OSU home to Fernandez
CROSS COUNTRYPhenom chooses college over big money

BY ANDREA COHEN

Published: October 4, 2008

STILLWATER — This summer, Dave Smith won a most impressive recruiting battle.

The Oklahoma State cross country and track coach had already duked it out with every other elite distance running school in the country to sign German Fernandez, the California phenom who will run his first race for OSU today.

Then in late spring, Nike came calling.

Think it’s hard to beat out other colleges in recruiting? Try a Fortune 500 company.

Nike was offering six figures, an enormous amount to a kid from a small agricultural community whose father works for a tomato company making cans, and whose mother does temporary work as a waitress but stays home with the kids when she can.

The opportunity was not only lucrative, it was incredibly flattering. It’s rare for proven, elite distance runners to make that amount of money, much less a kid coming out of high school.

So Fernandez, tagged by many in the running world as the best American high school distance runner ever, was torn. The opportunity was tempting, but he wanted an education. Nike counter-offered.

"After I told them I wanted to go to college they said, ‘Well, we’ll pay for your tuition at Portland State, but you can’t run for the school, you have to run for the Nike team,’ ” Fernandez said. "So that’s when I started thinking.”

Fernandez went back and forth in his head, but he kept coming back to OSU, which had a familiarity he was drawn to. Fernandez felt an instant connection to OSU’s coach and other runners when he visited, and while Stillwater is bigger than his hometown of Riverbank, located in California’s Central Valley near Barstow, it’s not by much.

"Everybody knows everybody,” Fernandez said. "There’s lots of agriculture. Stillwater is similar – that’s why it was a big difference when I came here. It feels like I’m at home.”

Said Smith: "I think it was tempting for him this summer. He doesn’t come from a background where they’ve got a lot of money. He’s getting offered a lot more than his parents make combined as a family and to turn that down was tough. But I think he really wants the college experience and to be part of a team.”

Fernandez called coming to OSU "the best decision I’ve ever made.”

"It’s a big difference because you have people you can run with,” he said. "You know you’re not going to be No. 1 so you train harder and mentally and physically you’re going to get better but it’s going to take you a while to get there.”

When asked if he’s sure he’s not No. 1, Fernandez stammered.

"Uh, I’m pretty sure,” Fernandez said. "That’s probably (senior) Ryan Vail. It’s a friendly competition.”

Unlike sports like baseball, football and basketball, there are no rules about when runners can turn pro. So if Fernandez is as good as expected, Smith will likely have to win a few more recruiting battles with Nike in the next couple of years.

But Fernandez insists he will stay until he gets his degree.

"A lot of people are saying that I will turn pro in two years, but I want to get my degree.”

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