Recruits are always wondering what they can to do improve their recruiting process. Here are 35 steps that ALL recruits can take to get one step closer to an athletic scholarship opportunity. (In no particular order)
- Be aggressive. Don’t contact a coach one time and give up if you don’t hear back. Email a coach and wait a few weeks. If you don’t hear back from them in 3-4 weeks, try calling. If you get a voicemail, leave a message and also send an email. Reach out up to 3 different times and if a coach doesn’t respond after those attempts, then move on from that school.
- Complete an online profile. This is the second most important item on the list that every athlete should have. The first thing the coach will ask for is your grades and footage of yourself in action.
- Bring up visiting a school to that coach. Don’t wait for them to bring it up to you.
- Use all the help you can get. Talk to your high school and club coaches and outside sources. They can help you with any connections and relationships they might have. Most parents do not have a network of college coaches…but trusted sources might.
- Don’t rely too much on email. A personalized note or handwritten letter could go a long way towards separating you from other recruits.
- Give more than just 1 word answers to coaches – show them your personality!
- When visiting a school, remember that the current players are reporting back to the coaches so be cautious of what you say and how you handle yourself. Also, take advantage of the opportunity and ask them about the coach, school, program etc. Why did they choose this school over others?
- The athlete should email a coach his/her information before just calling a coach. Definitely a good thing for them to be calling the coaches and being proactive but don’t just cold call coaches – they need to have some information on you before giving them a call.
- Coaches are recruiting you – not your parents. Be sure to manage all of the communications.
- College coaches talk to one another – maintain respectful and professional communication with all coaches.
- College coaches want to see Varsity level film – this helps them create a better evaluation based on the level of play.
- Make sure that you have an appropriate voicemail greeting and email address to give to coaches – you don’t want to give coaches an email like 2hott4you@email.com or have music playing for 3 minutes on your voicemail greeting.13. Make sure you have an appropriate photo on your scouting report. Coaches don’t need to see you taking a picture of yourself in the mirror.
- You should contact a coach before any visit to a school.
- You should contact a coach before and after going to a camp to ensure an evaluation.
- Take advantage of the calling rules. Coaches cannot call you or return your phone calls, and you will get VMs quite frequently—use this to your advantage. You may get a lot of voicemails, but leave a message. When you leave the message, tell them exactly when YOU will call back. This will do two things for you:
- Better chance of getting on the phone with the coach.
- Good idea of where you are on the recruiting board. (if you are high, you better believe the coach will be at his desk when you call in again).
- Do not wait for a coach to contact you…initiate the contact.
- When you open an email from a coach, make sure you respond within 12-24 hours. College coaches can track and see when you’ve opened the email, so if you do not respond for a week or two, you will not be taken serious.
- Talk to some older athletes who have “been there”. It helps so much to learn from athletes about what playing in college at different levels is actually like. Athletes are shocked sometimes when they show up for D1 programs and were not aware of how much it actually entailed.
- Ask the coach the tough questions about where you fit in. Just because he throws a little money your way does not mean he expects you to come in and start as a freshman! You need to know how you compare to other players in your recruiting class and what the coach is expecting to recruit in upcoming years, especially if a priority is playing time.
- Learn how the Financial Aid process works and estimate your EFC.
- Talk with Financial Aid offices at each school you are in contact with. Your goal should be to receive as much aid (athletic or otherwise) to help offset the cost of attending college.
- You should research at least 4 schools a month.
- You should fill out on-line questionnaires at schools you are interested in.
- Start thinking about these topics when it comes to schools, size, type, location, distance from home, cost, student population, majors, requirements, athletics and events, activities, special programs and your gut feeling.
- Learn about the NCAA contact rules.
- Learn about the NCAA Eligibility Center.
- Understand what different associations have to offer you: NCAA, NAIA, NJCAA, NCCAA, CCCAA, NWAACC.
- Get an evaluation from a trusted source before you spend time targeting the wrong schools.
- Ask coaches what their recruiting timeline is.
- Ask where you stand on a coach’s list.
- Ask if the coach can waive your application fee.
- Learn how to get over your nerves when speaking with coaches. Remember, they want to hear from you and you have to separate yourself from thousands of other student-athletes around the country.
- Prioritize your time. A college coach needs student-athletes who can balance their schedule NOW. If you can’t do it now, how will you do it in college?
- Visit local colleges to get a feel for what a campus is like…it is cheap and helpful!
- The odds are remote. There are roughly 138,000 athletic scholarships available for Division I and Division II sports. That might sound like a lot, but it isn’t. For instance, more than 1 million boys play high school football, but there are only about 19,500 football scholarships. Nearly 603,000 girls compete in track and field in high school, but they’re competing for around 4,500 scholarships.
- The money isn’t that great. The average athletic scholarship is about $10,400. Only four sports offer full rides to all athletes who receive scholarships: football, men’s and women’s basketball, and women’s volleyball. If you exclude football and men’s basketball, the average scholarship drops to around $8,700.
- Most scholarships are sliced and diced. The NCAA dictates how many athletic scholarships each sport can offer in Division I and Division II. To squeeze out the maximum benefit, coaches routinely split up these awards. For instance, a Division I soccer coach is allowed up to 10 scholarships, but he or she can dole out this money into tinier scholarships to lure more athletes to their campuses. This practice can lead to some awfully dinky scholarships.
- Don’t wait to be discovered. Unless your child is a superstar, college coaches probably won’t know he or she exists. Teenagers should send an E-mail to introduce themselves to coaches at schools that they think they’d like to attend. They should include such info as their positions, sport statistics, and coach contacts.
- Use YouTube. To attract the attention of coaches, student athletes should compile seven or eight minutes of their best stuff in an action video and then post it on YouTube. Then, complete an online questionnaire which can be sent to the coaches rather than CDs that tend to pile up on desks. Coaches prefer seeing videos of athletes.
- Scholarships aren’t guaranteed. If your teen receives a sports scholarship, don’t assume that it’s going to be for four years. Athletic scholarships must be renewed each year and that’s at the coach’s discretion. The pressure to maintain athletic scholarships can distract stressed students from what should be their main goal—earning a college degree.
- The best places for money can be in Division III. The best way for many athletes to win a scholarship is to apply to colleges that don’t award athletic scholarships. Yes, that’s right. Division III schools, which are typically smaller private colleges, routinely give merit awards for academics and other student accomplishments. The average merit grant that private colleges are awarding routinely slashes the tuition tab by more than 50 percent.
- Don’t be a helicopter mom or we dad. This rule applies regardless of how old a child is, and whether dealing with a child, athletic director, high school coach, college coach, or Pee Wee football coach. A helicopter parent hovers over the child, not allowing her to grow or act for herself. A we parent lives vicariously through the child’s accomplishments.
- Teach humility. Parents are primarily responsible for their children’s attitude. Children who strut into class thinking they will sail by because they are student-athletes will learn a lesson later in life. Parents who teach their children early to work hard will save their children from years of suffering while in college and later during their careers.
- Parents should be their child’s assistant and mentor, not just the cheerleader. A parent’s primary role is to be the child’s assistant and mentor. While a cheerleader simply offers encouragement and approval, the parent’s job is to help the child.
- Parents should be realistic and get an honest evaluation of an athlete from a high school coach, club coach, or scouting organization. Most student-athletes are dreamers. Though it is important to shoot high, it is equally important to have at least some grasp on reality. If an athlete is only five feet tall and plans to win a full-ride scholarship to play center guard for women’s basketball, her parents might want to direct her toward some objective standards so she can set more realistic goals