Saguaro (Scottsdale, Ariz.) all-American
Cyrus Hobbi chose to visit sunny Southern California during a time that black clouds hovered around the USC campus.
About seven months later, Hobbi chose the Trojans over UCLA and Arizona State and many other schools bidding for his services on Friday, as the 6-foot-4, 285-pound guard announced his college decision.
"I feel like I could have been happy anywhere," Hobbi said. "ASU is a great school. But I'm 110 percent confident USC is the right choice."
It's completely different sentiment since June after a bad first impression.
Hobbi took unofficial visits to UCLA and USC in June, just about the same time that the NCAA announced its four-year investigation into USC revealed a lack of institutional control and that there were violations made in football, men's basketball and women's tennis programs.
Scholarships were lost and a two-year postseason ban was put in place.
It led to Hobbi being shown around campus by players and his parents going the whole time without meeting head coach Lane Kiffin.
Meanhwile, at UCLA the Bruins gave him the red-carpet treatment as head coach Rick Neuheisel gave him a personal tour of campus, facilities and had breakfast with the fifth-ranked guard/center. The Hobbis came away with two completely different feelings.
"When a kid comes away from an unofficial visit, he needs to feel some love," Saguaro coach John Sanders said. "He scratched USC. So that was the end of USC for me. I didn't have very many good things to say about them. But they were relentless."
Yet when Hobbi pulled out his hat of choice at Saguaro in front of his teammates and family it was the familiar S intertwined within the C.
"They apologized and were relentless in calling," Hobbi said. "At one point, because ASU and UCLA were pretty high on me, I thought, ‘No, I don't want to go to USC,' but I decided to give them a second chance."
It came as a surprise to Sanders, who wasn't to forget so easily.
"I'm going to give USC credit," Sanders said. "First of all, USC had to deal with me, and I was not very friendly with them. No.1, I wanted the kid to stay home and go to ASU. And the way they handled early recruiting, I wasn't real fond of them. But I will tell you that Joe Barry and Lane Kiffin were relentless recruiting this kid and wouldn't take no for an answer."
After that seeing the Coliseum, the plans for a new football complex and the lore of the Trojans was enough to sway Hobbi eventually. He was still unsure of his decision until late Thursday.
"I just had this sense of relief come over me," he said. "That's when I knew where I was supposed to be going."
Jason P. Skoda has been a sports writer in the Phoenix area for the last six years of his 15-year career. He currently works at the Ahwatukee Foothills News after stints with The Arizona Republic, CoachesAid.com Arizona and a turn at freelancing for various newspapers and Web sites around the country. Before landing in Arizona, he also worked in Ohio, California and Texas. He can be contacted at jskoda1024@aol.com or 480-272-2449.
