As enviable as the position may be for these prospective student-athletes we
cover, with multiple Division I scholarship opportunities at their fingertips,
there is also the unenviable waiting game that many have to endure. In
many cases, long after they have their hearts set on attending Stanford,
recruits have to sit and wait patiently for their application to pass muster
with the Admissions Office. Stanford alumni reading this story may have
trouble feeling sorry for those recruits. After all, tens of thousands of
alumni have had to wait for the "fat envelope" hit their mailbox before they
could matriculate at Stanford.
The game is a little more pressured for prospective student-athletes, who
have fluid circumstances surrounding their recruitment that can and often do
change by the day. An offer today may be gone tomorrow, if you don't
commit to us, young man... Wait just a little while longer, son, and we'll
have a scholarship for you.
For Austin Yancy, the waiting game has been long and arduous. The
League City (Tex.) Clear Creek High School wide receiver camped at Stanford in
June, already longing to be a Cardinal. He performed well enough in front
of the Cardinal coaching staff to remain on Stanford's recruiting board at
wideout, though with further evaluation to come during his senior season.
Meanwhile, Yancy went to work on his Stanford admissions application.
Ranked 11th in his senior class of 755 at Clear Creek and boasting a 1930 on the
new SAT, he had strong numbers but knew full well that no scores were impervious
against the scrutiny of the Admissions Office at The Farm. Yancy submitted
his completed application, with much care and pride, just before the holidays.
As the New Year arrived, he grew anxious.
The 6'3.5" athlete held one scholarship offer at the end of 2005, handed to
him by Mike Price at UTEP. Two weekends ago, Yancy took his official visit
to SMU and picked up his second scholarship. But there was still no news
of his admissions status with Stanford, much less his scholarship fortunes.
When we spoke with Yancy on Thursday night before he flew out to The Farm this
past weekend for his official visit, there was a distinct twinge of anxiety and
perhaps frustration. Signing Day was right around the corner, and no news
was starting to sound like bad news.
Then it all happened at once. While sitting with his parents in the
office of Stanford head coach Walt Harris on Saturday, Yancy received the word
he had long awaited.
"He informed us that I had been accepted by the school and had a scholarship
offer," Yancy tells. "I was kind of in shock. I had waited so long,
and Stanford had been my dream school since I was little."
"We were ecstatic," he continues. "I talked with my parents a little
about it, and then I told Coach [Tom] Hayes that night that I was committing."
Austin Yancy became Stanford's 15th verbal commitment for the 2006
scholarship recruiting class, though do not be too quick to pencil him in at
wide receiver. Talk has turned in recent weeks for Hayes, who is not only
the area recruiter for the Houstonian but also Stanford's defensive coordinator
and defensive backs coach, and the Cardinal of Yancy as a possible safety at
Stanford.
"I think the main thing that I've heard from the coaches is that they like my
athletic ability and my physical play on offense," the recruit relates.
"The coaches on both sides like me pretty well, I guess."
Yancy played strictly at wide receiver in Clear Creek's spread offense in
2005, catching 35 passes for 400+ yards and three touchdowns. He has size,
a solid frame and good athleticism. Yancy is an accomplished high jumper
and triple jumper, which helps speak to his overall athletic ability.
But his excitement today has nothing to do with which side of the ball he
will know when he arrives on The Farm this summer. Yancy is instead
reveling in his admission and future, while also reflecting upon his experience
on campus this past weekend. The Lone Star State standout was hosted by
San Antonio (Tex.) native Carlos McFall.
"Carlos was good. It was a lot of fun," the recruit recounts.
"Really, I enjoyed getting to know the people at Stanford, and all the recruits
who were there. It was good to see all the sides of Stanford.
Everybody knows about the academics, and how amazing they are, but it was fun to
be able to see all the other aspects of the people and life at Stanford."
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