Original Article written by Sacramento Bee: https://www.sacbee.com/sports/college/article234794062.html

No one barrels through a high school football tour with the aim of becoming world beaters at the community college/JC level.

But reality can strike with the ferocity of a knee to the neck, and then the real challenges loom.

Between 1 to 2 percent of prep student-athletes in America land full athletic scholarships. Not everyone gets a free ride, and this is why the rosters at two-year colleges in this state are stacked, a feeding ground to four-year programs.

Go watch a practice then catch a game and you will find the competition is relentlessly fierce, especially given that there are more JC football programs in this state (68) than the rest of the country combined.

Patience is a virtue at this level, coaches will tell you, or as American River College coach Jon Osterhout has said, "Guys are ultimately at a JC for a number of reasons: Late bloomers, academics are upside down, athletically not quite evolved, socially not there mentally.

"Then you help develop them."

And then you unleash them.

Read full article by Sacramento Bee: https://www.sacbee.com/sports/college/article234794062.html