Sport and particularly basketball is really big in America. It's hard to imagine without seeing it for real just how big it is. Every high school has at least one indoor basketball court and usually several. Often they are just for basketball, if not they're only shared with volleyball, there not the millions of multicoloured lines you see here in English sports halls. Consequently there's lots of training opportunities and the standard of coaching is high. The basketball coach may be a teacher but he's unlikely to coach other sports. There is always lots of tiered seating for spectators who come by the hundred for every game. And this is just at school!
The college sports facilities are astonishing, there are several full time coaches for every sport and even in small colleges with 2-3000 students they have 2,500 seater basketball courts plus practice courts and these are just for the Varsity teams (official college teams). There are several others open all the time for non varsity students to play on. The varsity teams for all sports have access to separate weight rooms, physios and...well just look under 'athletics' on any college website and you'll see what I mean. ( BTW the term athletics refers to all sports not just track and field).
You have not only to be of a high standard but you have to be seen to be a high standard. This is difficult if you're in the UK as you're unlikely to be seen by a US scout unless you play for a British Basketball League (BBL) mens team or for the Englant U18 team. Getting some game footage on YouTube helps but, even then, the UK game is very different from the American game so coaches may not see want they want from your film.
If your sport isn't as big in the USA as basketball, such as soccer (or almost anything else) you stand a better chance of getting on a varsity team or even getting an athletic scholarship, which will cover all or part of the entire cost of attending college providing you keep up both your academis and sporting performance.
College sport is strictly regulated to ensure that education recieves priority over sport. Ther term student athlete is used and the word student deliberately comes first. To be eligable to play, a student has to meet and maintan a certain gradepoint average. This varies between colleges but is usually between 2.0 and 2.8. They also must never have earned any money from their sport.
The main governing body is the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and each college will have an eligability officer who advises prospective and current student athletes as well as monitoring their eligability to play based on their attendance and grades. If a team fields an ineligable player they may have to forfeit the game, even if this has been accidental, and this is considered very shameful. There are 3 divisions which are based both on the size of the school and hence the number of sports on offer as well as the academic requirements. So Div 1 has at least 7 sports for men and 7 for women of a sufficient standard and with suitable facilities to compete at this level. Div 2 colleges are smaller and have to have 5 sports each etc.
The NCAA has a national eligibility centre with whom prospective student athletes must register. In addition to general information about the individual, they require proof of academic study and acheivement which has to be sent directly from the school. In Dan's case, this meant he had to take his GCSE certificates back to school for them to copy and endorse then send to the eligibility centre in an envelope signed across the seal by a school official. The same had to go from his sixth form college. He also had to provide details of the teams he played for and contact details for the coach so the NCAA could check that he hadn't been paid to play. This all takes time, so it's worth getting on the case early. You will be eligable with a good set of GCSEs and you can always add sixth form qualifications later.
Once you start to play for a varsity team, the eligabilty clock starts ticking. You can only play for 4 years but if the coach wants you but doesn't feel you're ready, you can have a red shirt spot on the team. This means you can train but not play for the team, so you can gain experience and improve your skill but the clock doesn't start until you play competitively.
Some colleges have Junior Varsity (JV) teams, sometimes known as development teams, these are to bring on inexperienced players without using up their NCAA eligibilty years. The aim is that JV players will ultimately become varsity team members. They get coaching and get to use the same facilities as the varsity team but compete in a lower league. This is what Dan has been offered.
Everyone benefits from the student athlete set up in a college. If the team does well, the gate receipts are high (maybe 8000 tickets at $10 each per game in a div 1 college) this brings in large sums of money per year for the college which is ploughed back into sport, the academic facilities and faculty. So if the sport is good so are the academics. For the best athletes to be able to play they also have to be successful academically which helps them beyond their sporting career. Wins all round. Consequently, there is considerable accademic support for student athletes, some colleges have special athletic accademic centres which the student athlete has to clock in and out of for a set number of hours per week. Faculty come to them for tutorials in order to maintain their GPA. This is big business and so great effort is made to ensure both academic and athletic success.
It's clear to see why we don't do so well in the UK, my university barely had spectetor space in the over used multipurpose gym.
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