Standout navigates tricky world of recruiting

By Kevin Lonnquist

With opportunities come lessons. Keller Fossil Ridge defensive tackle Aaron Curry is as talented a Division I prospect as you'll find in our coverage area.

He jetted off last Friday to take an official visit to Nebraska to find out if that school would be right for him.

However, he had already started feeling like stranger in his own house. Well, it wasn't that drastic. But given that the next phase of his life is going to take him hundreds of miles away from home, he recently started to learn how to fend for himself.

"My mom pretty much stopped doing my laundry when my football season began," Curry said. "But we talk a lot about how I'm going to cope about being away and that I'm going to have to be self-sufficient. I'm the baby of the family, but I understand what she meant."

Curry was the final big recruiting prize of the coverage area's 2012 Division I signing class. Some of the other big names in Carroll linebacker Will Davis (Kansas State) and wide receiver Sabian Holmes (Texas A&M) have made their choice. All of these players are expected to sign their National Letter of Intent next Wednesday (Feb. 1).

But this is the time of the recruiting season where there's still plenty of volatility. Players are routinely making switches in their commitments or finding interest from programs that didn't think thing one of them until now. That's just the way it works.

So for Curry, he's kind of the exception to the norm. Before this column was sent to the printers on Monday, Curry had not made his choice on where he would give his verbal commitment. He was deciding between Nebraska, Iowa and Missouri. Reportedly, he was hoping to make the decision after inhome visits from the Nebraska and Iowa coaches.

This exercise of trying to find the right football program - and more importantly, the right school - has taken about one calendar year. Curry has moved from attending junior days in January and February 2011 to going to camps in the summer, to taking unofficial visits, to now taking official visits.

It's a whirlwind of trying to distinguish coach speak from sincerity and carefully observing what it is real and what isn't. That's what Curry has been doing before he left for the Midwest.

"I want to major in sports management," Curry said. "The first thing I want to know is the graduation rate. Then I'll ask the players if they were cool with the coaches off the field. And I ask the coaches if the players are nice guys.

"I want to know if this is a party school or if this is a place where I won't get distracted so I can get my [schoolwork] done. Those things really matter to me."

And really, it wasn't so much what he was told but how it was told to him, and when actions spoke louder than words. For instance, Curry watched how his hosts interacted with each other or how his host interacted with him. The same observations applied to how he watched the respective coaching staffs.

Then there is the pressure between fan message boards, coaches, recruiting web sites and fellow high school students. At some point, you have to feel some empathy for kids like Curry. This isn't a four-year decision. This is a 40-year decision because there is life after football.

And hence we go back to Curry having to figure out when to use and not use bleach on his clothes. The tools that his mother established for him revealed that at some point he is going to have to figure it out on his own.

Curry is in a position few other upcoming high school graduates ever find themselves in. His college education will be paid for. He can play a game he loves at the next level. He will have more doors open for him.

Starting in June when he arrives on campus, it will be his chance to maximize his opportunity.

He's just keeping his fingers crossed that the decision is the right one.

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