Varsityedge.com and the Athletesadvisor.com spent 2 days in Hyannis Massachusetts giving a recruiting seminar and a few round-table presentations for the 2005 Massachusetts Guidance Counselors Conference.
The Monday seminar lasted roughly and hour and twenty minutes and was well attended. It's difficult to cover every recruiting topic in that time so we chose to address what we thought were several important topics that discussed the athletic side of researching schools and programs and contacting college coaches.
If you missed the presentation, click here to see what topics were discussed.
We fielded several questions over the 2-day period and I wanted to address a few of them.
How important is sending a video to college coaches?
This isn't a new phenomenon, but with the use of CD-Rom's and DVD, it's becoming more common and more practical. Most college coaches have informed us that they will rarely recruit a player solely off of a video, but the video gives them a good starting point and can get the coach interested in wanting to see that athlete in person. Some coaches won't recruit a prospect until they have seen a video, it all depends on the coach and sport. As far as video's go, it's important to have a clearly labeled tape with your name, high school name and location, phone number, Graduation Date, and uniform color and number so the coach can identify you clearly. We usually do not encourage families to send unsolicited video's as it is better to ask the coach if you can send a video or in many cases the coach will request a video on their own. Most coaches like short videos 5-8 minutes that show various highlights and drills or game footage shot from different angles. Other coaches like a few halves of a game on the back end of the tape in case they want to watch more. We don't encourage simply sending an entire game tape expecting the coach to watch it all. When in doubt ask the coach what he would like to see on a video as it can vary by sport?
Does the NCAA have minimum qualifications for eligibility?
Eligibility at NCAA D1 and D2 schools is governed by an entity called the Initial Eligibility Clearinghouse. Eligibility is determined by using a sliding scale that compares SAT/ACT scores and GPA (a high SAT means you can have a lower GPA and a low SAT means you need a higher GPA). All high school athletes must register with the clearinghouse at the end of their junior year (regardless of grades or test scores to date) if they are interested in playing NCAA D1 or D2 athletics. They must also forward their final transcript at the completion of senior year to the Clearinghouse. There are also core course requirements for student-athletes as well. For more information, please visit www.ncaaclearinghouse.net or download the NCAA guide for the Student-Athlete (PDF) here.
How do we help our students pick up the pieces after their recruiting process (or lack-there-of) that hasn't produced any offers or opportunities for them to play in college?
It's inevitable that some students will overrate their ability or will not put themselves in a position to be recruited. This often happens when families assume they will be discovered and assume they will get offers from coaches and it's usually the number one mistake in the recruiting process. If you find you have a student that really wants to play in college but doesn't have any place to go there are a few options. (1) Reorganize and try to come up with a new list of potential colleges. While all colleges have application dates, schools will accept students up to the start of class if they have room in the freshman class (or dorm beds). Coaches also know that many kids are left without options and always hear from students at the last minute and some coaches will still be looking to add players to their team. (2) Enroll in another college for the fall semester or for a year and use that time to research other schools. Most families learn about the recruiting process after the fact, and failing miserably at it is in itself a learning experience. Enrolling in a school and taking classes that have transfer value (math, English, science, history, etc.) will give you the chance to learn what college is about, take some time to regroup and research other programs and give yourself the opportunity to transfer to another institution. (3) Enroll in a Junior College or post graduate school. Junior colleges are all the rage in other parts of the country but rarely something many students in Massachusetts and New England consider. Junior colleges offer you the chance to learn what college is about but have the added benefit of allowing you to play your sport in college. This will give you the opportunity to play against better competition raising the level of your game and may make you a more attractive recruit to 4-year colleges if and when you are ready to move on. You may also find the added benefit of a Junior College coach who has a network of other 4-year college coaches that seek out players year-after-year at the JC school when it's time for them to move on.
How can we help our students determine what coaches are really interested in them?
This can be difficult to determine, especially if you are not on recruiting meetings with the family. In most instances college who are interested in particular athletes will make it pretty well-known. These are the coaches who are calling more often, inviting students to visit the school, requesting more information, and possibly making offers to students to attend. Since college coaches have no idea what students will in the end attend their school, there are times when they pursue more students than they can realistically recruit in a given year. There are also instances of families telling coaches what they want to hear as well. At the end of the day we encourage families to make it known to a coach whether they are interested in the school and program, and most coaches will make it known whether they are interested in you through their actions. If you are leaving messages on the coaches voicemail and he isn't calling you back for a prolonged period, you should take that as a sign that it's time to move on to other options. In many cases, we tell families to simply put coaches on the spot and ask them if they are interested in having you on the team, most coaches will be honest if they think you won't be a good fit for the school or program, and it's important to have a separation at some point so the coach can move on to other recruits and you can move on to other schools.
How can we help our students evaluate and determine their athletic ability?
We think one of the best ways is to have them compare their talent to upperclassmen (former teammates) who have moved onto college already. If there was a particularly talented player from your high school who went onto a certain level of college and struggled athletically, that is a red flag for any current player from your high school that isn't as talented as that player was. It might not be what your students want to hear, but such is life. Most students and parents have a far higher belief that they are in fact a better athlete than they really are, and in most cases they aim for college levels too advanced for their ability. If you have a way to track down past students that moved on to college and participated in athletics, it's a really good way to gauge how a future student might fare at a particular level.
Our high school coaches don't seem to be that involved in helping their kids get recruited?
This is a tricky one. Most high school coaches are also teachers or part-time employees, and like you, they have many other or different responsibilities. Some coaches are also simply filling a position and might not have that much knowledge or skill in their sport or in getting kids recruited. With that being said, we think it's important for a high school coach to be involved in the recruiting process is any way they can, or at least admit they cannot help and get out of the way. Most parents expect help from the high school coach and most are disappointed with the help they receive. At the end of the day, researching schools is the job of parents and students, and the coach should help out with trying to evaluate the talent of an individual player and writing recommendations or forwarding any recruiting mail to the players that they may have received. Some parents expect the coach to research and call a 100 schools for them and it just isn't going to happen, especially if they have multiple players on their team interested in playing in college. We have met several players who have actively known their coach was going to be no help and bypassed them and turned to other coaches in the league who have a better grasp of the recruiting process and might have more contacts.
When is the ideal time to start contacting coaches or to start the recruiting process?
The recruiting process starts the minute a student steps into high school for the first day of classes in September as a freshman. A students work ethic (both academic and athletic) when he or she starts high school can determine how successful they are throughout high school and how successful they ultimately are in making the transition to college and to being a college athlete. The "process" itself as you are referring to doesn't have an ideal start date and each student will be different. There are many factors that can contribute to when a student or family should really begin the steps involved in recruiting and it often depends on how mature, successful, and talented an individual athlete is. A physically mature student that is a sophomore succeeding at the varsity level might be able to start their process much sooner than a junior who is still playing on the JV team and still growing physically. The sport you play can also have an impact on your process. Students who play a fall sport such as football, soccer or field hockey have the advantage of being able to use their senior season as a way to display their skills to college coaches one last time. A student who plays a spring sport such as baseball, lacrosse, tennis, or softball is at a big disadvantage because by the time their season gets going in the spring of their senior year, acceptances are being sent out and college coaches are already in the process of recruiting and watching juniors play.
Regardless of skill or sport, we think the most critical time in the recruiting process is junior year and the summer between a students junior and senior year. The summer is usually the time college coaches have to recruit and they spend the majority of their summer at games, camps, tournaments, and showcases either looking for new student-athletes or looking at student-athletes that have already contacted them. If you have a strong desire to play in college, it's important to research programs that might be a good fit for your skills (both athletic and academic), dedicate some time to contacting coaches, determining where they will be recruiting during the summer, and trying to put yourself in a position to be evaluated by the coaches and schools you are interested in. It's really important to simply get your name out to coaches as someone interested in playing in college just as a starting point.
Some students based on their skills and past success are able to do this earlier in high school, and many give verbal commitments to college coaches during their junior year. You also need to factor in the needs of the college coach, the level of athletics, and the reputation or success of the program. Many high level programs will have their recruiting wrapped up before the summer even starts because the coaches were diligent in their pursuit of the students they wanted to recruit into their program.
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