• I was reading a recruiting article online and I found something that trumped the 180 letters a football recruit received from Nebraska during high school. A junior basketball player recently received 152 letters from USC – IN ONE DAY!
• There is still an alarming number of parents and students who are doing extremely poorly on our recruiting quiz.
• My Alma Mata only recruited one men’s basketball player for the 2004-05 season. Why? They had 12 returning players. In the spring 6 seniors will graduate and you can bet the coach will be recruiting more than one player next year. Sometimes in recruiting, timing is everything. Their roster now lists 17 players, no doubt the rest were walk-on’s invited or otherwise.
• Looking for some competitive college soccer? The New England area sent the following teams to the NCAA soccer championships. Division 1 men (Dartmouth, Boston University, Uconn, and Marist), D1 women (Princeton, Boston College, and Uconn), D2 men and women (Franklin Pierce), D3 men (Wheaton and Williams).
• See Troy Brown of the New England Patriots at wide receiver, see Troy Brown returning punts, see Troy Brown playing safety and cornerback because of injuries to other players. See Troy Brown doing anything the coach asks because he wants to help his team win. What are you doing to make yourself more valuable to college coaches?
• No wonder teenage boys get such a bad rap. During a high school cross country race in North Carolina, a boy who ran the course earlier in the day took down some tape that marked the trail and attached it elsewhere, sending female runners in a completely different direction. According to officials, runners should have made it through the woods in about 20 minutes and parents and coaches became concerned when no one emerged after more than 35 minutes. Eventually an event official hopped in a golf cart and drove the course in reverse, only to find a number of girls lost in the woods.
• I got a report from a student who had signed up with a national recruiting company for $1,400.00 and basically never heard from the rep again after he left their house. The national company was part of a world-wind tour by a private individual who speaks at high schools throughout the country. During his presentation the speaker scares parents into thinking that they are not going to get recruited unless they are receiving and sending out hundreds of letters from and to colleges. At the end of his presentation he discusses this national recruiting service and hands out flyers, sometimes with a rep. The service basically takes your resume and mails and emails it to thousands of schools throughout the country. Parents think its great because this “well know speaker” just told them in order to get recruited, they have to send out hundreds and thousands of letters and if you need to do that, you better hire this recruiting company who can do it cheaper and faster than you can on your own. And he gets a nice commission for every kid that signs up. When the AD of the school this kid attends got word of this and the speaker called back this year for another speaking engagement, he told him to take a hike and is now meeting with their league to make sure that other players don’t fall prey to this operation.

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FINANCIAL NEWS
The College Board (the company that administers the SAT test) has reported college tuition at Public Universities is up 10% this year. Private universities and community colleges also increased tuition, by 6 percent and 9 percent. The bad news is that college is getting more expensive, the good news is those increases are smaller than they were last year.

The Federal Government is making changes to the way the Pell Grant is calculated and distributed. That is a nice way of saying that less families are going to receive less money under the new programs. The Pell Grant currently allocated up to $4,050 a year in aid to low income families for college tuition.

I read somewhere that over 50% of the families who don’t apply for Federal Financial Aid would have received something had they applied. Regardless of what college you want to attend or what your family income is, simply fill out the forms and see what happens. You can get more information at www.fafsa.ed.gov or call them at 1-800-433-3243. The center is open Monday through Friday 8AM to Mighnight! and Saturday 9AM to 6PM. The filing deadline is June 30th, but if you wait that long you have a better chance at seeing the Red Sox win the World Series than getting money (oh wait?). I spoke to a FAFSA rep and they said to try and get your application in on January 2nd or 3rd. You can file online or request a paper application through the mail. She also said that if you send it in early (like December) it will be returned or what she referred to as “shredded” in her own words. Since you will be filing before your income taxes are complete, you will have to make estimates in that case, which is allowed. If that is a concern, try to get your tax information in order.

NCAA NEWS
There is some legislature in the works at the NCAA to increase scholarships for some women’s sports. Among the proposed changes – 2 additional scholarships for women’s gymnastics, 1 additional scholarship for women’s volleyball, 2 additional scholarships for cross-country and track, and 2 additional scholarships for women’s soccer.

Graduation rates for college football players increased for the fourth straight year and rates for all Division 1 athletes remained at 62%, which is 2% higher than the general student body for all D1 students. While athletics can often contribute to students not being able to graduate on time or at all because they do not focus on their work, athletics can also give students a reason to stay and work hard at a college for 4+ years and give them a chance to earn their degree.

NEWS ON INDIVIDUAL COLLEGES

• San Diego State soccer is joining the Pacific-10 conference
• Quinnipiac College (Connecticut) is investing $150 million dollars for capital improvements to its campus including a new 5 million dollar arena for basketball and hockey.
• Fort Hays State University has accepted an invitation to join the Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association beginning with the 2006-07 academic year.
• New Jersey City University will rejoin the New Jersey Athletic Conference in 2005-06, after withdrawing from the league in 2004-05
• Mars Hill College a D2 school in North Carolina added women’s golf in the 2004-05 season.
• UC Davis in Davis California is adding women’s golf for the 2005-06 season.
• The University of Washington lost 8 official visits for it’s football program for several infractions. One of the more humorous penalties was the following. The university is prohibited from using water craft as transportation or entertainment for recruits during the 2004-05 and 2005-06 academic years.
• Mississippi State University was placed on 4-years probation for football recruiting violations. The school lost several scholarships and official visits
• The University of Missouri, Columbia has been placed on probation for three years and will face limits on recruiting, scholarships and official visits for violations in the men's basketball program. Among the violations was this humorous one. A two-year college prospect was arrested for battery, the director of basketball operations facilitated the payment of the prospect’s $1,000 bail bond by collecting money from men's basketball student-athletes and delivering it to the bail bondsman.
• The McNeese State men's basketball program and men's and women's cross country and track and field programs has reported recruiting violations over the last 4 years.
• The University of Texas at San Antonio is adding women’s golf and women’s soccer in the fall of 2005.
• Saint Leo University (FL) will add men’s lacrosse and women’s swimming in the fall of 2005.
• Wingate University, (NC), will add men’s swimming for the ’05-06 year.
• Baptist Bible College, (PA) will add baseball and men’s golf in the spring of 2005.
• Chestnut Hill College (PA) has added four men’s sports and two women’s sports to its Division III offerings: Men’s cross country, golf, tennis and soccer are added along with women’s cross country and golf.
• LaGrange College will add football as its 15th sport in 2006, making it the only Division III member in Georgia to sponsor the sport.
• Trinity College (Connecticut) broke ground November 6 for its new Community Sports Complex, which will serve as the new home venue for the school's men's and women's ice hockey teams while also providing the city of Hartford with a new recreational facility.
• California Lutheran University started construction of its North Campus Athletics Complex in October. The athletic complex will include the new Sports and Fitness Center housing an arena, an events center, an aquatics center, a baseball stadium, a soccer stadium, and track and field facilities. The college has raised nearly $80 million for the first phase of the athletics complex as well as for academic facilities, new programs, centers, professorships and scholarship endowments. Facilities are scheduled to open in the fall of 2006

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FINDING SHOWCASES
I have received emails from several parents lately asking me if I am aware of any showcases in their area (wherever they happen to live) In most cases I am not, but provide this solution. Email a few college coaches in your area and ask them if there are any showcases that they would recommend. The results of this will be three-fold. One, you will find out what good showcases are in the area, two, you will find out what showcases this college coach probably attends, and three, you will innocently introduce yourself as a possible prospect to a college coach.

VERBAL AGREEMENTS
There is a new trend in college athletic recruiting. It’s called “See you can verbally agree the earliest.” While giving a verbal commitment in the summer before your senior year is pretty common and often necessary in this day and age, I have heard stories about would-be juniors verbaling in the summer between their sophomore and junior year. Now, having been a former teenager, I can firmly say that there isn’t a 16 year old on the planet who is ready to decide what college they want to attend after their sophomore year in high school.

FINDING A MATCH
Last week I heard from Rick, a parent (and a book purchaser) about the success they were having with their recruiting process over the last several months and how they had many schools interested in recruiting their daughter. One of the things Rick said to me that stood out was the following – “The coaches we are talking to seem especially appreciative when they hear from student-athletes who think they are qualified for their school.”- While there are many things that are important in the recruiting process, ultimately college coaches want to recruit talented athletes who can play at their level that have the academic success to be accepted into their school. If you can’t play, the coach cannot recruit you, and if you cannot get accepted and succeed at the school academically, the coach cannot recruit you. While recruiting is one of the most important tasks of a college coach, it isn’t always the most enjoyable simply because they often have to evaluate 200-300 kids to find maybe 5. College coaches spend a lot of time with recruits who, despite their desire, cannot play at their level and might not be able to be accepted to their school and much of their time is spent on educating families about the recruiting process. The moral of the story is, when you approach schools and coaches that you think you are qualified to play for and be accepted to, you are helping not only yourself, but helping the college coach by making their job easier and they will be more excited and eager to recruit you. Ultimately, the only person who can determine whether you can play at a certain school is the head coach of that school. But, if you do your research ahead of time, evaluate yourself, and evaluate the college team, you will put yourself in a better position to be recruited by finding colleges and programs that are a better match for your abilities.

BEING RECRUITED AND NOT BEING RECRUITED
I have heard from a few D3 coaches lately who are bracing for the “late crowd” or the recruits who thought they were being recruited by other institutions but were not. In late winter and early spring, many D3 coaches who contacted recruits earlier in the year get calls from recruits telling them that they are now interested in their school. Why does this happen? The simple reason is that many recruits think they are being recruited by higher level universities because they received a letter, phone call, or some type of inquiry from a D1 or D2 coach and they don’t understand the difference between “being recruited” and not being recruited” There are other families who stop in to see a coach after a school visit or admissions interview and they leave the coaches office thinking they are being recruited because the coach spoke to them about recruiting and the team. It’s no secret that colleges send lots of mail to potential recruits and while not every coach can afford to send 10,000 letters, most schools try to send letters to recruits. Many of these letters do more harm than good, especially letters send from D1 schools to kids that are not qualified to play there. What often happens is that these recruits start to think they are Division 1 material and in the process, they start to ignore correspondence from other colleges, especially D3 colleges and/or colleges they have never heard of. There is always a school that is the flavor of the month and more popular and there are 10 other schools that no one has heard of that get ignored for that very reason.

In the recruiting world, ignoring any piece of recruiting material regardless of what school it comes from is a risky proposition. Most college coaches are looking for maybe 4 or 5 recruits a year and have a pecking order. Once a coach has the players he or she needs, their recruiting is done for the year and they focus on coaching. It’s important to evaluate any and every opportunity because there is so much that will be unknown, as you have no idea what schools you will be accepted to what coaches want you, what opportunities there are for a particular team, what other players are being recruited and so forth. However, receiving recruiting materials from college coaches is hardly the end of the recruiting process.

Being recruited means that a college coach has called you on the phone and/or spoken to you and expressed a strong interest in meeting you and showing you their school and program, and ultimately offering you a spot on the team. Since most schools have more official visits than spots on the team, it’s possible to be offered an official visit but not extended an offer. Quite simply, the college coach is using their visits to meet several prospective recruits before making a final decision. While a coach may have a good idea of your athletic ability, it’s important that they understand where you fall socially and that can only happen through a face to face meeting. In the end, what you are looking for is a college coach opening their mouth and saying, “we would like you to come to our school and play for our team” or something to that effect and any mention of a scholarship offer is icing on the cake in this case meaning if they are offering you money, they really want you.

Anything else that doesn’t resemble that scenario probably means you are not being actively recruited. The mistake a lot of families make is letting coaches dictate everything. You are part of the process as well and it’s important to push coaches for decisions and information just like they push recruits. If you are not sure if a coach is interested in you or recruiting you, simply ask. “Coach, we are interested in your school and program, but if you don’t think there is a match, let us know and we can focus our efforts elsewhere.” In the end, you need to know if a coach is interested in you and sometimes you have to ask them. If they are, most will let you know, but some coaches who want to keep their options open will be vague with recruits until they have heard back from other recruits they are more interested in. If they lose their top recruits they will go back to other recruits they have had some contact with but maybe didn’t show as much interest in the beginning.

College coaches will tell you when they want you and you have to understand that getting letters or talking to them in the office or on the phone doesn’t mean they are recruiting you until they tell you they are really interested in you and your abilities. Respond to every coach and school that contacts you regardless of what school or division it is and find the best fit for you with a college coach that has shown an active interest in you and your abilities.
 
 
 
 
 

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