Gillum likes prospects for recruiting firm

FORT COLLINS Jack Gillum set out last year to find a means for his daughter Kelly, a golfer for Fort Collins High School, to attract some attention from college coaches.

After plowing through the Internet for leads, Gillum contacted College Prospects of America, a recruiting service that works for high school or club athletes much as an executive headhunter firm represents management talent.

The experience turned out so well for Gillum Kelly landed a golf scholarship to attend Montana State University hes invested in College Prospects of America.

In January Gillum and four of his siblings, calling themselves G5 LLC, acquired the Colorado franchise of College Prospects. The partnership has since launched a new College Prospects franchise in Oklahoma, where two of Gillums brothers live.

“I shared our experience with my siblings,” Jack Gillum said. “Theyre all athletes and all businesspeople and liked the idea.”

Gillum, a vice president for Everitt Cos. in Fort Collins, believes the business meets an underserved marketplace of would-be college athletes who dont attract college recruiters attention while theyre in high school.

“Kids think if theyre a star on their high school team that all the coaches are going to find them,” Gillum said. “Unless youre exceptional, theyre not going to know who you are.”

In the case of his daughter, Kelly showed collegiate potential in her junior year when she placed eighth in the 2003 state tournament. By then, most of the top golfers in her class were already in the recruiting pipeline.

After the College Prospects process, the younger Gillum was contacted by 75 schools before eventually deciding on Montana State in the fall.

In fact, sports like golf so-called “non-revenue sports” at the collegiate level appear to have the most to gain from the recruiting service industry. Coaches in such sports, which include lacrosse, soccer, tennis and track, often work on skeletal recruiting budgets, particularly at small colleges.

“These kinds of services helps those programs a great deal,´ said Bert Borgman of the Colorado High School Athletic Association, which supervises the states high school sports structure.

Recruiting services, a phenomenon that appears to stem from the early 1980s, ranges from Internet bulletin boards that simply post an athletes resume to full-service programs that can charge up to $2,500.

The competing services feature names like Athletesedge.com, BigTimeRecruit.com, College Bound Student Alliance and National Recruiting Network.

Not all recruiting services have built savory reputations, Borgman said, although he said College Prospects in Colorado “tends to represent their clients very well.”

College Prospects, founded in 1986, bills itself as a premium service, with fees ranging from $1,000 to $2,000. The company will pre-screen clients to make sure they have college potential, both as athletes and students Gillum said less than 25 percent of high school athletes even qualify academically to play in college.

“Sometimes you have to disqualify potential clients,´ said Tom Starr, vice president of College Prospects of Americas corporate office in Logan, Ohio. “Coaches have to have confidence you are sending people they should have interest in.”

The College Prospects fees cover services such as developing a profile of the athlete thats disseminated to coaches, video editing, financial aid consulting and providing updates to coaches of a players in-season achievements.

As a sales pitch, College Prospects points out the potential return on investment.

“Even if a family pays us $1,300 to enroll in our service & If I can get that family a $1,300 annual financial aid package, Ive gotten three times their money back, plus the original investment,´ said Rick Gillum, who lives in Oklahoma City, Okla.

“If you look at the investment community, thats a tremendous return.”

One satisfied investor is Leslie Ross, the mother of former Fort Collins High basketball player Dakota Whitney. Ross said her daughter, a senior, decided at the end of the latest basketball season that she wanted to pursue college basketball.

Ross signed up with College Prospects in early March and received contacts from 21 schools by the end of the month. Dakota, also a talented artist and a 3.9 GPA student, landed a tuition-and-fees package worth $22,000 from the renowned Savannah (Ga.) College of Art and Design, which competes on the NAIA level in sports.

Ross had paid $1,200 for the College Prospects service.

The company markets itself with free seminars for athletes and parents, at which the nature of the recruiting process is outlined.

Gillum credits the previous franchise owner, Pete Kettler of Denver, for establishing a strong reputation for College Prospects in Colorado. But he thinks the business hasnt reached its potential.

The Colorado franchise currently has three representatives working in the Denver area and two in Northern Colorado. The partnership has also hired Melissa Koza, a one-time sports marketing executive for Triple Crown Sports in Fort Collins, as its regional director of scouting in the state. Gillum wants to enlist up to 15 representatives in Colorado who can each work with five to 10 clients a month on a regular basis.

“At some point, if were successful, we might look at some other markets,” Gillum said. “But first we want to develop a formula for success a template.”

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