Chad Barrett’s on the phone. His scratchy voice is
indicative of a weary young man who sounds torn. He talks about the
thrill of doing what you love for a living, not to mention the fact
that he’s making good money doing it ““ the kind of
money that few people even twice his age earn. He knows he’s
one of the lucky few who have been given the gift of superior
athletic ability, and he’s determined to work hard in order
to capitalize on his talent and make the most of his
opportunities.
But there’s a hint of doubt in Barrett’s tone that
suggests he may not have made the right choice. Maybe leaving
school two full years early and moving thousand miles away from
home at the ripe old age of 20 wasn’t the best move.
And then it’s as if Barrett catches himself. Before
there’s even a moment for him to dwell on the possibilities
of finishing up his degree at UCLA, he says, “It was a tough
decision to have to make, but I felt that it was the better
long-term choice and will ultimately help my soccer
career.”
Barrett was a star soccer recruit coming out of San Diego two
years ago and was recruited by several of the top programs around
the country. His decision to go to UCLA, he says, was the right
one, as he could easily envision himself donning a blue and gold
uniform while living not too far from mom and dad. And the decision
proved to pay dividends as he became a freshman All-American while
adapting to college life. It was then that the rumors started to
fly.
“After my first year, other players and coaches were
telling me that I was highly recruited by Major League
Soccer,” Barrett said. “That was the first time I
really thought about leaving college early to go pro.”
Barrett spent the next year of college preparing himself
mentally and physically, with an eye on the MLS Amateur Draft in
hopes of becoming a professional soccer player. After an equally
successful sophomore campaign coupled with a second straight year
competing on the U.S. Under-20 National team, Barrett decided to
leave Westwood with only half of his college career completed.
“It was an amazingly difficult process because I loved my
time at UCLA and the experience of college is so unique,”
Barrett said. “But more than anything else, the fear of not
getting an education was always at the back of my mind.”
“In the end, I knew that these kinds of opportunities
don’t come around often in life and I wanted to seize
it,” Barrett said. “My education is still
important.”
Barrett was drafted with third overall pick in this year’s
MLS draft by the Chicago Fire. He talks about living in the Midwest
for the first time and the trouble adjusting to life in a big city
with even bigger responsibilities.
“There are some growing pains, for sure,” Barrett.
“I’m happy with where I am, but being far from home and
becoming an adult basically two years sooner is tough. I’ve
really matured quickly.”
Barrett talks about enrolling in general education courses
during the spring after the MLS season finishes up. He hopes to
slowly but surely complete his education over the next ten years
while he pursues a dream he has had since he was a child.
Still, he knows the difficulty many other athletes have had
juggling extracurricular activities with their livelihood. For the
first time in Barrett’s life, school is now an
extracurricular activity.
Chad Barrett might not seem to have a whole lot in common with
Jane Park. One is a rising young forward for Major League
Soccer’s Chicago Fire and the other is an incoming UCLA
freshman golfer. But they are bound together by a rising issue in
college athletics. It’s nothing new to find highly recruited
prospects in football, basketball, or baseball foregoing college
eligibility to make millions of dollars in the professional ranks.
The big three American sports have adapted to this phenomenon over
the last thirty or so years, ever since Moses Malone became the
first high schooler to skip college entirely to play in the
NBA.
In recent years, however, the so-called “Olympic
sports” have seen their athletes follow a similar path, in
sports ranging from men’s soccer to women’s golf.
Looking at the NCAA student-athlete graduation rates, nothing
really jumps out. Since 1987, the aggregate average for all
students graduating over fours year in 60%. The average for all
student-athletes is 58%, which indicates that the number of young
adults who leave college to pursue a professional career in
athletics are matched by the same number of students who leave
school early for a career in some other field.
“The NCAA has worked hard to keep student-athletes in
school and remind them how increasingly difficult it is to become a
professional athlete,” said Kent Barrett (no relation to
Chad), an NCAA administrator. “We stress that going pro is
nothing to fall back on, and when in doubt, stay in school and get
the diploma.”
But the graduation rate can appear skewed, as it doesn’t
take into account the number of students who graduate in five or
six years as opposed to just four. According to the data provided
by the NCAA, student-athletes who don’t graduate at all are
counted the same as an engineering major who graduates in five
years.
While the NCAA may portray the statistics as being slightly
better than they really are, many coaches and players at collegiate
level concede that the increased national exposure of the Olympic
sports has provided more career opportunities to student-athletes
in a wide range of sports that were once considered
“secondary”.
Among them are women’s golf and men’s soccer, which
takes us back to Barrett and Park as prime examples of athletes who
chose professional leagues over college, and college over the
professional leagues.
Park won the 2004 Women’s Amateur Championship as a high
school senior, no small feat to be sure. Her booming success as a
minor led her to flirt with the idea of turning pro without ever
stepping foot inside a college classroom. Just as Barrett was, she
was confronted by a number of opinions from friends and family who
wanted to impart their words of wisdom.
“Everybody was giving me advice,” Park said.
“My family members were saying, “˜go pro, go pro.’
But I wanted to make the decision on my own.”
“In the end, I just couldn’t envision myself not
going to college and not having that experience,” Park
said.
But does she regret not turning pro? Was it tempting to follow
the successful footsteps of Paula Creamer and Michelle Wie, two
young female golfers who turned pro before their 18th birthday?
“Not at all,” Park said. “I have to mature as
a person before I really even think about becoming a professional
athlete. And to develop like that, I knew UCLA was where I wanted
to be.”
Park does not think any less of those in her position who opted
for a career rather than an education.
“There’s no right move,” Park said. “It
changes from person to person, depending on whatever is in their
heart. I knew that I had my heart set on coming to UCLA and going
to college, but if someone wants to turn pro and they think that
it’s time to move on, good luck to them. We each have
different personalities and priorities, none better or
worse.”
Park’s perspective is enlightening. It is a common opinion
that a lot of students are at college only to get a good job rather
than to achieve enlightenment at an institute of higher learning.
But can the public really blame college-age athletes for going pro
when so many would likely do the same if given the opportunity?
“It gets to a point where we have to trust people to make
the right decisions for themselves and to live their lives how they
would like,” UCLA tennis coach Billy Martin said. “But
having that degree is a nice thing to have because it’s
impossible to predict what the future holds.”
Martin would know. He was a UCLA singles national champion in
1975 and left Westwood before he graduated to pursue a career in
tennis. Martin got his degree from the University of Redlands 14
years later.
“It is interesting how more and more sports, though, are
now having their athletes turn pro early,” Martin said.
“When I was attending UCLA it was mainly football,
basketball, baseball, and tennis. In tennis, Jimmy Connors left
UCLA early in the 1970s. But we’re seeing a lot of other
international sports gain popularity here in America.”
The ethical choices of staying in school or going pro appear to
be similar to the choices that basketball or football players have
been posed with over the last quarter-century. But how can the
smaller sports adapt to what the basketball or football programs
have been dealing with?
Women’s golf coach Carrie Forsythe, for example, is
getting used to players in her sport leaving school early and
foregoing college altogether. Since 2001, 14 women’s golfers
have turned pro before earning their college diplomas. The list
includes Paula Creamer, who was heavily recruited by both UCLA and
Stanford before she decided to turn pro. Creamer had immediate
success, capturing rookie-of-the-year honors on the LGPA tour. Then
there is Michelle Wie, a 15-year-old golf prodigy who is not just
competing in the LPGA, but also the men’s tour. While she has
yet to graduate high school, it doesn’t seem likely that she
will be going to college in the coming years, as she already has
many members of the sports world fixated on her.
“As more and more people in Paula’s or Michelle
Wie’s position have success, more golfers will most likely
flirt with the idea of going pro early,” Forsythe said.
“It’s only natural when you see someone you compete
with have all kinds of success and make a good amount of money so
young.”
Forsythe is yet another sports coach who stresses education, but
she also has come to the realization that her sport and many others
are changing, and not necessarily for the worse.
“In some way, it’s a good sign for UCLA or other
programs when a variety of athletes ““ not just basketball
players ““ can have a professional career,” Forsythe
said. “They put in so many hours as youngsters, not because
of the money but because they genuinely love the sports. It’s
nice to see that they get rewarded.”
Meanwhile, men’s soccer coach Jorge Salcedo witnessed one
of his best players leave his program early this summer as junior
midfielder Benny Feilhaber took a job with the club soccer team
Hamburger SV in Germany. Salcedo coaches a sport that has been the
biggest international sport for quite some time, yet has been
notoriously underrepresented in the United States. However, the
recent surge in popularity in American soccer has been conjoined
with the increasing success the U.S. Soccer team has had in
international competition. The U.S. advanced to the quarterfinals
in the 2002 World Cup in Japan, a feat that very few expected. The
emergence of Freddy Adu, the 16-year-old soccer pro with the D.C.
United, has signaled yet another change in American soccer.
“With soccer, especially, we are starting to catch up with
the rest of the world and you can see that with Chad or Benny
starting their careers early on,” Salcedo said. “Other
countries have been used to 18-year-old soccer pros. It might be
around the corner here at home.”
The next few years might dictate whether the trend in Olympic
sports continues with more players leaving school early, or whether
there is a shift towards student-athletes staying in school to
obtain degrees. Sports has always been a copycat system, and how
many more players opt out of school may very well depend on the
level of success Freddy Adu or Michelle Wie experience.