Coaches telling athletes to focus on playing and not worry about the athletic recruiting process are not trying to help you
I recently had a chance to speak with an athlete who recently kicked off his senior year of high school. This player excels in both football and basketball. The ability he has shown in both sports has helped him catch the interest of college coaches. This athlete also plays at a small school and it is obvious he doesn’t have a good feel for the football recruiting process.
When asking him about what schools are recruiting him for football, he named a few local programs. Then he said that his high school coach is getting more information but hasn’t been sharing it with him so that he would be focused on the season. If you are looking for a coach who is trying to sabotage the football recruiting process for his athletes, this one is doing just that.
Scholarships, football recruiting, college coaches, and evaluations
There is no doubt in my mind the toughest scholarship for an athlete to get is their first. The reason that I say this is because it is hard to prove to a college coach that with no other offers on the table, you are a recruit at their level. That is why it is so important that once that first scholarship offer comes, make sure that you market it to media, other college coaches, and anyone you can think of.
While I do feel strongly about scholarship offers breeding other scholarship offers, I found a very interesting statement about a recruit who was hearing from two major Division I schools in the same conference. One of the schools offered a scholarship after evaluating. The second school followed suit knowing he had the other offer but before they had seen any tape. In my opinion, that is a very bold move on their part.
Two things that will spark senior football recruiting interest during the fall
In the minds of most athletes and especially their parents, the way to improve your stock in the eyes of college coaches and get recruited by a number of big schools as a senior is to put together a great senior season. I have heard this from countless players that they are focusing on the season and will let the recruiting take care of itself. But even if you have an Elite All State season as well as break numerous State and school records, that doesn’t mean it will help you in the recruiting process all that much.
In my opinion for seniors, there are two things that will really spark your overall football recruiting interest at the highest levels. Because these schools have already worked ahead and know what players they are going to recruit, a great senior year won’t cut it. So with that in mind, find out what two things could really spark your overall recruiting. …CONTINUE READING =>
Athletic Recruiting advice from a highly rated national recruit
Over the last two years, I have had the opportunity to interact with one of the top athletic recruits in the Class of 2011. While I am not going to say his name, I have also had the opportunity to interact with his mother as well. And despite having the ability to play his sport of choice at any college in the country (let me stress any college in the country), they are taking things extremely slow. In fact, the way they have handled the recruiting process has been one of the most impressive things I have seen in the last ten years of covering recruiting.
In a recent email with his mother, she sent me two things that they do to make sure that the recruiting process does not overwhelm them. With so many different scholarship offers from schools around the country, it could be difficult for most. But the family is focused on finding the right school for athletics that offers a great opportunity academically. His 4.0 GPA does not hurt him with the big boys of the college coaching world. Anyways, onto the two things she mentioned as well as some other things that I learned from the family thus far:
Thanks to our sponsors - NCSA Sports
Just wanted to extend a huge thanks to NCSA Sports for helping sponsor Recruiting-101.com. We will be bringing more Q&As with them shortly but just wanted to give them a plug in helping support our site. CLICK HERE to view their site now!
You can also see some of their most recent videos about the entire recruiting process by CLICKING HERE NOW.
Why academics matter more than in the past during the athletic recruiting process
I have always stressed on here that one way to really help yourself in the athletic recruiting process is by taking care of your grades. Most coaches feel that the athletes with the best grades are usually the ones that they have to worry about the least in the classroom as well as away from the field or court on weekends. These are not the players coaches lose sleep over after big wins.
What made me really start thinking harder and harder about grades is a recent email I received from a parent. While I will not mention his name or the name of his son, he brought up some very excellent points regarding academics and the ability for an athlete to walk on. It may seem menial during the recruiting process but academics are even more important for walk ons than scholarship athletes.
Playing time vs. playing for a big name school throughout the recruiting process
One of the more interesting debates that athletic recruits have to figure out on a daily basis is if they want playing time early on versus playing at a school with a big name. For example, if you were a national football recruit who lived in Texas, would you take the early playing time at quarterback possibly offered at TCU and Texas A&M or head to a big name school like USC and Texas?
That is a tough question to ask and something, if you hold multiple scholarship offers, that should play a major factor in your final college decision. Obviously if you have only one offer from a college coach, you can’t exactly be comparing one situation equally versus the others. Both aspects have some positives and negatives which we will look at.
How young is too young throughout the athletic recruiting process?
In order to really jump into this article, I must relay a story of what a current Division I college coaching staff is doing. This staff made a name for themselves at the mid major level and went to a number of NCAA tournaments. While they never won a game there, the team making this tournament was a huge jump for the program and made this staff a hot commodity during coaching searches.
While this staff was at the mid major school, they seemed to push the envelope by offering prospects earlier and earlier during the basketball recruiting process. They stepped up and offered a kid before his junior year and even extended a scholarship to a prospect before he had logged a minute of varsity basketball. This prospect was going into his sophomore year and has developed into a talented 7-footer. The coaches were impressed with him at their camp and saw enough to throw an offer his way, which he quickly accepted. In the end, the majority of kids that this staff offered so early in the process ended up at the school because they were able to foster a great relationship with them.
How do you know that the college coach who recruited you will stay at the school you sign with for athletics?
The NCAA National Letter of Intent that you sign to accept a scholarship offer makes sure to include a part that talks about you are signing with the school and not the coach. I think the main reason that this is included is because when coaches leave, the school can hold the athlete hostage and basically force them to go to that school (Unless of course they want to go prep school/junior college, which many do not want to do).
And while this NLI may say that, the truth is that the head coach and the assistant coaches are a huge factor in what school you pick. They are the ones that you bond with during the football recruiting process or basketball recruiting process. They take you on tours around the campus, call all the time, and that relationship is huge in the recruiting process. But how can you tell if a coach is going to stay at your school during your four or five years there?
The Athletic Recruiting Process is a very long journey for your entire family
One of the most stressful times in the lives of parents and their children is if they go through the athletic recruiting process. It doesn’t matter if you are a Division I recruit or someone hoping to play sports at the NAIA level, it is tough weighing out the benefits of all the schools involved. Not only are sports important, academics is what should make or break the decision.
I feel strongly that everyone who is going through this process should be humble the entire time. What I mean by that is that it is a journey and during that time, you need to do what you can to learn as much as possible. The more you learn, the better chance that you have of knowing what is going on and helping your child during such a stressful time.