Phone call lands Rams a D-I quarterback and his goal-scoring friend.
Recruiting college athletes is not an exact science and it's almost always tedious.
But sometimes you simply get lucky. Take the case of Fresno City College, which landed a Division I quarterback and top-scoring striker for the soccer team all thanks to a phone call from a coach looking for a golfer.
Huh?
Follow us on this one. It can get confusing, but we'll try to make it simple.
We start with Seattle University golf coach Don Rasmussen, who was looking to fill the roster for his newly formed team. He called Fresno City men's golf coach Scott Stark, hoping to snag Englishman Scott Bubb through a Seattle U. program for international students.
While that discussion was going on, Rasmussen noticed that Stark also was an assistant football coach for the Rams -- quarterbacks coach, to be specific -- and mentioned that his son, Jordan, was looking to transfer from Montana State, where he had spent two years without throwing a pass.
More talks ensued, and now Jordan Rasmussen is in Fresno, one of four quarterbacks on the Rams' roster.
But he didn't just bring his cleats to Fresno. He also brought his best friend, Rory Agu.
Agu plays the other futbol. He's the leading goal-scorer for the Tacoma Tide of the Premier Development League -- which is playing the Fresno Fuego on Saturday at Chukchansi Park in the PDL's Western Conference playoffs.
But we're getting ahead of ourselves. Sorry.
Jordan Rasmussen and Rory Agu grew up in the same neighborhood in University Place, next to Tacoma, and attended Curtis High.
"Rory and Jordan have been almost inseparable since seventh grade, when we moved into the neighborhood," Don Rasmussen said. "Rory doesn't even knock [at our door], he just walks in. He's part of the family."
In mid-June, Jordan Rasmussen was ready to commit to Fresno City and contacted his buddy, who was playing for the Tide and working at a soccer store. "I thought Rory should play some college soccer," Jordan Rasmussen said.
Agu recalled that day. "I was at soccer practice," he said. "Jordan texted me, 'Let's go to Fresno.' "
So Agu put in a call to Rams coach Eric Solberg.
At first listen, Solberg wasn't sure what to make of the call from Tacoma.
"He started telling me the same stuff all kids do, he's interested in coming, blah, blah, blah," Solberg said. "I get 100 to 200 calls or e-mails a year."
But when Agu mentioned his buddy was coming to play football, and then Rasmussen arrived on campus for summer drills, Solberg's interest heightened. He got even more interested when he saw Agu's statistics -- he's the Tide's leading scorer with 11 goals in 15 games.
Likewise, Agu did some research on Fresno City's program and discovered the Rams are a perennial state-tournament program under Solberg.
Now we can fast-forward to the present. Rasmussen and Agu have an apartment on Bulldog Lane, where they'll be roommates once Agu finishes his season with the Tide -- which could be this weekend.
Agu said he's bringing his stuff and plans to check out his new apartment this weekend. But he hopes he doesn't have to settle in Fresno quite yet.
"My plan is for us to win," he said. "Then I'll leave my stuff [in Fresno] and head back [to Tacoma] for another week."
Scott Bubb? He didn't qualify for Seattle's international program, and is still looking for a four-year school.
Don Rasmussen appreciates the irony.
"I told Coach Stark, I don't know if this has ever happened, but I'll trade you one kid [Jordan] for another [Bubb]," he said.
"He got the better end of the deal. I never got the golfer."
Fresno State kicks off the 2008 football campaign at Rutgers on Sept. 1. What would you say are the team's strengths and weaknesses? How strong is The Schedule on a national level?
Should be an exciting first game and a very good Litmus test to began as Rutgers usually puts together a strong team. Our strength is that we have a lot of returning starters. As far as weakness, maybe the D-line. Lost Tyler Clutts and Jason Shirley, although the replacements aren't brand new and Shirley only played a few games last year anyway. Should be a good season. As for the schedule it's definitely brutal. Rutgers, UCLA, AND Wisconsin!!! If...IF, the bulldogs manage to come out of Pasadena with a 4-0 record then let the BCS hype begin. I know everyone wants to talk about it already but there's plenty of work for Pat Hill and company to do before then. Everyone buy your tickets to the Wisconsin game. We should be sold out already. As a sidenote youtube "jump around" and find the Wisconsin version of what we do; puts us to shame. Go dogs.
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