By the time Donnie Davis rose to his senior year in 1990-91 at Cummings High School in Burlington, N.C., the star quarterback was on the radar of every major college coach in the country.
Soon, immersed in the thick of aggressive recruiting campaigns, the 18-year-old was being courted with school visits marked by stays at high-end hotels and expensive private dinners, including one featuring caviar and similar high-end food items.
By the time DeAnn Davis rose to her senior year at Cummings High School in Burlington, N.C., the star track field athlete who was national champion in the triple jump and the younger sister of Donnie Davis, was being heavily courted by colleges around the country.
In the thick of recruiting campaigns she made several college visits. In contrast to her brother’s experience, her visits were marked by choices of which bed in one of the student dormitories she wanted to sleep in and a lot of time to share meals in the student cafeteria with potential fellow classmates.
The recruiting experience of the brother and sister high school star athletes could not have been more different, they say, having compared notes over the years about their journeys to college from high school.
Donnie Davis found himself isolated from the real world of college from the start, an experience he says frustrated his ability to prepare for the real world after college. He never stayed on the campus of the college recruiting him during his visits. He never ate in the regular student cafeteria. He was promised the best of academic support, if needed.
DeAnn Davis faced the real world from the start, from dorm life during her campus visits to having regular cafeteria food with the general student population. While the brother’s potential coaches lathered him with praise and marketing pitches about their schools, she was politely advised on more than one occasion how lucky she should feel to be courted by a particular school as there were more prospects where she came from.
