Center College

We left at 6:00 am this morning in heavy rains. We were grateful it wasn't freezing rain or snow as was promised by the weather service. Our gratitude lasted until the rain picked up. We referred to this as "car wash rain" and it lasted the entire 2.5 hours to Danville, Kentucky. We faced thunder, lightning, big rigs, road construction, hydroplaning and the rain was unrelenting in the darkness. The sun didn't come up until we were almost there. We did stop for breakfast but I was so nervous I couldn't eat almost anything. Kirk slept just about the whole way.

We did arrive alive and the school was beautiful even if it was still raining. The Suttcliffe building above is the athletic building! Something like 15 of the campus's buildings are on the National Historic Register. I had never heard of Centre College before Kirk was being recruited. I was shocked to discover that US World News ranked them #44 nationally and Forbes Magazine ranked them #13, above MIT and Stanford.

I was very impressed with the school, the faculty and it may prove to be one of Kirk's more cost effective options, especially if he's entitled to any scholarship money. Centre is a D3 school and D3 schools don't do athletic scholarships, but they know they're expensive and try hard to find academic scholarship and grant money for their athletes. One thing that really impressed me about the school is that they don't schedule classes, labs, counseling, or any official school function between 4-7 pm. This allows teams to practice without having to sacrafice class or practice time. It also lets students eat dinner with each other and sort of "come home" from their day. It helps with time management. Kirk will be returning for an overnight visit sometime in February. I pray for better weather for that trip!