welcome to the secrets of college planning your host at the uva and today we're going to get some insight into football at the college level my guest today is troy jackson and he's the founder of college ready and welcome to the show thank you very much  to be here yeah no problem so usually a summer i guess where they went to college so would you go to school i went to the university of maryland i college park or anything that's like so let's go back into high school when did you start thinking about college and playing football at the college level in high school was a freshman year senior who know now i started playing football when i was nine years old at you know at a league level and williams region and from the time i started i knew i wanted to be a professional football player that was my go to be a professional football player i was one of those kids that had a point so i knew if i wanted to be a professional football player professional football players come from being culture for players i knew i had to go to college so that was it so once i knew i had to go to college to go pro you know with that being my goal i started playing and what it took for me to be eligible for scholarship at the college level and i started my own plan great so no one in high school did that that start i started my playing and before high school i was in probably the seventh grade i knew you know at that time there we needed a two point zero and a seven hundred s eighty and i knew the classes that we needed to take roughly you know i did the research i knew we needed two years of foreign language plus the algebra is algebra two is in the geometries ok so what i did was once i found out what i needed to do i started in middle school so once we started the process of middle school you can take electives yeah i took my first foreign language in the eighth grade which was latin so i knocked out one year for the foreign language in middle school and then when i did also in eighth grade i took algebra so i'm not down on math in middle school so once i got that high school level i was already on my way to be an eligible for scholarship right so now when we just start well let's go back into the  into the school itself was the football team good enough where people started recognizing you or did you have to go out and no no luckily for me i played in a peninsular district in virginia a so at that time in the mid to late eighty's you know and beyond it was one of the top if not the top football district in the state of virginia so you know we played the hampton high schools  we played at the bethel high schools where allen iverson went we played warrick high where michael vick went you know my high school is where ron springs and lawrence taylor went to high school so we have a tradition of football in the area so there are always eyes on us in that area so it's just a matter of having a great you know only you got to have grades having to graze and if you have the grades and you have the talent and ability people will see so when did that start happening was it sophomore year for me i start again i noticed probably myself more year i started receiving correspondence in the ma my junior year you know my senior year every day there was there was multiple writers there were multiple things from multiple colleges and universities throughout the country so it by my senior year it had mushroom into something where we knew i was going somewhere it was just a matter of which school i wanted to go to and which school wanted me yes so now how did that process begin was mom and dad involved you know well you know it's interesting my parents always let me lead the way in my future and my career especially when it came to football i was the one who was going to be out there totally you know so i had made the decision of course they guided me you know in the right direction but ultimately it was my choice and when i saw i chose the university of maryland so now how did that choice start ted and how did you even narrow it down to university it was it was interesting enough for myself i wanted to be a big time football player remember my goal was to be a professional football player and so out of all the schools that were recruiting me maryland was you know a big time program at the time you got to remember this is nineteen eighty six one hundred eighty seven so maryland wants you now flying high at that time and i looked at it and i said it and two i wanted to put my talent and ability against who i considered the best because i felt like i was in a way to prove it is to go out there with those guys guys they were you know we're ten in the nation and we beat on and i had a pretty good game and we had been playing against them you know of course of my freshman year so it was a process and those were wars you know so you play year after year after year so by the time you get to your third and fourth year you guys know each other you know so he recommended it to the university of maryland they come in take a look at me and those guys came up and you know long story short i ended up getting a scholarship from a red grape so i know you're at university of maryland yes what's the prize what's the process of football what's the practice is like what's the game's like the process of football at the college level especially at the big time college level is a business you know everything revolves around football and sometimes unfortunately even your classes revolve around football your class schedule revolves around practice schedule you know you can't have classes during practice if you're going to be successful if you're going to play you know you can't miss time so you know football it was it was an interesting learning process because once you get there and there and you know we had a banquet or whatnot and we ate without parents and they'd tell you you know say your goodbyes you know because we're headed over to the infirmary to get  physicals and then we're going to practice you know and that was it so it was a process it happened pretty quickly you have to get used to it you have to hit the ground running because if you don't you will be run over so practice together for a week and you always hear about when you change levels how the speed changes i noticed that when we were doing exercises we would practice as a freshman for that first week you know we would do exercises and we would have a clap where you know you have to exercise jumping jacks to clap and i you do jumping jacks well you know i would do that for weight with later that upperclassman comment and then we're doing the same exercises right now those guys are leading you do when you're jumping jacks on to clap class a faster so if you have to travel faster at the practices of faster the guise of faster everything is magnified the intensity is magnified the speed is magnified the sizes of the guys you play against as magnified the demands on you are magnified tremendously and you have to be able to manage your time you have to be able to study because your time is taken up you know you have your breakfast in the morning you go to classes after that you go to lunch after that you go to meetings after that you work out after that your practice after net you go to dinner after that you go to study hall after that and have to study all the time as your voice unfortunately is about ten thirty eleven o'clock at night and we have to do it all again tomorrow w sports is like so now you get the saturday and what is saturday like living at the college now so at the college level you know you hear where guys get richer it and i say oh you have a year to get red shirted the only thing you know do when you get raised here it it's play you do everything else you have you don't get the miss practice you know to go study in a show you have to be a college to know you do everything else you just don't play in games so you know it did it if you're on a travel team and it was a home game we would stay at a hotel friday night the night before and it would get your way from the campus atmosphere guys who weren't on a travel team was staying in their dorm rooms and then saturday morning we would all meet over at the team facility to get ready for the game well so you know you get ready for the game you get in there early you have a team breakfast you get into the facility you get taped up you thing you know first thing second team third team if we're doing kick off we're going to go over the person now first and second you know so they have call a position and you call your name out to let them know that you know you're supposed to be on a feel so by the time we get to a game situation everything is covered and i was so you can't say i didn't now so know you get the senior year of college so what's happening and how did you get from there to college ready that you started my saying the year of college was difficult personal way i had actually gotten to the point you know i started my junior year as a running back in the university of maryland i started my seniors as running back at the universe there maryland my junior room went to a ball game that we tied but everything was going according to plan curtain of big time college sports and i really was turned off by it and and i got away from it for a long time the way i came up with college ready was i got into the school system once i had kids i was trying to figure out a way how can i keep my eyes on my kids do on a day and i could become subject each and i started in the school system you know sub and i joined the child study team for school and  to new jersey and as i as i am in the schools i see kids i see parents who aren't even thinking about going to college aren't even thinking about putting money away for school  and i said i need to start talking to these families as a at an early age as possible because the price is astronomical no matter when you start say even you want to have enough money as talk to a thletes and families about getting scholarships the vast majority of college athletes don't get full rides you're going to have to make it up you know so you guys still even if you are athlete even if you're a good athlete or even a great athlete you may not get a full ride so we need to be able to figure out how to finance that those monies that you know you're going to have to find as a family so now what is college ready to do what are some of the  projects that you get involved in well right now the next thing that we have coming up is a money management for youth and families class that's in williamsburg virginia at news and baptist church on a saturday  so that's one of the things we go out in the community and we try to teach students and families the skills that they're going to need not only to get into college but to be successful when they're there so we do money management class we do a study skills class we don't time management class we're doing introduction to college class which is for those kids who are going on to college who may be freshman so we give them the ins and outs of what to do when you get the campus how to conduct yourself how to interact with your professors you know introduce yourself early let them know you're there let them know you're interested in the class and you're all those things right so how does how does a student get involved and college ready that do they have to come in contact you or do you find then well what we're doing now is in virginia where are we are starting to work with the newport news school systems around here were doing some things out where in pittsburgh with afterschool programs with youth places starting in the fall so right now that's things in college a lot of parents out there talk about it sports it's only sports there's no time for studies and things of that sort but you said something that i've i've had other athletes on that said it's all time management there's are so what is the balance that the student has to give visit is it the student going to the college and saying hey i need this time to study or is it the coach telling kids you can't do any of with study time if you have a window or a noun window where you have four hours pick up a book for an hour or eight you know go over the notes that you took in class that's what time management is you have to feel bad free time with studying and that's what's going to get you through but if you take that idle time and you use it for video games or whatnot then was going to happen is you not going to get your study and then you're not going to have that time at the end of the day to devote to all the study and that you need to do whenever you have a free time throughout the day if you have our between class study if you have a couple hours and then on time between class and practice pick up  that's how you become successful students so so there is timing to then to to actually pass the classes oh yes yes definitely is it's all a matter of being efficient with your time learning how to take advantage of your time you know you can't you can't miss a window you can miss a window to study you can miss a window to go over you note but that will show in your great now there have been some college coaches that have come on and said that there is allocated study time that they give to the teams yes they do that well yes oh their study halls definitely if your when i was in school if your g p a was below a two point five as mandatory did you did some study hall time so dependent on your g p a was dependent on the hours of study hall that you put in you know so there's me study hall time set up that detains put aside you know a couple hours here before practice a couple hours you know after dinner and even but that's not enough time to be to be a successful student you can be a one at but if you want to be a b and i asked him if you have to put in much more time when you know now there's then things out in the news lately that some of the schools give you the classes that you should be taking when you're there or is it up to the student to pick the classes that they want like like any sting with them you're going to have electives so it's up to the student to pick the electives that they want but for your major whatever that may be of course there are core courses that you have to take and pass so your electives are your elective judge it so so so the school is just giving you the time of elective so then you can go to practices and  course at a college classes are given throughout the day so you can take classes at times that make it you know make you able to get to get to practice on time or practice in general the problem comes in and as you get further into your academic career in college those classes are only given maybe you know once a week at four o'clock yeah you know practice it at four o'clock find a major that is taken by a lot of athletes you know it corresponds well with a practice schedule that you know so what what happens with guys who are more serious let's say you have an athlete who wants to be a doctor you know how badly you want to be a doctor do you want to be a doctor mourning a wonderful ballplayer there comes a time sometimes you have a choice  know what do you choose what i found in s and college a lot of guys choose football or that sport over that academic class simply because when you're dealing with with a college athlete he's been this has been his path for a long time yes like i was he's about to achieve what he's been you know reaching in striving for right now if i have to miss practice right my senior year for this class i'm not a better start i can't be a quarterback right right i can't run the office so now what do you do right interesting so that so a lot for a lot of guys it comes to that well and one of the other questions that parents always came up with is that the scholarships people think it's for full for years some schools do it some schools don't want to renewable it's year after year so if someone better than you comes along and they don't need you or you get hurt somehow know that i guess that scholarship isn't actually their one year renewable you don't hear a lot about you know kids scholarships and i mean renewed i think you have to do something you know drastic for a scholarship not to be renewed but there is a chance we were not to be there yet so you have to know all your options know and read an athletic scholarship and i told her take academic scholarship and control your own future don't let them control your future yes so if it's academic scholarships unless you you do poorly in your grades the same school and walk on to the taking it seriously if you're that good they're not going to they're not going to turn your way and then you see a lot of people do a lot of walk on yes yes yes there are a lot of walking around and college lot of walk ons in college if not for walk alone and you probably couldn't have football programs because you just need so many bodies and there are so many guys who are still trying to live a dream the trying to be athletes even if they didn't get a scholarship you know they're in college they still can come out for football team and play and there is there's a practice team as well as the actual football team that's playing on saturday there's a scout team which generally are the guys who aren't on the first team or the second team so the guys who aren't on first or second team all fans for instance would be the scout team for the first team and the second team fans so they would run the other team the opponent the upcoming opponents off at the gym and vice versa pretty fast so if by a miracle you do really really well they start to see and start to recognize you and then you move up in the rankings i guess yeah it works that way sometimes you know they you pretty much know who guys are when you're recruiting when you bring a man yeah yeah but yeah i really yeah you have holes to fill so some guys are good enough to come right in and and contribute to team but more often than not you need time yeah especially for football you know those are big guys so we're coming to the end of our show and usually asked my guests what advice do you want to give to families that their sons and daughters want to go to college son's want to play football at the college level maybe even daughters want to want to play at the college level what would you want to give to them great great your grades or more options you have also colleges are looking for the athlete who has good character who has good grades good in the community because you're representing the college and university so no when you take a scholarship or were or when you attend the college or university you are representing a top college and university so these guys are looking for not only the top athletes but they're looking for top flight character students to represent them very well thank you very much for coming on the show thank you very much for having me yeah no problem so you've been watching the secrets of college planning on your whole stay at the uva until next time