At just 10 years old, Maxwell Young, aka Bunchie getting schollarship offers

Thought maybe some of you would have an opinion on 10 year old's getting scholarships.

From ESPN:

http://www.espn.com/espn/feature/st...ted-next-big-thing-football-coaches-bought-in

When Los Angeles-based trainer Mike Evans talks about Maxwell "Bunchie" Young, it can seem like he's describing any number of top college football recruits. He praises his speed, his work ethic and personality.

"Bunchie is a kid that comes around once every 10 years," Evans said.

In this case, that's quite literally true. Bunchie is only 10 years old.

Despite his age, Bunchie already has scholarship offers from Illinois and one mystery Pac-12 team, according to Evans, who trains more than 150 youth athletes at his LacedFacts Training center in Norwalk, California, a suburb of Los Angeles. It's only a matter of time, he says, before college coaches all over the country know who Young is, along with discovering several of the other kids he works with at his facility.

Kids like Havon Finney Jr., who, at 9 years old, has an offer from Nevada and an Instagram following of nearly 22,000. Kaleb Herndon, 6, doesn't have any scholarship offers, but Evans insists he has schools looking at him already because "he looks like a 9-year-old" and his parents are 6-foot-1 and 6-foot-7.

Another prime example of the idiocy that has become college recruiting. Just wondering when schools are going to start genetically engineering their recruits while in utero.

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It's dumb but it also is all just meaningless as there's really nothing to an offer at this point...

This is so dumb and anyone associated with it should be exposed and ridiculed.

How soon can we get an Official 2026 Recruiting thread started?

This isn't that much different from the model for European soccer, swimming, tennis, etc.

I don't put much stock into it, but it's not that crazy to me.

All of this is driven by parents and their desire to live vicariously through their kids. I have no doubt that this kid is dominant as a 10 year old but especially in a sport like football there is no telling how it will all play out for him. He could end up great or he could blow out his knees or get some concussions at 11 and be done for.

Guys like this trainer Evans, sell the dream to the parents and kids. Never mind the fact that most of them won't make it to Division 1 football, many of them might not even be standouts on their high school team and as for the NFL the odds of getting there are miniscule. But he will compare them to current superstars and talk up their skill level so that mom and dad keep writing the checks.

It is sad to see all the specialization taking place in youth sports today. The pressure seems to be growing to pick one sport and stick with it year round. Instead of letting kids try different things and play for the fun of it you have parents and coaches selling the idea that they are falling behind if they don't go to a particular camp or devote a certain number of hours a week towards training in their respective sport.

It is what it is and it is only going to get worse because there is so much money out there in sports. Never mind that only the smallest percentage of kids will make it....the lure is too great for many people.

The real questions are: Are the offers committable? How many stars is he? What's his HOW and HYPRR like?

If I didn't know any better, I'd think it was an Onion story. But, that's just the lunacy of life in America today, where everyday is a real-life Onion story.