The story is both familiar and unique: a lifetime of involvement with athletics turns into a passion fulfilled through helping youngsters realize their dreams of becoming college student-athletes. Joe Pound is the Northeast Florida area director for National Scouting Report. A former college baseball player at the University of North Florida, Pound played for legendary coach … Read more
Tanner Long faces a dilemma most high school athletes would love to have. Long, a 2018 National Scouting Report football prospect, must decide which sport — football or lacrosse — to play in college. Yes, he’s that talented – make that multi-talented. A 6-foot-2, 210-pound sophomore at Germantown Academy, a member of the prestigious Inter-Ac … Read more
It takes a special athlete to impress National Scouting Report scouts. Like college coaches, they must weed out lots of pretenders and wannabe prospects to find the ones who really have all the tools to be legitimate college recruits. Jason Marcum is an NSR scout who works throughout Missouri. He has more than a few softball … Read more
Sad, isn’t it? Every year we hear about high school students killed in automobile accidents. Many, it seems, occur this time of year. Cell phone usage has become a major reason for these accidents. Teens are distracted by reading or writing texts or conversing on their cell phones while driving or as a passenger. While there … Read more
Question: Is teamwork a natural gift or a learned skill? I was taught by my two older brothers what teamwork means and how to be a good team player. They pounded its importance into me at a young age. Even in business I refuse to throw a team member under the bus when things get rough. When … Read more
How many freshmen do you know who start on high school varsity softball teams? Not many. How many start on one of their state’s premier teams? Even fewer. Well, meet Maura Grace Dickens. Mike Ewing is not your run-of-the-mill softball scout. Before being named national baseball director for National Scouting Report, Ewing cut his teeth as … Read more
Good news for high school student-athletes who bombed out on the college entrance exams or are scared to death to take them. While attending a two-day college fair this week, I discovered more and more colleges and universities – including some of the most prestigious private schools in the country – have become test-optional. Hundreds … Read more
What do the best of the best — Tom Brady, Alex Morgan, Steph Curry, Serena Williams, Breanna Stewart, Mike Trout et al — have in common? All of them love to practice. These athletes learned early on that the only way they could become the best in their sport was to put in the time, … Read more
A sport can be so ingrained in some people during their formative years that they are drawn back to it as adults. Such is the case with National Scouting Report scout Rebecca Wood Bosma. Volleyball was her irresistible pull. Bosma was reminded how much she loved volleyball when she read the Facebook posts of NSR scouts across the … Read more
Ever heard of Frenchman François-Marie Arouet? Well, perhaps you will recognize the man more readily by his nom de plume (pen name), Voltaire, the renowned writer, historian and philosopher who lived in the early to mid-1700s. One of Voltaire’s more familiar phrases which has endured these many years is, in a somewhat loose translation: “Perfect is the enemy of good.” … Read more
