As a follow-up to last week's economic update, the 2nd quarter US growth figures were released last week confirming their GDP grew 4.1%.
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If you are a football recruit or basketball recruit heading into your senior season and you have received Division I interest but no scholarship offers at this point, I can tell you right now at the very most you are a backup recruit. What I mean by a backup recruit is basically a fallback option for the coaches at the schools recruiting you if their top targets pick other programs.
Coaches have to have these backup recruits for obvious reasons. If they are trying to take two linebackers in this senior class and the two athletes with offers suddenly pick another school, the coaches want to be able to have option B lined up. If they don’t have you or others as a backup recruit, then they will be scrambling in hopes of getting a commitment from an option D or E recruit. If that is the case, then the coaches are likely in trouble in the long run. But there are some things that you can do about it.
Lets say hypothetically that you are a backup lineman recruit for Ohio State. You have been hearing from the Buckeyes via mail, letters, the phone, email, attended a Junior Day, and worked out for their coaches at their camp. They continue to tell you to be patient, keep working hard, and to send your first three game tapes of your senior season.
In all honesty, I have never heard of a coaching staff being so wowed by those first three game tapes from an athlete that attended a summer camp at that same program. The story I hear more common of athletes getting offers at this time of year or during the fall is when their top recruits either pick another school or decommit. That leaves them with an opening that you could fill yourself.
I have told this story before but State University was recruiting this athlete extremely hard. They had not offered and basically told him the be patient and we will review your tape after the first three games following him attending their camp. A few weeks after the camp, the school has a player at the same position who was previously committed change his mind and pick another school in their conference. State University then offers this other athlete recruit. Did the coaches at State University suddenly change their mind after re-watching his tape? Not a chance.
This is the domino effect of being a backup recruit. The problem is that you will likely never know for sure where you are at on the chart. You may be next in line at cornerback but the coaches may suddenly decide that they don’t need a cornerback in this class. Nothing is guaranteed until you sign that final paper in the football recruiting process come February.
If you are in this situation, the first thing that you must do is not sit there and just wait. What you need to do is be proactive and really start to market yourself to college coaches. Take a look at Division I-A, I-AA, II, and III schools that may fit you academically and athletically. The broader the search, the more options you will have in the recruiting process.
I hate to say it but there is obviously a hole in your game if you are unable to land a scholarship offer at this point in the process. Sure, an offer may come down the road but you want to make sure that you will have options when everything is said and done. That is why I think it is vital that you look at new schools. This is the surest way to make sure if the big boys don’t come calling in the fall, you have backup options lined up.
Just look at all the athletes throughout the country committing to smaller Division I football and basketball programs. They could roll the dice and see if bigger programs would come calling. But in the end, the key is finding where you will be happiest. And just because a school is bigger doesn’t mean it will make you any happier there.
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I write a lot about the different stories I hear from athletes that I talk to. They vary from story to story but this helps me continue to get a feel for the recruiting process and what athletes are thinking. Something that I have been hearing frequently lately is athletes getting recruiting attention from smaller schools but saying that they think they want to play at the scholarship level.
While this does seem to be an ongoing theme from athletes of all different sports, many people (And athletes as well) have a high opinion of themselves. They may be getting Division III and NAIA attention but in their mind, they are a Division I or II player. The question is what should an athlete do if they really think they are better than the colleges that are recruiting you?
For the sake of playing both sides of the card, lets say you really are an exceptional athlete who is better than those at the Division III and NAIA levels. What you will need to do is go through the second and third steps of The Five Steps to a Scholarship Offer and look for bigger programs that fit what you are looking for. Getting your name out is always huge during the recruiting process.
There may be a hundred different reasons why you were unable to get your name out earlier. They could include missing time your junior year, being unable to go to/afford summer camps, or having an outstanding player ahead of you in the lineup. Things like this happen everywhere so it should come as no surprise. Let me stress while it is harder to find a school with only a breakout senior season, it can happen.
On the other side of the equation is the fact that you really may only be of the Division III and NAIA level. What you have to realize is that these are very good players in their sport. Some high school athletes think that just because they put up big numbers at their small high school, they are going to stand out right away. The fact is that is not usually the case. These are hard working athletes and many high schoolers don’t understand how good they really are.
If you want to get a true evaluation, don’t but what recruiters, scouts, are evaluators are trying to sell you. I have seen so many low to mid major Division I players end up in Division III basketball it is sick. These evaluators watch you for ten minutes and try to get a quick feel for your game. Once that ten minutes is over, for the good or the bad, they move on to watch another kid. So don’t buy the hype that they are selling you.
The place to go is to your high school coach and possibly any other coaches in the area who do not have a bias involved. Unfortunately, asking your mom or dad (Unless they are college coaches) will not do the trick. And with a situation I have seen recently, even a dad as a college coach does not take the bias out of his eyes for his son.
Although some high school coaches may not really know, it would be good to at least ask them and get an opinion. If they believe you above that level (Which many will say you are because the coaches are bias as well), ask them to help you get your name out to coaches at this level. Again, I have seen many high school coaches feel a player can go Division II and he or she end up at the Division III ranks. It just happens.
As an athlete, the first step I would take is talking to your coaches. If they feel you are above that, then it is time to market yourself. The hardest thing is being realistic about your talent and what level you can play.
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It seems that when talking to different recruits, there are two different camps that the athletes sit in. The first is those that are fully aware of what college programs have been recruiting them. They know what level these schools are at, which ones they have visited, and which schools that they seem to like the most.
The second group varies differently from the first group. These are the athletes who don’t really have much recruiting interest so when the question is asked, they do as much as they can to avoid it and not answer it. They will say things like “a bunch of Division II and III schools are recruiting me but none are serious” or “there haven’t been any major offers yet so I am just waiting.” The reason that they use these answers is because they think that over time, the recruiting attention will just come. The problem with that is if you don’t take control of the athletic recruiting process, you are going to be waiting a very long time before that interest comes.
So why am I not being recruited? I decided to put together a list of excuses from athletes over time. The more I hear these, the more annoying that it gets. If you are trying to use one or more of these excuses, please consider going through The Five Steps to a Scholarship Offer so that you can jump start your own personal recruiting process. Anyways, onto the excuses.
I am waiting for my senior season
This one is completely ridiculous. The longer you wait for the recruiting process to come to you, the worse your college choices will be when making a final decision. The old adage goes that if you are good enough, they will find you. But they are Division III schools that will cost you thousands of dollars in loans.
I was hurt
While there is a valid point to this, do you have tape of your junior or senior year? Unless you were hurt both years (than you can use this excuse and it may actually time to retire from the sport you keep getting hurt in), then there still should be footage and stats to send to college coaches. Being hurt does make things harder but it is honestly not a realistic excuse.
I didn’t have the money to go to camps
Camps are great but putting together a recruiting profile and emailing college coaches is basically free. You can do these things easily even if you don’t have the cash laying around to attend the summer camps. Also look into free Nike and Scout Combines/Camps.
My team wasn’t very good
There are a lot of bad teams out there. And even with teams that I have seen go winless on the football field, players from those teams have received multiple Division I scholarship offers. It is what you do as an individual, not as a team, that will help you garner scholarship offers.
My coach doesn’t help me during the recruiting process
This is a common problem that occurs all the time. You are relying on your high school coach to take care of the recruiting process for you. I have always stressed and will continue to stress that you and your family must take care of the recruiting process yourself. Handing it off to a coach or a service will likely leave you disappointed in the end.
I had bad tape to make a highlight video
If you were smart and looked ahead in the recruiting process to see how bad the footage would be, then you could have taken steps to find other means of getting video. Don’t use this as an excuse if you are trying to get the recruiting process started late. This is something that you need to do your leg work beforehand.
I was playing a different position than I was being recruited at
This does make it tough at times for college coaches but these coaches also can see the athleticism on tape. If you are playing defensive line and they want you at linebacker, then you better show some great athleticism. Making that move to another position is not always easy but not a good excuse.
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Throughout the recruiting process, one of the coolest things that a high school athlete can receive is letters from Division I schools. I was a terrible high school basketball player but I even received one Division I letter my junior year (Which I do believe that I still have). It just makes your day, week, or month to receive this type of attention.
If a coach is serious about you, they will want to keep you on the hook as long as they can so that they can see where their A and B options are going. If those two go elsewhere, and you are option C, then a scholarship offer may be coming your way. But if they decide to go in a different direction, many coaches will be brutally honest with you. This is a stand up thing for a coach to do but they will tell you that they have decided to no longer recruit you.
Obviously this depends on the school and the player. I know some coaches who will string a player along as far as they can. They want to keep this player “warm” if something is to open up during the recruiting process. If athletes on their team transfer, then it may be the perfect time to offer this third option a scholarship.send a letter (Not the greatest letter to get) that says they either got a commitment from a player at your position or they are looking into another direction for this recruiting class. As an athlete, this is a tough call to take. And if you get it, what should you do?
While this may be your dream school and the program that you hoped to get a scholarship at, things don’t always work as planned. While it is disappointing, them telling you that actually is a good thing. This school could decide to string you along the entire process and keep you from picking another school because there is a glimmer of hope for a scholarship offer. Instead, they were honest and let you know the truth.
Hopefully this is still early enough in the recruiting process that there were are other options. As mentioned in about every article I write, I always say that you should keep your options open and consider all schools. Hopefully if you have done that and avoided the tunnel vision on this one school, you can start looking more and more into the other programs that are after you.
If you currently are unhappy about the schools that are recruiting you, refer to The Five Steps to a Scholarship and start marketing yourself to schools that interest you. Again, it really depends on what sport you are playing and what time of the year it is. Some schools may be fresh out of scholarship offers while others may have only a very small number of commitments. It just depends from case to case.
Again, this may be disappointing but things happen for a reason. It may be that you should go to a Division II school and end up being All American. Or maybe take another route that you did not even think about at all during the recruiting process. If you keep a positive frame of mind, it will help you get past this disappoint and find the perfect school for you that actually wants you there.
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Let's start with the recent Bank of Canada announcement. Based on strong business and export growth, the Bank of Canada raised its overnight rate to 1.50% on July 11th. Canadian Banks responded by increasing their prime rate by 0.25%.
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I have always stressed on here that one way to really help yourself in the athletic recruiting process is by taking care of your grades. Most coaches feel that the athletes with the best grades are usually the ones that they have to worry about the least in the classroom as well as away from the field or court on weekends. These are not the players coaches lose sleep over after big wins.
What made me really start thinking harder and harder about grades is a recent email I received from a parent. While I will not mention his name or the name of his son, he brought up some very excellent points regarding academics and the ability for an athlete to walk on. It may seem menial during the recruiting process but academics are even more important for walk ons than scholarship athletes.
With the addition of the Academic Progress Report (APR), college coaches have a lot riding on the amount of scholarship athletes that are passing classes and will graduate in their respective classes. The reason this APR was put in was to track the performance of these scholarship athletes in the classroom and penalize those schools who struggled to graduate players.
While I feel there are some flaws in the system, it is a great way to make sure college coaches are not clearing house when they take over a new program. The more players leaving, the more their APR will be hurt. What is interesting is that some college coaches even have their APR score tied into their contract. The better the score, the more they are paid so it is serious business to these coaches.
Lets say that there are two players the college is looking at as a potential walk-on. Both athletes could earn a scholarship down the road and thus eventually be factored into the APR score. One athlete has a 2.5 GPA and scored a 20 on his ACT. The other has a 3.8 GPA and has a 28 on his ACT. If these players were even close to being equal talents, which one do you think the college coach would take with a walk on opportunity?
The exact same situation goes for scholarship athletes. When colleges have extremely low APR because of their problems, administrators at the school will not take that lightly. Low graduation rates and APR scores are a major reason why some college coaches will be on the hot seat more than others. These coaches need athletes who can perform as well as stay strong in the class room.
All schools will take chances with athletic recruits that they may consider game changers. It could be the 7-foot center in the basketball recruiting process or the defensive back who runs a 4.3 40-yard dash in the football recruiting process. Chances will be taken by coaches at all levels and basically all schools. But college coaches are smart enough to limit those chances on only a handful of players. If you get a lot of those questionable athletes and many don’t perform as expected, your APR could be severely hurt.
I have said this before but taking care of business in the classroom is a great way to be a step ahead of the competition during the athletic recruiting process. While it doesn’t mean an athletic scholarship will certainly be yours, it will give you the benefit of the doubt for a scholarship or even a walk on position. And if your goal is to play at a high level, even if it takes walking on, this is a great start.
The post Why academics matter more than ever in the athletic recruiting process appeared first on Recruiting-101.
The Morning Call recently had an article talking about how the best recruits in the country do not always end up being the most productive at the college level. Having college coaches all over the country offering you, fans hoping that you will come to their school, and getting high reviews from recruiting experts from Scout, Rivals, ESPN is great but it does not mean you are going to be a sure fire NFL draft pick.
In a lot of cases though, the top rated recruits do have more tools to be able to get to the next level. Their size, speed, strength, and things of that nature after being fine tuned by college coaches could be exactly what NFL scouts want down the road. But it doesn’t always work that way. The article I mentioned above specifically talks about Penn State and their recruits, both with high and low rankings.
The two players that were often mentioned in the article were wide receivers One walked on and another was a grayshirt recruit, which basically means they were not expected to be among the top players on team. Each would be great if they add depth but little was likely expected out of them.
Work harder than anyone else:
While hard work will not make a terrible athlete better than one of the best in the country, if there are two comparable athletes and one works harder, which one do you think will see the field first? Going back to another quote, think about this one. And it is among my favorite all time quotes: “Hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work hard.”
Don’t take anything for granted:
Sometimes when recruits are highly rated, they expect the starting position to be handed to them and that they don’t have to worry about much else. They have been handed things all of their life so why should it stop now? As an underrated recruit, do not take anything for granted. Don’t take the opportunity to walk on or potential to earn a scholarship for granted. Keep it in mind during your workouts that you have something to prove.
Play with a chip on your shoulder:
When you are on the field, play with a chip on your shoulder. Try to prove to the coaching staff that you deserve a scholarship offer. While you will have to put a staggering amount of time in, remember that the time you are putting in is for something you love.
Avoid off the field problems:
The less problems you have off the field, the better chances you avoid going into the doghouse. Just stay out of trouble.
Have success in the classroom:
While this may not get you on the field, having success in the classroom will help you overall. Maybe you never get that scholarship but are able to graduate with a 3.5 GPA.
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We recently had a comment from a parent who sits in a very desirable situation. Even though his son is just entering his junior year of high school, he already holds two early scholarship offers. What that means is his son has already gotten off to a great start in the recruiting process. But with the offers in hand, now is a great time to capitalize on them.
I have always mentioned that making your offers public is important during the recruiting process. Some feel differently, but I strongly feel that if schools see other programs recruiting you, they are going to take a closer look at you because of that interest. Never lie about the amount of interest that you actually have but part of marketing yourself is letting other colleges and media outlets know that the scholarship offers are on the table.
While I don’t know all that much about the situation with the offers, the hope is that on September 1st these scholarships will become offers on paper instead of just a verbal offer. I have heard many stories about coaches offering verbal scholarships and never coming through. But for the sake of this article, lets say that the hard copies of the offers will be coming early next month.
If there have been other schools outside of the two recruiting this athlete, make sure to let the coaches know that there are two offers on the table. As a parent, you can send an email update to the coach who you have had the most contact with. Tell them about how the preseason practices/early games are going for your son, their updated height/weight, and about the recruiting interest. The more coaches that know, the better for you.
The offers may also help you open more doors to schools that an athlete has grown up dreaming to play for. In the third step of the Five Steps to a Scholarship Offer, I stress to market your child or yourself to college coaches. When you pick new schools to contact and send your recruiting profile to, make sure to include that these two have offered early scholarship offers. Make sure to include the date as well because you really have to be an excellent recruit to get offers so early in the recruiting process.
Once those are done, the third and final step is contact media outlets. If it was me, the first place I would go is to check Rivals.com and see if the schools that have offered have a website on their network. If it is updated frequently and people actually seem to care about it, then email the publisher and introduce yourself with mention of the offer. If the site is poorly run (Most of the major BCS schools have the best sites), then email the recruiting experts at Rivals in your area (Click here for a full list of contact information). Also, make sure to check out the high school site in your state and judge if it is worth contacting them about the information. With these prep sites, only a few are done well so think hard if it is worth it.
After you have tried Rivals.com, do the exact same steps with 247Sports. Look for sites at the schools that have offered and then try contacting their recruiting experts (Click here for the full list of contact information). Last but not least, try the high school site in your state as well. After that, the third place I would contact is ESPN. I have tried searching for their contact information but it is definitely tricky. Click here for what I found. Also don’t forget about 247Sports.
The last place I would contact would be your local newspaper. Find out who the prep writer is for your area (Most should already know this) and email them about the offers. While it does not mean they are going to drop everything and do an article, it is good to let them know for future articles.
The reason that you tell college coaches about this is that offers breed more offers. I really believe that. Contacting Rivals, Scout, and ESPN is the next step to get the word out about the offers. College coaches love checking out those sites so they will likely see it and move on from there.
Again, having scholarships before your junior year is a great thing. It says a lot about the athlete and their ability on the field and you are in a very good position at this point.
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Last week I put together an article that talked about ways to save money throughout the athletic recruiting process and even specifically for the football recruiting process. One of the ten that drew a lot of attention was related to this. Do not send out tape unless a coach requests it: It makes me sick when recruits tell me that they send out game tape and don’t get a response. The reason is because it is not a smart thing to do and it wastes time. College coaches have a hard enough time viewing all of the tape that they request. If you are sending tape without making prior contact, you might as well do something else with your time. That is likely what happens anyways when you do this.
I received some very interesting responses to this and some more questions. If I don’t send out the game tape, then how exactly are college coaches going to watch my highlight video? Let me tell you that sending out tape prior to hearing from the coaches will not get you a ton of interest. One athlete emailed me about doing this and you would be surprised about the lack of responses:
I will keep the name of the athlete out of the picture but what he said was very important to this article.
“I’ve submitted film to over 40 schools over the summer, film from my season. I got letters back from about eight or nine saying that they would review it and then get in touch with me. I haven’t heard directly back from any of those schools that replied with letters.
Let me first state that what this athlete did is the exact same thing that a lot of athletes do. They think that the best way to draw interest from college coaches throughout the the country is by what I call “cold sending” a highlight video link. What I mean by this is that it is when you have zero contact with the coaches at the school and think that if your highlight tape is good enough, they will start being interested and hopefully extend a scholarship offer your way.
You may have a highlight tape as good as the top recruit in the country but in the majority of cases, if you are cold send the link, the highest person on the coaching staff that may watch it is a graduate assistant. That is likely the very most. Outside of that, most emails end up in the garbage not responded to.
What I need athletes out there to think about is I am sure most players would love to get a scholarship offer from the likes of LSU or USC. Lets say hypothetically that 1,000 kids in 25 different states have that same dream and try to send their highlight tapes to those schools. Each of these top tier programs would have at least 25,000 highlight tapes sent to them. Do you really think they have the time to spend watching each and every highlight video? Then ask yourself, why are you sending it out as well?
If you have a pipedream to play at one of those schools, instead of making a tape and sending it, why not email them and get the conversation started? If they hate it, all that it took you was the ten minutes or so tracking down their email address and then writing why you would love to play for the Trojans or the Tigers.
But again, before going out after the season and sending out fifty highlight video links, think about what the recruit above said about what happened to him. He sent out 40 tapes and let’s say nine schools contacted him back. That is a 22.5% chance of even hearing from the schools that you sent the tape to. These schools are likely the nicer ones with the time to actually consider reviewing them. Since then, 0% of the schools have contacted him directly about the tape afterwards. Is that really worth the time and effort to follow a similar path?
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I recently had a chance to speak with an athlete who is a very good basketball at a small school. He played some for an AAU team during the summer but didn’t get all that much exposure. When talking to him about recruiting, I heard a statement that I really hope people do not believe: “I am getting some letters from a lot of colleges but I am going to wait until my senior season to help get myself out there a little bit.”
If you have logged varsity time in the sport that you hope to play in college, there is no better time than now to start marketing yourself in the athletic recruiting. It doesn’t matter if it is football, basketball, baseball, or any other sport for that matter. The longer that you wait, the harder it is going to be for you in the athletic recruiting process.
While I cannot say for sure, my guess is this athlete is going it alone in the recruiting process. He is uniformed and not received much help from those around him. I was in his situation many years back as well but this athlete has the stats that will help open doors for him to college coaches. He needs to take advantage of his skills and start contacting college coaches.
By contacting college coaches, I do not mean that he needs to be randomly sending tapes to any Division I school in the country. That is not something that will be wasting your time, money, and probably getting your hopes up as well. I knew a player from the Midwest that sent his tape to colleges in Virginia. If he was sending them there, how many others do you really think he sent out? The good news is that hudl and youtube links can be sent easily via email.
Instead of doing that, athletes should be looking into which schools fit them best. They need to figure out what they want most in a school in terms of education, location, the level of the program, and things along those lines. Once they find those schools, that is the time they go to the athletics website of that college and contact the coaches. Send them your recruiting profile and go from there.
First off, if a player is waiting until his senior season, chances are the only schools that will “help him get out there” are going to be Division III, NAIA, or Junior College programs. The scholarship schools at the Division I and II levels already have their recruiting board full of names. The sooner that you can contact them about your ability, the more it will help you.
If a scholarship school has five prospects for a shooting guard spot (Or even offensive tackle spot for football), they may end up getting a commitment from one of those prospects in the fall and be done with recruiting. If this player hopes to wait until his senior season to shine, it could be too late for so many schools that could be a good fit.
By doing the work now, you are at least taking control of the recruiting process and having some say as to which schools recruit you. This is not a sure fire way to a scholarship but it will help put you in the best situation possible to get attention from colleges that you are interested.
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The transition from renting to owning can have curveballs. In this article, we share 5 tips that first time home buyers should follow when purchasing a home.
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I have talked frequently about the importance of excelling at college camps during the football recruiting process. These camps are when college coaches get a chance to work with you, evaluate your skills, and have you battle with other top rated recruits in-attendance.
What I have seen over and over during the last few years is that these college camps are more important than your highlight video, full game tapes, and what you did during any of your high school football seasons. I have seen it before and will continue to see it again. If you can blow up during the camp circuit, you will put yourself in line for scholarship offers regardless of what you did during the fall.
The thing that really stood out to me a few weeks ago was when a punter received a Division I scholarship from a BCS school and then quickly committed. This punter did an excellent job at a number of camps in terms of distance and hang time. He then went to the special teams camp at the college and excelled there as well.
So why is this such a big deal? It is because this athlete punted once at the varsity level in his high school career. His 31-yard boot apparently must have made for an impressive highlight tape. This athlete could not beat out a senior punter on the team. If I was that senior, I wouldn’t be thrilled that my backup received a Division I scholarship offer from a major conference.
The only reason that this punter ended up with a Division I scholarship offer is because he excelled at camps. His overall stats were that he played in seven games, caught one pass for nine yards, and had one punt for 31-yards. That doesn’t scream Division I athlete to you? It is a great accomplishment to the player that he excelled at the camps and did well. But it shows that the regular season doesn’t mean a whole lot.
The next recruit I want to mention ended up getting an offer from a major player in the Pac-12 conference. This athlete ended up taking the offer and is still a work in progress during the last time I checked. Over the course of his junior year, he started nine of ten games at quarterback while completing 56 of 116 passes for 701 yards, six touchdowns, and ten interceptions. He also ran 17 times for 42 yards. What college coach wouldn’t offer this kid based on stats?
Well, this recruit has a monster frame and some freakish athleticism. He is 6-foot-6, 215 pounds and ran a 4.6 40-yard dash at a camp during his summer circuit. This athlete went to this camp and shined in front of college coaches. While this is a coaching staff that has a longer evaluation process than most schools, they extended a scholarship before he left campus. The school was that impressed with his abilities and performance.
Even with more interceptions than touchdowns, this school is in the midst of trying this recruit at quarterback. They will give him a chance behind center before they move him to tight end or maybe even put 70 pounds on him and move him to the offensive line. Athletically, he has a chance to do a lot at the college level. But if he had not attended this camp, do you think feel that he would have been given this opportunity for a scholarship?
Compared these two stories to a recruit who recently finished up his junior season in which he was named first team All State while rushing 381 times for 2,216 yards and 36 touchdowns. He also helped his team to the best season in the history of the football program. At last count, this athlete had a few letters from Division III and NAIA schools.
I hate to say it but the battle for a scholarship heats up during the summer. The time that you can get a scholarship, regardless of the stats you put up, is during the summer. This is the perfect time to shine and can help pay your way through college.
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Some of the last round of changes from the government regarding qualifying for a mortgage was that if you have a balance on your unsecured line of credit, then to qualify for a mortgage the lenders require that we use a 3% payment of the balance of the line of credit.
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I recently had an opportunity to speak with a basketball recruit about what college programs had been showing him interest. This talented athlete is very gifted but he just wrapped up his freshman year on the court. For the record, let me state that he obviously is very young and early into the recruiting process.
This player has had a lot of success while growing up in hoops but he seemed to believe that because a school sends you a letter, there is a good chance that he will have an opportunity to go there. This unfortunately is the mindset of many athletes and parents who go through the recruiting process.
I have mentioned this before but even when I was in high school, I had no idea about the recruiting process. It has taken me over a decade to figure out what real recruiting is and how athletes can actually help themselves during the process. That is obviously why I started and maintain this site.
But for this athlete, he mentioned two schools sending mail and made it sound like he will eventually have his pick between the programs. A letter means very little in the athletic recruiting process. All it shows is that the school has some how found your name and added it to their recruiting database.
Many schools start with database that is in the thousands and eventually whittle it down to recruits that end up signing with them. In order to be one of the athletes who sign a Division I Letter of Intent, you have to be among the best of the best and excelled throughout your career.
What this athlete needs to realize is that there is a lot more work to be done if you are just receiving letters. I would assume that the majority of readers out there are currently at that stage. They have received letters but that is it right now. So what should you be doing?
Have you gone/are you going to summer football camps? Are you on an AAU/club team? Did you line up showcases for baseball/softball? There are a number of things that you need to be doing outside of the regular workouts and lifting. These camps, select teams, and showcases are can help you get your name out there and showcase your skills in front of college coaches.
If your goal is to play Division I athletics, than the initial letters you receive don’t mean a whole lot. What you need to be working for is not excelling at the high school level. It is being good enough to receive scholarship offers from college coaches. And that takes a great deal of hard work, a little luck, and impressing the right coach. All you need to do is find one coaching staff that likes you to play at the Division I level.
The post Athletes believing that attention and letters equal a scholarship offer and why this is not a great way to think appeared first on Recruiting-101.
The majority of high school athletes have skills in a number of sports. This athleticism is what has helped you catch the eye of college coaches and also intrigued them about your ability to be a standout in multiple sports. For most of these athletes, it is obvious what their future sport will be in college because you may just be much better at one sport compared to a few others.
But what about the athletes who excel in two and maybe even three sports? You may be already receiving college interest for all of these sports. With camps, showcases, AAU, summer teams, and things along that line, making an effort in all the sports is nearly impossible. So should you just play all two or three sports at the highest level and hope the interest will come? Or should you focus on the one you love the most/are the best at?
While it may be tough for most multi-sport athletes, I would honestly try to rank the sports that you are considering at the next level. I know many will say that my favorite is the sport I am currently in at the time but I need you to look beyond that. Think long and hard about each sport, if you can see yourself playing it for five more years, and what it would be like without that sport in your life.
The goal with this step would be to find one sport. The reason is that it is much easier to focus on one sport in the recruiting process than two or three. If you excel at football, basketball, and baseball, think about the things that you will need to do outside of each regular high school season. For baseball, you will need to go to showcases during the winter, spring, and possibly summer. Football basically requires you to do camps in June. Basketball needs you on the AAU scene during the spring and July. Basically there is no way to do all three. So if you are considering three, then you need to narrow that down to at least two.
Considering two sports in college is going to be hard but is possible. In this scenario, we are going to talk about getting recruiting attention for both but only playing one in college. If you want to play more than one sport, than this probably isn’t the article for finding advice about that.
Again, the reason why picking the sport that you love the most makes things easier is because to get a scholarship, you most likely need to market yourself and do the summer work that could be camps, AAU, or showcases. This basically is a must for those hoping to get recruited by colleges in the sports that you love.
If you are considering multiple sports, it is also double or triple the work. If you are a basketball and football player, then you may have to put together two separate highlight videos (note: putting them both on one disc is not worth it). Then you also have to spend nearly double the time researching the schools, checking out their programs, and emailing the coaches.
In the end, the smart decision would be to focus on one main sport and possibly a secondary sport as well to consider playing in college. But you do have to realize that you want to do whatever is going to make you the happiest, not give you the biggest scholarship. I have seen basketball players spurn scholarships at the Division I-AA (FCS) and Division II levels simply because they loved hoops more. Each went to Junior Colleges for basketball and left some big scholarship money.
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Unless you get an early scholarship offer, the athletic recruiting process is not easy. There are going to be times of stress, frustration, and hopefully joy when you finally make a final decision. But before picking a college, there is going to be a lot of things to do.
But instead of focusing on that, we are going to talk about the ten things you should not do in the chase for a scholarship offer. These are many things we have talked about at times but thought this would be a good article to put ten things in an article that are things you should definitely avoid. Onto the list!
1.) Waiting for schools to find you
Athletes will tell me that they are waiting until their senior year and the attention will start coming. Are they serious? Do the work yourself and don’t just wait. You will be waiting to pay for student loans at a Division III school.
2.) Not marketing yourself
There may be some schools that find you and are aware of. But what if there is an out of state school that never recruits your region and is a perfect fit, how will they find you? You will need to market yourself to those schools and get your name out there.
3.) Deciding not to bother with a highlight video
I have to say time and time again that a highlight video is not where to save money in the recruiting process. This is a very valuable tool and needs to be done, especially in football.
4.) Skipping summer college camps/AAU/showcases
Any chance to showcase your skills in front of college coaches is a great way to help yourself. Unlike the independent combines that make me sick, college coaches are around and have the ability to evaluate you.
5.) Putting too much stock into a letter
Unless the letter says that they want to offer you a scholarship, then it means very little. I was a high schooler once who was excited about a Division I letter I received (which I still have by the way). But in all honesty, if it is a form letter or a questionnaire, there are thousands of other athletes that receive these. Again, thousands.
6.) Focusing all of your attention on a small number of schools
Some families just take all of their visits to two or three schools. What happens when those schools don’t offer? Keeping things wide open and looking at lots of schools will help you in the long run.
7.) Going to independent combines/camps that cost money
It would do you better to just take the money out of the bank and burn it. These independent camps only help put cash in the pockets of those that run them.
8.) Looking only at schools that are at one level (normally focused on Division I programs)
If you are reading this site frequently and only have Division I eyes, please comment on this post so I can smack you. Keep your search broad and your options open.
9.) Not going on enough visits
If you don’t take multiple visits to a variety of schools, it is going to be tough to find a program that you end up loving. See different programs and campuses helps widen your options.
10.) Relying on others to handle the athletic recruiting process for your family
Even if you decide to hire a recruiting service, your job isn’t over. You may be paying them hundreds or thousands but you still need to educate yourself, take visits, and talk to them frequently about what is going on.
The post Ten things that you can do to hurt yourself in the athletic recruiting process appeared first on Recruiting-101.
When it comes to college coaches and their evaluation process, it is always extremely interesting how some vary compared to others. And while most have similar processes on how things are handled, each school wants to say that they take a unique path when offering scholarships.
I personally think when coaches say that, it is basically a line. What they really mean is that we have better prospects ahead of you or we just haven’t had the time to actually look into your highlight video. In the end, most college coaches are looking for the same things in prospective athletes. Ability, work ethic, and character are three of the main things that they are searching for.
A good example of how each coach says their process is different revolves around a player recently who had offers across the country. This offensive lineman had offers from all around the country but was waiting to see if USC would step up and offer a scholarship. Here is what he said about the eventual offer:
“My coach sent my film out to USC about a month ago. When they called the school, they told me their process of evaluating recruits is different than other colleges. They take their time, so from that point I just got letters from USC talking about the school.
USC can get away with that because they have had recruiting success and can go after kids nationally. If this sought after recruit doesn’t go there because they offered late, then they can find another four or five star lineman to fill the gap. While they may watch video and do evaluations, I don’t see the Trojans landing too many two star recruits that are hidden gems.
Two other stories regarding how the evaluation process is supposedly unique to each school was proven wrong over the last few years. There was a school in the Big Ten that has had success over the last decade. They were recruiting an in-state running back but had not offered. This running back had a few smaller DI offers but nothing really all that impressive.
The athlete decided to take a visit out to another Big Ten school. This program had been recruiting him and was one of the in-conference powerhouses. Before the trip was over, this school decided to extend the running back a scholarship offer. Just to let you know, before that time, this athlete had an offer from a FCS school and a BCS school that had struggled. This was his first big time scholarship offer.
The in-state Big Ten school had said that they needed to be patient and that their evaluation process takes longer. They needed to run it by their running backs’ coach and their head coach. It was the usual lines that you hear from college coaches when they think an athlete is not good enough to get a scholarship offer.
The day after this athlete received an offer from their conference rivals, this in-state school decided to extend a scholarship. Did the in-state program suddenly spend the day watching tape and doing all the evaluations that were needed? No, their hand was basically forced into an offer. They liked the athlete and didn’t want to lose him to a conference powerhouse. This same program may take more time evaluating than other schools but they certainly didn’t spend the day watching his tape and evaluating him. They did it because there was another scholarship on the table.
The second story is in the ACC. One ACC school has always had success finding low rated recruits and helping them turn into excellent players at the college level. This school, ACC #1, had extended a scholarship offer to an out of state athlete. This player took an official visit to ACC #1 and was seriously considering committing to the program.
When ACC #2 heard about this (basically an opposing conference school with former coaching ties to ACC #1), they extended a scholarship to the player. I have talked about this before in previous articles but ACC #2 never even saw film on this athlete. The coach had sent no film to ACC #2 and they were simply offering because ACC #1 did.
So think about these stories for a second. While every school says that they have a lengthy evaluation process, when push comes to shove, they are going to extend offers out. The biggest thing that you need to do as a football recruit is impress enough college that your dream school may be forced into offering an athletic scholarship.
The post Each coach will say that they have a unique evaluation process for scholarship offers during the athletic recruiting process appeared first on Recruiting-101.
Put yourself in a bank or lender’s shoes. Someone comes into your branch and asks you to politely loan them $300,000. You are a big bank, but $300,000 is still a lot of money. How do you ensure this person is going to pay back the money you loan them?
The post The Right Kind of Debt appeared first on Team RRP.
While I recently talked about the NCAA requirements and their sliding scale that allows you do be eligible as a freshman, a big part of that scale is determined by your SAT/ACT score. While you don’t need to take both, scoring high on one of the tests will allow you to have a little more breathing room if you have a low GPA.
And while the dream for everyone is to get a scholarship that will pay for college and allow you to play the sport you love all year, that may not always work out. You may not be good enough for that scholarship coming out of high school or eventually decide to transfer out. That is where the real importance of an ACT/SAT score comes in.
Outside of receiving a full athletic scholarship (Which normally only happens at the highest ranks of Division I), there will still be a large chunk of change that you will need to find a way to pay for. The college coaches will be there helping you trying to find every loophole possible but one easy way to make sure that the price tag for your education is low is to score well on your ACT/SAT.
I have seen myself that many smaller colleges actually have a sliding scale regarding your GPA and test scores. The higher that both are, the more money that you will be given each year in an academic scholarship. And because that helps reduce the price of the school up front, it will open many more doors than if you had done poorly on these tests.
While you don’t realize it when you are 16, 17, or 18 years old, it is worth it to take as many Saturday mornings as possible. Many students may just take it once, get a passing scoring, and move on. But to get more academic money at the college level, you might as well spend a few tries at getting the highest score possible.
Looking back, I wish that I would have taken the time to take the test multiple times. I was perfectly happy with the score that I received the first time taking it and had no problem getting into any colleges that I was interested in. But I know if I had focused on it more, I could have done much better. And with that, my current student loans would be much less than what they are now.
A good example of what getting a high ACT/SAT score is that of a basketball recruit a few years back. He had some major ability to shoot the ball and had size as well. Division I schools from throughout the country were recruiting him but he wanted to stay close to home and attend State University. But because they were out of scholarships, most normal recruits would have started looking elsewhere.
Because this athlete had worked so hard in the classroom, it really paid off about the time he was getting ready for college. He ended up getting what they call a Presidential Scholarship that paid for his entire four or five years of attending college. The time that this athlete had paid off and he was going to college for free so it didn’t matter much if he was on a scholarship or not.
That scholarship ended up allowing him to go to this major Division I school and eventually start and standout. While he was plagued with injury problems during his career at the school, he wouldn’t have been able to play there without the work he had done in the classroom.
Anyways, if you are not getting a full athletic scholarship to go to college, think long and hard about if it would be worth it to spend another Saturday taking a standardized test. There are a lot more fun things that you could be doing with your time but it could save you thousands upon thousands of dollars in the long run.
The post The importance of your ACT/SAT score in athletic recruiting appeared first on Recruiting-101.
When it comes to scholarship offers in the football recruiting process, 80% of the news is from Division I-A (BCS) schools doing the offering. Most of the scholarships are from programs in BCS conferences in hopes that they are able to land top recruits early in the process. If they do that, the coaches are not going to be sweating it out on Signing Day.
I have talked that some Division I-AA and II schools do not frequently end up offering athletes early. If this happens, why is it not publicized and talked about much? Why are athletes not broadcasting their summer Division II football scholarship offer?
The reason that they are rarely broadcast or even mentioned for that is matter that they don’t happen all that frequently. Most of the coaches at these schools realize that they have been burned too many times in the past to waste their time with these early scholarships.
The reason is simple. If you get a Division II offer, the first thing I recommend doing is broadcasting that attention. You tell media and the other college coaches that recruiting you. You post is on twitter. If you believe you are above a Division II player and a DII school offers in the summer, I would share that as much as possible with the Division I-AA (FCS) schools recruiting me. You might as well share that information with other Division I-AA (FCS) schools that are also not recruiting you.
The Division I-AA (FCS) and II coaches who have been around long enough normally know that in most situations, it is best to wait to offer athletes. I will tell a story for my reasoning. Say that an under the radar athlete was hurt his junior season comes to their camp and just blows up. All of the coaches are amazed by his skills and improvement. The coaches are so impressed that they end up offering the athlete.
Luckily for this athlete, he has a very savvy high school coach who lets the in-state Division I-A (BCS) schools know about his rapid improvement, camp performance, and his overall abilities. These schools start sniffing around and find out that this kid can play. Two of the four Division I-A (BCS) programs end up offering by the end of the summer. Do you really think that the Division I-AA (FCS) school really has a chance?
Again, I would say that 95% of the scholarship offers being handed out now as from Division I-A (BCS schools) and likely 90% is also of the schools from the top ten major conferences. A scholarship offer shows an athlete that a college coach wants you bad enough at their school that they will pay for your education. Word travels quickly regarding offers and recruiting information so it makes it harder for Division I-AA (FCS) and Division II coaches to hide under the radar gems these days.
There is also one other reason why these smaller schools could end up offering scholarships. Their coaches have worked at all different levels and feel that they know level a player is after having seen them in camp. What I mean by that is if you see a Division I-A (BCS) athlete at camp, you are likely to be blown away. Division I-AA (FCS) and Division II type athletes may not be quite as big, quite as athlete, but it is obvious that they have skill. These coaches could feel that this athlete could be a good fit at their level.
The post The slippery slope for early scholarship offers by Division I-AA and II schools in the football recruiting process appeared first on Recruiting-101.
One of the things that I hope to break down in the next few weeks is to give readers a better feel for the difference between all levels of post high school options. This includes Division I, II, III, NAIA, Junior College, and Prep Schools. While there are other options that you can choose, these six are more than likely where you will be continuing your sporting career. Here is a quick look at the scholarships offered at each level. Look for more breakdowns in the future as well:
Division I Scholarships
In football and basketball, these colleges are required by NCAA rules to offer you full rides. It really is an all or nothing proposition. They can bring you in as a scholarship athlete or a walk on. In other sports, most of the time these schools offer partial scholarships to athletes. Instead of a set number of full scholarships, these programs have a set budget that they can use for their athletes in each academic year. It depends on the program and the sport.
Division I-AA Scholarships
This only applies to FCS football. Formerly known as Division I-AA, FCS football coaches can offer athletes partial scholarships and many do. Most coaches usually offer a smaller percentage earlier that grows over time as the athlete contributes later in his career. Coming out of high school, few athletes end up getting a full scholarship from an FCS school so keep that in mind.
Division II Scholarships
College coaches at the Division II level are able to offer scholarships in any sport that they host (There may be some exceptions to that statement). Schools are given a certain budget that is dependent on the school and the sport. Then the coaches are free to use the money however they want. Some coaches do try to use the money on Division I transfer and could end up offering them a full ride because they are expecting an impact player.
Division III Scholarships
Schools at this level are not legally able to give any scholarships for athletic performance. While you will hear the rumors that some do, it is not true. What the coaches can do is find creative ways to give their most sought after prospects money in different areas. For example, a coach may be able to give their top recruit a Leadership Scholarship that could help reduce their tuition. With Division III though, if you quit your sport, the price that you are paying for schooling in no way should increase. So basically you are playing for the love of the game.
NAIA Scholarships
One of the most hotly debated topics for some NAIA conferences is that there is no cap on the amount of scholarship money that they can give athletes. So if one school is spending $60,000 while another is spending only $15,000 and they are in the same conference, that is going to be tough to compete against one another. Most coaches at the NAIA level will give athletes at least a small amount of scholarship money. However, there are still NAIA schools that do not give any money based on athletics.
Junior College Scholarships
Because the cost of Junior College is so inexpensive, many athletes are given full rides. These coaches have to bring in so many athletes each year and figure out who can play. Many of the coaches just end up bring in ten running backs and letting them sort themselves out. That is an easy way to weed out the kids that can and cannot play.
Prep School Scholarships
One of the more interesting options after high school is to attend a prep school. While I need to write an article about it, prep schools can no longer be used to finish your high school education after your first four years of high school. Regardless, these prep schools are used to improve your athletic standing and test scores. These schools can offer scholarships to help host recruits and get into school. It is very unique and something that you should speak with a prep school coach about.
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