Friday, May 09, 2008

Dylan Royer and Cal Poly: A Commitment


This is what Dylan Royer has been waiting for.

The Morro Bay High senior standout and reigning Tribune San Luis Obispo County Basketball Player of the Year has been pretty reserved this year talking about his college options.

UC San Diego, Concordia, Westmont. Those were the types of schools Royer reported getting offers from. But just below the surface, there always seemed to be this hope a spot would materialize for him here at home. Royer secretly wanted to go to Cal Poly.

Today, the Mustangs reported they've accepted Royer as an invited walk-on for next season. Here are portions of Cal Poly's news release announcing the union.

Dylan Royer Commits to Cal Poly
SAN LUIS OBISPO, CA – Cal Poly men’s basketball head coach Kevin Bromley announced today that Morro Bay senior Dylan Royer has been accepted to Cal Poly as a incoming freshman and has verbally committed to play basketball for the Mustangs as an invited walk-on for the 2008-09 season.
Royer, the San Luis Obispo County Player of the Year, averaged 22.5 points per game and 6.8 rebounds in leading the Pirates to 20-8 record and the second round of the CIF-Southern Section Division III-AA playoffs.

...

“Having the county player of the year come to Cal Poly is fantastic,” said Bromley. “Dylan brings a tremendous amount of competitive sprit to the court and I love the way he shoots the ball. His unselfish play will bring a lot to the team.”

...


The release hasn't posted at GoPoly.com yet, but if it appears, I'll try to link it. Look for more in Saturday's Tribune.

The move is bold. I like it. Royer most certainly could have gone on to a smaller college and contributed right away, maybe even had a star career. By choosing the Mustangs, he's taking a risk that he may not get much initial playing time if any by the end of his career.

College basketball walk-ons have historically been all over the map in terms of their career success. Some only stick for a year or two on the team. Some earn scholarships with solid performances. Some play well but are forced to transfer if things don't work out.

Look for the new poll: What do you think about Royer's chances at Cal Poly?

24 comments:

Anonymous said...

it's smart for both. He's competitive and wants to compete at a higher level than D-2. Poly's got nothing to lose by putting him on the team, and if Coach puts him in and he starts knocking down threes, he can earn a scholarship.
The bigger issue for Poly is they have need some bodies on the front line.

Anonymous said...

Congrats. That being said, Poly needs more then 3 point shooters.
I'm glad to see a local player get a good educational opportunity though.

Anonymous said...

A walk on?
So like Poly, lack of committment.
Not even half of a committment from the Mustangs. Cal Poly sucks at basketball, football, you name it. They will always be average because their committments are average.

Go Davis.........

Anonymous said...

congrats to him, and to all those naysayers that said he wasn't good enough to go d1 or that so and so was better then him, he's the only guy from the county to go d1 out of high school this year. i think that puts him in a different class then the other players.

Anonymous said...

Is walking on going D1?
Where is the scholarship POLY?

Anonymous said...

Hey Scroggin

Its time for spring football how about some football stuff in the blog

Anonymous said...

walking on, scholarship, who cares, d1 is d1. if you make it you make it.

Anonymous said...

11:34.. do you ever shut up? its not football season! how many times has this been discussed?

Anonymous said...

9:11 PM
how can u say poly sucks at football when they dominate davis every year.

Anonymous said...

I have never seen such a big deal made about a walk on commitment. It is really sorta sad. Royer is a fantastic player, but he is walking on, this isn't the dawning of a new sports era at Cal Poly or anything. I know if I bring Cone in to this, things are bound to get ugly, but I heard that he had opportunities to walk on at D1 schools and just decided to get college paid for instead. Sounds like a good deal to me...

Anonymous said...

hearing about opportunities, and actually having opportunities are different things

Anonymous said...

Congrats Royer. You give us central coast players hope for D1.

Anonymous said...

Cone had opportunities 1:48, that's all I'm gonna say. Believe it or not, he did and I have heard that from his very mouth. Congrats to Royer, but 4:18 he's walking on, relaxxxx.

Anonymous said...

Royer parents spent 10's of thousands of $$$$$$$$ dollars driving him back and forth from L.A. for 4
years so he could play(be seen) for some Mickey Mouse rip off club team called "The Rockfish" What did it get them? Zip, nadda, nothing! Now they are paying again! And for what? So they can say their son is handing out towels and water bottles for the second worst team in The Big West? Just like Budd, a big fish in a small pond! Should have gone to Cuesta son, put up huge numbers and wrote your own ticket. But no, the Royers just don't go to Cuesta now do they.

Anonymous said...

Honestly, the JC route is a good choice if you can play.

Anonymous said...

first off rockfish isn't micky mouse, its produced nba players before and its a well known club team. secondly the jc route CAN give you an opportunity, but it doesn't mean it will. jc is like a meat market, players are always coming and going because coaches arent faithful to their players for the most part, their worried about getting their own name out there and making it big. And i dont see why your bashing the kid for making it d1, how do you know his motivation and reasons for going to cal poly, it has nothing to do with him saying "oh i play for cal poly", i can assure you of that. dont make statments about things you dont know about.

Anonymous said...

summing up 5:17 anonymous:

Royer's parents paid to help him develop for something he obviously enjoyed and was successful at.

Royer will get an education at the best public state university in California, paid for by his parents perhaps but we really don't know
and it's really none of our business

he wants to compete at Poly, so good for him - what's the worst that can happen? I guess he could get cut and go to a JC or whatever or get his degree?

Anonymous said...

The kid's going to college either way and he should be proud of his accomplishments. We know it ain't easy getting in to Poly period. Bromley needs to be fired because he can't coach and his record proves that without a doubt. He's great in front of the microphone, but not on the court where it counts for his job. Same goes for Larry Lee in baseball. Look at the records and post season appearances, they say it all. The talent is mostly there, but the teams lack coaches that can get them to the level they keep talking about. How many more years do we need to watch this garbage before the AD wises up. Besides, how many solid local atheletes are passed by from those two and go on to other schools and do well. The AD should be more involved to make sure a few local kids get their school paid for and attend Poly each year. It sure wouldn't hurt there records anymore than they do with kids from out of the area. I'm also sure they will fill more seats and get more local support for the programs. Fire 'em both and get somebody in there that can coach, recruit and cares about the local community kids. Off the box for now.

Anonymous said...

Wow who cares what the Royer's spent on Dylan playing ball! None of us had to pay for it!!!
Anyone who has ever seen Dylan play knows he has passion for the game and has worked hard to get anything and everything he gets. To a parent seeing your kid happy and excelling is worth every penny! I'm sure they are far happier they were able to spend the money on him playing ball than on getting him out of trouble because he didn't have a passion for something! In my opinion I think it's awfully sad that once again Cal Poly is living up to it's reputation of ignoring the local talent and trying to work from outside the community! They should take a look around and see that they keep missing local talent! Your local families are coming to your games and buying your merchandise and paying taxes in your community! Pay some attention to them! Who knows you might win a championship Poly if you go fishing a little closer to home! Dylan good job! It's just a shame Coach Bromely didn't come find you and offer you some money for school!

Anonymous said...

We have some great High school softball getting kicked off this week with some amazing talent out there! It would be great to hear a little something about that! Paso and Templeton both winning league titles!! These girls are working hard in travel, lessons and off season work outs too....
Quite a few of them have signed letters of intent.
It would be great to hear a little about what is going on with them and some coverage of the first round home games.

Anonymous said...

Where is Hattar going?

Anonymous said...

Cuesta

Anonymous said...

I dont understand how you are making such a big deal about him walking onto a D1 school. if he got a scholarship then that would be big news. if you want to talk about walk ons then talk about other sports to. i heard that justin morrow, the shot putter from AG, is looking to go to fresno state next year and walk on the track team to throw. He didn't have as great a season as he wanted this year but is still possibly going to a top notch D1 school. Why don't we talk about that?

Anonymous said...

becasue its much harder to be good in basketball then it is to be in track, less spots on teams, and height is actually a factor.