Scholar Athletes

Hello, my name is Shellee Howard and I am the founder and CEO of College Ready, where we help students get into college and graduate debt-free. I am super excited to share with you a partner in education. Addison is amazing and I can't wait to share his story with you. He played football at Berkeley, so for those scholar athletes out there, you'll want to listen. He has walked the walk, and now he'll share with how he did it. And so before I introduce Addison, I wanted to let you know what he does. So he helps student athletes without the perfect GPA utilize their athletic skills to get into top-tier schools. So without further ado, welcome Addison.

Hi, Shellee Howard, thank you so much.

My pleasure. So can you tell me a little bit about yourself?

Yeah, so obviously I'm Addison Ohms. I'm from Orange County, California. I grew up playing football since second grade, went to Mater Dei High School in Santa Ana, and was a good student, not, not great, had a 3.5 GPA. I had a good SAT score and was a pretty good football player. Wasn't recruited very much. I knew I wanted to go to a great school. So I didn't know if I— maybe I would go to a junior college and try and get my GPA up there and spend 2 years there and go to a great school. But I was able to, through football, get into UC Berkeley, which is pretty incredible getting into Cal with a 3.5 GPA. But went there, thrived, really, really, uh, it's an incredible place over there. Uh, just grew my overall knowledge of, you know, as a human being in general, and, uh, played a lot of football as well, and I had a shot at the NFL. But I decided to go into college coaching. I had a great relationship with the coaches that I played for. I really understood the game from an analytic standpoint. And so I decided to take that on. And so I went to the University of Utah and helped with the defensive line right away, right out of college. And spent a year there and learned a lot, made great, great, great friendships there. And then was hired back at my alma mater within a year. Which was a huge honor for me. And then coached through COVID at Berkeley. It was an insane experience to say the least. But what I learned through college coaching is there's a lot of rules that you have to abide by when it comes to how often you see the student athletes, you know, sort of the impact that you can make on a student athlete. And you try and get as much in as possible because there's times where, You know, you can see them and you can, and I wanted to help in a more impactful way. And I wanted to help kids who were like me in high school. And so that's why I started doing what I'm doing.

Wow, what a great story. Student athletes have twice the amount of work when they apply. Their work in their athleticism and then their intellect, GPA. So well done. I am super excited to share So can you tell me a little bit about Zone Student Athlete Consulting?

Yes, so that is, that is the company, Zone Student Athlete Consulting. Um, what, what I— the business that I created, um, in order to help the student athlete, as you said, without the perfect GPA, um, try and use, uh, sports to leverage their way into elite schools. Um, For, you know, there's a lot of different requirements based on each school for their athletes, but one thing remains consistent in that it's not as rigorous of academic standards, as you probably know, you know, for athletes as it is people who are being admitted and having to go through those, the normal channels. Athletes, they get their applications flagged, and they get in as long as they meet a minimum set of requirements. And, you know, some institutions it's harder. I mean, the Ivy Leagues, you definitely need, you know, a higher GPA, but it's still not the typical Ivy League student that gets in. And same with the UCs, and it's all over the place. And even your dream schools, you know, San Diego State, you want to get into San Diego State, you still need to, I think it's like a 3.7 GPA, something along those lines. And I, as a student, I wouldn't have been able to get into San Diego State alone. So that was another place I was looking at by using football. I was able to possibly go to San Diego State, Cal, or USC. And those opportunities didn't just fall in my lap. I had to work for them. And there's a lot of bumps on the road. And there's so many ways there's so many different ways you can go, and there's a lot of guesswork involved. And the margin for error is huge. And so I started this to decrease that margin of error, to be able to tell kids, hey, this is what you should be doing in the classroom based on the goals that we set, based on the school that you want to get into. This is what you got to be doing physically, all right? This is what you got to be doing at night before you go to bed. You need to hydrate. You need to get at least 8 hours of sleep. I mean, in high school, you want to get at least 10. You know, you're growing in order to develop. So kind of taking an approach where I'm giving an evaluation, and it will be cut and dry, you know, completely honest, who you are as an athlete. Part of my job at Cal was evaluating talent. So I've gotten— I have a ton of experience in doing that. Then creating a plan. And then consulting with the kid or with a student athlete and their family weekly in order to, in order to make sure, in order to hold the athlete accountable and take any questions that the student or the family have. So that's what it is in a nutshell. And yeah.

So who would be like the perfect student or family to come to you and what would you do with them?

Yeah, so the perfect student for me, um, it's a great question because I, I'll work with any type of, any type of athlete or any type of student, but the perfect student will be the one who has a good GPA, not great. Um, they're a good football player, athlete, you name it, not great, not the best. They want to take the next step. They're, they're under-recruited Um, but they have a passion and desire in them that they really want to take advantage of, and they just don't know how to channel it correctly. Um, that's, that's the type, that's the type of ideal, ideal client that I'll be working, that I'll be working with right now. Um, you know, because they're, they're the, they're the ones who will work and, and who will, uh, uh, be able to stick to a plan that, that's agreed upon.

So if a family comes to you, what could they expect?

Uh, they can expect me to, number one, work my tail off every, every day for their child. Um, uh, they can expect me to, um, make a— give them a very, very, very honest evaluation. Um, you know, very black and white, no questions. There's gonna be zero gray area when you work with me, um, because that's the worst. You want an answer, you want a definitive answer, yes or no. And so that'll be number 1. Number 2, I'll be giving them a plan that will be created specifically for the student athlete, exactly what they need to do. And for example, what I have set up is if they want to, they can go and get a DEXA scan, which scans their whole body, gives them bone density, muscle mass, you name it. And then they can get a diet specifically tailored to that DEXA scan in order to target their needs and be able to improve upon any deficiencies that they may have. And then weekly meeting with me and being able to give you answers and give you to your questions, because this is a time that for families and for students, it's very insecure. There's no definitive guide to what you're supposed to be doing. It is hard, at the end of the day. It is incredibly hard. And I remember being that student and trying to figure the answers out, and I didn't. And so my goal is to help the student athlete and the families who want to work and to create an organic sort of recruitment in order to get their child, the student athlete, into an elite school.

Outstanding. What a great— so needed. I'm so excited to share what you're doing for these kids. It's a game changer. So if somebody wanted to reach out to you, what would be the best way for them to contact you?

So you can contact me, uh, number one, through my website. Um, I have a, uh, a Contact Now, uh, part of my website. It's zoneathletes.com. And my email is Addison, A-D-D-I-S-O-N, @zoneathletes.com. And my— every single social, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, is all Zone Athletes. And what I'm doing every day on social media, I am posting a question that a student athlete or their family has, and I am answering it. I'm not giving away everything. You know, because that's why I'm starting the business, but I'm giving good tidbits on what athletes should be doing and sort of why athletes need to be taking an intelligent approach to depositing their effort into certain needs. It's not a one brush paints all type of deal, you know. So, yeah, Zone Athletes on all socials, and yeah, contact me through the website.

Excellent. So, you know, we work with students all over the United States and athletes and drama and band, and I will tell you, the athletes, they struggle to balance the two. So having you on their side would be such a huge benefit. You know, families hire College Ready because just navigating the college application and the standout factor. Because, you know, students have high GPA, they have high test scores, they have community service and leadership and extracurricular, and then add another layer, you have the athlete. Yeah, I, like you, was a student athlete. I get the amount of work that it takes. So I also wanted to let um, our students know that if you don't have a 3.0, that is a very important marker. We at College Ready have a division called CR Tutoring and Test Strategies that was just launched, and that is to help students know what GPA you need as an athlete and as a non-athlete. And so if you need help getting your GPA up, or your test scores up, please reach out to us because we're here to help you. So athletes, academics, the whole goal is we want you to succeed. So Addison, is there anything that you would like to add?

No, other than thank you so much for having me. You know, College Ready is really an incredible, incredible deal, and I think so many students are so lucky to be working with you. And, uh, I appreciate you having me on.

Excellent. Well, you have a wonderful day and I look forward to watching your success.

Thank you.