All it took was a newspaper article for Andalusia resident Kerry Davis to realize what he wanted to do for the rest of his life.

In an article in the Daily Herald, a newspaper out of Chicago, Davis got the idea to help high school athletes with their recruiting.

For more than two months, Davis has been working with College Prospects of America, which takes high school athletes in every sport who have the ability to play at the next level, and put them in contact with coaches who are recruiting.

“I just want to be a help to somebody,” Davis said.

Davis said he recently bought the franchise in the area, and added that CPOA has documented 40,000 children that have been able to go to college since signing up with the program.

When a recruit meets with Davis, he will write up a profile on the recruit and then send it out to anywhere between 200 to 800 different schools.

When asked how this all came about, Davis said it had to do with his son, Stephen, who graduated from Pleasant Home in 2009, where he played football, basketball and baseball.

“I thought he might have a chance to go and play at a school,” he said. “We’ve had a few people call and send questionnaires. He did not get a chance to play ball because he wasn’t recruited like we thought he was.

“If I knew about this deal at the time, then I would have signed him up,” he said. “I got to thinking that there has got to be a way to help these kids who can play at the next level that are not getting recruited heavily.”

Davis said he had done research on CPOA for a year, and said that he decided that “this would be a good thing.”

“I love it,” he said.

And so far, Davis has helped sign one local athlete from Opp — Octavia Thompson. In addition, he said he has tried to contact recruits at Pleasant Home, Straughn and Brantley, to name a few.

One thing that Davis stressed is that college recruiting starts early in a high school athlete’s career.

“Recruiting starts in the ninth grade,” he said. “That’s when college coaches start looking.

“The problem with most kids is that they wait until their junior or senior years to start looking.”

So, where do you hope this recruiting service goes?

“The primary reason why I am doing this is because my son got overlooked,” Davis said.

And when he is not helping recruits, Davis is the pastor of a small church.

“(Helping recruits) is my livelihood,” he said. “I’m not going to get rich off of it. I just love helping kids. I love to be a help, and I love sports.

“This thing is an answer to a prayer, and it just helped out.”

To get in contact with Davis, he said feel free to call him on his cell phone at 334-208-6382, or e-mail him at kjv1sports@gmail.com.