CPOA: A Marketing Service for High School Student-Athletes

A lot of Alaskan student-athletes who could get scholarships to college never do. As a result, some drop their sports and pay for their own education; some never go to college.

There are several reasons for this. First is geographic: it costs a lot for college recruiters and scouts to come to Alaska. Unless the athlete is a blazing star like Trajan Langdon or Carlos Boozer, why travel so far to a state with one of the smallest populations in the Union?

Another reason is weather. Some sports have short seasons in Alaska: baseball, football, tennis, and track. Others--golf for instance and lacrosse--aren't even played at the high school level here. With short seasons and tough practice conditions, players of those games don't develop to the extent their Outside counterparts do.

But colleges across the country offer scholarships for those sports and more, money that is earmarked for student-athletes with the talent to excel and the brains to work hard. An impressive number of grants and scholarships are offered yearly for both academics and sports--some of which go begging simply for lack of qualified applicants.

The upshot is, Alaska has plenty of athletes with brains and talent but a lot of them are never seen by recruiters with pockets full of cash for college.

Enter Anchorage resident Andre Toliver and the company he works for, College Prospects of America (CPOA, based in Logan, Ohio.) Toliver is the Regional Director of Alaska for CPOA; he's in the business of hooking up student-athletes with opportunities for colleges and scholarships.

Through computerized lists of schools, coaches and various forms of financial-assistance grants, Toliver identifies colleges that offer scholarships to qualified students in exchange for their participation in sports. More important, he connects students with colleges that offer degrees matching the student's academic aims.

Toliver and CPOA cultivate a wide knowledge of what coaches are seeking to fill what positions. When, for instance, the baseball coach at Dartmouth College needed outfielders, Toliver directed a local client, five-sport athlete and West High graduate Isaac Shepherd, to contact that coach.

And a success story was made. Thanks to a 3.97 grade-point average and references from coaches and teachers, Shepherd was accepted to the prestigious Ivy League school and granted a scholarship. He was accepted to walk on the baseball team and road a grant that pays most of a very expensive college education.

Despite Shepherd's high GPA and excellent SAT scores, before he hooked up with CPOA not one college contacted him for any of the five sports he played.

Toliver knows what it's like to be an overlooked athlete. He played baseball himself, reaching double-A ball--tantalizingly near the majors--with the Chicago Cubs and the White Sox.

He grew up in Compton, California and played for Pima Junior College in Tucson without financial assistance. He went on to Grand Canyon College in Phoenix and, after persevering two years on his own, was finally recognized and awarded a scholarship to continue his education and play ball.

Toliver and CPOA are mainly in the business of helping smart athletes with high potential, not necessarily blue-chip stars like East High prodigy Scott Gomez.

Boozer, who went to Duke University, and tore up the Division 1 Basketball, was of a caliber that he drew recruiters from numerous colleges, as did Langdon. Players of that caliber have little need of the search-and-identify services that CPOA offers.

But many Alaskan athletes are in the next tier down--players with good grades and considerable athletic skills who have not yet developed into blazing stars. They are the ones likely to benefit from the knowledge and exposure CPOA offers.

"We deal mostly with athletes who want to continue playing in college but haven't heard from any coaches or had any offers," Toliver said. "A lot of them still have chances for scholarships but don't know it; they just don't know how to take advantage of their skills and continue their education."

Athletes with good grades may qualify for academic scholarships rather than athletic ones and thereby continue both education and sport, another possibility sometimes overlooked by students prospecting for colleges-- one that CPOA has covered.

"Coaches are looking for good athletes who go to class," Toliver said. "They want players who do well in school."

Ex-Chugiak baseball's Greg Buczak is one of Toliver's clilents; his mother Paula Buczak enrolled her next son, Tim, with CPOA as well.

"Greg got tons of letters and contacts after we signed up with Andre," she said. "Up here (in Alaska), unless you can afford to make a lot of trips down south, you're at a disadvantage. For us, the service proved to be real good."

The CPOA basic services cost $995. The athlete gets information on colleges offering the sport and education he or she wants, detailed information on scholarship possibilities, connections to coaches needing the position or sport concerned, a video resume (if possible) of the player in action, Internet exposure, financial-aid analysis, help in filling out forms and applications and information on how to market themselves.

Toliver says CPOA services are supplied for four years. If the student-athlete is cut from the team, unhappy with the school or for some reason decides to seek another opportunity, Toliver will re-activate his or her file and continue to search.