College Football Expo

Greetings,

I just wanted to update you guys on my time at the expo today. It was a long day, but it was an extraordinary experience. I met with about 15 college coaches today, and when I say "met with," I don't mean a hand shake. There were 63 high schools from across the south there; all of us were in a large conference room, and each of us had our own table. College coaches continuously walking around the room. They would leave one table, then based on preliminary information they had, they would move to another table. I spent about 20 minutes with every coach that spoke with me at my table. I met with the following schools:

Swanee
Kentucky State
Bethune Cookman
Holy Cross
Georgia State
Minnesota
Northern Minnesota
South Eastern Louisiana
Lagrange College
Auburn
Georgia Southern
Mars Hill
North Greenville College
UAB
Alabama State

I was amazed at how eager most coaches were to build relationships. With everyone of these schools, I had a TV going with DQ's highlights and my computer going with Jerime's highlights. I had their transcripts in hand, so I was able to go over their grades with them, and we talked about their ACT scores. They wanted to know all about our kids, and they wanted to know about our school. I was able to share our school story and mission with all of them. In addition, I was able to share DQ's and others stories with them. I love sharing the RA story and the story of our kids. I spent a large amount of time with Coach Price from Auburn. He is the recruiter who has been Bessemer Academy's connection to Auburn. I told him we were going to play them next year, and he said if he was still at Auburn, he would definitely be there.

I gave all of them a highlight DVD, Bios, transcripts, and other information. Overall, they were impressed with DQ;s athleticism--his ability to plant, and his strength in relationship to his size. South Eastern Louisiana was very impressed with Jerime's ability to close on a receiver. They were concerned about his ACT, but said they had some jucos they wanted to follow up with him. We will see what happens.

I will be going back tomorrow. There will be a whole new set of college coaches there; however, I will probably leave around noon so to get back for the Christmas Party.

In another note, we visited with Lisa's brother over the weekend. His vitals are better but he looks really bad, please keep Roger in your prayers. I am able to share a lot about how much God loves him, and I can tell he understands because he squeezes my hand, but he just cant communicate with me much.