Looking out amongst the crowd and seeing familiar faces of family members, friends and coaches is the image almost all high school athletes dream of, but only the lucky 7 percent will ever be able to live out their dreams of playing college athletics.
For the top, most highly sought after recruits, the choice is obvious.
Sign for the college that will develop you the best and prepare you to play professionally.
However, for some recruits, there is no desire to continue their career past college. Playing for a school known for its academics will not only allow them to continue their passion at the next level, but will also deliver them a world-class education.
For seniors Luke Laczkowski and Henry Estes, the choices were different.
After months of long consideration, Laczkowski announced his commitment to Saint Louis University, where he will not only continue to play basketball, but also join the mere one percent of athletes who will go on to play Division I basketball.
“I didn’t really know I wanted to play basketball until summer of my freshman year,” Laczkowski said. “I saw my game was growing at a pretty fast rate, my coaches believed in me and I just kept working. Then it finally became my goal after freshman year.”
Along with Saint Louis, Laczkowski earned offers from schools like Harvard University, Bucknell University and the United States Military Academy, West Point. While these select schools make up some of the most prestigous universities in the country, Laczkowski’s commitment to Saint Louis stemmed from many different factors.
“I have a lot of family in Saint Louis, my cousin went there and my aunt and uncle are season ticket holders,” Laczkowski said. “The opportunity to play basketball at Saint Louis is insane. The facilities are great there and when I took my visit it felt like a Power 5 school.”
In addition, Saint Louis is able to provide Laczkowski with the tools necessary to improve his skills and prepare him for the next step in his journey.
“I want to play basketball for as long as I can,” Laczkowski said. “Whether that’s in the NBA or overseas, there’s a lot of opportunities. You only get to play basketball for a certain amount of time in your life, so why not take advantage of it?”
With Laczkowski’s main goal being to compete for as long as possible, a school that puts more emphasis on its basketball program was the perfect choice.
However, with Estes having no real aspirations of continuing football past the collegiate level, his offer from Columbia University seemed to be the obvious choice.
“My goal right now is to do a post graduate year at a school where I can go to graduate school and get it paid for,” Estes said. “It opens a lot of doors for me and a lot of Ivy league players end up doing that.”
Choosing Columbia wasn’t an easy decision. While he recieved other offers from great schools like Claremont McKenna College and Carnegie Mellon University, the thought of playing football at an Ivy League school was one Estes just couldn’t pass up.
“There were a few driving factors that made me pick Columbia,” Estes said. “When I went into my junior summer, I knew that I really wanted to play Ivy League football, so when Columbia offered me, it was a really easy choice.”
Along with being a great school, another reason Estes was drawn to Columbia was their very recent success on the field. After a 63 year title drought, newly appointed head coach Jon Poppe led the Lions to winning the Ivy League championship.
“We got a new head coach for the football team and he’s done a lot of good things,” Estes said. “He’s obviously making a program and culture shift.”
Despite having different aspirations after college, both Estes and Laczkowski can agree on the fact that getting the opportunity to continue to play sports heavily influenced their college decisions and also alleviated the stress of going through the college application process.
“Looking back now, there’s a lot of draws to Columbia, but I don’t think I had the academics to get in,” Estes said. “I feel like I would have gone to a completely different college and had a completely different lifestyle.”
Weston Chance contributed to this story.
