Getting evaluated during the athletic recruiting process as soon as possible and the importance of it

The goal of the athletic recruiting process for any sport that you play is to end up getting a scholarship offer.  Why else would you be reading this site?  But in order to get a scholarship, you will need to be evaluated by the coaching staff.  Most of the coaches want to see you in person (give you the eyeball test) and then see you on tape or during a summer camp. 

This evaluated comes first in every single recruiting situation possible.  Even if a college coach at a rival school offers a scholarship because State University did, they are at least evaluating you after they know there is another scholarship on the table.  The sooner that you can get your evaluation, the better.  And after a recent comment from a parent, I thought this would be a good article to touch on. 

Here is the comment I mentioned.  Just to let you know, the parent in this is no different from many others.  She may have actually posted it but I can promise you many others think it out there:

Can going to the one day camps over the summer to a school that you are really interested in and that have shown interest in you, (school visits, spring eval phone call, emails, etc.) hurt you if you don’t perform well? Are you better off staying home and waiting for them to continue to evaluate you through your senior year?

For the first part of the question, if you come into the camp in bad condition and struggle to hold your own against other players, then yes, it definitely can hurt you.  But if you are hoping that you are a Division I recruit, you should know better than this and prepare your mind and body for the rigors of the camp circuit.  I can’t imagine what it would be like to go to ten different one day football camps all across the country but recruits do it. 

The only situation I can see an excuse could crop up is if you were injured/sick before the camp.  I have talked about this before but the absolutely worst time to suffer an injury/illness in regards to the football recruiting process and basketball recruiting process is the spring and summer before your senior year.  The reason is because you need the spring to train and the summer to shine at camps.  I have seen recruited athletes come down with mono (State University never offered this athlete so he went to I-AA State University) and others I am following now who were hurt in the spring. 

If you have the opportunity to train and give it your all, then you should go to these camps.  Ducking competition is not the way to get a scholarship offer.  As I have said before, and this is something to really think about, if you are not good enough at that level, then the coaches will figure that out. 

Going to one day of their camp is the most cost effective option to give yourself the opportunity to perform in front of their coaches and to be evaluated.  If they don’t think you are good enough for a scholarship (which likely happens in 95% plus of the situations), then you move on.  That is why I think getting evaluated as soon as possible is important.  Why would you stretch out a dream that has no chance of happening? 

I feel that athletes should go to the camp and get feedback.  The coaches are likely to say that they will keep recruiting you and you need to keep working hard.  But think about how many times you were pulled aside to work with the elite players at the camp.  Deep down, were you one of the best campers there (I just wanted to say I have never heard a high school athlete tell me they sucked at a camp.  Not once.)? 

Going back to her question, I think you should go to the camp to see where you sit with the college coaches.  Even if it is your dream school, if you are not good enough, then you need to look for more options in the recruiting process.  If you figure out that you are not good enough for State University, then you will move on to other schools across your region.  And because it is early enough in the process right now to do that, then it is perfect timing. 

If you skip the camp and continue to get recruited by them, the coaches may get your senior film in October and feel that you are not good enough.  By that time, two schools that could have been the perfect fit for you may have already moved on with players at your position.  This stuff happens all the time.  It may be hard to stop hoping for a State University offer, but if they haven’t extended a scholarship by now after their camp, you may need to start re-evaluating the process. 

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How does a college coach offer a sophomore or freshman during the football recruiting process?

If you are reading this site, then there is little doubt that you have read articles at Rivals.com, 247Sports.com, and similar sites that follow prep athletes and how the recruiting process is going for them.  And when reading about the top sophomores and sometimes freshmen on these sites, some of the football players claim to have scholarship offers from some of the top programs across the country. 

So how exactly does that happen, if according to NCAA rules, college coaches cannot do more than send a questionnaire or a camp invite to an athlete until September 1st of their junior year?  There are a few ways that all college coaches can make it work if they really want to offer a prospect before that September 1st date.  Here are three different ways. 

Speak with the high school coach
From my experience in following these early scholarship offers to football recruits, speaking to college coaches actually seems to be the most prevalent.  In this example, the high school coach has a relationship with the coaches at State University.  The high school coach has sent tape of you, only a sophomore right now, to the college coaches and they were impressed.  Your high school coach has also raved about your abilities, your work ethic, and maturity. 

The college coaches trust your high school coach and came in during the spring evaluation period to do the eyeball test on you.  This is something you have passed so they call the high school coach and tell them that they have a scholarship offer waiting for you.  The high school coach then passes that information off to you and tells you that you received your first scholarship offer. 

In this example, I have actually seen a high school coach relay the offer to the high school prospect and the coach then relay a commitment to the college coach after a short period of time.  It is always interesting to see this at work.  It takes a helpful high school coach, but honestly, a high school coach should be thrilled to be passing the good news. 

If you have a high school coach who is extremely helpful in the recruiting process, what he will do is make sure that the other schools recruiting you know about the scholarship offer.  Last summer, a running back prospect received a scholarship offer from an out of state program through this method.  The high school coach called/emailed State University and told them that there was an offer on the table from one of their rivals.  That prompted State University to pull the trigger on a scholarship offer that day. 

Relay the message that you need to call the coach
One thing college coaches often do is tell the high school coach about the offer but say that they want to speak with you, the athlete, about it.  In this situation, the high school coach basically just tells you that you need to call Coach Johnson and gives you his number.  With everyone having cell phones these days, an athlete can make the call at the school and find out about the offer.  This is a pretty straight forward method of doing it but you must call them in order to do it.  

Talk to you at their summer camp
If you are attending a camp at State University and just wow the coaching staff, then they may tell you before you go that there is a scholarship offer waiting for you.  These camps give the college coaches a chance to see you in person and will give them a better feel about your abilities and overall skills.  Plus they get to see how well you take to new things and handle college coaches. 

This is rare but some sophomores do leave college football camps with a scholarship offer.  It is a great thing to have as it really says a lot about what the college coach things and how they feel about your skills on the gridiron. 

These are the three main ways that college coaches can offer a football recruiting process before their junior year.  Please note that if the school really means is with the offer, it should be officially mailed to you early in September of your junior year.  It doesn’t always happen that way but if the college coaches are confident about you and your abilities, this is something that they should be doing. 

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Can you focus on the recruiting process and the football season at the same time?

If you read about any of the athletes throughout the country that have made their college decision within the last few weeks, a major thing that stands out when they talk about it is that they wanted to be able to focus on their senior season of football.  And in many cases, the high school coaches actually prefer athletes coming to a decision so that their focus can be on the high school season.

The problem is that for many athletes, not all of them are 100% sure where they want to continue their football career in college.  And if the coach is rushing them to a decision, it could actually lead to a decommit later in the fall and open up a difficult process for the athlete.  So the question is can you as an athlete be able to focus on both the football season and the recruiting process at the same time during the fall?

My answer is that you can but it can be extremely difficult.  If you are confident about your decision and know where you want to go, it really may be worth it to end the recruiting process before the season gets underway.  The reason is that it alleviates the stress and burden that you have from answering calls, practicing, doing homework, and trying to lead a normal life of a high school senior.

If you decide to put the football season in front of the recruiting process, there may be areas that you can hurt yourself when it comes to recruiting.  For example, you may decide to skip the game visits on Saturday so that you can watch game tape with your teammates.  While going to these games unofficially will not get you a scholarship offer, it will give you a great feel for what the atmosphere of game day is all about.  No matter who you talk to or what you see on television, actually being there is vital to get a feel for what it is like on those wild Saturdays at the school.

The second thing to talk about is your numbers.  This may sound selfish but if you put the team before the recruiting process, you may agree with your coach about playing out of position.  Not only will this hurt your numbers, it may be harder to get college coaches to watch your early game tapes when you are playing a position they are not recruiting you at.  This makes it difficult for even the best evaluators to get a feel for your future position.  And watching it on tape is not going to be easy.

Dedicating yourself to the season and putting recruiting in the background will also help you with nerves.  For example, most recruits send out game film from the first two or three games of their senior season.  If you are focused on the season and helping your team win, then you won’t be nervous about how you played in a certain portion of the tape.  You just have to worry about going out, giving it 100%, and going from there.  The recruiting will take care of itself later on.

If you decide to put the recruiting process in front of the football season, there is a good chance that you are going to get some teammates not happy with you as a person.  The majority of high school football players are not good enough to go on to the college level and want to make the most of every prep game they have left in their career.  And if you are focusing on yourself instead of the team, and they realize that, I can promise you they are not going to be thrilled.

Putting the recruiting process on top of everything may make you a ball of nerves and someone who cannot relax.  Your biggest concern is impressing college coaches and getting a scholarship offer/offers that you don’t worry about how the team does.  If you can rush for 150 yards and three touchdowns and the team losses, does it make that much of a difference to you?  In my opinion, no.

What you need to do is find a balance between the two.  You need to help your team win ball games first.  The better the team does, the better it makes you look and gives you the potential to showcase your skills in front of college coaches at State.  You also need to speak with your coach that you want to do everything you can to help the team win but you are also worried about recruiting.  Be honest and open with him about it (And try not to sound selfish while doing it).

To help yourself in the recruiting process during that final year of prep football, you really do need to make it clear what you hope to get out of it.  But at the same time, you want to make sure you are not putting recruiting ahead of helping your team win ball games.  Balance is the key here.

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Part 2 – What role should your high school coach play in the athletic recruiting process?

One thing that you will definitely want to speak to your high school coach about is sending game tapes and highlight tapes.  Honestly, not all coaches have the time to keep track of where to send highlight tapes and where to send game tapes.  That is why it is vital for you to talk to your coach about it.

The first area to discuss is regarding the creation of your highlight video.  Some coaches are willing to produce them for the athlete and doing that would help save them a great deal of money during the process.  You must make sure that they are able to product a quality highlight video in order to send out to colleges.  If the coach does one that is not very good, it is worth investing a few hundred dollars into getting one professionally made.

If the plan is to handle the highlight video yourself, you must also speak with the coach about getting your hands on copies of the game tape.  Some coaches burn all games on DVD and have great organization of their videos.  Others will have a pile of tapes in a number of different spots that has no organization whatsoever.  Hopefully having a conversation with the coach beforehand will help them remember that you need a few game tapes.

If the quality of the tape is poor, you need to look into having your parents video tape the games themselves or hiring it out.  At the very least, you need to make sure that there is good footage to be able to work with on the highlight video.  Even the most expensive video production teams can only do so much about a poor game video.

Once you have the highlight video planned out, you also need to speak with the coach about who is going to forward them to college coaches.  If you feel better doing it yourself, than you may want to ask your high school coach to forward all requests for tapes.  That means if you are organized, you can handle it yourself.  I myself have requested many tapes from coaches but usually only see a few come my way just because how busy the coach is.

You will also need to talk to your prep coach about what he or she has done in the past about preparing athletes for playing college at a high level.  They may recommend extra workouts and doing different things to make you better.  And again, if you want to play at that level, this extra workload is something that you must be excited about it.  If you are going to go through the motions during it, don’t waste everyone’s time.

Another important thing a high school coach can do about you is follow up after sending video highlights.  For example, Division I coaches will take the word of a high school coach because they don’t want to burn that bridge.  If you personally sent a highlight tape two weeks ago, see if your high school coach will call an assistant coach at the school and see if they have watched it yet.

Your high school coach can also call college coaches or email them about you as a player.  This sometimes just depends on their connections and if they have sent any previous players to the Division I level.

If you have your prep coach on your side during the recruiting process, it can be a huge advantage for you.  While it does not mean a scholarship is in the bag, it does put someone else in your corner that could help you in the eyes of college coaches.  Most coaches at the next level do believe what a prep coach has to say and will take that into account during the recruiting process.

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Football camp invites, calls, and Division I interest

As I have mentioned before in a number of articles, summer football camps provide two purposes.  The first is to help the college coaches figure out who they want to extend their scholarships to.  It is never an easy question but working with the athletes on campus does help further things along in the recruiting process.  And the second is to help the coaches supplement their income.  While many are making big bucks, the camps help a graduate assistant who may only be making $10,000 per year.

While all schools send out a lot of camp invites, one school that may honestly send out the most that I have heard is Kansas State.  I have spoken with many athletes who have told me about their recruiting and for whatever reason, the Wildcats are the only Division I-A school recruiting them.  The athlete doesn’t think much about it being strange.  One had limited college interest but mentioned to me how bad Kansas State wanted to evaluate him at their camp.  And while I don’t want to pick on Kansas State because I know a lot of other schools across the country send out camp invites to a lot of athletes, you really need to realize how serious that they are about you in recruiting.

A parent recently asked me about a school that had been recruiting him and wanted him to go to their camp.  The reason why it was a difficult situation was because the family was unsure how serious the school was about him and if it was worth it to attend the camp.  My thoughts are unless you receive a phone call from them during the May evaluation period, then chances are slim that you will receive much of a look from the coaches at camp.  Now that doesn’t mean coaches from other schools won’t start recruiting you after the camp.

To me, a school like Kansas State is doing whatever they can to have the biggest camp possible.  I have been amazed at some of the names of athletes that have been “invited” to their camp.  It seems as if you played varsity football last year, the Wildcats want to bring you to camp so that they can evaluate you.  As they mentioned to a recruit last year, if you are the best quarterback there, then you will get a scholarship.  That quarterback ended up going to a non scholarship I-AA program that was just starting.  I guess they will say whatever they can to get recruits to their camps.

At this time of year as many top football recruits head off to camps throughout the country, think seriously about the schools that have sent you camp invites.  Have they called you?  Did they invite you to a Junior Day?  Are they sending hand written letters?  Have they really been showing the type of interest that makes this camp invite truly real?

As I talked about earlier in the article, the athlete that I spoke with did not find it strange at all that Kansas State was the only Division I-A school recruiting him.  My guess is that when everything is said and done, he ends up at a small Division II or III school.  And while it was not my place to say anything to him about what camps he does and doesn’t go to, I think it is important to really think about the schools that have invited you to camps.

The reason that you put up the money to go to these camps is because you want a fair shot to be evaluated.  Getting that evaluation may not lead to a scholarship but getting that chance is something that everyone looks for.  But if you have not gotten any interest outside of a minimal camp invite, then it may not be worth your money and time to make the trip.

Note: I know this article talks a lot about Kansas State but many other colleges send out camp invites to a lot of recruits as well.  It just seemed that in the Midwest, the Wildcats do it the most to pad their numbers.  While it is legal by all means, I question it ethically to try and get non-Division I kids to your camp so you can evaluate them. 

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Part 1 – What role should your high school coach play in the athletic recruiting process?

Love them or hate them, your high school coaches will play a very important role during the athletic recruiting process.  It doesn’t matter much what sport you play but if you want to play at the college level, you will need them on your side to help you achieve your goals of playing athletics past high school.

The first thing that you need to do as an athlete is tell them what you want to do early on.  For example, say that you just finished up your sophomore season playing at the varsity level.  You had a solid year and were named second team All Conference.  Because you have that experience for playing under that coach, now is a great time to tell them your goals at the next level.

While every situation is different, the coach may have helped other players play at the Division I level.  He may know what it takes during the football recruiting process to help you get to the college level.  The coach may also know what specific areas you need to work on to get to that high of a level.  Trust me in saying that it is not going to be a walk in the park by any means.

It is important not to come up to the head varsity coach following your freshman year or basketball where you were the sixth man and tell him that you want to play at Duke.  You first have to be realistic as there are some God given limitations that cause athletes who have the talent and work ethic but not the size to make it.

In the football example I mentioned, doing it early gives you plenty of time because it allows the coach to really push you to become the best player that you can be.  There are going to be ups and downs during the process but talking to your coach about it early will help you in the long run.

Your college coach must be on your side as well because he or she is going to be the one talking to college coaches.  These coaches call asking for more information on certain athletes.  If you have an attitude, most coaches are going to be honest and tell the college coach the truth.  Why would your coach want to lie in this situation?

As mentioned here before, college coaches will talk to just about anyone when they are trying to find more information about a recruit.  It doesn’t matter if it is your Math or Biology teach, you need have few enemies.  But the person that will hear the most from college coaches is your high school coach.

A Division I basketball coach told me a few years back about a player that they ended up offering a scholarship to.  It was a small school player who was a big man at 6-foot-10.  While his prep competition was not very high, the coaches scoured the school to learn more information about the athlete.  They found out that he was just a good kid who worked hard.  He would come in at 5:30 AM everyday to lift weights because there were no other times.  It showed that he was dedicated early on to become a better athlete and he ended up getting a scholarship.  It should come as no surprise that the athlete had a fantastic career and ended up really making a name for himself at the school.

You will need your high school coach to forward letters onto you.  While I assume it doesn’t happen that often, there are some high school coaches who may have a grudge with certain college programs.  The coach may then make sure that their letters are not forwarded onto you, which eventually becomes a problem.  I would hope that happens at least a very small amount of the time overall.

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