The year in football 2017 is winding down. Seniors are making decisions about the next step in their lives. Was this their last year of organized football, do they have offers to consider?

Some may not receive the offers they have worked so hard and so long for, yet the urge to play football is strong and so they seek to find a place where they can continue to play and obtain an education.

Juniors are now officially seniors in their programs and they are either putting in work or making preparations to do so if they seek to push themselves to the next level.

Parents are and should be having serious conversations with their children in helping them with their decisions in their sports journey. Juniors or upcoming seniors should be hitting the books to fatten up their GPA’s and studying for their first or second round of SAT’s and ACT’s.

Some kids will make the right moves and take the right steps to sure up their dreams and yet others unfortunately will be shown next year that they wasted their opportunities. This unfortunately is not a new story, yet one that plays out over and over year after year.

As more athletes work harder and harder to be dual threats in both the classroom and the gridiron. We for many different reasons are continually faced with those athletes that fall short academically.

These shortfalls cost athletes missed opportunities to obtain and or retain a scholarship offer. Others will discover that they have the grades yet not quite the athleticism or just did not get the right look.

With the many celebrations that the end of a football season brings, are also the heartaches, frustrations and harsh realities that a number of athletes are forced to face. My son quickly realized where he stood and immediately bid adieu to his athletic career and moved onto the next phase of his life.

Young men there is no failure in not reaching the goal of taking your athletic abilities to the next level. The failure is in not setting new goals!