By Merle Bertrand, Sportswriter
It can be a bittersweet experience to cheer a talented Liberty Hill High School running back as he shreds an opposing defense on a chilly Friday night at Panthers Stadium, or to witness a rival’s steely-eyed point guard repeatedly torch one of the LHHS basketball teams for “threes” at the Panthers Den.
It’s bittersweet because knowledgeable Panthers fans know the talented athlete they’re watching – be it friend or foe – faces incredibly long odds to earn a scholarship to play his or her sport at the college level, simply because they play at a smaller classification (3A or below) at the Texas high school level.
If the principles behind Texas Prime Time Athletes (TPTA) have their way, however, such inherently unfair oversights will soon be as much a thing of the past as the Drop Kick and the Set Shot.
TPTA is a new college recruiting service dedicated to helping talented but often-overlooked small school athletes land scholarships to further their education and continue playing their sport at the college level.
Formed by Liberty Hill parents Jeff and Peggy Bishop, along with The Leader/Liberty Hill Sports co-publisher and owner Chuck Licata (and, in the interests of full disclosure, this writer), the company founders all understand the daunting task of attracting college attention to small school athletes.
“We solicited the assistance of a similar company to assist with recruiting for our son (LHHS senior Brice Bishop) who wants to play collegiate football and we soon discovered their focus was on big schools and they were primarily interested in the 5A and 4A athletes,” recalled Jeff Bishop. “And we were saying, ‘Well, no. Everybody should have the opportunity to play collegiate sports regardless of what school level you’re in.’”
“Teach us the rules,” Peggy Bishop recalled her expectations of what the Bishops hoped the other company was going to do. “Teach us where to go, what to do, how to weed out schools, how to really figure out where to even begin, and all they did was throw a video and a profile up there (on their website).”
The Bishops’ experience is all-too common, according to Licata, who has seen more than his share of talented small school athletes get overlooked in his capacity as a co-owner of broadcast outlet K-MAC Sports and as a five-time award-winning sports journalist. That shared frustration led to early discussions between Licata and the Bishops that in turn led to the company’s formation earlier this year.
With high school coaches overworked in their efforts to help their athletes with recruiting, Licata nonetheless believes TPTA can bring college attention to small school athletes.
“We want to give help to parents who have student-athletes that are good enough and want to play at the next level, because there are kids out there that can do that,” Licata explained.
“They’re not going to be in the Top 300; they’re not going to be in the top 500, but they can play in an (NCAA Division III school) or D-II. And if we can get somebody who’s basically tagged as a D-II player maybe into a small D-I; or maybe somebody that’s looking at D-III and if we can get them some exposure, maybe get them up to a D-II, that’d be great,” Licata continued.
“One of the most important factors to know is that regardless of how good your athlete is, if college coaches do not know that they exist, they will never get their opportunity to play, period,” Jeff Bishop stated bluntly. “And that’s what it’s all about, is providing 24/7 access to your athlete so college coaches can see your athlete.”
However, in addition to just athletic ability, the academic and personal achievements of the student-athletes they hope to help are of equal importance to TPTA.
“We don’t want just student-athletes. We want good, quality student-athletes,” Licata stated. “We want kids with good character. We want kids who are going to represent themselves very well at the next level. We want kids who are real good representatives of their schools and of their families.”
The flipside of convincing deluged college coaches to pay attention to such upstanding smaller school athletes is guiding parents who can quickly become overwhelmed by the NCAA’s Byzantine maze of recruiting rules and regulations.
Like the others, Jeff Bishop feels strongly that because of their firsthand experience, TPTA is uniquely qualified to guide the athletes and their parents.
“We’ve been there, done that and we are still learning; and, we want to share that,” Bishop explained, pointing to several over-sized binders stuffed full of the information he’s amassed going through the process. “Other places or other businesses, I don’t know if they can do that or not. But we have been there, we have done that and we are still being there doing that.
“It is our goal to personally assist the athletes in the entire process, learning how to do it, what to do and the rules and regulations of NCAA.”
To that end, TPTA offers a variety of recruiting packages at different prices. As Peggy Bishop points out, TPTA (as a new company) is small enough and flexible enough to provide services tailored to a client’s needs.
“With us being small and being where we are as a program, we can tailor that recruiting or promotional package to what fits that family’s needs,” she explained. “You have two parents who travel a lot or they’ve got three other kids at home and they aren’t going to be able to sit on the computer six hours every weekend and really work that recruit, then we’re here to do that.
“We have a basic package for the parent who really wants to be hands-on, doing a lot of the emails, and all that kind of good stuff, (or) we will build a package for the parent who really wants to go, ‘This intimidates me to get it all together. You do it for me.’”
Just as coaches and university administrators have an inherent built-in bias against small school athletes, TPTA faces the similarly difficult task of convincing nervous parents to trust a new company with their child’s future. It’s a concern that Peggy Bishop, herself a parent, fully understands.
“I think that’s the most difficult side of getting it started is getting the people to recognize that we’re ready,” she affirmed. “We’re ready and that right now is the prime time if you want to come on because we have so much flexibility to work with it and really make this a real personal environment for any of them.”
“I think our biggest challenge - literally – is getting some kids signed and on-board,” Licata agreed. “And that’s just because it’s a different type of situation; because we’re not looking for the Top 300. We want the next 500.
“It’s a solid concept. We’ve certainly received some great feedback, but at the same time, I think it’s going to take getting three, four kids signed and guiding them and for people to see what exactly we’re doing – and can do for them.”
“We’ve got several who are ready to go; they’re just trying to get their (items) in order,” Peggy Bishop reported. “It kind of took them by storm. So we’ve got quite a few; it’s been a crazy fall (season) and a fast start-up, so I think that we’re really close to adding quite a few people and we’re putting feelers out all over.”
With plans to eventually have a full-time office staff and dedicated recruiters in each of the surrounding Central Texas communities, TPTA looks ahead to a solid future helping student athletes who would otherwise get overlooked land a scholarship.
Licata summed up the feelings of his TPTA partners, saying “The biggest moment for us will be when a kid signs to play D-III, D-II, or D-I, and his or her parents come back to us and say, ‘You know what? It’s because of your guidance we were able to put our kid in this situation.’”
Jeff Bishop summarized: “There are plenty of schools looking for athletes with good grades, good character, everything from a D-III school all the way up to a D-I school. And we’re just trying to help them achieve that goal.”
If Texas Prime Time Athletes (http://txprimetimeathletes.org) can succeed, then cheering on small school high school athletes will be a little less bittersweet for high school parents everywhere.
