The goal of many high school athletes is to find a way to be able to play ball in college. The goal of parents of high school athletes should be to find a way to get them a college education.

While these two aspirations may seem different, in fact they can be the same.

However, across the country parents are finding it tougher to locate paths to get their kids into college.

One of the best things about the winter are the basketball tournaments that take place. In every state, hoops tournaments are easy to find.

During one such winter classic this year, I overheard a very interesting conversation between parents. The mother of a talented player was concerned about her son and why he hadn’t received any scholarship offers or even heard from a college. Her exact quote was “I don’t know how this college process works.”

This conversation stuck with me for quite a while. You almost take it for granted that every player and their parent knows the paths to take to try and get an athletic scholarship or just to even get into college. But that is not the case, by far.

Many of today’s parents do not realize that the time to start thinking about college is not during the second semester of their children’s senior year. It must start during ninth and 10th grade if not earlier. Even if your they are an athlete believing their ticket to college is secure, a back-up plan needs to be formed in case reality hits them in the face like a sledgehammer and those scholarships offers do not come rolling in.

I have seen too many cases of kids with a dumbfounded look on their face when their senior year in high school ends and they have no clue what they will do next. All they wanted to do was just get out of high school, not realizing that is when life starts.

But it’s not just the kids’ problem. It’s also the parents or guardians. Because that is who most likely they will be living with until they decide what they are going to do or are thrown out the house.

I was one of those kids. From the time I was in ninth grade, I was so sure I was going to be playing D-1 football, it never even occurred to me to think about applying to universities, despite having good grades and a solid ACT score. When my senior season came and went, I had no offers. My coach set up a few meetings with small colleges in Kansas, but none of them panned out.

When I graduated, that’s when I finally figured out I was in trouble. I was prepared to sit out college one year and work. But my mother knew that most teenagers who do not go to college right after high school, never go. If it was not for her scraping together my tuition to go to Cameron University on the last day of enrollment, I do not know where I would be today. That led me to walking on and playing football at CU, earning a scholarship at another university and graduating later.

But ordeals like that can be eliminated for most just by planning ahead and asking questions. Never be afraid to ask a guidance counselor, coach, principal or even call a local college and find out what their entry requirements are. If they can’t help you, keep looking until you find someone who can.

Some great books that can assists with this process include:

1. “How to Play the Sports Recruiting Game and Get an Athletic Scholarship: The Handbook and Guide to Success for the African-American High School Student,” by Rodney McKissic.

2. “The Athletic Recruiting and Scholarship Guide,” by Wayne Mazzoni.