(Writer’s note: The creator of Ohio Valley Preps is an Ohio Valley native. A former prep athlete, e grew up around the game, played a bit himself, and has experience working with sports organizations on multiple levels. He wishes to remain anonymous and keep the focus squarely on the players)
Collegiate recruiting resembles the working world in a lot of ways.
Talent is important. Motivation? Work Ethic? Equally so.
But sometimes, like in the business world, who you know is just as important as what you know. Or, in this case, who knows you. Self-promotion is an important aspect of the recruiting process and social media allows today’s athletes to get their own names out there easier than ever before.
But the ease of self-promotion also can lead to an over-saturation of available prospects. Sometimes, those prospects need a little help getting their talents in front of not just a multitude of eyes, but the right set of eyes.
That’s where one Ohio Valley native came in last football season, doing his part to help facilitate the process for a growing list of Ohio Valley athletes.
Ohio Valley Preps made its initial tweet on Twitter back on October 23, near the end of the 2022 regular season. OVP’s mission statement states that its hope is to increase exposure for area football athletes and help them get to the next level. It listed the area it currently serves—Northern West Virginia and Mid-Eastern Ohio.
That initial tweet listed the 35 Ohio Valley Athletic Conference schools it was currently scouting, a mixture of large and small schools on both sides of the Ohio River. A day later, its first list of the Top 20 quarterbacks in the Ohio Valley was released, along with an initial rating for each, plus each player’s school and graduation year.
Big Red senior Phaeton Hill was listed first, followed by Wheeling Park’s Brett Phillips and Edison’s Gage Cline.
During the course of the next week, positional rankings were released for all positions, from running backs, receivers, tight ends, and offensive linemen, to all three levels of the defense, plus specialists.
The initial response, and the cooperation that’s followed, has been great according to the OV Preps founder, a gentleman who for the time being wishes to remain anonymous. As he said during the interview “this is about the kids and not me. That’s my only concern.”
“The response has been great,” he said. “The kids are excited about it. They like seeing their name in the rankings and winning awards and I’ve had quite a few coaches message me and I always like to get feedback from them.
“They talk about who some of their best players are, who they think can play at the next level, and their feedback has been amazing.”
The initial 35 schools will likely grow to the entirety of the OVAC and a bit beyond come next season. The site already lists more than 800 followers for its Twitter handle @OhioValleyPreps, along with 881 on the ’Gram at OVPreps. With more schools involved, and as interest and influence grow, those numbers are sure to increase.
A Numbers Game
The NCAA estimates 1,006,013 young athletes suit up each year on high school football fields across the country. Of that total, 73,712 go on to play at the next level, whether that’s Division I (2.9 percent of high school players), Division II (1.9), or Division III (2.5).
That’s a grand total of 7.3 percent of all high school players reaching the next level. Factor in the proportion of those athletes coming from Texas, California, and Florida, and the percentages for the rest of the country drop considerably, despite the fact that both Ohio and Pennsylvania are also recruiting hotbeds.
It’s an ever-changing world and one that the founder knew from an earlier age that he wanted to enter and help out local athletes in any way he could.
“I’ve had this idea since I was in college back in 2015,” he said. “I always liked the whole recruiting game, following the rankings and the stars, state rankings, positional—I was interested in the whole deal.
“I wanted to go for it and finally did. I stopped thinking about it and just went for it. I want to try to help these kids get recruited as much as I can and get their names out there. There is a lot of talent in the valley, and we put a lot of kids at the next level each year.
“I want to do anything I can to help out.”
That’s why he attends as many games as he can each week, sometimes pulling double-duty with a matinee and Saturday night game, this after watching one on Friday night.
But with only so many weeks of the regular season and postseason, there are only so many teams he can see live. That’s why soliciting, and watching, film has been crucial.
“My father goes with me to a lot of games, but the rankings and social media side, that’s primarily me,” he said. “I’ve easily watched more than 100 hours of film already, and it’s a lot of fun. I enjoy doing it and it’s something I’m passionate about.”
He’s poured through past all-district and all-state teams, the award winners from WTOV9, and the All-Valley and All-TL teams, anything to help him find players to observe.
But it’s not all about statistics, because they don’t always tell the full story or even the right one. It’s all about the performance on the field and the good ole eye test.
“Stats are important, but it’s about producing on the field,” he said. “There’s always a potential reason why one kid might have better stats than another. If you’re the top guy at a smaller school, it may be easier to put up gaudy stats, or vice versa, if there’s a lot of talent at a bigger school, the stats might not be as eye-popping.”
Updates and Awards
Toward the end of the season, OV Preps released an updated set of rankings. More players were seen both in person and on film. A reordering was necessary to reflect the talent pool better.
In addition, Ohio Valley Preps released a list of positional award winners. Similar to the positional trophies presented to Division I players each season, the awards are named after some of the Ohio Valley’s greats from the past—Quincy Wilson for running backs, Joey Galloway for receivers, Eddie Drummond for playmakers, Beaver Local’s Derek Wolfe for defensive linemen, and Bellaire great Lance Meh for linebackers, to name a few.
Hill won the “Collaros” award for the top quarterback, named after another former Big Red great who’s currently tearing up the CFL in Zac Collaros.
The awards are just another layer to the promotional aspect of his overall goal. But awards and positional rankings and evaluations aren’t the end of it.
He has a large email listing of recruiting contacts at a number of schools in 19 states and counting across the country, ranging from Division I down to III. He routinely updates this list with any new information about players in the Ohio Valley he can.
He also wants to host an in-person event, similar to a pro day, where Ohio Valley athletes can come out, get tested, and get seen.
“That’s definitely one of my biggest goals,” he said. “I want to have a day where the athletes can come out, colleges as well, and watch the players test and perform.
“If not this coming year, hopefully in the near future, we want to be able to put that on.”
Yes, there’s plenty of football talent here in the Ohio Valley, and Ohio Valley Preps is going to do its part to make sure the right people know about it.
