Originally posted by EHS1505:
Dom is an honor roll student... not sure why everyone jumped to the grades/clearing-house assumption right away...
Dom wanted to play baseball and football at the college level. He will make a decision on which direction to head (baseball OR football) after his 2 years are up at Iowa Western. He is a great kid that has matured a ton mentally, physically and emotionally since his 9th grade year and I know whoever signs him in either sport after Iowa Western will be happy to have him in their program. Would he have made this decision if one of those 3 programs came knocking at his door for either sport? I have no idea, but I don't think it happened...
*Disclaimer: The following rant is, in no way, directed at taking anything away from the young men who were fortunate enough to sign with either school*
Was Dom's frame (6'0" 185) not big enough? Look at their recruits at DB/WR... identical to any of Iowa/Iowa State's with the one 6-4 kid being an exception.
Was the level of talent these kids played against better than what Dom faced each week? I'll buy that in baseball during the regular season, but I'm pretty sure Urbandale, Indianola, DM Lincoln, and Valley all have kids on Iowa & Iowa State's radar in football. (I left Ankeny off because Dom didn't play in that game due to injury) In baseball Perfect Game wrote about him in the summary every week for standing out vs the best competition in Iowa and topped it off by inviting him to the National showcase that only 3 Iowa players were invited to.
Since the creator of this thread is from Huskerpreps... what'd you think of the level of competition in Drake Martinez's highlight video? I didn't know whether to laugh or cry when I watched that. My favorite scene in "The Waterboy" played out right in front of me on that kick return... By the way, I'm not comparing Nebraska... tough to argue with a top 25 recruiting class, congrats on that by the way.
Since I began following Sioux City sports closely over the past decade, this type of shunning and pre-disposed notion of kids in the area as irrelevant has just baffled me. As a former (as of now) Iowa fan, it has been compounded recently with the current slide in Iowa's football team and the perpetual mediocrity of their baseball team and it was climaxed with the fact that Iowa had to fight with the likes of Tulsa, Bowling Green, etc. for their recruits this year while ignoring a lot of in-state talent.
National recruiting blinders would be applicable except for the 4 Iowa kids the Hawkeyes brought in, as well as the 3 Iowa State brought in, not counting preferred walk-ons that aren't listed in press releases.
So... no... they didn't miss him... they just flat out ignored him.
While I think Dom will end up on a diamond instead of on the gridiron after he is done at Iowa Western, I wouldn't mind seeing him don the Red & White, Maize & Blue, or any other color combination besides Black & Gold and stickin it to 'em one time. As for me, I'm off my soap box and looking for a bandwagon to jump on. GBR? Go Ducks? Roll Tide?
This post is way off target in my opinion.
Iowa recruits the Sioux City area regular, especially in basketball. There has been a ton of talent come out of the area in basketball, and Iowa has hit it as hard as possible. McCabe, Woodbury, and Gessell all from the Sioux City area. They've also taken
In football, Iowa has Michael Malloy (Heelan) and Cole Croston (SB-L) from the area in football. ISU has Cody Ahrendt (North), Eric Muilenberg (North), Jared Weaver (Woodbury Central), Brock Dagel (Cherokee - this is a little stretch), and Mitch Amundson (East) all on their rosters. I didn't bother to look at kids from NE towns near Sioux City or from Sioux Falls, which you can pretty much consider as part of the same area.
In football, someone brought up the example of Wegher. This is as far from the truth as I can see. He was a 4* star recruit with offers from all over the country. I don't see how anyone can think he was overlooked because of his competition.
As for Iowa, Iowa State, and Nebraska missing on the Sioux City kids...I think you're missing the boat here too. Iowa showed interest in Skibinski and Sweeney, but ultimately decided that they didn't deserve offers. I'm not aware that they looked into McReynolds or Spears at all, but it is possible.
Dom Thompson Williams isn't even in the Rivals database, so it seems that EVERY DI and DI-AA and DII school passed on him. Not sure why, as I've never seen him play. However, these coaches get paid to find the best players they can to have a chance to win. If his highlight tape was shown to the coaches of Iowa, Iowa State, Nebraska, UNI, KSU, North Dakota State, ect., and he didn't earn an offer from ANY of them, there is a reason. It's not because these coaches have some sort of dislike for Sioux City, IA.
