Interesting Recruiting Article

DeepGreen · February 4, 2007

I found this article interesting in that private school Cathedral HS has only 160 students, had a football program for only a few years, ended last season with only 18 players yet this young man will sign with Vanderbuilt on Wednesday. Also some interesting SE Texas recruiting info from the HS coaches perspective. It sounds as if Dan Hooks of West-Orange Stark is the "go-to" guy if a coach has a player that has 1A potential.

Inking one Vandy deal

By CHRIS DABE, The Enterprise

02/04/2007

Updated 02/04/2007 12:24:30 AM CST

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Mark M. Hancock/The Enterprise

Cathedral Christian’s Rob Ashabranner will be the first football player in the school’s history to play for a college football team.

BEAUMONT - Cathedral is a small enough high school so that a green and cream colored building in which classes are held is dwarfed by a neighboring gymnasium with a similar exterior.

Take seven paces inside three sets of double doors at the gym's main entrance, and you'll confront a glass-enclosed trophy case, which rests between another two sets of doors that lead to the school's only basketball court.

More than 125 awards and plaques from various sports sit on and below four glass shelves, yet none has been presented to a 6-year-old football program about to have officially produced its first top-level college football player.

Wednesday is national football signing day, and that will be the day defensive tackle Rob Ashabranner inks a letter of intent to play at Vanderbilt University, a member of the Southeastern Conference.

One of three footballs inside the trophy case was used in the school's only playoff victory, secured in 2005 when Ashabranner forced a quarterback to fumble and recovered the ball in the end zone.

That touchdown with less than five minutes left gave Cathedral its winning margin in a 27-14 victory over San Antonio Cornerstone on Nov. 12, 2005.

"Ever since then, things have been great," said Ashabranner, a 6-foot-2, 260-pound defensive tackle who will go from a school with a football team that had 18 players at the end of last season to playing in one of the nation's toughest college football conferences.

Before Ashabranner verbally committed to the Nashville, Tenn., based school, his father, Bob, and Cathedral head coach Shad Smith said they thought his high-water mark might have been playing at a Division I-AA school such as McNeese State or Sam Houston. Until then, they weren't sure how college coaches would find a player from a small private school such as Cathedral, which has about 160 high school students.

"I don't think coaches can penalize you for going to a small school," said Smith, who has coached four seasons at the school in the Texas Association of Private and Parochial Schools. "But you've got to do a little more than a kid at West Brook because you're not going to get 10 great tapes on you.

"Some of those tapes we had weren't that good because of who we played, but it showed Rob hustling from sideline to sideline. He played hard. That's what they wanted to see from him."

Big chance

West Brook football coach Craig Stump said high school players at a smaller school such as Cathedral need to showcase their dominance in games more so than a player at West Brook or any other Class 5A school. West Brook has about 2,400 students.

Stump recalled recruiting a player from a Class A school in Bartlett, to Southwest Texas, an NCAA Division I-AA program, who earned All-American honors in college. Claude Mathis had led Bartlett to two state championships in 1990 and '92 and set several rushing records at Southwest Texas, now Texas State.

"If you're watching film and you see a guy running and you say that other guy better not tackle him and he doesn't and (the ball carrier) outruns him, then that's one thing," said Stump, an assistant coach at SEC school Mississippi State for five seasons before he became a high school head coach in 2003.

"With a 5A school, if a guy breaks away down the field and you say, 'Who's that chasing him? Well it's last year's 200-meter state champ.' And then he out runs him, then it's a little more clear. He's going to outrun everyone."

Stump coached two seasons at Kelly, another private school in Beaumont, before spending the last two seasons as head coach at West Brook. He said players at schools of any size have a chance to be noticed if the college recruiting coordinators are doing their jobs properly.

"The coach that recruits this area, it's his job to go to every school," Stump said. "You make sure you go to every school in the area and then you evaluate that person. You see: Can he run? Does he move good? If he's playing at a smaller school, he ought to be dominating his competition if he's good enough to play in the SEC or the Big 12."

West Brook quarterback Joe Chaisson will play football next season at Arkansas, another SEC school. Chaisson attended Kelly for two seasons before he followed Stump to West Brook.

Asked if Chaisson would have still received a scholarship offer from Arkansas or another major college football program if he had remained at Kelly, Stump said he didn't know.

"I can't speak for the guys at Arkansas, but definitely being at West Brook helped him," said Stump, who added that "being at West Brook made their decision a lot easier."

More players

Kelly coach Mike Long said top-level college talent isn't limited to larger public schools such as West Brook, Memorial, Central or Ozen. Long's Bulldogs suffered a 35-13 loss to Houston St. Pius, which he said had at least five players who will play Division I football.

Both teams compete in TAPPS Division I, reserved for schools with the largest enrollments within the organization. Kelly has about 490 students. There are four TAPPS divisions, and Cathedral is in Division III.

"The private schools have gotten better," said Long, whose team also played UIL District 21-3A member Bridge City and lost 16-7. "There's more (quality) players."

Long said Kelly linebacker Sean Bean might have been overlooked because he played at a private school. Bean is a 5-foot-11, 220-pound senior Long said might play next season at an NCAA Division III school.

Kelly offensive tackle Kheeston Randall will be a senior next season and has already been noticed by college coaches. Long said he talks with other coaches around Southeast Texas about players he thinks would be good college prospects.

"If we have a player coming through here, I'll tell (West Orange-Stark coach Dan) Hooks I've got a guy coming through, and he'll tell the colleges to stop at Kelly when they're visiting," Long said. "We're all trying to help the guy."

Camps helped

Ashabranner said most attention came his way after he began attending camps and combines after his junior and senior seasons. He attended three-day camps at Southern Methodist and Baylor during the summer before his junior year and five one-day camps after his junior season.

Ashabranner said his most impressive showing was at a combine in San Antonio in January 2005. He received a scholarship offer from Vanderbilt a couple weeks after a combine in April in College Station.

"The big thing is just getting your name put out there," Ashabranner said. "Once they know who you are, then it's a foot in the door."

Ashabranner prepared for the combines by practicing the drills he would be asked to run. He practiced the side-to-side motion of the shuttle run. He learned how to get a quick burst for the 40-yard sprint.

"He ran one of the fastest times by any defensive lineman in the state," said Smith, Cathedral's coach and a former quarterback at Lamar University. "We practiced it. We practiced that shuttle run. We talked about how to run it, which hand needs to go down and which foot needs to go down."

No doubts

Ashabranner admitted he had doubts about getting a chance to play in college because he attended a small private school. He attended Cathedral for elementary school but went to a public school for seventh and eighth grade.

He returned to Cathedral for high school.

Ashabranner's parents, Bob and Dee, said they were happy with that decision because "we wanted him to have a Christ-centered education," Bob said.

Even so, Rob Ashabranner said he thought about transferring after his first two seasons, as Cathedral went 0-10 and 5-5 in those years.

He decided in the summer before his junior year to stick it out for at least one more year. The Warriors went 7-3 that year and won their only playoff game.

"At that point, I knew I made the right decision," said Ashabranner, who also kicked and played quarterback last season.

Cathedral went 2-7 in 2006, but Ashabranner said he hopes he has proven that football players can move from a small private school to get a chance to play major college football.

Ashabranner said he has a 3.53 grade-point average, another important element to being accepted to Vanderbilt. He said Rice University also recruited him heavily.

Bob Ashabranner said the entire defensive coaching staff from Rice once showed up on the family's front doorstep and visited for three hours.

Looking ahead

Rob Ashabranner committed to Vanderbilt during the summer. He attended a game at the school against the University of Tennessee with his coach and family.

"I was on the sideline for that game, and I couldn't believe that he's going from this small private school to playing in front of those big crowds," Smith said.

Ashabranner said Vanderbilt coaches told him they don't plan to redshirt him this season. He said he looks forward to working out in what he said was a "world class" weight room at Vanderbilt. Many of his workouts during the last four years were on a pair of weight machines located in the back corners of a stage in Cathedral's gym because the school doesn't have a weight room.

He said he thinks about what running on to the field before the Commodores' first game, Sept. 1 at home against Richmond. There will also be trips to Auburn, South Carolina, Florida and Tennessee next season.

"I can't imagine what it will be like," he said. "It's mind-blowing."

cdabe@beaumontenterprise.com

(409) 880-0744

Edited February 4, 2007 by DeepGreen