Every year millions of athletes have hopes of playing collegiate-level sports and moving on to play professionally. For some, the dream comes to fruition. For others, it’s nothing more than a dream. Some parents are flooded with recruiting pitches while others are left to figure out the journey themselves. However, recruiting really breaks down to three different areas: are you academically eligible, can you play, and what character do you possess. Honest Game helps with the eligibility aspect.
“Honest Game is not a recruiting service,” said Kim Michelson, co-founder, and CEO of Honest Game. “Honest Game is an educational software/system that was created to solve a problem.”
The inspiration for starting Honest Game came from understanding that everything revolves around academic eligibility, seeing patterns then noticing that eligibility rules change often. However, once rules have changed there’s not a lot of education and understanding around them.
“A student can become academically ineligible, having nothing to do with their grades. They could have a nice GPA, but not taking the right accredited classes, could still have them academically ineligible,” said Michelson.
“I wasn’t sure of Honest Game when it was first introduced to me,” said Director of Football Operations and the Recruiting Coordinator at Crosby High School, Callie Cameron. “However, now I can’t imagine recruitment without it.”
While previously working with North Shore, Cameron played a vital role in helping Rashaad Johnson, a senior stand-out running back who attended the school.
“He was previously behind on credits because he wasn’t in an NCAA qualifier class,” said Cameron.
Johnson was taking a class he believed would count towards his NCAA status, but after the North Shore athletic department applied his records to the Honest Game system, they found out one of the classes he believed counted towards his eligibility was not accepted by the NCAA.
“I was taking a class entitled Money Management, which I believed counted towards my eligibility,” said Johnson. “But when Coach Cameron told me it didn’t I was shocked. It was November, I had already committed to the University of Central Arkansas, and now I’m finding out I’m only a D2 – NAIA qualifier due to this class not counting. I had to figure out what I needed to do fast. That’s when I talked to Coach Cameron and his wife and they told me about Honest Game. I enrolled in another math class that qualified, passed, and accepted a full ride to Lamar University.”
This one class would have kept Johnson from being D1-level eligible. Through Honest Game’s, guidance and projections Johnson and his family were immediately identified. They notified the school counselor and were able to get that additional NCAA accredited class added to the NCAA eligibility portal for North Shore High School just in time before the window closed.
“He was notified early, reacted to the data, and was able to accept his scholarship and he’s now a freshman at Lamar University, competing on a D1 level,” said Michelson.
Honest Game is an honest look according to the data.
“It’s a one-stop shop. A comprehensive system that houses all the athletic opportunities from academic eligibility in real-time in every division,” said Michelson.
Eligibility rules change often, and it’s important to know what to do when they do. Everything about Honest Game is proactive and not reactive. If it weren’t for Honest Game, by the time Johnson would have been informed he was academically ineligible it would have been too late to correct the situation. Being too late can cost any athlete the dream they’ve worked so hard for.
