Senior Jermaine Brown is a two sport student athlete who has been offered a scholarship to Rose-Hulman for both baseball and football. Jermaine is both the varsity quarterback and the varsity pitcher here at Cesar Chavez High School. His mix of talent and hard work have landed him an opportunity to play and study in Terre Haute, Indiana where he had a campus tour on January 24 and he verbally committed!

“The process was different in the way I expected the coaches to acknowledge my talent and stats, but in actuality I had to do the reaching out. I had to email coaches and put myself out there for them to see me.”  

These are the words of the two sport recruit from Cesar Chavez High School who will be signing his letter of intent on February 5. Words of advice, but more so of hard work paying off for Mr. Brown. Jermaine continued, “I’ve had days where I was not at peak performance like everyone else, but it still embarrasses me because I know I’m not that player, I’m a better player and that was just a bad day.”

Often times colleges will find a high school student athlete through game film, word of mouth, or from high school coaches. Jermaine didn’t wait around for colleges to find out about him. He made sure colleges knew him from the phone calls he placed, to the emails he sent, to the video highlights he created and sent off to coaches. Eventually it paid off, but it was not easy. 

Being recruited for collegiate sports can send your head spinning when looking at all that is involved with choosing a school. First understand what you want out of college. Are you worried about your education and want to use sports as a pathway or do you want to take college sports seriously and use sports as an outlet? This is something Jermaine had to think about as a student athlete. He not only is great at sports, but has maintained a 4.0 grade point average throughout his high school years. 

We discussed with Jermaine about what a students mind set should be like when dealing with looking to go to the next level in sports and he had this lesson to share with us, “Be desperate in your search for the school you want. Show that you really want it, because there’s tons of kids out there in your position. You have to show that you want it more than them.” 

If a school shows interest to you in any way, reach out to them, even if it is a random email or letter that seems like they may send to every player, show some interest because at the end of the day you have nothing to lose, but everything to win in the form of education and a chance to play. 

Even though Jermaine is now considered a prospect for collegiate athletics not much has changed in his life overall.  “Since I’ve been seen as a prospect, I get recognition, but nothing too big. Maybe a thank you or motivational words from people, but they still see me as the same person I was before. If anything teachers and coaches are the ones more interested, but my peers not so much. Teachers and coaches see this as a win because of the area we live so they’re more interested in the type of person and player I am and become.”

Jermaine continued, “My parents are very excited for me and are very happy not to be paying for my college because who wants to pay all that money if they don’t have to. Now they just want to make sure that my decisions are the best for me and are proud of me and of themselves for raising a son that could have these opportunities.”

Jermaine is very happy to be where he is, he knows his hard work has paid off and believes any athlete who works hard can get where they want. Talent can only get you so far, hard work is what keeps you going and that can be seen with Jermaine.

It was not all sunshine and rainbows for Jermaine though. He had moments of uncertainty and hit many roadblocks along the way. We spoke to him about the feelings and thoughts he had and if he ever felt like quitting, but it was clear nothing was going to get in his way. He knew that all the hard work would eventually pay off and that was all he could think about, that this was for his future and he had to get it by any means.

While Jermaine is extremely happy that the hard work paid off, it was a long and stressful road to get to that point. “The worst part about this process was having to stress about the details. The consistency of putting myself out there and putting my pride to the side to really make sure the coaches knew, ‘Hey I’m here and I’m ready to play.’ At moments it seemed like all this could be for nothing and maybe I should let it go, but I had to persevere and tell myself to keep trying and it would pay off.”

Finally Jermaine had received the news, he was getting the scholarship. At the moment of finding out he was, “… in disbelief when [he] received the scholarship, maybe it was a mistake on their part.” He continued to explain the feeling of disbelief, “I called up admissions and made sure it wasn’t. When they told me no, there were no mistakes and I was relieved. I had done it and had to no longer worry about stressing, my future was almost set.”

Receiving this scholarship has so far been the highest point in his career. He’s had many good moments. The wins, the memories and all have been great, but now having to look ahead, this scholarship is making sure his future is secure and that’s a feeling nothing could beat. 

Signing day celebrates hard work for athlete’s year after year. Coming from an area where people are restricted this helps others see that if a kid from Chavez could do it on his own then they could too. Jermaine is a great example of someone who knew what they wanted and went out and got it, no excuses, no whining, just hard work and faith. We are very proud of him and know the future will hold great things. Congratulations Jermaine.

Jermaine Brown will be signing with Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology at 4:30 pm on Wednesday, February 5 in the Cesar Chavez career center.