February 13, 2008
Chase-ing the Dream
Okay, our ‘Recruiting 101’ article offered advice from Carl Foster and Bob Bramlett on factors to consider and how to proceed in making the decision about which school’s basketball scholarship offer to select. Here ...
Chase Curtiss
Okay, our ‘Recruiting 101 article offered advice from Carl Foster and Bob Bramlett on factors to consider and how to proceed in making the decision about which school’s basketball scholarship offer to select.
Here comes the subject again but from a different angle -- that of a parent/basketball coach and his basketball playing son. Tom Curtiss is a longtime Santa Cruz County high school coach and current shooting instructor and son Chase Curtiss graduated from the University of Puget Sound in 2006 after a sterling career as a backcourt member of the Division III Loggers squad.
Chase was the proverbial big fish in a small pond while at Soquel High School, located about 80 miles or so south of San Francisco and 30 or so miles west of San Jose. He was a perennial selection to the local all-star basketball teams at season’s end and come 2002, the opportunities were present for him to land a Division I basketball scholarship or to decide his prospects were better elsewhere.
Chase Curtiss had a memorable career at Puget Sound, albeit a D-3 school
One such D-1 possibility was with the University of Montana and highlights the fluidity of the recruiting process. Let Tom Curtiss jump in here: "We were getting ready to fly out to Montana the next day and got a call. It was the Grizzly assistant coach who was interested in Chase telling us the head coach had been let go."
It turned out the eventual new Montana mentor, Pat Kennedy, had a preference for big, athletic guards and Chase didn’t fit that bill, being 6-foot-2 and 180 pounds. But the Curtisses still took a trip to Missoula anyway since family lived in the area but nothing ever came out of the journey to the Big Sky Country. In an example of the sometimes topsy-turvy world of college coaching, that assistant coach who first broke the news to the Curtisses, Wayne Tinkle, is now Montana’s head coach.
But UPS Coach Eric Bridgeland, head of the Division III team located in Tacoma, had some familiarity with Curtiss, having coached earlier at the University of California Santa Cruz. A Curtiss visit to Tacoma and it became a done deal -- Chase would be playing as a Logger in the Northwest Conference.
Cutting to the Chase: "Puget Sound was the best fit. The academics were by far the best of any school that I looked at, and I believed in what the coach was trying to do. It was much more important for me to excel in a great learning environment than to prove something to myself about basketball. I knew I could play at the Division I level, I didn’t feel the need to prove that to anyone else."
Tom Curtiss recalls that time. "It comes down to counseling your son or daughter but them making the decision because ultimately it is their experience. My wife and I always said ‘we’re here, we’ll help but it’s all about you, not us."
Four years later, Curtiss had twice been named the school’s "Ben Cheney Male Athlete of the Year" and selected to the all-conference team in both 2004-2005 and 2005-2006. He’s in the school’s record books for most three-pointers made (275) and attempted (782). UPS went to the national tourney three times in a row and won the conference three consecutive times during Chase’ s tenure. He rang up 20+ points in road games against Utah State and San Jose State.
Here’s Chase on the aspect of having one of his parents so deeply associated with basketball and whether there was any benefit from such regarding his decision. "Not as a basketball coach, but definitely as a parent," he said. "I have the greatest parents in the world and they never once tried to influence my decision. I think that is huge. If a player needs to play at the D-I level, then let him go for it. If it takes junior college to figure out that basketball isn’t the most important thing in life, then that is a great lesson learned. You learn a whole lot more by trying and failing than by being told what is the right thing to do."
Adding to his overview on recruiting, the younger Curtiss said, "Everyone loves recognition and flattery, this is what college recruiters do. They are expert swooners, it’s what they get paid to do. It is a hard lesson for most kids to learn that basketball is not a profession for the vast majority; it is a means to an education. It is important to weigh everything and define what is important to you. That might be playing at an ACC school or a Pac-10 school. We shouldn’t tell a high school kid what is important, they will figure it out. There is nothing wrong with going to a Pac-10 school, realizing it wasn’t what you thought and transferring to a D-2 or D-3 school where you can get a great education."
As for ‘failing’ the first time -- the kids who play a season at one school, sometimes two but then decide to head elsewhere -- Curtiss is philosophical: "That’s what life is all about… finding your niche. I was lucky and found mine on the first shot. But if a player’s dream is to play at USC, let him figure out that it is not all that he imagines. There’s nothing worse than looking back and saying I wish I had done something...better to do it and fail and then find your path. There is nothing wrong with transferring because you were unhappy with a situation. The problem comes when they make the same mistake in their second choice. This is where parents need to step in and provide the counseling that maybe a great education is the best place to start when looking for a new school."
Here’s Curtiss on his Puget Sound tenure, "My experience was amazing. I had the best teammates and really developed. But it wasn’t all centered around basketball. We won three conference titles, I broke some school shooting records and we travelled to the Bahamas, Atlanta, Wisconsin, Hawaii and Australia. But it was also great to travel to Europe to present my undergrad thesis -- Puget Sound gave me a great opportunity to excel in every aspect of college."
Queried about adapting to the committment -- the time and focus required in being a collegiate basketballer as compared to a prep hoopster -- Curtiss said "It was tough, but I had great teammates and friends. The guys you are going to play with for four years are more important than the coaching staff or the school. They should be guys you talk to for the rest of your life. Teammates are what make the experience."
When asked about the typical scenario where kids generally join already established basketball programs rather than one where they could make a substantial difference in bettering a lowly one, Curtiss offered, "Security. It is much more difficult to spend your first year or two in the bottom of the league trying to turn a program around. Why not go somewhere that has established themselves as a winner? It’s a give and take, with the rebuilding program you get the opportunity to play right away and really change the culture of a program."
But here is one of the soundest and most astute pieces of advice about recruiting to take to head and heart regardless of the background or the age of the orator. "Basketball is not life no matter how much you think it is," Chase Curtiss said. "Basketball is a ticket to education and a way to open doors to experiences that will shape who you are and how you see the world. I haven’t touched a basketball in 3 months, but I just finished the late Benazir Bhutto’s book "Reconciliation" about the clash between the Muslim world and the West. A great education will open your eyes to so much more than a solid basketball career for 4 years."
Acknowledging speaking as both a coach and father, Tom Curtiss adds, "Chase is not the most athletic guy but is a smart player who can shoot. He also possesses unique leadership qualities."
We offer wise as an addition to the list of personal characteristics offered.
Both back then and now.