family's lives. I love it."

Olympic Heights head coach Mitch Henghold said it provides high school seniors with more options for their future.

"We have some high academic kids who can now at least consider, 'Hey, do I want to go play football with some money paid for, or stay home with all of it paid for?'" he said. "It gives them great options."

The fair also serves as a way for area high school coaches to build relationships in the college world, according to Cardinal Newman head coach and former University of Miami quarterback, Steve Walsh.

"It's a way to get the name out there and meet these coaches," Walsh said. "Obviously, recruiting is a relationship business. (Recruiters) are going to go to people that they can trust, people that when they say, 'Hey, this kid can play at your school,' that he can actually play."

Leonard's recruiting fair has produced more than it's fair share of success stories. Norwich University (VT.) recruiting director Mike Yesalonia has been coming to the fair for 11 years, and, in 2004, he nabbed a special player.

"Pierre Garcon (John I. Leonard alum and Indianapolis Colts WR) started at Norwich," he said. "I recruited him right out of this fair."