Top college basketball recruits increasingly rural

Major universities "are recruiting more players from small communities, but rural athletes face higher hurdles to compete," the Daily Yonder says in introducing a story by Tom Sexton, a journalism student at Morehead State University in Kentucky who is interning this summer with the Center for Rural Strategies.

Sexton gives anecdotal examples of top recruits from small towns, such as Armintie Price of the University of Mississippi, a native of Myrtle, pop. 407 (Ole Miss photo), then applies statistical analysis: "Five years ago in 2003, 16 of the top 150 college basketball prospects according to Rivals.com were from counties that could be considered rural (according to the Index of Relative Rurality). In 2008, that number has nearly doubled: 30 of the top 150 Rivals.com basketball prospects are from smaller towns. This trend seems to suggest that more and more recruiters are finding quality players away from the city."

Matthew Taylor, assistant men's basketball coach at Pikeville College in Kentucky, told Sexton, “Now ... you have better coaching in rural schools, and there are a lot of coaches, many of them originally from small towns themselves, who are willing to give these kids a chance because the quality of coaching is up, and as a result the quality of play and competition is up, too.” Taylor "also acknowledges that as major NCAA Division One colleges recruit more rural kids," smaller schools "are losing prime recruits," Sexton writes.

But apiring rural athletes still face the obstacles of isolation and, "in these times of rising gas prices and a flailing economy ... more formidable financial obstacles" than their urban counterparts, Sexton reports. “It's harder for families around here and other rural areas to come up with an extra $500 to send their kid to a camp that could help them get recruited to college,” Letcher County Central High School football star Sidney Fields told Sexton. “And with us not getting the same media coverage that Lexington or Louisville kids get, we have to raise money to go to camps and work harder when we get there to get our names out.” (Read more)