Vegan Glazed Donuts

I had so much fun making these Vegan Glazed Donuts today. I used an array of glaze colors and flavors and made a few batches to really perfect the donut batter. These donuts are vegan and baked and made using spelt four, although they taste just as amazing and satisfying as anything fried or even yeasted! I do a triple dip on my glaze to get a thick smooth coating. I also share a few different glaze recipes to try - chocolate, vanilla, matcha - and some options for plant-based food colorings available to you. Craving donuts? I've got you!...Read more »

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The five best times to excel in order to help yourself with the football recruiting process

Going into the football recruiting process, some families feel that as long as you find a way to excel in at least one year at the prep level, then there is a good chance that you will get scholarship offers. And while I wish that were true for all those hard working football players (and their parents) out there, that is definitely not the case. 

Because of this, I have decided to put together a list of the five best times during the football recruiting process to excel. For some, these may be a surprise as to the time frame I am talking about. But in order to be evaluated and hopefully be considered for an eventual scholarship offer, here are the five best times to shine. 

Junior Year | Fall Season
While I had considered the summer camps to be more important, your junior season is by far the most important season that you have in your high school career. An injury can throw a major wrench into the recruiting process for this year so keep that in mind. So why does the junior season matter so much? It is because this is when college coaches usually get serious about the recruits that they are considering. If you put up some big numbers and then market yourself properly to these coaches, then you will put yourself in a perfect position to be evaluated. 

Senior Year | Summer Camps
(Note: this is the summer before your senior season officially kicks off but with your junior year being over with, it shall be considered your senior year)
The only reason why this was not number one is because if you are not on the radar at all of college coaches, then are they really going to give you a serious look at their summer camps? I think overall that this is the best time to play at your peak but if they are not aware of you and you are not on their radar, it is going to be hard to get any serious attention from the coaches. If you have an amazing camp, the coaches are going to wonder if you are having the best few days of your life. They will want to know why you didn’t do this beforehand? But if fall of your junior year is 1A, then this is definitely 1B. 

Sophomore Year | Fall Season
I have always mentioned the sooner that you can establish yourself at the varsity level, the sooner you can market yourself to college coaches. If you excel as a sophomore, this is a great time because you can market yourself earlier. That will make it easier getting on recruiting databases to get evaluated. If you are a quarterback and they are only taking one in your class, getting your name, stats, and video in front of them early and often is a great way to go. Shining as a sophomore can really help overall in the football recruiting process. 

Junior Year | Spring Season
College coaches use the spring months to visit the schools and check in on athletes. If you luck out by having a fantastic spring in the weight room/on the track and a college coach visits your school, they may notice you early on. That will help you get evaluated and still be on the overall recruiting board for a scholarship offer. 

Senior Year | Fall Season
I hate to say it but shining as a senior may be the worst time for your overall recruitment. Most colleges have a good feel for commitments and players that they are considering to offer. It is very, very difficult to get on the radar to be evaluated for a scholarship if the only season that you shine is as a senior. It isn’t fair to those who have excellent competition in front of them but that is the way that the football recruiting process works unfortunately. 

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Speedy Peanut Seitan Rice Bowl

This Speedy Peanut Seitan Rice Bowl can be whipped up quickly for lunch or dinner. The protein-packed seitan pairs perfectly with rich, creamy peanut sauce. Some simple rice and scallions, maybe some sriracha and a sliced avocado and done. This is another fast, easy and flavorful - plant-based - recipe for you....Read more »

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If my son is shy on the phone with a college coach, will they stop recruiting him?

I received this question a few months back when talking to a parent of a senior football player in a recent class. This mom talked about how her son is not very talkative (it happens a lot in teenagers) and he is especially shy on the phone to people he doesn’t know. What the parent worried about most is will his lack of communication skills make him look bad in the eyes of college coaches and hurt his chances of a scholarship offer?

For the most part, I do believe that college coaches know that many high school athletes are not talkative. They are rather quiet, like to be left alone, and keep to themselves. But these coaches are paid to build relationships with athletes that help them bring in talented players. The more talented players that they bring in, regardless of their social skills, in turn helps them win football games and keep their job. 

College coaches will do absolutely everything they can to get athletes to answer questions in more than just a “yes” or “no” matter. They will ask loaded questions and do what they can to have even the shiest athletes open up and start a dialogue between the two. 

So would a college coach stop recruiting an athlete if they are shy? I guess that really depends as I have heard a number of different cases where the coaches have been turned off by the response from the athlete. The other case is that the kid really does not talk to anyone so his responses on the phone are part of his normal everyday life. 

In the first case I mentioned, the coach will be doing everything he can to judge if your son is shy or just thinks he is too good for the school. I spoke with a college coach about a recruit a few years back and the coach was telling me about how the recruit thought he was too good for their school (they are Division III) and it was obvious on the phone. The recruit didn’t return many calls, wasn’t excited about talking to this college coach, and felt their school was beneath him. The coach at the program gave up recruiting him because of his attitude towards them (just to let you know, that same recruit ended up transferring from a Division II school back to that Division III program years later). 

There was also another recruit in the second case where this kid excelled on the basketball court. But when you got him in a social situation, he struggled mightily. It was bad enough that I heard from two different college coaches about his lack of communication skills. This was more than him thinking he was better then the two schools. He didn’t talk to anyone and it was something his high school coach even told them going in. Both coaches continued to recruit him and one even offered him a scholarship. 

In most situations, I honestly believe that if an athlete is not social and it is obvious, the coach will continue to recruit them. Very rarely does a coach (especially at the scholarship level) cross a kid off their recruiting list because they lack social skills and fail to ask questions. It is because the coach doesn’t have a good feel for the recruit and thinks that his yes/no answers means that he is not interested. 

If this is a situation that you are worried about, it is important to practice beforehand to see what type of responses that your son will have. If they are willing to do this, helping their overall speaking skills will be a big benefit for this and many other things in the future. The prep work will only help. 

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I didn’t expect to have a great junior season in my favorite sport and now I am behind in the recruiting process. What should I do?

I recently had an opportunity to talk to a football recruit who is currently a junior. This athlete was refreshingly honest with me about the entire recruiting process and what he had been going through. He told me that he had not been invited to any Junior Days and mentioned the two primary schools that have been sending mail. 

This was refreshingly honest because I hear athletes try to make up schools recruiting them and not answer the questions that I ask. With this athlete, he was completely honest the entire time and that made it a great interview. But what this player said to me regarding the recruiting process really stood out to me. He said he wasn’t expecting to have quite the junior season of football that he had. With that, he had no idea what he should do to help himself get recruited. Now he feels that because he hasn’t learned or been able to look into his recruiting options, he is behind. What should he do?

Just a little more background on the athlete. He played his first varsity season on the football team this past fall. He knew he was going to see playing time but didn’t expect to rush for over 1,400 yards and receive All State honors. His team also plays in the toughest conference in their State and he did it against some great competition. 

So far, this player has received interest from two college programs. I believe that the main reason he has been hearing from both of those schools is simply because he was named All State last fall. When you are named All State, you seem to find your way to the recruiting databases of college coaches and get on their mailing list. I would suspect that is the case. 

There will obviously be some questions if he has the speed to play running back at the Division I-A level (BCS) but that doesn’t mean he can’t try and send out some feelers to college coaches. His high school has sent a number of players to the Division I level so him excelling at this school with a veteran coach who knows the process should help things along. If I was in his shoes and I had done nothing thus far in recruiting, here are four things that I would do:

• Make/update your recruiting profile
  Getting your name and ability in the eyes of college coaches is a great way to help yourself in the football recruiting process. This profile is key. Also, just to let readers know, I am confident that he has finished a highlight video so if he had not, that would have been something I would have added as well. 
• Find colleges that fit at all levels (Division I-A, I-AA, II, III, and NAIA) and market yourself to them
  My advice here is to do the second and third steps that I have talked about in The Five Steps to a Scholarship. Click the link above for more. 
• Speak with your high school coach about your college potential and what you should do
  Again, the high school coach has sent numerous players to the college level, and even the Division I-A level. So college coaches respect him and he likely can help you with the process. Talk to the coach about what you should do, what level he thinks you can play at, and anything else college related. Your high school coach should be a great resource. 
• Sign up for summer camps but be picky about the ones that you decide on
  This is a hard one to decide on. You want to help get your name out there to college coaches but with none calling or showing serious attention, it is hard to pick. One option may be to pick two large in-state camps and then call it good. The reason for this is because these large in-state camps likely have a number of coaches from other colleges working the camp and that will help garner interest from other programs. You could also pick a few Division I-AA (FCS) or Division II camps as well. This is tough because you don’t want to be wasting money but need to do something to help put your name and abilities in front of college coaches.

In all honesty, you are behind the ball if you haven’t started marketing yourself and getting your name out there. But it certainly isn’t too late to get interest from college coaches and be evaluated. These coaches are always looking for athletes who can play. And if you can, even if you start late, these coaches will want you and do what they can to land you. The obvious key here is being good enough. 

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Taking the time to process athletic recruiting visits and the importance of not making rash college decisions

I recently had a chance to speak with a parent of one of the top basketball players in the country. This recruit has excelled against the top players on the AAU circuit and he basically can name any college in the country that he wants to go and he will receive a scholarship to play hoops there. And although not all athletes are blessed with the ability that this athlete has, what sets the family apart in my eyes is their overall thoughts on the recruiting process. 

When talking them about a recent athlete who decommitted, they made sure to talk about the importance of staying strong with a commitment. That is why despite so many offers and opportunities, this athlete is only going to be making one college decision. They are going to research all of the programs recruiting their son and figure out what will give him the best chance to succeed athletically and academically. But what I found extremely interesting was what they said about college visits. 

If you look at what some of the top schools have done in football recruiting for this class, there is no doubt that momentum and quick decisions have played a role in the fact that they have received commitments from twenty one different athletes. But what if these athletes didn’t get a chance to really digest the situations? For some, they were definitely worried that if they didn’t commit quickly, then there was a chance that there would not be scholarships available. 

What this family has mentioned to me is that they have had a chance to see first hand a number of top basketball programs across the country. But instead of riding the recruiting momentum after loving certain visits and making a college decision, they have taken the opportunity to sit back for a while and digest the trip. For one top school, they said that digestion took nearly a month simply because there were so many different things that they were wowed by. 

Every recruit out there reading this site obviously hopes that they have the chance to play their sport of choice at the scholarship level. I am sure you would also love to have multiple schools knocking down the door with scholarship offers. And if you do, the good news is that in reading this article that you need to take your time after a visit, reflect, and possibly write out some of the pros and cons. 

You could do this for any visit but this is most likely for the schools that have already offered scholarships. Writing down the pros and cons of a Junior Day from a school that has not offered you is fine but there is definitely no guarantee of a scholarship offer on the plate. 

One thing the college coaches at the schools may do is help push the recruiting wave into getting kids committed. They may talk about how their is only one scholarship left at your position and there are multiple athletes being offered. But unless you know for a 100% fact that this is the place you want to go, then it may be worth waiting. If that school is meant to be, then the scholarship will still be on the table and you can eventually end up there. If not, you will find somewhere else that may actually be a better fit overall and help you see the field earlier. 

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The issue with coaches/parents controlling the entire athletic recruiting process

There is no doubt in my mind that I feel having parents and coaches involved in the athletic recruiting process, regardless of the sport, is vital overall. Regardless if you are a parent, a coach, or even an athlete reading this, your coach and parents are an important part of your overall recruiting team that should be able to help you be evaluated by coaches at the college level.

But I have a major problem when one of the powers mentioned above take too much control and do everything. It may be the high school coach being overbearing and handling the entire recruiting process. Or it could also be a parent not even relaying the interest to the high school coach and handling everything themselves. In my opinion, it is a huge mistake for either to dominate the athletic recruiting process.

I recently heard a good example of a high school coach handling things a little too much. Don’t get me wrong about this coach. He does do a nice job in getting attention for his athletes and has helped many land scholarship offers over the years. But this coach also frowns upon his athletes leaving during the summer to attend camps. For athletes without scholarships, these camps are vital. I know that he hurt a recent quarterback recruit because he wanted to keep the team together all summer. The quarterback skipped camps that could have landed him scholarship offers and he ended up walking-on somewhere.

Anyways, the story is about a current recruit who already boasts numerous scholarship offers. One of the schools that had offered him in a major conference used the spring evaluation period to come and see him. The coach had extended the offer before his junior season and wanted to see video of him while at the school. The head coach did all that he could to not show him the video. Why would anyone do that? It makes no sense but this is just a good reason why coaches shouldn’t have complete power in the recruiting process.

A parent can do the same thing. I recently spoke with a high school coach about a certain player on his team. I was asking him a variety of questions about his skills, abilities, and then came to his recruiting. All the coach said is I don’t know, his dad is handling it. If the high school coach is telling me that, then he is likely telling college coaches the exact same thing. With this being an All State running back, I am sure the prep coach had to repeat that story a lot.

When a college coach hears that the parent is handling the entire recruiting process, that doesn’t bode well for the recruit. The reason is that most parents who control the entire process are the ones that are overbearing and can be extremely annoying during recruiting. They may also be the same ones who push for their son to transfer when he is not starting early in his career (see Mitch Mustain). This happens all the time too.

In a perfect world, what I recommend is doing everything you can to be on the same page with your recruiting team. That includes the athlete, the parents, and the coaches at the high school. I believe that the parents should be the leaders of this team. High school coaches just don’t have the time to be sending out recruiting profiles. They will help you where they can but be realistic about the burden you are playing on them.

If you can, go in with your family and talk to the high school coach about the recruiting process, what your goals are, and what level the coaches feel he can play at in college. The biggest thing hear is to keep the lines of communication open and help the athlete have his or her best chance of getting a scholarship offer.

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