The "Mental Game" of Recruitment

MaxPreps Student Section.

At 6'3" and 205 pounds, senior Peter Ashton is best known as Faith Christian (Grapevine, Texas)'s star athlete and quarterback, but he may soon be a collegiate football star as well. Peter began playing football in the seventh grade. Hard work and dedication led to him playing quarterback in the 2007-2008 football season at the Varsity level as a freshman. The upperclassmen had been injured so, Peter stepped up and established himself for years to come. Fans often admire his skill running the ball and his hard hits on defense, but he also has a great arm from playing baseball. Peter has played almost every sport there is from football and baseball to track and soccer.

Now that he has successfully completed his senior year as a leader on both the football and baseball fields, he now has been given the chance to play college football. Earlier this year, he signed on to play football on scholarship at Oregon State University and had a lot to say about his experience with the recruiting process. Peter said he looked at attending Texas A&M, Baylor, Oregon, Oregon State, Purdue, Kansas, Mizzou, SMU, TCU, and UNT. John Kitna, backup quarterback of the Dallas Cowboys had his children enrolled at Grapevine Faith, and observed Peter's playing. Peter laid out the step by step process by which Oregon State found him: "John Kitna called Coach Riley and Riley called me to come up to a camp that night that he offered. I also have a friend playing receiver there."

"It takes a lot of outside work to get yourself recruited." Peter said he worked hard to understand the mental game and went to showcases along with emailing coaches to get his name out there. He made his decision after attending Oregon State's football camp and having "loved everything about it." His advice to someone wanting to play a collegiate sport would be to "get their name out to the public and never let someone outwork them."

Peter will major in Air and Space Engineering and said "Although I was a multisport athlete in high school I do not plan to try walking on to any other sports teams." According to him Oregon State also does not plan to have him change position, he will remain a quarterback. Look for his amazing runs and long passes on Saturdays proudly wearing an Oregon State jersey.