The Big Visit

Cupcakes from the Hotel

"The Big Visit". Is what Stanford calls the weekend that they invite all their current year recruits for their official visit.  All high school seniors are allowed by NCAA, 5 official visits, to schools who are recruiting them.  This is a chance for the school to talk you into signing with them.  They pay for the recruits flights, lodging, fun, food etc.  The school also picks up the tab for the parents lodging, food and fun.  Stanford allowed Jeremy to come along on this trip.   A few times Jer had to stay with the parents. Not a terrible deal since they treated us to super fancy meals and gave us a little extra free time!

Condoleezza Rice

They hosted us at the Sandhill Hotel in Palo Alto.  I highly recommend this hotel if price isn't an issue.We were treated to the best food and restaurants in the area. We toured the Stanford Virtual Reality lab where Jeremy swam with sharks and Simi danced with Elmo.  We also visited the Mechanical Engineering Volkswaggon Automotive lab.  They have an Audi that drives by itself with near professional racing speed.  I wouldn't want to be the passenger that's for sure!  Toured the campus Museum with the largest collection of Rodin sculptures in the U.S. We met and had lunch with a dozen or so professors and the assist dean to admissions.  We also had a q&a session with Condoleezza Rice. She just happens to be a professor on campus and also mentors many athletes and gives them internship opportunities in her office.  We learned a lot from the athlete panel discussion with Christian McCaffrey.

Simi & Christian McCaffery

With all of the college visits we've done, Stanford is the only school that has introduced us to actual professors that my child will take classes from.  Because of Simi's interest in Computer Science We have actually eaten lunch with a Computer Science professor 3 times now.  He knows a lot about Simi and our family and we know about his.  Before Simi even steps foot on campus as a student, he has met many professors who know him by name and he has started relationships with these people that will help him transition into college life.

How can his hands be bigger than Jer's

We also hung out with the parents of this amazing group of boys and made some super great friends from all over the country.  I would keep an eye out for some leading 2016 Stanford recruits, like Curtis Robinson OLB, Donald Stuart WR, Henri Hattis OL (biggest hands ever seen), KJ Costello QB, Clark Yarborough OL, Loa Kaufusi DE, Kaden Smith TE, and of course Simi Fehoko WR.

There wasn't a coach, player or parent that didn't congratulate Simi on his outstanding year. Everyone was super complementary and it made us feel like he belonged in this great place. From the minute the boys started arriving it was like a bunch of long lost friends.  They ran around from room to room knocking on each others rooms to wake each other up just to say HI! Simi is usually shy in a group
but with these kids he has found a match.  He fits right in! He is always with the group teasing, laughing or in a deep conversation of some sort.  It seems he has found a home of brothers away from
home. Simi is happy and content here.

Simi & Jeremy

Most every parent we talked to brought up the fact that Simi would be gone for 2 years.  This opened up a lot of dialogue.  No one understood the LDS Mission.  We repeated the process a dozen times of turning in papers, receiving a call to a place you don't choose, the possibility of international
placement,  not being able to call home but twice a year, and no media, TV, etc... We answered questions about if he is forced to go, if we (mom and dad) did a mission, if he could just go a year, what he would do, where he would stay who pays for it and many other questions.  The great thing about Stanford coaches is that they have done this before.  The coaches know what to expect, they don't beg him to stay and play a year.  In fact they have set up a daily workout with stretch bands that they are prepared to send him with.

Once we return home and this weekend's memories start to fade. It will be easy to say, "Simi should stay closer to home."  Please help to remind me of all the reasons why Simi should be surrounded by extremely successful, creative, innovative and intelligent people. He took the ACT/SAT test nine times to get the score he was looking for.  He is currently taking 2 online courses, 2 AP classes, testing out of PE and graduating from Seminary.  Remind me that he worked extremely hard to get into Stanford, that he is One of THEM and he deserves it!