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Question:
When should I start determining the kind of school I want to play at and how do I start contacting coaches and get them interested?
Answer:
The recruiting process can start at different times depending on who you are, what you want and how fast you develop and there is no exact date or time as to when you should start. The process should be dictated by you personally and what you think your needs are?
It is always best to start sooner rather than later as you can waste a lot of time on looking at and visiting schools that are neither a good fit academically, athletically, or even socially for that matter.
It is also often hard to determine what school to seek out because you are constantly developing and improving as an athlete and many players make huge strides between their junior and senior year. Timing can also be dictated by what sport you play as athletes who play fall or winter sports have the benefit of their senior year performance to help them, where spring athletes need to rely largely on their junior year and summer performance and stress their skills and desires to coaches. If you think you can wait till May when you are a senior softball pitcher and invite a coach to see you play, you cannot, its simply too late in the game, unless the school has a late acceptance program. By spring, most coaches are done recruiting seniors and are already looking at juniors and sophomores.
You can begin to think about college the minute you walk into high school as everything you do can affect the application process down the road. Bad grades and a lack of work ethic in 9th grade can have long term consequences down the road when it comes time to apply to colleges. The better you are in the class and on the field, the better chance you will have of getting good recommendations from teachers and coaches who respect your work ethic.
We would recommend beginning the college search early in your junior year. You do not have to put on a full court press, but it would be wise to start researching different schools and programs to see what is out there. Online is the easiest way to find different schools and schools will have detailed athletic sections with schedules, rosters, coaches bio's and so forth. You can begin to write general letters to coaches that simply tell them who you are, what you do, where you are, and that you are interested in continuing your athletic career at the college level. Many web sites will also have recruit info forms that can be filled out online. By writing to coaches, you are making no commitments to them, you are simply letting them know you exist. Any letter you send should get back some school and program info in return from the coach, and in most cases a recruiting survey which should be filled out and sent back to the coach promptly. The survey tells the coach two things 1) Critical info about you as a person, student, and an athlete. 2) Shows you respect the process and the coach by taking the time to fill out the survey and submit it.
Many people choose to send out full-blown recruiting packages for their first contact and we waiver back and forth on this. We feel its better to get on the coaches radar before you spend additional time and money by sending out more expensive packages and video's to coaches. Once you have established contact, reviewed the school and program a little more, you can then make determinations as to what schools you should further target. It is then that you can send video's and detailed recruiting info including recommendations from coaches or instructors you have worked with.
Your goals should be to find specific programs that meet your academic and athletic needs, establish a rapport with coaches, determine the needs of the team, promote your skills & desires as a player and as a person, and, find out if you and a particular school are a good match. Ultimately you would like the coach to see you play but in many instances it is not always necessary or possible. Again, an athlete who plays a spring sport often needs to use his junior year performance, summer performance and the word of others with a college coach, so in this instance you may find that there was no time for a coach to see you play.
If you have a question or a success story that you would like to share please email us at Dave@varsityedge.com
For more information on the college recruiting and application process see The Making of a Student-Athlete
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