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Illinois Football: Is offering 10-year old Bunchie Young a bad thing?

By Rees Woodcock

Oct 22, 2016; Ann Arbor, MI, USA; Illinois Fighting Illini head coach Lovie Smith on the sideline in the first half against the Michigan Wolverines at Michigan Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Rick Osentoski-USA TODAY Sports
Oct 22, 2016; Ann Arbor, MI, USA; Illinois Fighting Illini head coach Lovie Smith on the sideline in the first half against the Michigan Wolverines at Michigan Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Rick Osentoski-USA TODAY Sports /
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The Illinois football team recently made the news by offering a scholarship to a kid.

This wasn’t just any regular kid, though. Bunchie Young is a 10-year old pre-teen who hasn’t even hit middle school yet. Lovie Smith and the Illini coaching staff found it helpful to offer this young and talented kid a scholarship so early on in his career.

ESPN is reporting that Young received this scholarship back on May 9. His trainer, Mike Evans of LacedFacts Training, corroborated the scholarship offer as well.

There are people out there who are shocked or possibly upset Illinois or any team for that matter would offer such a young kid a scholarship to play at their school. One example is Matt Baker of the Tampa Bay Times. Here is an excerpt from his article on June 23.

"We can talk about how ridiculous it is to offer a college scholarship to a kid in elementary school – and it is very, very ridiculous"

You can read the entire article here. It isn’t surprising that a newspaper columnist from Tampa Bay wouldn’t like Lovie considering when he coached the Buccaneers they were really bad. But, this just in, the Bucs have been bad for years now.

But is this a bad thing for kids? Is getting a scholarship at the age of 10-years old detrimental to their development, personality or their future? Evans doesn’t think so, and he explained how the mindset should be with situations like this to Chris Hummer of 247Sports.

"I’d rather a kid have a scholarship than going to join a gang or sell drugs. This helps a kid want to continue to play a sport and work hard because they know it’s possible. This gives all the other kids across the world a chance to say, ‘You know what, I’m going to go train because I want to be like Bunchie or Havon.’“This is something positive, something that will keep them motivated and stay in school because they want to go to college.”"

I love this positive way of thinking and I couldn’t agree more. What is the harm in offering a 10-year old a scholarship? There really isn’t any. The kid could be more motivated to earn more scholarships, therefore, he will perform even harder than before.

You can also look at the fact Young is training to get noticed by college programs. That is why he is LacedFacts Training. He isn’t there to get better at coloring inside the lines or learning cursive writing, this kid is there to learn how to become a better football player and learn the fundamentals.

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So, honestly, the offer from Illinois was just a checkmark in accomplishing a goal. Young earned a scholarship offer and I would bet he now wants more. He wants to be noticed by college programs and, one day, will go to college for free, earn an education and head to the NFL to make millions of dollars and be a superstar.

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