ATHLETES WHO MADE IT TO THE NEXT LEVEL

Deuce was a highly rated and nationally ranked quarterback—and he got there without specializing early, playing four sports in high school: football, basketball, baseball, and golf. What got him recruited was production a coach could verify, in two different states.

He began his prep career at Riverside Academy in Reserve, Louisiana, throwing for 4,508 yards and 35 touchdowns across his first two seasons. After the family moved to Tennessee, he started two years at Sevier County—2,783 yards and 25 touchdowns as a junior, then 3,505 yards and 37 touchdowns as a senior—leading the Bears to a 12–3 record and the Class 5A state championship game. He finished as first-team all-state, a two-time all-region selection, and played in both the Tennessee East–West All-Star Game and the Blue-Grey All-American Game.

Deuce received over 15 Division I committable offers, including LSU, UCF, Oklahoma State, Maryland, Northwestern, and Wake Forest. He committed to Vanderbilt in April of his junior year and signed the next spring—an early decision, but one made from a real list of schools that fit him academically and athletically, not the first offer that came in.

Then came the part nobody puts in a highlight reel. He redshirted as a freshman. He made his college debut in 2017 and waited his turn behind a four-year starter. In 2019 he earned his first career start on the road at Florida. Four years, three quarterback rooms, two coaching philosophies, and a lot of Tuesdays nobody watched.

That’s the honest version—and it’s why Higher Degree Recruit exists. Signing day is the start of the hard part, not the end of it. Most services stop caring the day a family stops paying. We were still living it.

Same house, same high school, a completely different recruiting process. Chase played linebacker and wide receiver on the football field and shortstop and pitcher on the baseball field at Sevier County, and played golf as well—four positions across three sports, and no early specialization here either.

In 2015 he helped lead Sevier County to a deep playoff run in baseball. He drew multiple Division I offers and committed to the University of Tennessee that same year—an in-state SEC program.

At Tennessee he pitched his way into bigger roles every season. He led the Vols in saves as a freshman, worked out of the bullpen as a sophomore, and earned the Saturday starter role as a junior. Then 2020 happened. The MLB draft was shortened to five rounds that year, and hundreds of college players who would have been drafted in a normal year simply weren’t. Chase signed a free-agent deal with the Kansas City Royals and spent five years in their organization—no bonus headline, just five years of bus rides, minor league clubhouses, and proving it again every spring.

Two brothers, two sports, two SEC programs—and two recruiting paths that looked nothing alike. That’s the whole point. There is no single template, which is exactly why generic advice and mass-exposure services fail so many families.