Recruiting 101

Recruiting-101’s Reader Mailbag #3

admin — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 08:10:26 +0000

Another mailbag from Recruiting-101. As I have said before, if you have questions that you want answered, please reply in a comment to this post. That is the most efficient way for your athletic recruiting questions to be answered.

I’ve got a good question for you to ponder and post:
I have a 16 year old, who has been playing varsity for 2 years. (played as freshman, at MLB, Sophomore as a D-End.) He leads the D Line in tackles. The school he attends has been a state recognized powerhouse for many years. He’s currently 6′3″ and 200 lbs., running a 4.5 40. His older brother is 6′6″, and 245#, playing football in Pittsburgh. Locally he is well known. I’ve been thru the recruiting game 1 time already, and based on experience can verify 99% of what you write to be true. Your books are right on, and from my perspective, verified what I had experienced. (Our older son won a performance award at the Michigan camp. Within 3 days, we had over 100 letters, and visits from coaches as far east as Boston. Ultimately, our son picked a D-3 school because he is in pre-med, and wanted to be able to walk after school. He ended up with a full academic scholarship. He had offers from several D-1 FCS. Ultimately, academically he’s in a great place, enjoying a big city. Dave Wanstedt stopped him on the street and asked him to walk on. He thought he was a PITT student.)

Now to the question; we live in Michigan, and would prefer our son attend school within a 200 radius of us. There are a myriad of camps this summer to attend. Some such as the Michigan camp, boast attendance of 85 D-1 to D-3 coaches. None of the others market themselves as being open to other coaches. The key is exposure to coaches. These guys know they have an opening they need to fill, and need to get talent. What specific camps that you know of are open to outside coaches?
-Paul

I am a little surprised that Michigan would actually advertise that other coaches will be there but I see the obviously advantages. No coaches will be there that are at their level (ie: Michigan State, Ohio State, etc.) but there will likely be a ton of other coaches there. Coaches know that the main way that they are able to find better jobs is connections. Working camps is a great way to build connections. Coaches from Eastern Michigan, Western Michigan, and other programs that are from Division I-AA/FCS to Division III will likely be working the camp.

The thing is this happens at camps all over the place. If your son went to the Michigan State camp, I would expect the Spartans to bring in a myriad of coaches as well from other schools. The school hosting the camp is benefited because they need coaches who know what they are doing and are not doing it for the money (camps pay very little per hour). That is why they want coaches from Eastern Michigan and other schools that size.

The coaches from Eastern Michigan would want to do it because it helps them a ton in evaluation and recruiting. It gives them a look first hand at the athletes. They will also use that time to talk to the main recruiting coaches at that school. Within less than an hour of evaluating a prospect, the coach will have a good feel for their level. And if the athlete is good but can’t play at Michigan/Michigan State, then Eastern Michigan will be there.

My son is a junior and does not have any offers. He is getting some generic letters but we all know that doesn’t mean much if anything. Our plan is to select a handful of colleges (all levels) that he is interested in and initiate an unofficial visit to tour the campus and spend some time in front of the coaching staff. Good idea?
-Craig

There is nothing wrong with that at all but you have to look at it from a worst case scenario. If you make all these visits and nothing comes out of them, will you be spending a lot of money? There are some situations where I have talked to athletes who took unofficial visits at schools across the country. The visits were great but the school never offered anything. That in my opinion makes it a waste of money. If you are packaging it in as a vacation, then that will work too.

If these schools are recruiting you hard, then you should take the time and make the visits. But it depends on time and financial resources. I would almost wait until the evaluation period in April/May so you can get a feel for what schools are really serious about your son.

I personally don’t believe a visit will be something that can spark the interest from coaches. What will spark the interest is a good highlight video and a solid recruiting profile.

How do u get invited to (Junior Days)?
-Randy

It really depends from school to school. I know there are some programs that invite hundreds of athletes all around the country to attend a Junior Day. Other programs invite only a select 50 or so that they really like. With that in mind, you basically need to be in their recruiting database and also be at the top of their recruiting board.

I believe most major Division I-A schools extend Junior Day invites to the athletes that they offer. My guess would be somewhere around 75% so they are important to get invited to. If you are not getting invited to Junior Days, then you need to start marketing yourself to new schools and look at some lower levels as well.

What about weekend basketball camps? My daughter is being heavily recruited by around 20 DI mid to upper-major schools in the northeast. She has received invites to 3 basketball camps described as “elite” - for the serious player, from 3 of the schools recruiting her. They are weekend camps that run around $100. Are they worth it so the coaches at those colleges can see her play? Will they think she is not interested in them if she doesn’t attend? She plays at a small high school without a lot of competition, but plays for an elite sponsored travel team that goes to major showcases. The college coaches have seen her play on both teams.
-Gale

The elite basketball camps are something that I strongly recommend. These are at Division I schools and only last a weekend that was mentioned above. The coaches invite very good players and like the above talk about camps, there will be coaches from other schools in attendance as well.

But before signing up, realize that the coaches only have a small number of scholarships. Do you feel confident that this school really thinks you are one of their top recruits? I know many elite camps that need filler players (basically those that are good but not good enough for a scholarship offer). If you have been recruited by this school and they continue to show a lot of interest, go. If there has just been an invite to their camp, then they are not recruiting you.

Recently, there was a 13 yr. old quarterback who gave a verbal commitment to one of the best colleges in the nation. My son plays with him. My concern is that my son may be over shadowed. On the other hand this may be good publicity for my kid, whose and good all around athlete.
-Cooper

I still need to write an article on this whole story but the first thing I think is regardless of the attention, don’t start the recruiting buzz until your son has varsity experience. I think you will put a lot of time and effort into something that won’t heat up for 99.9% of athletes (that .01 is obviously the teammate).

With that being said, the more major players there are on your team, the better. I wrote an article about this last week but the better your teammates, the more college coaches will come looking at you, the more wins your team will have, and the most opportunity for recognition. Yes, he is committed but having that buzz certainly won’t hurt. It is a great thing to have good teammates.

As you know, we set up a recruiting website for our son. It has his highlight video and other information and even game film (which is accessed by password only). Recently, I added a site counter that tracks information about visitors. I didn’t have the site counter during the “full court press” of our marketing efforts, only recently.

Now that I can see the location of most people who click on his site, we are able to get a better idea of who visits. So we know when a college coach hasn’t even clicked on the highlight link in the email. Or when they do go to the site but only stay 10 seconds. Or when the watch the video, but don’t email back.

On another note, the vast majority of coaches who wanted game film did not want to view it online. They wanted a DVD.

Happily, our son made a verbal commitment yesterday! The paperwork is supposed to be in the mail. Which brings me to something I have learned about NAIA (which is mainly what we’ve been looking at due to our son’s situation with injuries, and his lack of D-1 size). We expected that we didn’t have a firm offer until we received it in writing, but it turns out that these schools do not send the paperwork until you accept the verbal. At least, out of the 4-5 schools that offered, that’s what we’ve seen. Which is why, since he was taking his time, we ran into the problem of one school lowering their offer a few weeks after he didn’t accept the first one. The place where he signed actually raised their offer, so I guess it works both way.

You’ve been a great resource!! Thank you.
-Karyn

Yes, there were no questions but I wanted to say Karyn did one of the most impressive jobs with marketing her son. The reward is that he got a scholarship offer that will help pay for a huge chunk of college. She really did an excellent job following the advice given by this site and took ran with it.

She made her own website with video of her son without having much experience coming in. So for parents reading this, realize that if you take the time to learn and are willing to do that, good things are likely going to happen.

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Do football scholarship offers come in the month of March? If so, what type of recruits will get them?

admin — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 08:16:35 +0000

When thinking about this question, I do have to once again repeat what I wrote in an article last week. Out of all the months in the year, March is one of the slowest and most boring for junior football recruits.

There are a few reasons as to why this is. Most college coaches at Division I-A level have already started peaking ahead to the upcoming classes and know who the best players are. By the time March rolls around, in a perfect world you should already have sent your highlight tape out shortly after the season ended. The coaches should have already evaluated this because you get things done early, right?

There are usually two camps as far as getting your highlight video done goes. The first is the family that has followed the advice on this site and prepared for it early. They lined everything up before the season started and when the season was over, they sent their best game tapes to be cut and included in the highlight video. If you followed this path, then there is no doubt that you likely already got the highlight tape out to the coaches to look at prior to the month of March.

The other camp is the one that is not quite prepared for the football recruiting process. There are coaches recruiting them but this family is the one that hasn’t put much work into recruiting. The coaches found them and have been showing interest. This family doesn’t start getting in gear until April or May when the college coaches tell them flat out that they want to view their highlight video. The month of March is normally slow as coaches are preparing for the start of spring practice and extending more offers doesn’t happen all that often (if you are a family in need of a video, see www.highlight-videos.com).

I took a look back at one smaller state that I have tracked their recruiting attention over the years. This state doesn’t produce a ton of Division I-A/BCS talent but enough that college coaches from across the country will always take a serious look at their top prospects.

The one thing I saw is that over the last two years, the majority of the scholarships extended were ones to players who already had offers on the table. This is because coaches react differently when they know that there is another school in their area/conference that thinks this athlete is a Division I-A player. I have stressed that scholarships breed scholarships and that is especially true in the month of May.

I also found only one case where an athlete received his first scholarship offer during the month of March. You may be asking yourself why but that question is pretty obvious if you think about it. College coaches normally hold Junior Days in January and February in order to bring their top recruits onto campus. One of the main reasons that they do this is to see if the athlete passes the eyeball test. If you are listed at 6-foot-5 and appear to be 6-foot-3, chances are strong that an offer won’t be coming your way.

These coaches use the eyeball test, your highlight video, and other research they have done about your character in order to determine if you are scholarship worthy at this point in the process. Because most coaches have seen the film at this point, if they confirm your size (and it is big), then they may step forward with an offer. The problem is that unless you attend their Junior Day, you will be unable to be given the eyeball test until the evaluation period begins in April.

There are occasional exceptions where an athlete will finally get his highlight video out and then coaches are impressed by it. That does happen. But the majority of scholarship offers for juniors in March only come when there are other offers on the table. Follow the national recruiting sites for Rivals and Scout and you will see that both sites follow this logic.

For seniors, there may be a few major college scholarship offers for athletes who have finally qualified academically to play at that level. Chances are very slim that a full qualifier from day one will be given an offer this late in their senior years.

As for sophomore, since very few are invited to Junior Days, it means that the coaches will have to rely on the upcoming evaluation period. Coaches don’t offer sophomores all that frequently but when they do, they want to at least visit the high school and bump into them. This bump will confirm their size and see if offering them would be worth it this early.

Should you inflate your height and weight to college coaches during the athletic recruiting process?

admin — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 08:23:07 +0000

I just received a question recently asking me if most players inflate their height and weight on recruiting services like Rivals.com, Scout.com, and other sites. Because I know that this unfortunately happens, I thought it would be important to talk about and reasons why I think you you should not do this. The first thing to mention about this is that if you overrate your height and weight, it is likely that college coaches will eventually find out about this.

One quick example I heard a few years back is that at a Junior Day held at the University of Nebraska, the Cornhusker coaching staff weighed and measured the recruits while there. So if you had impressed the coaching staff by filling out a form and saying you were a 6-foot-3, 225 pound linebacker and got measured at 6-foot, 205 pounds, the coaches will definitely think differently of you as a recruit. While these coaches likely know that this happens, it is not the first impression that you want to show the coaching staff at a school that you hope to impress.

During the spring evaluation period for football, this is a huge time for the college coaches to put recruits up to the “eye ball” test. What I mean by this is that the coaches that stop by the school want to see the recruit in person and say hello. While they are restricted by rules of how in depth they can get with the conversations, the most important part about this meeting is seeing the recruit in person and sizing them up. I assume that if the coaches are in the game long, they know if a kid is the height/weight he says he is or if the recruit is way off. Plus your high school coach will likely say something as well to the coach. Few coaches at any level want their players inflating their height by inches.

Two good stories that I have to tell about this include a lineman and as an athlete as well. One I saw first hand myself in covering the lineman and the other I heard stories about.

Starting with the athlete, there has been a story going around about this prep who sent a highlight video to Penn State and Joe Paterno. They were serious about this recruit so Paterno was watching part of the tape himself. Included was a portion where the athlete runs the 40 yard dash. After he finished running, you could hear someone yelling 4.4 seconds. Paterno decided to rewind the tape and time it himself. When he timed it with a stop watch while following the video, it ended up being 4.7 seconds. Again, this is not a perception that you want to leave with college coaches.

The second was about a small school lineman who really wanted to get recruited and go to a Division I school. This happens all the time but this story was one that stands out to me. In the first update on him, he told a reporter that he was 6-foot-1 and named all of these schools recruiting him. This recruit took visits to junior days at Missouri, Iowa, Iowa State, Kansas, and other programs in the Midwest. The summer before his senior year, he decided to attend a Nike Camp and a number of other camps. This is where his real ability finally shined through. He got measured at 5-foot-10 (And I heard he was closer to 5-foot-8 as well) and then performed very badly at college camps. While I heard that at worst, he might be able to walk on, those camps completely showed that he didn’t have Division I ability. To this day, I am unsure if he is playing in college.

The point of this article is to not inflate your stats. It is one thing to include your height with shoes on (which I did), but if your shoes are three inches tall, then there is a problem. Also keep your weight realistic as well. Like I said, if you inflate these stats too much, it will be something that college coaches eventually figure out. And in the recruiting process, I think it is important to be as honest as you can with college coaches. They will figure you out if you can’t play so being honest will help figure out what level you really are at.

Updated Athletic Recruiting Definitions for Parents, Athletes, and Coaches

admin — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 08:25:20 +0000

When talking about the recruiting process, there are a number of different terms and phrases that I use. While it is something that I assume most people know, I do realize that for people new to the athletic recruiting process, some of these terms may go over your head. So with that in mind, I have decided to start an article that has different definitions of athletic recruiting terminology.

This definitions article will hopefully be updated every few weeks or months as to help families throughout the recruiting process. So if there is anything that you have questions about, please let us know so that we can get it added. The list is in alphabetical order and has a quick definition on each term. Also see the related articles on each definition as well.

Big Time Athlete Syndrome
After using the media to help publicize your recruiting and help get your name out there, you suddenly don’t update them once a scholarship offer comes in. This happens all the time to athletes who are suddenly too big time to be loyal to those that helped pub them early on.

Cold Sending (Article #1)
What I mean by this is when an athlete sends out a recruiting highlight video to a college coach without a request. If you cold send a tape, chances are slim that the coach will be watching it. In many cases, the tape will end up in the garbage and you will not hear anything from the coach. I do not recommend cold sending a highlight video.

Deadline (Article #1 | Article #2)
When a player receives a deadline, the college coach is telling them that they have until a certain day to commit or the school is going to offer another prospect. For example, your son Jim has until November 1st to commit or we will offer another point guard. This applies in all different sports but the smaller the scholarship number, the more often it happens.

Division I Eyes (Article #1)
This is a recruit that will only look at Division I schools in the sport of his or her choice. Having Division I eyes is a terrible decision because it limits the amount of schools that you will look into.

Eyeball Test (Article #1 | Article #2)
This is something college coaches love to do before offering an athlete a scholarship. They want to see that player in person so that their listed height and weight are realistic. If they are impressed by the highlight tape and the athlete passes this eye ball test, then a scholarship may be offered.

Four in Five Year Scholarships (Article #1)
A four in five year scholarship is when a college coach offers an athlete a four year scholarship after they pay their own way in year one. The recruit is redshirted in that first year and then put on scholarship the following four years. This is a handshake agreement that is not binding and the coaches can change their mind at any time.

Grayshirt (Article #1)
Grayshirting happens when a school is full in the current scholarship year but they want to bring an athlete in on scholarship. If you were in the Class of 2008 and accepted a scholarship, you would not sign any paperwork. You then would take classes part time in the fall of 2008 and workout on your own. In December of 2008, you would sign a National Letter of Intent with the school and be enrolled full time in the spring of 2009. This is usually a numbers issue when grayshirting happens.

January Recruit (Article #1)
A football recruit who is a last minute decision for the college coaches. It is a backup recruit because the coaches are waiting to see if their higher priorities will take their scholarship offers. If they don’t, then January recruits come into play and end up getting scholarship offers from those schools.

Highlight Video (Article #1)
This is one of the most essential parts of the recruiting process, especially for football players throughout the country. It is important to have it done well or professionally produced (See www.highlight-videos.com for more information).

In-Home Visit (Article #1)
This is setup normally late in the recruiting process when a college coach/coaches make a home visit to the residence of a recruit. This gives coaches a chance to build a stronger relationship between themselves and the family.

Interest (Article #1)
Colleges are showing interest by sending you mail. They have not done anything else outside of showing basic interest.

Official (Article #1 | Article #2)
An official visit is one that the school recruiting you pays for. They will either fly the athlete in or reimburse them for mileage driven to the school.

Recruiting Street Cred
Basically you either have All State/All Conference honors or size that college coaches desire. This street cred will get you onto their recruiting database without trying to fight with them over and over about it. An example would be a lineman who is 6-foot-8, 290 pounds. College coaches will look at you because of this size, aka recruiting street cred.

Redshirt (Article #1)
This is when a recruit take a year to adjust to college, get bigger, and learn the system. They have five years to play four seasons so a redshirt will not take any of their eligible years away.

Scholarships breed scholarships (Article #1)
This phrase has been mentioned a lot but it shows the importance of marketing yourself in the athletic recruiting process. If you have a scholarship offer, more college coaches will take a longer look at you during the recruiting process if they know. That could lead to more scholarship offers, and thus the phrase, scholarships breed scholarships.

Signed
A player being signed and being a verbal commitment are often confused. What signed means is that the athlete has signed a National Letter of Intent. These can only be signed during Signing periods, which vary by sport. If a football player picks a school in the summer, e is not signed until he completes his National Letter of Intent during the February Signing period. This is a binding contract between you and the school and it is very difficult to get out of without having to sit out.

Silent Commitment
A silent commitment happens when an athlete decides to commit to a school but for whatever reason would prefer not to make the commitment public. Many athletes give silent commitments before officially announcing their college decision at a press conference or an All Star game.

Spring Evaluation Period
This focuses on football recruiting and is when college coaches can start visiting the schools. It begins in mid-April and ends on May 31st. This time also gives coaches the opportunity to call recruits that they are serious about and help their relationship with the players grow.

Unofficial (Article #1 | Article #2)
An unofficial visit is when a prospect visits a college on their own dime. They pay all the expenses to get there.

Verbal Commitment
This happens when a player pledges verbally that he or she will be attending a school. They usually call the coaches from the school and then speak with media after to get the word out. Verbal commitments are 100% not binding. If you have ten scholarship offers, you could actually make a verbal commitment to all of them during that time.

Verbal Offer (Article #1)
A verbal offer is when a college coach verbally tells an athletic recruit that they have an offer. I personally don’t believe a verbal offer until…..

Written Offer (Article #1)
This is when a college coach puts the offer in writing. If they really want you, they will put the scholarship offer in writing to not risk losing you.

Last Update: February 19th, 2010

How do I get on an AAU or club team to help myself during the basketball/volleyball/soccer recruiting process?

admin — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 08:18:09 +0000

Before diving into this article, the main subject of this article is basketball but it can also be carried over into sports that have club teams (soccer/volleyball) and the majority of sports that have different off-season all star teams (football is the main sport that does not have this). So even if you see that I may be talking mostly about AAU teams, this information can apply to a number of other sports.

First off, the key is timing and that makes it very difficult for athletes to get on teams. While there are still tryouts for a number of these teams in all states, the majority of the sports (basketball and volleyball for instance) kick off their season early in the spring. As a note, I must say that I am mainly talking about 16, 17, and 18 year old AAU and club teams. I don’t plan on delving any younger just because playing at that young of level will do little to help you with the recruiting process. What really matters is after your sophomore and junior years so keep that in mind.

When these teams do have tryouts, I am willing to bet that the majority of them already have a solid core of players that they know will be making the team. These players amongst the core may have already been playing on younger versions of the team and will be making the move up to the older level this summer. Not all players are asked or invited back so there obviously will be opening for players that are good enough.

Most of the top AAU basketball teams that I am aware of do not have tryouts. Their coaches take the time to travel to games, jamborees, State tournaments, and anything else in their area that can help them see the top players in action. They also usually have a very trusted network of people around their area that can help them find excellent athletes. This really helps them finding players throughout the entire process. When they do have tryouts, they may charge the athletes to attend which basically makes it not worth it.

So how do I go about finding out what teams have openings? The first thing you need to have knowledge of is the teams that are currently being run across your state. While you can look outside of state borders, the first and likely easiest place to search is those that are close. If you are a high school basketball player who is a junior, you honestly should know exactly who the top AAU teams in your state are. You should have heard about them or read about them many times by now. If you don’t know, ask your friends. If they don’t know, then search AAU teams in your state (or club teams as well).

Once you have found as many teams as you can, then you will need to go about contacting them. You can either email or call them. What you should honestly do is tell them a little about yourself, your accomplishments/stats, and then ask them about tryouts or what needs to be done for you to be evaluated. Many coaches will tell you about the tryouts or they may say they are full. If they are full, you spent ten minutes of your time looking into something that just didn’t come through. No big deal there. You should also ask about being an alternative on the team as well. Finding out as much information as possible is extremely helpful.

Again, the sooner that you do this, the better. Most club/AAU coaches want to have their teams finalized as soon as possible for the upcoming spring/summer season. They don’t want to be hoping for a bigman to give them a call two weeks before their first tournament. For basketball teams, they usually practice as soon as the majority of players have wrapped up their season. Some even have practices in the same city as the State tournament. While the players at State won’t be playing, the others will get a chance to practice together.

You should also look into potential new teams. While they may not be as reputable, it could give you a fresh start. You can’t blame politics if it is a new team! Again, taking the time to do this can be a major boast to you during the recruiting process. In these sports, college coaches want to evaluate your abilities first hand and not on tape (especially basketball). So getting on a quality AAU team with good players can help.

Verbal scholarship offer versus a written scholarship offer and what they mean during the athletic recruiting process

admin — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 08:14:09 +0000

If you have been following recruiting at all on the Internet at Scout, Rivals, or ESPN, there is no doubt that you have heard an athlete quoted saying something about how he received a scholarship offer. And while some may think they are the same, in reality, they are not.

What normally happens at this time in the process for an athlete is the verbal offer then the written offer. There are certain exceptions but that is the order they normally come in because the college coaches want to tell the athlete over the phone (or in person) that a scholarship is on the way for him.

Because a college coach cannot legally call a junior football prospect today and tell them that they want to verbally offer them a scholarship, they need to take the long way around. What the college coach will do normally is call the high school coach. They will tell them that they want to offer their player a scholarship but they want to do it over the phone themselves. Some high school coaches will take the kid out of class to call back the college coach or they will do it when the athlete has a break. It really just depends.

Another way that seems to happen less often is the college coach could email the athlete and tell them to give him a call. In basically 95% of the situations, the coach wants to be the first one to let the athlete know that a scholarship is on the table. Doing it verbally is something that they strongly prefer because they can then get a feel for how the athlete really feels about their school.

The college coaches would likely have gone over the evaluation process a few times with this athlete before extending an offer. Because they know it is coming, they would likely work up the paperwork so that the written scholarship offer would be coming in the mail over the next week or so.

What families do need to realize is that regardless if it is written or verbal, if the coaches want to take away the offer 24 hours after it was extended, they can. They are guaranteeing nothing at all and even taking them to court won’t get you a scholarship offer at that school (it has unfortunately been tried before too).

So is a verbal offer really a scholarship? I guess that strongly depends. I know a lot of college coaches who use different phrases and are careful with their words. An athlete may come away thinking that they offered when they actually didn’t. They may say something about how much they want you at their school but until they tell you that we have a scholarship offer waiting for you, it doesn’t mean a damn thing.

There are some families who actually don’t believe that they have an offer until they receive it as a written scholarship. Honestly, if you want to play it safe, then I would follow this theory. The reason is because I have heard many stories about athletes being told by coaches that they have offers but then they never received a written scholarship.

My guess is that 80 to 85% of the scholarships that are offered verbally do eventually become written scholarships. But that means there is a wide percentage of coaches who are throwing out verbal offers with nothing behind it. My feeling is that if they want you bad enough, they can do both the verbal and the written offer within a week. It really isn’t that hard to do.

One interesting story I heard last year was from Florida State. They came out of the blue and called a football recruit in the Midwest during the spring evaluation period. The coach told the athlete he had an offer and that they really wanted him. What was strange is that they had not been recruiting him and never sent the written offer. Why were they wasting their time? Was there something they heard in the phone call that turned them off? I have no idea but this stuff happens all the time. Don’t believe an offers is in the bag unless you see it written or if it came from the head coach in person.

I am a junior in the football recruiting process with attention and no scholarship offers. What should I be doing in March (Part Two)?

admin — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 08:12:11 +0000

Click here to read part one. The thing you want to get out of the coaches regarding your highlight video is feedback. If they were wowed by the tape and wanted to offer you a scholarship, chances are that it would have been done without you asking and following up. So in your follow up, ask questions about things that you can improve on. And when you get responses, take these to heart as these are college coaches who are paid to coach a sport that they love.

I will talk about this more in an upcoming article but really March is a somewhat boring month overall for the football recruiting process. February is an excellent month as schools are wrapping up their current class and getting them signed. The later portion of April is when college coaches are able to start visiting high schools and can call who they feel are the top junior prospects. So what exactly happens in March?

While things are limited, it could be a perfect time to make some visits. Coaches can use March for Junior Days in a variety of ways. They can tie them in on a weekend day and have the athletes come visit for a traditional Junior Day that includes a tour around the campus and talking with the coaches. They can also plan these around spring practices and try to get their top recruits on campus when their current players are busy practicing.

These coaches have be spread thin but this is a great experience for athletes. You may think your high school practice is difficult but a college practice takes things up a notch. It is fast paced, hard hitting, and a lot of fun to watch overall. This should give you a good feel of what they expect at the next level.

The other main thing that you should be using March for is to figure out overall your thoughts on the schools that are recruiting you. If you are happy with your attention, interest, and the college coaches have seen your highlight video, then you need to be patient. There is a good chance nothing will happen at least until April when these coaches can visit the school. You can get a much better feel for your recruiting attention in April and May. So just work hard in the weight room and stay out of trouble.

For those that are disappointed by the attention, it may be time to go back to the drawing board. Your attention may be disappointing because of the schools or the lack of mail that the programs are sending. If there is any doubt, taking the time to start researching and marketing definitely is worth it.

The two keys here are to go back to The Five Steps to a Scholarship Offer and go through step two and three again. If you went through step two before, broaden your search and include schools that may be a little further away from home. When doing this, make sure you are really researching the schools and not just mass sending out your profile. It is a waste of time to send as many emails as possible if they don’t have the major that your son wants to go into.

March is actually a perfect time to do this. It is early enough where the coaches can become interested in your skills so that they can come visit you during the upcoming evaluation period. Do realize that little really does happen for most recruits during this month. It may actually be the least active month out of any so don’t stress over not having an offer on the way. If you put the time in and have skills, good things will happen.

More than one athlete on a team can play at the college level and why the better the team, the better for you

admin — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 08:13:23 +0000

A few weeks back I got an email from an athlete talking about a teammate. His teammate has much better college potential because of his size along the offensive line and college coaches have taken notice of that. What this teammate did, in my mind, was very questionable.

He basically just emailed me destroying the teammate and his abilities. He hyped himself up in the process but the overlying theme that I got out of the emails was his lack of respect for his teammate. And for the record, his teammate is getting early Division I attention at this point. I don’t know if there is jealousy involved or what but it didn’t sit well with me.

The last thing an athlete should do is basically throw a teammate under the bus. I don’t care how much you hate him or don’t respect his skills/work ethic in your sport. It just should not happen and it makes me question in a huge way the overall attitude of this athlete.

What this player needs to realize is that just because he has a teammate who is going to be playing in college and is a football recruit, it won’t be stopping him from following the same path if he has the skills. If anything, having a recruited teammate may actually be a benefit to both parties involved.

When the evaluation period starts and say State University comes in to talk about Recruit A, their high school coach may talk about Recruit B and his abilities as well. The coach will likely call both of them down to “bump” into the college coach and just say hello. This gives him a chance to potentially pass the eyeball test.

Chances are that if you have two or more recruits on your team, that you are going to win more games than a school that has zero recruits (this does depend but it normally the case). The more games you win, the better chance you have to play in front of college coaches deep in the playoffs. And the more success you have, the better your chances for potentially being named All Conference and All State. These honors are not needed to get a Division I offer but they certainly help matters.

Two recruits can also help reduce travel expenses. I know that there are some families that have emailed me about saving money during the recruiting process. One great way is to have a teammate or someone in your area who you befriend. When there are Junior Days or unofficial visit, you can bum a ride from them instead of having to fit the travel bill all yourself.

If you don’t know any of the other players at the visit, having a teammate there will certainly make things more comfortable. That is at least until you meet some other people there. So really, it is important to realize that having another teammate being recruited can be a good thing. If a school has enough talent, scholarships will be extended often.

I am a junior in the football recruiting process with attention and no scholarship offers. What should I be doing in March (Part One)?

admin — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 08:11:26 +0000

The top football players in the Class of 2011 have already started to secure scholarship offers from some of the top college programs across the country. But in most cases, these are the freak athletes who will end up with multiple offers from a variety of college coaches. My guess is that most readers are the ones that are going to be working and plugging along to get an offer.

So if you are in the boat that there is interest but no offers, what should you be doing now? What direction should you be heading in right now? This type of article has been extremely popular over the last six months so we thought we would continue with it for March of your junior season.

Getting letters and receiving early recruiting interest means that you are on the recruiting databases of some college coaches. That is a great thing but that is just an early part of the battle. In order to get a scholarship, the coaches that are recruiting you will only continue to evaluate you.

Due to NCAA rules, the major way that these college coaches evaluate you is through your highlight video. In an ideal world, all junior football players reading this will have already put their highlight video together and have it available on a free site online.

Since that never seems to be the case, I want to stress once again the importance of putting this highlight tape together. It is the best way for a school to evaluate your overall skills on the gridiron. Doing it yourself or spending the money and getting it made professionally is a huge step that can be a major factor in the football recruiting process. For those that need one made, we continue to recommend www.highlight-videos.com to readers who contact us via email.

If you have the video done, then you should be doing what you can to put it in front of the coaches that are recruiting you. It may be worth calling or emailing with the coaches that are recruiting and see if they would prefer the video online or a hard copy of it. The reason to ask is because cold sending out the tape is going to be a huge waste of time and resources. Time and money are saved by sending it online but chances are that the overall quality may be hurt a little bit.

Either way will work fine because your main goal is to get them to watch your footage. If you sent the highlight tape, follow up one to two weeks after the tape arrived and see if they watched it. Please realize that patience is a huge must here and something to have during the football recruiting process. If you sent the coach a link to your video on youtube or a similar service, email them a few days after it was sent and see what they thought. This is the most inexpensive way to do it and something that I strongly encourage.

The thing you want to get out of the coaches regarding your highlight video is feedback. If they were wowed by the tape and wanted to offer you a scholarship, chances are that it would have been done without you asking and following up. So in your follow up, ask questions about things that you can improve on. And when you get responses, take these to heart as these are college coaches who are paid to coach a sport that they love.

Look for part two on Wednesday!

If you want to be the best, you need to invest a great deal into the athletic recruiting process

admin — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 08:26:44 +0000

I recently was driving and heard an outstanding quote from a basketball coach. While he was talking about facilities for his team, what he said was if you want to be the best, you must invest. Again, he was talking specifically about how this school needed to pony up some cash to build new facilities. If they don’t, the school obviously could never compete ever again.

But this phrase also carries weight during the athletic recruiting process. If you are an athlete who wants to play at the Division I level, you will need to invest the time to play there. You may be a gifted athlete but you need to put in the time. Specifically for the recruiting process, you must invest time into your child to be able to help the garner interest from college coaches.

Shouldn’t college coaches come to us and recruit him or her? If you really think that, then first you haven’t read this site at all and second you have a lot to learn. Unless your child is a freak athlete in their sport (and there may be only a few per year), then chances are you will need to do some work to help the recruiting process.

Parents will have to spent time doing a lot of things that they are normally not used to doing. That is what makes it so tough for families because most are clueless about what direction they should go with the athletic recruiting process. Well, if you want your child to go to the best school that they can and hopefully get the highest school, you need to invest the time.

This investing first off goes into learning more about the recruiting process as a whole. Yes, I am sure you think your child can play Division I athletics but is that from the eyes of a parent or from a non-bias talent evaluator? You need to take the steps from this website and many others to get a feel for the entire process. Once you have done that, it is taking the time with that future scholarship athlete and finding what they are looking for in a college overall.

This includes talking about academics, campus size, location, sports, majors offered, and so many other areas. Once you have invested the time with your son or daughter to figure that out, the next step is to start researching schools. These schools will be key because if your child wants a unique major, wouldn’t it be best for them to go to a school that offers the major? Yes, 17 and 18-year olds change their mind all the time but it is best to give them options in the fields that they enjoy.

After that, now you must continue following The Five Steps to a Scholarship Offer and them to the college coaches. Take the time and log what communication you have tried with them. If they don’t respond or eventually move on to another recruit, what is it going to hurt to at least say that you try?

There was a good story in the last recruiting class regarding the University of Texas and recruit Dominic Espinosa. He had received some major scholarship offers but didn’t hear a word from the Longhorns. Instead of cursing them out and moving on with his life, he decided to take a chance by calling them. He probably thought what could this hurt? Espinosa spoke with a coach and they were extremely grateful for his call. They invited him to an upcoming Junior Day (which is prestigious there). If it doesn’t work out, no big deal. It is just a day of his life. But if he ends up at what could be his dream school because of the call, I am willing to bet he will not regret the ten minutes it took to call a member of the coaching staff.

As a parent, you will also have to invest in gas, room, and meals if you decide to hit the road and make some unofficial visits. These are always on your own dime but are definitely worth seeing. It will give you a better feel for the campus, how far away it is from home, and a better feel for the college overall. These visits are vital for figuring out what type of program your child wants in college.

Going back to the original point, you need to invest time and money into the recruiting process for it to be successful for you and your family. That is just the way of life and needs to be done in the majority of cases. Keep that in mind before you expect all of the Division I schools in-state to come knocking on the door with scholarship offers.

Recruiting-101 has written a 51-page E-Book that helps parents throughout the journey of the recruiting process. This includes an example recruiting profile, a step-by-step time line, and much more. It is currently available for sale for only $10.00. Find out more about purchasing the e-book and what else is included by clicking here now!