The information Huygens sent potential students emphasized the school's presence in Silicon Valley; its proximity to NASA contractors, such as Lockheed; and to Schools with strong STEM PhD programs, such as Stanford and UC Berkeley. It had been Durango's intention to point out that students with strong tech backgrounds, who just happened to play football, would find themselves in an environment conducive to a promising future. Given the strength of Huygens STEM faculty and facilities -- and its presence in San Francisco 49er's territory -- this was not misleading.
With funding from Silicon Valley, Huygens had established academic scholarships for students of color, who displayed excellence in STEM subjects. Among the recipients were high school students who did not otherwise have academic eligibility for NCAA Division 1 schools. This is why this fall, Black Cornerback Terrell Orsino Washington, from Camden New Jersey, would take the field with the Huygens IC Chips. Although T.O. was at the top of his class in physics, his academic eligibility as a whole would not qualify him for a football scholarship from a Division 1 football school. And so, in August 1989, T.O. arrived at Huygens with a substantial Physics scholarship -- and a practice uniform.
That the recruiting strategy with which Durango Palacio-Earle had brought a group of mostly Freshman to Huygens to study -- and by the way play for the new Huygens Division 3 Football team -- had been effective was apparent as the players signed in for their practice uniforms.