Step One to Earning an Athletic Scholarship: Build a Recruiting Profile

The first step to earning an athletic scholarship is to build a successful recruiting profile. Even for parents or athletes that lack computer skills, this is something that really can be easily done. The advantage of doing it on the computer in a Word document or PDF document is the ability to send it via email. You can use the Internet to your advantage and that is why putting this together is very helpful in the recruiting process. It allows you to quickly showcase your son or daughter’s accomplishments and saving you money by sending it through email.

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One quick note before going into this. Do not complete a recruiting profile until your child has achieved significant varsity statistics. It continues to happen but college coaches will not recruit your son if he scored 34 points in a freshman game. It is great but you need to be realistic overall. Here is what I feel should be included in your recruiting profile:

Contact Information - It is important to send the coach as much contact information as possible. Include an address, phone numbers (Home and cell), and email addresses (Yours and your parents). Also talk to your coach about including his contact information. College coaches would much rather hear that you can play from a coach and not your parent. If the college coach feels that you may have the skills to play at their level, including all relevant contact information will allow him or her to contact you when things get serious in the recruiting process. Providing that for them will give you an advantage over other recruits.

Grades & Academic Information - Coaches know what it will take grade wise to get into their school so make sure that they are aware of your academics. If you have worked hard enough in high school, this should be something you are proud of and want them to see. If you have taken your ACT and SAT already, make sure to include those scores. The majority of the schools around the country do not have Ivy League standards so even if you have a 3.3 and a 23 ACT, that is still a solid resume on your academics. Most coaches seek out kids with these grades because that can get you in at a lot of places. If you have talked to the guidance counselor and know your class rank, throw that in there too. As with contact information, the more you can provide, the better. What also makes grades important is that many feel the better grades you get, the better kid you are overall. While I am not saying all kids with low grades are bad kids, but it does show you can focus and succeed at something out of the football field or basketball court.

Athletic Accomplishments - Make sure you are being realistic about this and not rounding your numbers up. The last thing you would want a coach to find out is that you lied about your stats. So if you rushed for 956 yards, put that instead of 1,000. Keep things realistic because the coaches will eventually find out if things are exaggerated. Other things to talk about in this portion of the athletic recruiting profile include individual stats, post season honors (Try to avoid putting in preseason honors because that doesn’t really say a whole lot), team records, and team accomplishments. Another good thing to add is accomplishments in other sports. Even if it is a 20-10 wrestling record or a letter earned in track, college coaches like to see athletes to play multiple sports. It shows that you are more well rounded and have not been focusing on a certain sport your whole life. Football coaches love to see when a lineman plays basketball or wrestles. That is just an added dimension of athleticism that is good for you in the recruiting process.

A Picture - You might as well allow them to see a picture of you with a big smile on your face. If you visit the school in the future, they should have a clue who you are if they consider you a serious prospect. This picture will help that along. Some schools have the coaches memorize the players’ names so when they come on a visit, they already know what the player looks like. Having a picture on your profile can really help that along.

Things to Avoid - College coaches will not want to waste their time reading irrelevant information. I said it is important to provide a lot of things about yourself but I don’t think being named MVP of the sophomore team will help you earn a scholarship. Try to look at things from the eyes of the college coaches and what would help them recruit you.

Format - I mentioned earlier that you can put it together in a Word or PDF document. Another option is using Microsoft Excel. When sending these out, make sure to not use an obscure program that causes the coaches any trouble in opening. In the last few years, I have had parents send me information in Open Office Documents and a .docx file. The Open Office Document needed a completely new program downloaded and a .docx is the new version of Office. Now all college coaches will have the programs or computer skills needed to open them. So double check the extension of the file and keep it is simple as possible. A .doc, .pdf, or a .xls make things very easy. Coaches who have issues with the file may just move on and not respond.

This recruiting profile is an important introduction of yourself to the coaching staff. While it may not seem like much, it is a good way to introduce a lot of coaches to your skills. It is easy to grab email addresses off of college websites and that can make things much easier than writing letters. Think of this as your athletic recruiting resume. It will help open doors for you at the next level. The next article will focus on sending out your athletic recruiting profile to help you in finding a college match for you.

Five Steps to a Scholarship Articles:
Step One to Earning an Athletic Scholarship: Build a Successful Recruiting Profile
Step Two to Earning an Athletic Scholarship: Find Schools that Match You
Step Three to Earning an Athletic Scholarship: Market Your Child to College Coaches
Step Four to Earning an Athletic Scholarship: Make a Quality Highlight Tape
Step Five to Earning an Athletic Scholarship: Build a Website with Video