Recruiting-101’s Reader Mailbag #3

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.

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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