The state of Florida is a breed unlike many in the recruiting world – a hot bed for some of the top athletes in the nation. Showcasing your skills in such a competitive state can be difficult. What sets you apart from someone else?
While there are a number of ways to try to distinguish yourself few are more successful than a highlight tape.
Derek Williams, founder of SunshinePreps.net, has honed in on the state and helped countless players fulfill their dreams of playing football at the collegiate level. A native of Tampa, graduate of Gaither High School, Williams has successfully spread his Preps Network to Texas, where his cousin Brad runs TexasPreps.net, and most recently to the West Coast in California.
“We are rolling out the California network now,” Williams, who launched CaliPreps.net on Feb. 8, explained. “We just started in California so that’s a really big step and we’re really excited about it.
[CaliPreps] is basically the same shell and setup as SunshinePreps.net.”
Williams’ journey to becoming the dominant video provider in the state didn’t start as many would expect. After graduating from Gaither he began working at his family’s business in mortgage and real estate.
“I didn’t love it,” Williams explained of his job. “I went to work every day but didn’t have a passion for it so when I started to do this on the side that is obviously where my passion lied.”
College coaches quickly took notice and reached out to him.
“College coaches told me ‘Derek we’re paying people to do what you’re doing for free and you’re doing it better than anyone else,’” he explained. “I had to make a decision; I decided to walk away from the job and turn this into a full-time situation on my part and it’s been good since then.”
The journey started 11 years ago for Derek Williams and Sunshine Preps. It started before we used computers or small disks (DVDs) to transmit film.
“Back in the day I would compile VHS tapes. I would get 30 or 40 highlights from schools and I’d have a VHS tape with 70 or 80 kids on it and every three or four months I would go to the post office and literally mail out tapes to 300 college coaches around the country and it was free; I didn’t charge for it,” Williams said. “The kids were getting a lot of attention and college coaches immediately called me and said ‘wow this is big time, we’re able to access content that we hadn’t been able to in the past’ and they jumped all over it. I kept pushing forward and kids signed scholarships.”
Williams’ services are free to high school coaches and players. When he launched the website it was completely open and unsecured.
“I had to take it behind the scenes a little bit because I am funded by the colleges so I couldn’t just run every video I ever cut on an open website because people were out there watching it and copying it,” he said. “People were taking it and doing their own stuff with it so over the past five or six years we had to go on under the radar a little bit.”
Working with high school film was never a career goal for Williams. When the site first launched he never expected it to turn into a full-time job.
“I just started helping out high school coaches and trying to get kids exposure going back 11 years ago,” he said. “In my first year I had kids from South Florida and North Florida sending me film and I’d literally just sit down and starting breaking down game film.”
The impact of Williams’ work is seen all over and most recently has been advertised on the biggest stage of them all – the Superbowl.
“The Giants had five kids on the defensive side of the ball that were from Florida,” he said. “I cut film for three of those five kids and two of them, Jacquian Williams and Jason Pierre-Paul, I actually found on senior film and they had nothing going on – at the end of the day here these kids are making it to the highest of levels. “
While he has a lot of passion into his business, the job is no easy task. Williams says he cuts film for somewhere around 1,500 kids each year and still can’t keep up with the demand.
“I wake up and literally sit here and pop on game film and cut it up so I can get it out to my college contacts; I do that each and every day,” he said. “It’s an around the clock job and it’s nonstop. I could cut film every single day and not cut all the film that is sent to me, but it’s not for the lack of trying.”
Between the multiple different platforms available to Tampa Bay prospects Williams thinks it is a tremendous advantage playing here.
“Between the website and BCP’s high school contacts and the videos I cut it’s really a nice 1-2 punch. To be a kid playing HS football in Tampa right now is a really good situation,” William said. “If you’re a high level player (D-I, D-IAA, D-II), even though some players and parents think D-II isn’t a big deal, to get scholarship money to play this game, that is a great opportunity.
“It has been a tremendous asset to the Bay Area. It allows college programs across the country to sit at their computers, hundreds of miles away and recruit – actively watch kids, read about kids, see kids. That’s big time stuff.”
The journey started 11 years ago for Derek Williams and Sunshine Preps. Although he has moved from VHS tapes to DVDs, as well as a heavily populated website, he says things really haven’t changed at all.
“I really didn’t intend for this thing to become what it has. I was just here to help out the players and the coaches,” he said of his goal for Sunshine Preps. “Nothing has changed; the only thing that has changed over the course of 11 years is my workload. Now it’s not 50 schools sending me film, its 250 schools – and it’s not five games, its 10, 12, 15 games. This is here for the high school coaches and the high school kids. It’s free to them. It’s not to take the place of what high school coaches do, it’s here to be an additional resource. It’s an additional tool to help them in the recruiting process. I urge kids and coaches all the time to not change what they’re doing. Go do your stuff, do whatever you do to get recruited and between what I do and what high school coaches do, and what BCP does, these kids really have everything built in to get recruited.”
Follow Kyle on Twitter @KyleBennettUT