The life of a recruit: What does it look like and how do young kids get so many offers?

June 14, 2020, started off as a normal day for Rico Flores Jr.

The rising junior wide receiver at Folsom High School woke up early to work out at his usual training spot in Sacramento. After his workout, he went home to clean the house, take a shower and nap. When Flores Jr. woke up, he had a message asking him to call the Arizona State coaching staff. On that phone call, Arizona State offered him his first Division l scholarship.

It was the first of many. A year later, Flores has two dozen offers from a who’s-who of college football programs. Alabama, Georgia, LSU, Nebraska, Notre Dame, Oregon, Stanford, Texas and USC have all made offers. The life of a high-profile recruit is a wild one, but it’s one that will pay off for Flores and his family and other top recruits in the Sacramento area.

“I remember my mom had her (Twitter) post notifications on and (as soon as I posted it) she saw it,” Flores Jr. said. “She just said “Rico, Rico, come here.” She was happy and she just started crying tears of joy.”

“Getting offered by all of those schools is a dream come true. When I was younger, not really having a father in my life, it was just my mom and my little sister. My mom doesn’t have to pay a single dime for college or anything. It’s a dream come true.”

A four-star recruit and a friend

Flores is rated as a four-star recruit on 247Sports and is the ninth-ranked player in the state in his class. Rico’s best friend and training partner at GameFit is Carlos Wilson, a rising junior at Inderkum High School. Flores Jr. and Wilson started training together at GameFit when they were in elementary school.

Wilson’s first offer also came from Arizona State. It happened on June 30 of last year.

“I was (playing) video games with Rico when my dad came home and was like somebody wants to talk to you,” Wilson said. “I grabbed the phone and it was one of the Arizona State coaches. He was talking about positions and stuff. Then I got the offer. It was crazy. My parents were in the room and they were all happy. I couldn’t stop smiling.”

He added, “The first offer puts you in the door,” Wilson said. “After you get that first offer you are in now. You just have to keep working to get more offers… Other schools start to look at you (when one school offers). They look at you because one school offered, (so they think) we should look at him, too.”

Wilson also has scholarship offers from Cal, Oregon, USC, Utah, Washington State and more. The recruiting is tricky because colleges aren’t allowed to talk directly to students before Sept. 1 of their junior year in high school. Flores and Wilson had trainers, mentors and coaches work the phones to drive interest from the college heavyweights.

That’s where Lem Adams comes in to help. He has made connections over the years in his playing days at Washington State, Florida A&M and in the Arena Football League.

Since Adams founded GameFit in 2012, he’s trained NFL players Terrance Mitchell, James Sample and Robert Turbin. Adams also trains UFC fighter Max Griffin and high school athletes from other sports.

Throughout the day, Adams will monitor his phone for college coaches reaching out about his athletes. He helps communicate for them and gives his athletes a coach’s contact information if the school is interested in offering a scholarship.

“We have been able to build a lot of relationships (with college coaches),” Adams said. “We just keep building those relationships and people start talking. I’m a talker and I always want people to benefit from my relationships. Now colleges call me and I make contact with colleges because there are so many rules and regulations that we have to follow. … We want to make the kids aware of when they can and can’t call schools and why coaches aren’t responding. It’s been a great thing. I’m a trainer, mentor and a parent to a lot of these kids.”

“I would like to say I play a major role (when it comes to that). I like to do things right and ethical. I hope colleges see that we have a good product in what we do as far as training. We play a critical part in when these coaches ask us questions about specific kids, we are giving them the right information.”

How the recruiting rules affect athletes

NCAA rules can make the recruiting more like a game of phone tag.

“(My coaches and trainers) can talk with coaches, because if (a coach) misses my call, they can’t call me back,” Flores Jr. said. “It’s hard on that part. Lem has been a big part of that, too, because he really talks to the colleges to make his own connections.”

Wilson added about the communication with coaches, “It’s not too tough, but it is kind of tough because you can’t just converse freely, it has to be perfect timing. They can’t come to me, so I get a lot of help from Lem and other coaches. They would send me numbers to call. It helps to have guys like Lem. He’s great.”

Scholarships don’t become official until Aug. 1 of an athlete’s senior year of high school. By that time, colleges will have narrowed down their prospect board to identify which recruits they offered and want to sign. In some cases, an athlete might never hear back from a school after they offered them.

How COVID-19 changed recruiting

COVID-19 had major consequences for the recruiting for the class of 2021. Because the NCAA was in a dead period from March 13 of last year until last month, athletes weren’t able to take official visits. Most made commitments to a school they had never seen in person.

The almost 15-month hiatus forced coaches to get creative with the recruiting process. Most of the recruiting during the dead period came over Zoom or phone calls.

When the dead period was lifted after 445 days, colleges wasted no time hosting camps and official visits. Flores got to travel to LSU, Stanford, Texas A&M, Texas, USC and more this summer.

When the dead period was in place, Flores and Wilson used the time to train and focus on school. Wilson has a 3.5 GPA and Flores has a 4.0 GPA. They will both testify that the first step to becoming a national recruit is working hard in the classroom.

“My advice for up and coming recruits is to keep working,” Wilson said. “Believe it or not, grades are really big in college. Before I got my first offer, the first thing they asked was what my GPA was. Without the grades, you can’t get anything. You have to go to school and you have to get good grades.”