How can HISD help students score college athletic scholarships?

On National Signing Day in February, about 100 Houston Independent School District seniors - girls and boys - signed letters of intent to play college sports.

That's not nearly enough, not even close.

Houston Independent School District is the largest school district in Texas, the seventh-largest in the country. The district educates 215,000 students, with 24 high schools. More than 90 percent of HISD students are minority kids, about 75 percent from economically disadvantaged families.

There's the problem. Landing an athletic scholarship can be a tricky, confusing and ridiculously expensive journey. Our kids have the ability and brains to play college sports. Heck, go to a public playground and watch a bunch of kids playing basketball. It looks like the NBA skills competition and dunk contest.

Their parents, unfortunately, don't have the money or resources or knowledge to land a scholarship for them.

Houston kids play sports year-round. They're really, really good at football, baseball, hoops, volleyball, soccer, tennis and more. HISD high schools field teams in 12 sports.

But only 100 HISD students got offers to play a sport in college - that's all colleges, more than a hundred in Texas, including large Division I programs such as the University of Texas, A&M, Tech, UH or Rice. And smaller Division II colleges such as Angelo State, St. Edward's, Tarleton State or A&M-Kingsville. Or even smaller Division III schools and junior colleges.

Or thousands of colleges elsewhere in the U.S.

What's keeping more of our kids from getting offers to attend classes and play a sport at these schools?

HISD athletic director Marmion Dambrino said one of her top priorities is getting more colleges to offer more scholarships to more HISD student-athletes. She is a tireless worker on a job that never ends.

I asked her to give me a number.

If 100 HISD kids are getting college offers now, what's the goal?

She said 300 "sounds like a reasonable figure."

I'm saying 500. And I've got some ideas.

First and most important, HISD needs to expand on Dambrino's pet project to educate and train coaches and guidance counselors on how to help their players chase college athletic scholarships. Even better, dig up the resources to put a dedicated guidance counselor in each high school to get athletes into college.

Dambrino said that was the case in HISD from 2007-09. A grant from the American Football Foundation paid for these "sports academic coaches." The grant expired, however, and the academic coaches left.

We need to get them back. Somehow. I'm not saying HISD should divert guidance counselors who currently help all students. I'm saying find the money or redirect money to get these sports academic coaches back in play. I know, convincing taxpayers to spend more money on public education is tough. We need to put on our thinking caps and get creative.

Some HISD coaches understand the process of connecting student-athletes with college recruiters. Dambrino said HISD coaches are encouraged to help their players find scholarships. But that is a full-time job, and most HISD coaches are really part-time coaches and full-time math or science or history teachers.

I've heard coaches tell parents, "If your child is good enough, colleges will find them."

Maybe that's how it was years ago. Dambrino acknowledges it's not true anymore.

OK, it's true if the kid can throw a 95 mph cut fastball, or dunk from the foul line, or run back 100-yard kickoffs. Those are the athletes you see on ESPN announcing they've decided to play basketball at Duke instead of Georgetown or Notre Dame.

For most student athletes skilled enough to play college ball but not superstars with 200 DI offers, here's the drill.

Parents have to buy equipment, pay for the kid to play on summer teams, maybe hire a private instructor for lessons, take the kid to showcases, have a video made to send to college coaches and visit campuses. There are dozens of college recruitment services that can help land a sports scholarship for a student. Now we're talking big business. These services can charge up to $5,000.

Parents tell an ironic joke. "You know, if we never bought a baseball glove, never paid for a summer team and lessons, never took our kids to a showcase … we could afford to send our kids to Harvard."

Colleges don't have an unlimited number of athletic scholarships. Large DI colleges have 85 football scholarships, unless they've been caught cheating and had some scholarships taken away. DII colleges have 63 football scholarships. But DI schools have only 11.7 baseball scholarships and 13 basketball scholarships. DII schools have nine baseball scholarships and 10 basketball scholarships.

Colleges can offer scholarships in 20 different sports, from the big three (football, basketball and baseball) to water polo, ice hockey, rifle shooting, golf and gymnastics. Scholarships are out there; the trick is to find and land them. By law, colleges have to play fair, offering scholarships for both men's and women's teams.

Here's a few more ways HISD can help its economically struggling athletes. A professional video (not an iPhone video done by Mom or Dad) of athletes showing off their skills can cost $200 or more. Some HISD high schools have video arts classes. Why not have those students make the videos as an assignment? The athlete gets the video for free, the student gets a grade. Two birds, win-win.

Instead of parents paying and dragging their kids to showcases where they perform in front of college recruiters, why can't HISD hold a showcase at Barnett, Butler or Delmar sport complex and invite a hundred college coaches, who'd love to get their claws on HISD athletes?

Those private athletic recruitment services? Why not hire one to find scholarships for our kids? I've always wondered why Burger King doesn't steal the vice president in charge of french fries at McDonald's.

If the ultimate goal of HISD is getting our kids into college, then hiring private recruiters to find scholarships for athletes would be the best money HISD spends. Pay the recruiters a fee for each scholarship they land for an HISD student. Then you'll see emails and videos flying out and scholarships coming back.