Should young athletes commit to college programs? Spear: ‘No’

What’s next, a toddler signing a letter of intent?

Want to know what’s wrong with college athletics? The story of Michael Avery pretty much tells the tale.

Don’t know Michael Avery? Didn’t think so.

He is the poster child for robbing the cradle.

Michael Avery is a 6-foot-4 eighth-grader from California — and he has made a verbal commitment to accept the University of Kentucky’s offer for a basketball scholarship.

“That’s the funny thing,” Howard Avery, Michael’s father, told a Web site that follows recruiting. “We’ve got the college. Now, we need our high school.”

Talk about getting the cart ahead of the horse.

Coaches want to get a head start in the recruiting process and want to make sure a potential prospect knows of their interest, but offering an eighth-grader? C’mon.

Maybe Avery will develop into another Michael Jordan or grow into another Larry Bird. Then again, we may never hear of him again.

That’s the thing. So much can change in terms of mental and physical development between a person’s freshman and senior years in high school. Will Avery continue to grow? Will he maintain his passion for basketball? What happens if he breaks a leg and loses some of his physical abilities?

Indeed, will he be a player worthy of a college scholarship by the time he goes to college?

So many questions, so few answers, but the possibility of detours on the road to Lexington apparently did not bother the Kentucky coaching staff.

In that vein, I expect everyone can remember a “can’t-miss” athlete who did. College teams are littered with them — and coaches had far more time to evaluate them. Everyone can recall the bigger kid who matured earlier and dominated youth games, then turned out to be just another player after the others caught up. Every neighborhood has one.

Growing up is hard enough without great expectations heaped on a youngster’s shoulders. Now, with a scholarship in hand in the eighth grade, anything short of All-American honors every year at every level will represent failure for Avery.

That’s an imposing challenge for an eighth-grader.