To say James Thurman is proud of the way his son, Justin Thurman, handled the recruiting process would be an understatement.
“Some of the things we've always prided ourselves on and tried to instill in the kids is hard work, dedication and trusting the process,” Mr. Thurman says.
“When you do what you're supposed to do and how you're supposed to do it, it can put you in a position to have opportunities to evaluate.”
Justin, a running back in the Class of 2025, certainly put himself in such a position.
On Tuesday, the Jesuit High School star announced he was accepting a scholarship offer from Notre Dame after also receiving offers from schools like Florida, Auburn, Tennessee and Vanderbilt among several others.
“Starting last summer and definitely into the spring, he's been blessed with opportunities to continue his education and his athletic career at the next level,” Mr. Thurman continues. “We made quite a few visits over the last couple years to different schools and you get to see different setups, programs, meeting with folks and so forth.
“We look at Notre Dame as a top-tier school from an academic perspective and from an athletic perspective. It provides the social and cultural environment that actually fits well for Justin.”
After camping in South Bend last month, Thurman and his family returned to campus this past weekend, when he pulled the trigger.
Unable to make the first trip, Thurman’s older sister, Sydney, met them at Notre Dame this time.
“We wanted her to take a look and get her perspective as well,” Mr. Thurman says. “She's currently a senior at the University of Kentucky and also is a manager for the UK Women's Basketball team. She's seen recruiting from both sides as a basketball player in high school as well as now on the college level.
“Getting her perspective and a different set of eyes from a family perspective was also critical to the vetting process and ultimately getting to the decision that Justin was comfortable with Notre Dame being an outstanding fit for him.”
Sydney sat in on meetings with the coaches and academic advisors while also touring the campus.
“She was very impressed with the thoroughness, the level of information they deliver to its players, not only now from a recruiting process, but also what they do while the kids are in school and what they're doing to put in place the right support structure and the network to help them for the rest of their lives,” Mr. Thurman says.
That was reassuring for Mr. Thurman, who already knows what it’s like to send a kid off to college.
“You definitely want to make sure they're in a place that is safe and supportive with the resources for them to grow and develop them into a young man,” he says.
Connecting with Marcus Freeman and Deland McCullough certainly added to that comfort.
“Being able to take the connection with Coach McCullough, also understand a little bit about his backstory, which is definitely very interesting to say the least, but definitely learning more about it more recently, kind of reinforced some of the initial assumptions that we had about him during our dialogues and so forth as well as with Coach Freeman,” Mr. Thurman says.
“We've had an opportunity to have a significant amount of time with him, not only in the office just talking about things, but more importantly, we talked about life and what the University provides for its student-athletes and what that could mean long-term. We saw a common theme in the approach and culture throughout the entire coaching staff and organization.”
Conversations with Chad Bowden and Dre Brown and others cemented that feeling.
“The other added bonus for Justin is that he has two colleagues who actually play at Notre Dame,” Mr. Thurman says. “He played freshman ball with Christian Gray at DeSmet in St. Louis and he trained and competed against Jeremiyah Love, who's a freshman running back there as well too.”
Thurman learned plenty about Notre Dame from Gray’s mother before he made his own college decision and was able to pick the brain of Love’s father more recently.
“Those are additional data points that actually help validate what you're seeing and hearing as you're trying to help figure out what's the best path forward.”
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