ryas- Karpfinan
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS Friday, December 28, 1984 -2
_lineman from Farmington Harrison.
Fisher says Wauldron is the first
athlete from Harrison he's tried to
_place.
Although Fisher has gotten
scholarships for students from many
schools in the tri-county area, he says
he has worked the longest with
Ferndale, Hazel Park, Clawson, Oak
Park, Detroit Cass Tech and Detroit
Pershing. He has dropped schools from
time to time due to lack of cooperation
or other reasons, but picks up others.
The same goes for colleges. If a
coaching contact, for instance, moves
on, Fisher switches his placement ef-
forts to the new school if that coach
was cooperative. Currently, he says,
there are nine football colleges be'ne-
fiting from Fisher's efforts: Richmond,
,Villanova, Mississippi, Cincinnati,
Alabama, Arkansas Tech, Fairmont
, (W. Va.) State, Western New Mexico
and the University of Louisiana.
' Those schools received football infor-
mation.
Some other schools, though, have
been targeted for non-football
athletes. Houston, and William and
.Mary, have awarded grants-in-aid to
several area girls basketball players.
"Coaches from Ohio State are
coming up here to talk to Heather
Meyer of Berkley," relates Fisher,
speaking of a cross country runner.
She had nobody recruiting her and
she's the fourth best in the state. Now
Rice, Penn State, Alabama, Ge6rgia
and Ohio State are interested."
After Heather's coach, Sherry
,Amos, told Fisher about her, he
started passing the information on to
some of his contacts — as well as to
schools where "I didn't know their
coaches from Adam."
Fisher went to Central High
School in Detroit, then enlisted in the
Army, spending five years as a parat-
rooper, much of the time in Germany.
When he got out he went to Georgia for
a year on a baseball scholarship, then
to the University of Detroit to finish
his college education, majoring in
business.
His wife, Rebecca, is a graduate
psychology student at Wayne State
University. They have two children,
Randy, a freshman at Southield-
Lathrup, and Lisa, a seventh grader at
Birney Middle School. Randy is a
wrestler. Although Fisher hasn't in-
cluded wrestlers in his scholarship
searches, that will change in three
years when he looks to match his son
with the right college.
"Then that may be it," he says.
"I'll probably keep doing this for about
three more years."
Recruiting can be a touchy thing.
Just ask any of the nation's colleges
which have been sanctioned by the
National Collegiate Athletic Associa-
tion for recruiting violations. The
NCAA has plenty of restrictions, but
since Fisher doesn't charge for his
services he has far fewer restrictions
than he would otherwise have
"I'm in direct contact with the
enforcement (officials) of the NCAA,"
he explains, "and if there's a gray area
I call them direct."
Fisher begins calling high schools
in September to learn about players,
asking coaches what athletes might be
capable of competing on the college
level. He'll occasionally watch games
or practices and spot athletes that
way, but mostly his information comes
from phone conversations.
"I had a coach call me up and ask
what scale I used to rate or judge an
athlete," Fisher relates. "I don't have
one. I've taken a second string football
player and gotten him a full ride."
The prime qualifications?
"Desire and heart," he insists. "I
learn if they have it by just talking to a
kid. I tell kids when you get to college
you have to go and give 120 percent or
you're not going to make it — in the
classroom or in the sport.
"If a kid is 5-10, 185 and playing
tackle in high school and runs a 5.1 40
(yard dash), I can't do anything for
him. He's got to have something going
for him physically and speed wise . .
"I have the means and I have the
capabilities to help young men or
women out. I'm not saying I'll call
schools for all of them. Sometimes
they'll call me and I'll recommend
schools for them to call. I'm doing a lot
of that now. I'm not doing anything
coaches can't do."
A few years ago, Fisher says, 25
percent of the Tulane women's basket-
ball team were sent to the Louisiana
university by Fisher: Sue Owens of
Southfield-Lathrup, Theresa Heike of
Royal Oak Dondero and Sara Heiderdr
of Berkley. He likes to try to place girls
because he says they are more over-
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