Distant athletes converge

EDITOR's NOTE: This article originally published in The Advocate on Oct. 26, 2011. To view original post, visit AccentAdvocate.com.

Finding players for the football team, even those from the East Coast, has been relatively easy for Alonzo Carter.

"They all kind of recruited each other," the second-year Comet coach said in his office browsing through emails from players who want to play for him at Contra Costa College.

"They made first contact," he said. "They reached out."

Phadrae White, one of 24 out-of-state players on the Comet 2011 roster, wanted to keep playing football after finishing at Boca Ciega High School in Florida.

The St. Petersburg native said leaving his home and traveling 3,000 miles to come to Contra Costa College under coach Carter was his best opportunity to play football and continue his education.

"He (Carter) was my best opportunity to go to a good college," White said.

So when White heard about Carter's successful 2010 season (4-6 overall, 2-2 in the Bay Valley Conference), White and two of his Boca Ciega teammates, defensive backs Avion Brown and Jovonte Johnson, notified Carter they wanted to play at CCC.

Now living in a San Pablo house within walking distance from CCC, White found a new home in the Bay Area.

"Basically everybody on the team all grouped together," White said in his southern tone. "It's a brotherhood. We all bonded together and turned into one big family."

The Comets are 5-2 overall in 2011 and won their first conference game with three more left to finish the season.

Although players agree there was tension when all they first came together, the common goal of winning games and seizing the opportunity to play college football became a common goal for the 70 players on the team.

"We all mesh pretty well, but it took a second," said sophomore defensive back Isaac Goins, who grew up in Hercules and went to El Cerrito High School. "People from here looked at the people from over there and asked, ‘What are they here for? What are they about?'"

He said some players from the East Bay wondered if the out-of-state players would take their starting positions or if they would eventually take over the entire roster.

"Contra Costa is supposed to get Contra Costa players first," he said.

But in October, a few games into the season, Goins said the players learned more about each other and their playing styles and those worries disappeared.

Sophomore quarterback Jeffery Anderson, who almost went to American River College in Sacramento before committing to CCC, said it does not matter where his teammates come from as long as they focus on the same goal — winning.

"It's more people, more talent with out-of-state (players)," the Dixon High School graduate said. "They ain't coming all the way out here to not do something."

They came to CCC to contribute to the newfound Comet football tradition of winning.

"They're finding a way to help us win week in and week out," he said.

Playing for a successful team under a coach who can get them to the next level is a high selling point for those from out of state.

Carter's ability to turn around a wretched program that won four games last year, matching the win total of the four previous seasons combined, increased the number of athletes recruited from out of state to 22 this year from just two in 2010.

"(Winning) helps a lot," Carter said. "Everybody wants to be affiliated with something positive. There has been nothing positive affiliated with the football team in a long time."

Carter's abilities to send players to the next level also piqued interest with many of the players. Eleven players from last year's team were recruited to Football Bowl Subdivision and Division I universities.

He also had 14 football players on the Dean's List for keeping a high grade point average.

Running back Rashad Hall, who committed to University of Colorado out of Oak Ridge Military Academy in Virginia, came to CCC this year because his SAT scores made him ineligible to play in the NCAA.

"(The coaches at Colorado) mentioned Contra Costa with Carter," he said.

"I felt pretty bad about the SAT thing," Hall said. "At (CCC) I have a second chance to get my grades up before going to Colorado."

Transferring students is a main goal for Carter.

When Carter first met with college President McKinley Williams and Athletic Director John Wade they told him they didn't care if the team finished seasons 1-9 as long as students graduated.

Carter has more than held up his end of the deal and exceeded expectations for wins. As Williams plans to end his 21-year career on campus in December, Carter said he told him, "I kept my promise and we're not going 1-9. I don't do that."

By raising CCC's reputation throughout the state by establishing a program that can win games, Carter also boosted its recognition across the country.

Whereas these recruits from Florida, North Carolina and throughout the South and East would have gone to City College of San Francisco, College of San Mateo or Laney College in Oakland, Carter's 2010 second-place finish in the BVC helped him gain attention from students who, for one reason or another, did not go to a four-year university for school or to play football.

"There's no junior college (football) in Florida, but there's football, " Carter said. "A lot of young men on the East Coast want to play at the best junior college in California."

More out-of-state players came to CCC from Florida than any other state, with five. Four players came from North Carolina and three came from Alabama, Louisiana and New Jersey.

"Down South and on the East Coast there is no junior college football. They have prep schools," Carter said. "There are a bunch of guys from Florida looking for somewhere to go."

Competition for out-of-state players is fierce and CCC is not the only team in the BVC with a significant percentage of its roster from outside the Golden State.

College of the Redwoods, which the Comets beat 42-13 in their first conference game this season, has more out-of-state recruits, 38, than its 33 players from California.

Shasta and Yuba colleges, who CCC finishes its season against, have 22 and 29 players from out of state, respectively.

Solano Community College, where the Comets play their second conference game on Saturday, hosts the fewest out-of-state recruits in the conference with five, including one player from Tonga.

Comets like freshman wide receiver White, sophomore line backer Tate Mustin, the only Comet from Tennessee, and change-of-pace quarterback Lamar McKnight, one of three players from Jersey City, N.J., all came from states with different time zones, but have adapted to the changes.

"There are lots of Southeastern guys," Hall said. "We all bond, we have the same accent."