Big-time recruit in Springfield. Published: Aug. 8, 2010.
Major-college football prospects often spend their summers flying around the country meeting with coaches and working out at university football camps to boost their stock on the recruiting trail.
But Dorial Green-Beckham, a potential five-star football recruit following a monster sophomore year at Hillcrest High School -- All-Ozarks in football and basketball, state champion in basketball and gold medalist in the 100 meters and triple jump at the state track meet -- had what John Beckham, his adoptive father and coach, called "a fairly boring summer."
Save for a high school football team camp, a travel-team basketball tournament in Arkansas and a trip to Florida with the family, Green-Beckham stayed primarily in southwest Missouri.
"I ran and all that; hung out and went up to school to catch a couple balls," Green-Beckham said last week. "I was working on my hands and catching the ball.
"But I mostly just stayed here and worked on all the things here."
But make no mistake: Green-Beckham not hunting notoriety this summer makes him no less of a target for the nation's big-time college football programs.
The 6-foot-5, 205-pound wide receiver caught 63 passes for 1,616 yards (a state single-season record) and 23 touchdowns last year in helping the Hornets notch the first playoff victory in school history.
MaxPreps.com named Green-Beckham its National Male Athlete of the Year.
Jeremy Crabtree, national recruiting editor for Yahoo! Sports and Rivals.com, said Green-Beckham has a great chance to be labeled a five-star recruit after his junior year, the highest rating Rivals awards.
"It would be a shock to me that he's not a five-star talent," Crabtree said this week. "It's early, but he's arguably one of the nation's top 25 or top 50 (recruits), and you could legitimately make a case that he's top five."
Schools lining up
Green-Beckham already has received more than 25 verbal offers, according to John Beckham. (Schools may not extend official, written scholarship offers to juniors until Sept. 1.)
It's safe to say that Green-Beckham will have his pick among the nation's football powers.
"With the early attention he's gotten, it's an understatement to say he will be one of the most heavily recruited players in the country," Rivals.com's Crabtree said.
Recruits are allowed by the NCAA to take five official -- expenses-paid -- visits to colleges. They are allowed to pay their own way to as many unofficial visits as they want.
Green-Beckham took an unofficial visit this summer to the University of Florida when the Beckhams -- John, Tracy and their six children, five of whom are adopted -- went to nearby Disney World on vacation.
Interestingly, the Gators had basketball coach Billy Donovan sit in on the meeting with football coach Urban Meyer and the Beckhams.
Green-Beckham, a forward, averaged 18.7 points and 8.4 rebounds last season for the Class 5 champions.
"There's no doubt he's a D-I player," Hillcrest basketball coach John Schaefer said. "It's just whatever he wanted to do."
A football-track double might be more realistic at the D-I level than a football-basketball double, however. So far, it appears Green-Beckham is focused solely on football.
He also took unofficial visits to Oklahoma and Missouri last winter and to Arkansas this spring to watch practices.
Those three schools keep coming up in conversations. They also are the schools that have sent the most representatives to Hillcrest for basketball and football games, Hillcrest athletic director Darrell Johnson said.
"It looks like it's getting ready to blow up," Johnson said of the national attention. "We're getting ready to see this process unfold right in front of us. It's very exciting."
Still, it's difficult to get a read on potential front-runners from Green-Beckham -- who says he didn't have a favorite team growing up -- or a timetable.
He said he'll narrow his choices "when I feel it's the right time."
Beckham said he expects Green-Beckham to take his five official visits his senior year before making a decision. But that's up to Green-Beckham.
"If something clicks and he's positive and he wants the process to be done ... If he's ready, then that's fine, too," Beckham said.
The offers are coming fast. So much so, Beckham said last week that he did not yet have a chance to tell Green-Beckham that an offer had come from Penn State.
Seeking normalcy
Green-Beckham, 17, has received interview requests from several websites that specialize in covering recruiting by particular schools, such as powermizzou.com for Missouri.
"He turns down more interviews than he does," Beckham said. "I don't think he really enjoys it."
Green-Beckham still is trying to protect his privacy. He does not give out his cell phone number -- not to reporters or even to college head coaches.
He politely declined Bob Stoops' overtures after the Oklahoma football coach asked for his number.
"Nothing personal against him," Beckham said. "But we don't want to open the floodgates."
For now, Beckham is emphasizing the need for Green-Beckham to enjoy his last two years of high school.
He certainly is not advising him to graduate early in order to get a spring practice on campus under his belt before his freshman year -- a common practice among top recruits.
"We want him to go to his prom and play basketball and hopefully win another state championship," Beckham said. "Then, when his high school career is over, then move on."
The Beckhams are trying to keep the world at bay for now. The task likely will only get more difficult.
Green-Beckham is in rare company. The state of Missouri has had only two five-star recruits in Rivals.com's postseason rankings since 2002.
Springfield's top recruit in that span was another Hillcrest alum, Chris Earnhardt, who spent three years at Mizzou before transferring to Missouri State recently.
The Rivals.com comment about Earnhardt in 2007, when he was rated Missouri's No. 13 player, read: "First legit prospect out of Springfield in years and years."
Being from an area with such a dearth of football talent does not hurt players anymore, said Crabtree, who lives in Kansas and has seen Green-Beckham play basketball and has seen football highlight films.
"It doesn't matter where you're at -- coaches will find you," Crabtree said. "It's hard for a guy like Dorial to come from under a rock. They don't stay secret for too long."
How Green-Beckham conducts himself while in the national spotlight the next two years intrigues Crabtree.
"It will be interesting to see if he can handle being in a fish bowl," he said. "There will be a lot of new people who want to become his friend."
One thing is certain: A lot of eyes will be watching.
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