More on football highlight videos, recruiting highlight videos, and highlight tapes

I had previously been writing an article a week on what you needed to avoid on recruiting highlight videos, I have actually taken some time off writing about this subject.  But after recently cutting a number of different tapes, I saw a lot of things that I thought needed to be mentioned.  With junior football players across the country putting together these football highlight videos, it is important to do it right the first time, especially if you are using a professional company.

The costs involved of getting more than one master copy of a highlight tape done will just continue to grow if revisions are being made.  So that is why if you are having the highlight video professionally made, doing it yourself, having a coach make it, or even a friend put it together, there are some more things that I feel needed to be talked about when putting the recruiting video together.

The first item that I must share is one of the coolest ideas that I have seen in recent years.  I will admit that I have seen a number of both well made and poorly made recruiting highlight videos for a number of sports.  But as with the recruiting process, I am always trying to learn everyday more information about what coaches look for.  The same is true about highlight videos.  I am always searching for more information that I can pass along to the readers that can help them.

So I receive a video from an athlete.  Just to note, his dad is a college coach so the quality of the video was high.  The DVD was normal as most are without much flashy information.  It was in a regular CD jewel case (look up the phrase on google images if you don’t know what I am talking about).  So I pull the DVD out of the case and behind it there is a print out that says his GPA (which was very high) and that he made first team All State.

I am sure that I am explaining this poorly but the entire CD jewel case was clear.  So on the complete back of the case was just the standard contact information.  But right when you take out the DVD, it says his high GPA and that he received very high honors as a junior.  Please let me know if you have no idea what I am talking about because I can take a picture or something if need be.  This honestly is a great idea and one of the coolest “new” things I have seen with a recruiting highlight video in years.  And it won’t cost much at all.

I also had a chance to see the highlight video of two Division I linemen.  Both have multiple Division I scholarship offers as well as interest from a number of other programs as well.  What struck me in watching their recruiting highlight films was the fact that despite playing along the line, neither did highlight themselves on the videos.  It was basically you had to figure out where they were at on the tape.

Is this something I would recommend for 95% of the families out there?  Not a chance.  The reasons that they were able to get away with this is because they both earned major postseason recognition last year (which does help in the eyes of college coaches), they were already on the radar of a lot of schools before sending this out, and the fact that one is 6-foot-7, 245 pounds and the other is 6-foot-6, 260 pounds.

Again, I was definitely surprised that they were able to receive multiple Division I-A (BCS) football scholarship offers from some top tier programs.  But again, being on the radar early on was huge for this.  Each has been starting since their sophomore year for a big school team.  Their coaches did a nice job marketing them (I am unsure what their families did in the process at all).  Once the first scholarship offer came for each, another in-state school had to basically match that.  After those two scholarships were on the table, an out-of-state school is taking much harder look at the tape, regardless of if they are highlighted or not.

There are certain situations where a lineman is big enough where you would have to be blind to not see where he is at on the field.  Situations like this do happen and for both of these athletes, it is a great thing for them to not have to worry about paying for college.  But if you have the ability to highlight yourself on the recruiting tape, it is definitely worth paying to have it professionally done.  The reason is if you don’t do that, will you second guess yourself when the scholarship offers are not coming in?  And if you are not on their radar to begin with, do you really think a coach will take the time to figure out where you are on the video?  Highlighting yourself on the field is the best way to let a college coach easily evaluate you.

And last but not least, two things that I feel should not be included on a highlight video.  The majority of times that I write this article is simply because I saw a video that was terrible and I had to let users know what not to do.  While the highlight tape that I watched was not terrible, there are a few things that I must stress to users.  The first is that in 99% of situations, I hate replays on the tapes.  If you are making a team highlight tape, go ahead and do it.  If you are trying to be recruited, don’t waste the space on your video.  Remember that if a college coach wants to see the play again, they will rewind it.  This happens way more often than it should.

The second is thinking in terms of getting your video footage on Scout, Rivals, ESPN, and any other major site out there.  One thing that you must think about before using video footage from a televised broadcast is copyright issues.  For example, if the local cable company taped the game and that is the footage you used, copyright issues should (let me stress should) prevent you from posting that on their sites.  It may be the best footage available but could limit your ability to get it out to those sites.  That may be something minor to think about but important as well if you are in the stages of marketing yourself.

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Recruiting-101 has put together a 25-page e-book on how to Produce a Scholarship Worthy Highlight Video.  It breaks down the overall process of creating a Highlight Video and gives step by step instructions for football and basketball recruits.  Click here to learn more about the e-book now, which is currently on sale for only $7.50!

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