By Terry Dinan
NEW CANAAN – The dreams of New Canaan athletes and parents are in the air, as a dozen Rams footballers recently signed to play in college, and one of the town’s own will lace up and play ice hockey with the men’s Olympics quad overnight.
New Canaan youth have a long history of achievement, and Kevin Rusch knows all about the excitement of reaching for the next level.
As a father of four girls, Rusch has also seen his fair share of college applications.
“Prior to my kids going through the process, I was involved in coaching at New Canaan High School as a volunteer assistant coach with the boys swimming program,” Rusch told NewCanaanite.com. “I helped guide and mentor at least a dozen kids going from the high school program to the collegiate ranks, and I’ve always been passionate about it.”
So after more than two decades of working on Wall Street in the financial industry, Rusch saw an opportunity to channel that passion and fill a need in town. In 2007, Rusch—a former collegiate athlete himself—partnered with fellow New Canaanites Brent Haney, Lee Jones and Doug Richardson to form 
“We are working with kids as early as freshmen in high school and kids who are late to the game and in their senior year,” Rusch said. “It’s critical to get them on the right path academically first and foremost, and athletically—if they’ve got that special talent—to use as a leveraging tool and possibly get into a better school than they could have if they didn’t have that edge.”
Two of Rusch’s daughters are currently collegiate athletes. Tory is a junior softball player at Bowdoin College, and Maddie is a freshman swimmer at Duke. Rusch is quick to point out the differences the actual sports themselves can play in a prospective student-athlete’s recruitment strategy.
“Tory was playing a team sport, which is pretty subjective,” Rusch said. “You have to go to skills camps and showcases, do skills videos and then connect with the college coaches so they can monitor her progress. Maddie was a little bit different, as swimming is a time-based sport so they can see where she stands, but also showing a demonstrated interest in collegiate programs. Just getting yourself in front of the right coaches and having them monitor your progress is the key to that success.”
By being involved in every phase of a client’s admissions and recruitment process, Rusch says Competitive Edge can give a student a leg up over others.
“Our target base is those families who are looking for a little bit more than what their guidance counselor at the high school and their coaches can do, because both the coaches and the counselor have a lot of kids that they work with,” he said. “Certain kids are looking for a little specialized effort, and those are the kids that we are spending some time with, and helping them through that process. It also relieves a lot of the stress for the parents.”
Part of Rusch’s core advice is that it’s very important to establish while they’re still in high school, whether a college applicant intends to participate in sports in college. If the decision comes too late, there is a very real risk of missing a recruitment window.
“So it’s like any kid when they’re studying for a test, they have to make that decision of how much of the material do they really want to study,” he said. “It might not be on the test, but if it is you’ll be prepared for it. It’s all about the preparation.”
Competitive Edge College Advisors can be found here on the Web and here on Facebook.
Click on the flyer below for more information about a Feb. 6 session, to be held at 6:30 p.m. at Darien Equinox.
