A parent who has been through the basketball recruiting process – Part 1

Over the past few years, I have had a chance to get in contact with a number of parents and athletes that have worked hard to help their child end up with an athletic scholarship at the college level. I tried to help where I could but parents do most of the work in almost all of the situations. Anyways, I had a chance to email back and fourth with the parent of a basketball player who did the most marketing of their son to college coaches. This family did a fantastic job throughout the entire process and I wanted to post some of their answers to the questions I asked. Just to let you know, here son ended up at a Division II basketball program out of state. Onto the questions (Look for more parts later as well).

Recap a little bit about your son Ben’s recruiting?
We enjoyed the process…..met a lot of great people and had a lot of fun. But it is a lot of work….filming and editing tape, sending out letters and profiles, tracking correspondence, making visits and fielding the calls. Ben had the hardest job, and that was giving up a lot of social activities going to camps, playing in the off-season, lifting weights, conditioning and just constantly trying to get better. There truly is no off season for basketball.

As parents, did you come into the recruiting process having much prior background?
None…..saw a website where they suggested how you create a profile for your son or daughter. After we fine tuned the profile (and parents/kids–you will need to update the profile regularly—don’t send out profiles with stale info on them……..bad phone numbers, email, old stats—-keep it up to date), we found the website with all the colleges and went to work. With email, you can create a template for a cover letter and reuse. Caution…..make sure you proof it before sending to make sure you haven’t left a previous coach’s name or email on it…….don’t get sloppy as it reflects on your son or daughter.

How much did those around the community help (ie: coaches, etc.)
We did most on our own. I must admit, your website on Rivals.com also helped. The publicity you gave Ben in naming athletes to watch, your yearbook, and top picks in each class were great. It is always better getting recognition from another, unrelated source than to have an athlete tell a college coach about their successes. AAU coaches tended to promote kids more than school coaches. Testimonials from others are great.

Why did you decide to be so aggressive in the recruiting process?
As Ben played on different AAU teams, we saw he could compete with almost all of these guys. He had the passion for the sport, spent a ton of time on it, and told us that he wanted to play college basketball. That is the biggest decision…..the athlete needs to decide if they are going to extend their athletic career beyond high school. Once you are playing sports in college, it becomes a full time job. Ben practices four times a day—during the off-season, with weightlifting, conditioning, small group workouts, and pick up games. Social activities can and do take a back seat. We discovered so many great schools that we didn’t even know existed. Even athletics aside, it was worthwhile.

Did you use the Internet to help with recruiting?
Extensively. Without the internet to visit websites, look at coaches resumes, team rosters, and info on each school, staff directories–this process would take forever. Also with email, it is much cheaper to send out 50 profiles, than to have to mail letters to each coach and wait. After the relationships get established, tapes are mailed on request, and customer visits are set up (CLICK HERE FOR MORE ON PUTTING TOGETHER AN ATHLETIC RECRUITING PROFILE)

Did you use or consider using a recruiting service that charges?
We were approached by a couple after Ben’s junior year. They were kind of expensive ($1000 and up depending on what services they provided). We found we were already doing the same things they would do—profiles, contact coaches, follow up, game film , etc. It wouldn’t have paid for us to utilize these services, but for parents who really don’t enjoy or have the time to do the legwork, it could be an attractive option.

How many schools did you send highlight tapes to?
Only sent tapes when they were requested. First would start with a cover letter and profile, and if the coach called and requested a tape, we would send. In total, we probably sent out 25 tapes. CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFORMATION ON PUTTING TOGETHER HIGHLIGHT VIDEOS: FOOTBALL | BASKETBALL

How did you pick which schools received highlight videos?
They requested them. I read somewhere not to just send tapes without being asked, so we did not. When creating the tapes, be certain to not just tape highlights. Most coaches are okay with highlights, but the schools that were serious, also wanted to see at least half a game of full, continuous play—not just highlights as they are looking for the other little things that a player can contribute—or is weak on. Be prepared…creating these tapes is very time consuming…..you need to tape nearly every game (you never know when they will have that breakout performance), and then the editing takes a lot of time. Steve spent hundreds of hours over three or four years doing this, but it was fun for us watching them.