According to a report by ESPN 106.3 Reporter Wells Dusenbury, Village Academy defensive end Kevin Bronson was granted his release from Virginia Tech, and will enroll at South Florida.
Let's rewind to signing day, a few days after Bronson announced his commitment to Virginia Tech. The following are excerpts from a story the Palm Beach Post's Anthony Chiang wrote.
Bronson chose Virginia Tech over USF and Florida Atlantic. The Hokies offered the Post's Small School Defensive Player of the Year late in the process on Jan. 23, and he took a visit to the campus on Jan. 24.
"It threw red flags up for me," said Hanna of the Hokies' late offer. "We made sure that we cleared that up. The coaching staff was worried about his academics, but once they saw where Kevin was academically and they knew it would work out, they pulled the trigger."
Now back to present day, where according to Dusenbury's report things didn't go as planned. Again Village Academy head coach Don Hanna is quoted.
Village Academy head coach Don Hanna said Bronson was informed this past Friday that he was one point shy on his ACT of qualifying.
Hanna said Bronson was aware his test scores were on the border, but was given assurances it wouldn't be an issue.
"After Signing Day, Virginia Tech said he'd need a 17 on all categories," said Hanna. "He ended up being a point shy on English and Math. We were told if he didn't get it, they'd go before the [academic] committee and they'd be able to get him in."
"The closer we got to him coming up, they started saying, 'There's a 50/50 chance we'll be able to get you up.' They were giving him the run-around."
"They didn't treat Kevin right from the beginning. He was like a second-tier guy for them. They missed out on some other defensive linemen and took a chance on Kevin. I don't think he would have had a great career there because he wasn't one of the guys they wanted."
After informing Bronson he was short of qualifying, Virginia Tech said they wouldn't be able to get him in asked if he would enroll in prep school during the fall. Following that discussion, Bronson requested for his scholarship release.
According to Hanna, the school made a sudden reversal as Hokies' head coach Frank Beamer then told Bronson he would go to the head of the academic committee and get him in.
By that point, Bronson and his family decided they were ready to move on.
Keep in mind, this is only one side of the story, but getting aired out by a high school coach is not a good look. As of right now, Virginia Tech hasn't released a statement. I will link to it in this post if they do.
Although, I do find it hard to swallow that Bronson, "Wasn't one of the guys they [Virginia Tech] wanted," as Hanna said. Tech offered him a scholarship and accepted his signature on signing day. Indeed it came late in the process, but that doesn't make it any less genuine. Additionally, in my opinion asking him to prep only reenforces Beamer Co.'s interest. There's only so much wiggle room with regard to academics and qualifying.
I don't believe Bronson would have been a player to contribute immediately in Blacksburg. However, he was an important signee as far as future depth along the d-line is concerned, regardless if he ended up at tackle or end.
Finally, if Bronson was indeed granted his release, I'm happy Beamer Co. did its part to reach an amicable solution. Far too often college coaches and programs use a letter of intent to hold a player hostage and dictate unreasonable terms. Things didn't work out with Bronson and Tech, but he ended up at one of his finalists during the recruiting process.
Comments
It sounds like a misunderstanding. Charley Wiles & Gray had a good relationship with Hanna. I hope it doesnt affect their relationship in recruiting future athletes in the state of Florida.
I'm not going to say what I really want to say here after my second vodka tonic of the afternoon. Because it's just not constructive. I'll just say that I'm really disappointed with our culture at large, where excuses and finger-pointing instead of just moving on with dignity and respect isn't treated with the scorn it used to merit.
I'm happy that Kevin got to go play at one of his top picks from the recruiting process. VT did him right by giving him his freedom there. And I completely agree that VT showed continuing interest by recommending prep school.
But, there was no reason for some of the bad mouthing going on here. This kid, unfortunately, could not meet academic standards. That isn't VTs fault.
It could be argued that it's VT's fault for not being clear on what would happen if he didn't get a 17 or better on the ACT.
That being said a 16 on the ACT seems low. I'm no genius, but I swear I remember doing much better than a 17 on the ACT for each subject.
A 17 on the ACT means you only scored higher than about 30% of the people that took the exam.
http://www.actstudent.org/scores/norms1.html
By comparison, VT's incoming class has a middle 50% of 25-30 (i.e. 25% are higher than 30, 25% are lower than 25), so by comparison a 17 is not very competitive for admission on its own.
http://www.admiss.vt.edu/form-pdf/snapshot.pdf
According to wikipedia, 18 is considered "college ready" for English. 22 for math. So yeah, I think 16 is probably a little low. It's a bummer, but I can't fault the school at all here - if you can't make it in because your scores are too low, then sorry. And Beamer let him go for free - didn't jerk him around or anything.
The writer seems to be adding quite a bit to the story without much proof. Still, I can't say I see why a high school coach is putting any details out to the public though.
Oh, for fucks sake.
Our mojo is for shit right now.
Not sure how this effects VT's mojo. Sure there are other reasons but Kevin just didn't make the grades to qualify and I wish him the best of luck at USF. His coach can bash VT all he wants but the matter of the fact is he just didn't get the grades and I think that if he did the whole situation with "him not being treated right from the beginning" would be a completely different story.
"him not being treated right from the beginning" ?
Note to self: We just need to get that whole "Carolina way" thing down a little bit better.
Edit: Just joking here. For the record, I think the admission standards for athletes is too lax already.
In my mind, we did right by asking him to prep (showing we still wanted him here) and by granting his release. If the kid could get into another school without prepping, I can't fault him for that. Not sure why the coach is bad-mouthing us. I'm glad we didn't lower our standards just to get a kid in. I'd rather be in this situation than UNC's any day.
Sorry to hear Bronson won't be playing in Blacksburg, or in a Power Conference for that matter.
IMO that guy Hanna was really unfair in his comments. Sure Bronson was probably not a top priority for us with the in-state prospects we were after, but his academic problems were the biggest reason we were not recruiting him throughout the cycle.