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EAGLES’ PRIDE
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2015-2016
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“you can never have too much
good information.” His son,
Pete ‘16, is a three-sport varsity
contributor, a seek-and-destroy
linebacker in the revitalized Eagle
football program and all-star
lacrosse midfielder who helped
ignite the single-best STH season
in program history.
“I have to believe those visits
help the kid figure out where he
fits in and that shapes the effort,”
Huggins said. “Lacrosse is likely
Pete’s preferred goal right now,
but more than anything else I
think he wants to use sports as
entry into a school that otherwise
might not be available.”
Netzel discovered
Wire while
working the
rounds at the
recent National
Athletic Directors
Conference
outside of
Washington, D.C.
Among the maze
and myriad of
eager sales reps
hawking rather
unessential
products
and services,
one vendor
emphatically
stood out and
demanded
Netzel’s attention.
Dynamite Sports
was offering a
substantive slant
minus the pure
profit motive
... a national
educational
provider designed
to inform and empower high
school coaching staffs, student-
athletes and their parents on the
college recruiting process.
Netzel recognized an ideal
resource equipped to separate
fact from fiction for his STH
community and immediately
confirmed a seminar.
“One of the biggest pluses is
obvious right away. Dynamite
Sports is not a recruiting service.
They’re not looking to create
an appetite and then satisfy that
demand for a price. They’re intent
is simply to educate, provide
the knowledge and the tools on
how to engage and navigate the
marketplace, which often times
can more resemble a minefield,”
Netzel said.
Coach Tim Fitzpatrick readily
admits the recruiting process is
light years removed from when he
was a standout at Benet Academy
outside of Chicago in the
mid-1980s before accepting his
scholarship to Rice University.
“Our staff may have particular
college coaching contacts.
Certainly we can provide personal
evaluations and recommendations,
input on summer camps to best
showcase a student-athlete, and
make sure his transcript is fully
updated and available,” Fitzpatrick
said. “But all this is collaborative.
You have to have a plan, be
informed and be proactive. And
then you still have to hope there’s
a school out with an opportunity.”
Coy Wire was drafted in the third
round of the 2002 NFL draft,
played six professional seasons
with the Buffalo Bills and three
more with the Atlanta Falcons.
He’s now working as a studio
anchor and game analyst with
a variety of national networks,
including CNN, HLN, Fox
and Fox Sports 1, as well as a
contributing speaker for Dynamite
Sports.
His father doesn’t guarantee
similar such success stories. But
at the program’s bedrock are two
decades of due diligence, drilling
down to micro specifics for in-
depth strategies on every sport,
given that the path for a college
bound golfer is so dramatically
different than his football and
basketball counterparts.
“All of us essentially want the
same things, what’s best for our
student-athletes. This was an
opportunity to share the message,”
Netzel said.
That message included parents
and their sons avoiding frustration
if their initial advances don’t
generate the anticipated responses,
and that persistence pays the
biggest dividend.
Yet Wire is certainly savvy enough
to acknowledge that only a
third of his audiences routinely
embrace the full thrust of his
message once the initial wave of
enthusiasm wears off.
“I don’t think that’s a good
number but it is the number. It
should be everybody. If your son
wants to play at the college level
and you didn’t learn what to do,
then there’s no excuses. They have
the blueprint. Adapt it. Follow it.
Colleges are recruiting earlier than
ever before. When you have eighth
and ninth grade girls accepting
Division I lacrosse scholarships,
you know the environment has
shifted. Never saw that five years
ago.”
Netzel anticipates the session
with Dynamite Sports to be
the first move in establishing a
three-event STH speaker series on
campus within the yearly academic
calendar.
“There are so many educational
topics. Recruiting is the perfect
session to get us started and
we could likely offer it annually
given how quickly the landscape
changes. But there’s also strength
and conditioning, nutrition, injury
prevention, concussion protocol,
team building, motivational
strategies. We feel good about
where we are as an athletic
department, certainly not satisfied,
still always looking for ways to
improve. And encouraging these
kinds of dialogue and establishing
positive relationships can only
promote a better experience for
everyone in our STH student-
athlete community,” Netzel said.
Coy Wire starred at Stanford before his NFL career with
the Falcons and Bills
Fisher ‘16 after his 2015 all-state golf performance