College football coaches visiting Sequoyah more
By Jim Trickett
Sports Writer
TAHLEQUAH, Okla. – In years past, Sequoyah Schools was not a school that college football coaches visited much looking for players. But in the past three seasons, all that has changed as the Indians are seeing more college coaches knocking on their doors.
Brent Scott, Sequoyah’s sixth-year head coach, played college football at Oklahoma State University and knows the recruiting process. With this knowledge, he lends a hand to players who get visits from college coaches representing schools from the NAIA level to NCAA Division I programs.
“We’ve been very fortunate in the past few years to have more college coaches come by and talk to the kids about coming to their schools,” said Scott.
He said former Indians running back Travis Boswell started the recruiting trend by signing with Northeastern State University in 2007 but that former Sequoyah and current University of Mississippi quarterback Nathan Stanley took it to a “whole new and different level.”
Scott said so far this year offensive and defensive lineman Chris Littlehead has 12 NCAA Division I offers.
“So we have really taken it up a notch every year that we’ve been here, and it’s always good to go out to practice and there’s coach (Jackie) Shipp from OU (University of Oklahoma) or the coach from Kansas and Kansas State, OSU, Tulsa been down,” Scott said. “It’s been good to have those guys on our campus looking at our kids and thinking enough of our kids to make them offers to come to their school to not only play football, but get their education at their school.”
The number of coaches coming to Sequoyah varies daily, and Scott said he is happy the college coaches are taking time to come to Sequoyah to evaluate the Indians’ talent pool.
“Every day we have at least one or two coaches that come on campus,” he said. “There are some times that we’ve had as many as five or six that have come to meet with us (Sequoyah coaches) and the players.”
Scott said he has hosted coaches from all Big 12 Conference schools, most of the Southeastern Conference schools and some from the Pacific 10 Conference.
“In all, we’ve probably have had 30 Division I schools in our locker room this spring, and I dare to say there are some others that can say that as well, but they are at Union, Jenks, Muskogee or Broken Arrow,” he said. “So we feel real fortunate to be the size of school that we are and the amount of attention that we are creating.”
Scott also said the fact that Division I coaches come to campus on a regular basis has not gone unnoticed by the younger players in the Sequoyah program.
“It gives a different incentive to the younger players, and they know when they come here and they’re a good enough player that those folks will be watching them,” he said. “If you’re good enough and you’re right in front of them and you might have an opportunity to play for them one day.”
But recruiting isn’t all about performing on the field, it also entails classroom performance, Scott said.
“That is the first thing that a coach will look at when they come and visit is their grades,” he said. “When they come to look at Chris, Nate or Boswell, the first thing they said was, ‘hey, let’s look at a transcript.’”
With a former Indian playing at the Division I level and others playing on lower college levels, Sequoyah is quickly becoming a school recruiters need to visit while searching for quality football players.