Tag: Curtis Blackwell

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DETROIT — The world of college football recruiting has changed, is changing — and high school athletics have changed along with it.

Certainly, once upon a time, all it took was excelling on the gridiron for your high school team to get noticed, to get those big time offers. But now, you have to do everything in your power as a high school recruit to showcase your abilities.

And those abilities aren’t limited to the football field now, either.

Schools at the college level aren’t just looking for players who are athletically gifted. They’re looking for veritable student-athletes (in most cases). They’re judging a high school talent’s character to go along with everything else — to determine that once they are on campus, they won’t be apt to get into trouble. The factors in which schools choose their targets now has a much broader scope than it may have in the past.

That’s where an organization like Sound Mind Sound Body comes in. Once renowned for its annual giant football camps which drew attendance from all the big name schools, not just in the region, but the country, the organization — headed by Curtis Blackwell — has reinvented itself.

As Blackwell notes, he’s always strived to be more than just a football camp. But now that NCAA rules disallow college coaches to participate in the summer camps the way they once did, SMSB has become an all-encompassing curriculum to bolster a student-athlete’s ability to be recruited.

“We’ve always had a holistic, comprehensive approach to student-athlete development,” Blackwell told WolverinesWire. “But since the NCAA rule changes, we’ve opened up this facility here and this facility allows us to work with kids year-round. So instead of it just being a weekend deal where we run a camp, now, every single weekend, we can work on the same things. The fundamental skill development, SAT prep, mentoring, life skills – it goes on every single day. And it’s here in the city limits, which makes it accessible for the neighborhood kids who don’t have these type of facilities normally within reach.”

On Sunday, at the Mack Athletic Complex in Detroit, college football hopefuls huddled in a classroom emblazoned with pictures of those who have partaken in the old iteration of SMSB, from players to coaches. Donovan Johnson, who now plays at Penn State. Former Ohio State coach Urban Meyer. Current Michigan head coach Jim Harbaugh. Various photos of players going through drills, in huddles, working towards their ultimate goal in front of the men who could give them that opportunity.

Beyond the SAT training — each student and his parents had an SAT prep book with them — Blackwell lays out the rubric for what a college recruitment is like. He has intimate experience in that area, as MSU’s former recruiting director.

But, beyond that, Blackwell is keen to teach those enrolled how to present themselves — on social media, in interviews with the media, with college coaches in the event that they are recruited, as hoped. He explains why he added this element to his curriculum, noting that many aren’t adept at handling this part of their athletic career — and it’s one of the most important things to master.

“All you have to do is turn on the TV! You see the mistakes that the young men are making,” Blackwell said. “Our goal is to turn young men’s weaknesses into strengths. And there’s an over-emphasis on athletic development and not enough focus on holistic development, communication skills, social media representation. Letting the young men understand they are a brand and how they need to understand that college coaches look at their social media sites before they look at their Hudl highlight tape. And not everyone is focusing on that. Everyone is focusing on 7-on-7, how to get offers, but they’re not talking about how to be the best person you can be. So we try our part to do what we can with what resources we have in the time frame that we have them.

“And a lot of times, to tell you the truth, they hate going downstairs and giving that life skills talk. Because it’s like, ‘I just came to work out. I really didn’t come for that.’ But we realized that if we did not do the life skills first, it would not happen.”

But the organization does more than just running kids through drills and teaching them the life aspect of college football recruiting. Naturally, there’s practical experience and an exposure element that goes along with it.

Yes, there were multiple media entities on hand at the MAC on Sunday — from us at WolverinesWire to 247Sports to Rivals. But doing well in the controlled elements of the daily/weekly drills means an extra opportunity: to make the SMSB 7-on-7 team and travel the country with a chance to play against the best college hopefuls in the nation.

Blackwell believes that it allows for student-athletes in the Detroit area to see where their skills stack up against the best of the best.

“So one of the big things is exposing our young people to competition and events outside of their city limits,” Blackwell said. “It’s an opportunity to compete against guys they normally wouldn’t have access to in their league, because our young men are competing for national individuals for scholarships at places like the University of Michigan. So it’s important for them to go to places like New Orleans, Miami, the East Coast, the West Coast, so they can see how they stack up against the top talent. It gives them an incentive to work really hard here, because the top guys from our program get a chance to earn that right and that privilege to travel. It’s not just something that’s given, it’s something that they have to earn.

“The 7-on-7 events is what the kids really like! They love competing in the 7-on-7 part of it. So we have to meet the kids half way and give them the opportunity to do the things that they enjoy the most.”

There have been myriad big names who have come through SMSB, either in its old version or the new.

In 2015 alone, there were multiple high-level prospects that Michigan landed — from Donovan Peoples-Jones to Jaylen Kelly-Powell to Michael Onwenu to Ambry Thomas. But there were others who ended up at various elite programs around the country. Xavier Kelly at Clemson. Binjimen Victor at Ohio State. KJ Hamler at Penn State. Chase Claypool at Notre Dame. The list goes on.

But in the new iteration, there’s still elite-level players participating, from Belleville (MI) standout Jamari Buddin to Grosse Pointe (MI) South five-star defensive back William Johnson — both of whom were on hand working out on Sunday.

However, Blackwell explains, it’s about much more than getting his guys into Power 5 schools or even anywhere in the FBS level. He’s working to prepare kids for college — period.

“We have over 400 Division I guys,” Blackwell said. “Last year, we had 30 guys go Division I. Here today, there’s probably 35 guys in the building, just today – some of them are not here today – but we always have 40-50 Division I guys in our program.

“But we don’t really just focus on the Division I guys. It’s the individuals that go to college and graduate. That’s how we measure success. But, every year the top guys come to this program because they want to be the best and they want to compete against the best.”

Next, Blackwell will take the show on the road, giving his students an opportunity to see what’s out there beyond the local level. Many will get their first taste of big time college athletics, seeing various schools while also getting a chance to compete in 7-on-7s.

Then, a fundraiser, where many notable alumni from the program who are currently in the NFL return in an effort to give back to an institution that helped them get to where they are now.

“We have our spring break college tour coming up,” Blackwell said. “We’ll go to about 12 colleges. We’ll make a trip down to New Orleans for a big event, and then we also go down to Indianapolis for another event. And then we also have our big fundraiser event where all of our NFL players – Brandon Graham, Jourdan Lewis – all those guys will be back. Right here, it’s the sneaker ball, it’s the second annual event.”

For more info on Sound Mind Sound Body, you can reach its website by clicking here.