Although making the NFL is a long shot, a free college education isn't a bad consolation prize.
The father of an Arizona high school football player has turned the tables on the system to actively market his son for a football scholarship.
Garrett Kaiser, a high school senior in Chandler, Ariz., understands he'll most likely never make the National Football League level, he's not even a high profile college recruit, but every day this year he was receiving letters of interest from schools across the country.
Why?
His family learned about the game of recruiting, how to market, and accepted that no school would be too big or too small if they're willing to pay for Kaiser's education.
Jim Kaiser did lots of homework for his son, setting up spreadsheets after Garrett's junior year that included every school with a football program offering scholarships or funding. From big conference powers to small unknown schools, everyone was included with phone numbers and e-mail contacts for those who recruit the state of Arizona.
"Go out there, market your child, get film on your child and start having those conversations with schools that you want your child to have the opportunity to go to," Jim asserted to News 12 Phoenix.
More than one million kids (1,108,441) played high school football in the United States last year, less than 68 thousand of them (67,887) will play football at an NCAA school and less than one percent of those will get a full ride at a D-I university, according to the NCAA.
While Kaiser had success as a prep player in Arizona, the family understands the importance of avoiding student debt later in life.
"We have no aspirations of him becoming a pro, but at an $80,000 to $100,000 education cost, that's his ticket," his father Jim announced. "He has a gift, and that gift can pay for his college. Which can set him up for life, coming out of college without a huge debt burden. If you can get that done, you should get it done," dad said.
All that hard work by father and son paid off, as 12 News Phoenix reports Kaiser will get close to 100 percent of his college education paid for on an athletic scholarship from Northern State University in Aberdeen, South Dakota. Garrett hopes to become a teacher and high school football coach after college.
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