I deleted that part of my post after thinking better of having posted it, but on checking here, I see someone already saw it. I want to clarify his recruitment a bit as I was very privy to the details and even interviewed him for our fan site.
I’m not taking anything away from Pierria’, he’s a great kid and he’ll have a nice career at Charlotte. You have a great kid on your hands
Pierria’ was never a top 100 kid contrary to what some here inferred from my write-up when he committed. He was a 92 grade on ESPN, but only 3 stars and the #35 point guard in the class of 2011, never ranked in the top 100 or a 4 star recruit. ESPN had inflated their grades then much more than they do now, which has changed largely in part to Dave Telep’s move from ESPN. At the time there were a number of 92 grades that were 3-stars. I take screen shots of our recruit’s profiles for posterity since I know ultimately many recruits are down-graded once they commit to mid-majors. My cynicism is usually rewarded and was with Henry. This was Pierria’s:
He was recruited and offered by several schools including Charlotte, but a lot of them backed off once Pierria’ had successive thigh injuries and had to have emergency surgery for a blood clot in his leg in April, 2010. VCU was the only school that really stuck with him through it and that impacted his commitment to the school.
Another aspect of Perry’s recruitment was having to endure a very unusual home situation with his mom having some issues as a single-parent having to work 2 jobs to make ends meet. His father left Perry and his 4 siblings when he was just a child. His older brother was in jail for shooting a man and Pierria’ was effectively the man of the house as a teenager. He eventually went to live with his girlfriend’s family because of how unstable his home situation was.
His grandfather was the main role-model and father figure in his life who encouraged him to pick VCU over a number of high major schools that were recruiting him because he thought Shaka would be a great role model and positive male influence for him. Jerry Stephens died about a week before he committed to VCU in May 2010. Shaka wrote Jerry a note in the hospital, which Pierria put in Jerry’s casket to let him know that he was following his advice.
He was as loyal and passionate about becoming a Ram as any recruit we’ve ever had at VCU with his connection to our staff. Enough so that he had these things to say several months after committing in October, 2010 just a couple of weeks before signing day: http://www.vcuramnation.com/2010/10/qa-with-2011-vcu-commit-pierria-henry/
Unfortunately, Pierria wasn’t old enough on signing day to submit a LOI on his own and needed mom’s signature. Mom decided she did not want him leaving Charleston because of how unstable the family environment was and wanted him to play either football or basketball at Marshall at the time. Pierria’ scheduled several signing parties but mom prevented him from being able to submit a valid LOI. At that point our staff would not allow the uncertainty of the situation with mom to jeopardize our recruiting so we cut ties with them. No kid will admit what happened in that scenario obviously so he said something else about an emotional decision or something like that despite having several months to think it over and saying the things he said just a few weeks before signing period. Bottom-line Pierria’ is a great kid who was caught up in a tough situation. No one faults him for what happened and he’s still in touch with our staff.
He didn’t have the same level of interest he had before his commitment to us afterwards, largely due to having to recover from surgery for several months and uncertainty whether he’d get back to the level he was at before it. I believe Cleveland St. and Charlotte offered for basketball and Clemson and Virginia sniffed around but didn’t offer. Mom tried to get him to go to Marshall on a football scholarship which is ultimately what he chose Charlotte over in February, 2011. Some media outlets just copied his offer list from before he verballed to VCU when he committed to Charlotte, but that was several months before and completely inaccurate. He chose Charlotte over Marshall football. Most schools backed off after his surgery.
Alan Major actually called up our staff ( Alan Major was a part of VCU’s Villa 7 program and a friend of Shaka’s) to ask about about the circumstances around why he didn’t sign his LOI at VCU to make sure nothing was wrong with Pierria’. You also had Odom on staff who was recruiting Henry at VT and had a prior relationship which helped with the trust level between Charlotte and him. It was a decent landing spot for Pierria’ all things considered. He really did need to get away from home so I’m glad he ended up at Charlotte instead of Marshall.
