2008 Woodie Awards
Player fakes recruitment, fools entire town
Anthony Cook
Issue date: 2/13/08 Section: Sports
You kind of go back and forth on how you feel about what Kevin Hart did.
My first reaction wasn't to think at all. I just laughed at the ridiculousness.
Kevin Hart was one of the finest members of Fernley High School in Nevada. He stands at 6'5'' and weighs 290 pounds.
Hart was driven to play Div. I college football, so driven that he lied about his entire recruitment.
He lied to his coaches. He lied to his parents. He lied to all of his friends. He lied to the point that he had an all-school assembly at his high school to announce what school he had chosen.
On a table sat two hats. One was a California Bears hat. The other was for the Oregon Ducks.
Hart had told everyone he knew that he had been recruited by several Div. I football programs,
and elite programs at that.
Several of the schools were from the PAC 10 conference along with a few from the Midwest.
He told local reporters that he had narrowed his recruitment to only a few schools.
Next was the school-wide assembly.
Fernley High School has never had a Div. I football player. Naturally the entire school was enthralled in the recruitment.
Several local televisions
and newspapers showed up for the announcement.
He put the Cal hat on his head, an indication that he had decided to take the scholarship offer from that team. However, it soon came to surface that neither
Cal nor any of the other schools he had mentioned had ever offered a scholarship.
Hart had lied about the entire ordeal. He had faked it all.
That was about the point that I started to laugh. Newspaper position aside, I couldn't help but enjoy the trick that he had played on the media.
I started to wonder how he had duped so many people. Surely his parents
had noticed the lack of calls coming in from so many major colleges. Those major colleges would have probably wanted to sell the school to the parents just as much as they wanted to sell it to the player.
My first reaction wasn't to think at all. I just laughed at the ridiculousness.
Kevin Hart was one of the finest members of Fernley High School in Nevada. He stands at 6'5'' and weighs 290 pounds.
Hart was driven to play Div. I college football, so driven that he lied about his entire recruitment.
He lied to his coaches. He lied to his parents. He lied to all of his friends. He lied to the point that he had an all-school assembly at his high school to announce what school he had chosen.
On a table sat two hats. One was a California Bears hat. The other was for the Oregon Ducks.
Hart had told everyone he knew that he had been recruited by several Div. I football programs,
and elite programs at that.
Several of the schools were from the PAC 10 conference along with a few from the Midwest.
He told local reporters that he had narrowed his recruitment to only a few schools.
Next was the school-wide assembly.
Fernley High School has never had a Div. I football player. Naturally the entire school was enthralled in the recruitment.
Several local televisions
and newspapers showed up for the announcement.
He put the Cal hat on his head, an indication that he had decided to take the scholarship offer from that team. However, it soon came to surface that neither
Cal nor any of the other schools he had mentioned had ever offered a scholarship.
Hart had lied about the entire ordeal. He had faked it all.
That was about the point that I started to laugh. Newspaper position aside, I couldn't help but enjoy the trick that he had played on the media.
I started to wonder how he had duped so many people. Surely his parents
had noticed the lack of calls coming in from so many major colleges. Those major colleges would have probably wanted to sell the school to the parents just as much as they wanted to sell it to the player.
Be the first to comment on this story