The Making of a Student-Athlete Testimonials
The Making of a Student-Athlete has been reviewed by a variety of people who work with high school and college athletes in some capacity from counselors, to high school and college coaches, to camp directors, to recruiters. Below you will also find an expansive list of parent testimonials.
HIGH SCHOOL COACHES - GUIDANCE COUNSELORS - COLLEGE COACHES - MEDIA OUTLETS
Let me say how much I loved the book. Loved it! To be honest, there was one part of me that wanted to love it before I read it. There was another part of me that wanted to find fault with it - in that "how could anyone do my job better than me" mentality. So I approached the book with mixed feelings. That did not last long, as I was immediately won over by the introduction. When David admits to doing everything wrong and then doing it all wrong a second time - I was immediately hooked!
The tone of the book is excellent. I like that the information is written in an accessible manner - details without sounding too "know-it-all." The humor that is sprinkled in and the clear examples that highlight the points make it a real page-turner. I like that the examples used to illustrate points come from a variety of schools, so that there does not appear to be a slant for any one type of school. You have captured the process and discussed it very well. The opening chapters about researching and visiting schools were excellent - you described the process much in the same way I do (so clearly the mark of genius!)
Not being a student athlete, I found those chapters very helpful. I appreciate the suggestions, and the things you ask kids to think about. Most importantly, I love that you also try to keep the athlete grounded. I struggle with those kids who think that colleges are going to fall all over themselves to get a kid to go to their college. Our kids are always big fish in our little pond, and they are rarely prepared for that reality. I also find the process of recruitment very frustrating, because even the NCAA won't take responsibility for their publications. The last publication we received had a very clear disclaimer at the end, saying that information might not be accurate. As such, I found those chapters in your book particularly useful, and I refer to them often.
Awesome! The book is very well written, and covers the information I would want kids to have. The tone, again, is terrific. Humor and insight really help when dealing with kids. I think part of why I like the book so much is that you write similarly to the way I speak. I often thought that you had to be taping me with my kids, because you were covering all the details. When I thought there was something missing, it appeared not soon after my thought. I often use humor with the kids, because sometimes the guidebooks are a bit too dry. That's one of the biggest reasons why I like your book so much. Those opening chapters are really excellent - I recommended the book last year, and will continue to do so because I really like those first chapters - even if the kid isn't an athlete. I love the way you captured the basic issues of research and visiting schools, and the application process.
So, that's what I think. Easy to write a complimentary email - the book is excellent. I will continue to recommend it to my parents and kids - athletes and non-athletes alike. I hate to sound redundant, but the tone of the book is its strength - the best information is worthless if you can't get people to read it! I hope the book, and you, are doing well.
Rochelle Morin - Guidance Counselor
Hamilton-Wenham High School, Hamilton MA
I have had the unique experience of coaching football at the D1, D2, and D3 level as well as high school for the last 25 years, and in that time, I have not come across a finer guide on the college recruiting and college selection process than The Making of a Student-Athlete. If you have any desire to play at the college level, I implore you to read this book!
John Papas - Director, New England Elite Football Clinic
"During my 19 year career as a coach at both the high school and collegiate levels, I have never read a more comprehensive and well-written recruiting guide for high school athletes than The Making of a Student-Athlete. Dave and Ray explain every aspect of the college search process from choosing the right college or athletic program, to what to watch out for in the recruiting process. Coaches, parents and players can all benefit from reading this book, and they can have complete confidence in the information provided."
Steve Johnson - Head Basketball Coach
Ursuline Academy - Wilmington Delaware
"As a college coach, I find recruiting student athletes easier when they and their families understand the process. The Making of A Student Athlete does a good job explaining the process and helps any student with college aspirations understand how things work."
Herb Hand, Assistant Football coach
West Virginia University
"When selecting a college to compete at, there are many different factors to consider. Without a doubt, Dave and Ray have developed a comprehensive recruiting guide that can benefit student-athlete's and their parents with this selection process. Their focus is on helping kids focus on the important aspects they need to consider when researching and selecting colleges."
Peter Mugar - Assistant Basketball Coach
"I have been sharing The Making of a Student-Athlete with both my players and my educational advisor. Great job on the book. In addition to being a hockey coach, I have been working with our league on player college placement. I have been telling the other teams about your site and the info it has to offer. I know a few other GM have purchased your book and have found it to be as informative as I have. The Making of a Student-Athlete and Varsityedge.com has helped me change my strategy of how I help promote my players to college coaches. I use to take a shotgun approach and send out as many letters as possible to coaches, but now we work on a more direct-targeted approach by researching programs that will be a better fit for our players. It was very successfully for me this year and I see a lot more benefits coming out of it next year.”
Dave Chapdelaine, Hockey Coach and General Manager
Hartford Jr Wolf Pack - Ellington CT
Ray Lauenstein and his co-author Dave Galehouse have written extensively on the college athletic recruiting process for a number of years. This book constitutes a detailed and comprehensive guide for prospective student-athletes and their coaches and parents, encompassing everything from college selection and scholarship and financial aid availability to applications, admissions, recruiting rules and college athletic life. In all, an impressive compendium, packed with information splendidly organized and lucidly presented.
Hamilton College - Alumni Review Magazine, July 2004
PARENTS
I wanted to thank you for writing such a great book! I ordered your book a couple of years ago when my son was in 9th grade (or 10th). Now that he is a senior and has committed to play in college I really think your book was a large part of his successful quest. He's been fortunate to be on a great high school team with excellent coaches and to play on a great travel team, also with excellent coaches. All these coaches have helped him tremendously but I think following the basic recruiting info in your book helped him to get more exposure. He's not a blue chip athlete, is a great student, and wanted to play in college. You have so much great practical advice that I think our family was really prepared for the pitfalls in recruiting. So, between reading the high school baseball web site and your book I think we were more realistic than most parents and became very proactive because of our newfound knowledge. You probably saved us thousands of dollars because we did all the recruiting research/contacts that many parents pay other people to do. I am ordering another book to pass on to parents with younger players. Keep up the good work. Thank you again - Gayle F.
I Got your newsletter today and thought I would report in on an email exchange we had last month regarding a verbal offer my daughter got for a scholarship. If you will recall I was concerned about it not being binding and worried there was nothing to hold them to the offer. Well, we took your advice and contacted the coach, first my daughter and then I had an email with him and we feel very confident of the offer. My daughter gave the coach a verbal commitment on 10/8/05 and will be attending ******** in the fall on a full scholarship. Needless to say we couldn't be happier and honestly your book and newsletter was our resource for her recruiting process. - Jay - Massachusetts
It has been several months since I purchased The Making of a Student-Athlete for help in the recruiting process for my daughter and I wanted to give you an update. It was quite an experience. We followed your recommendations to the letter and there is no doubt in my mind that all the information you provided in your book was extremely accurate and very helpful. As you may recall, our daughter had ambitions to play DI field hockey. We ended up arranging 12 interviews with DI head coaches throughout New England and down as far as Washington, DC. All of the visits went surprisingly well, and I was actually surprised at how attentive the coaches were with us. She also went to the College Connection camp at UMass as her showcase camp. This was great because of the huge number coaches in attendance as it promoted. Just before she left for camp we all sat down and took a realistic look at her chances for each of the schools and matched it with her preferences academically. In the end she decided Sacred Heart University was her top choice all things considered. We decided as our "ace" that she should attend their camp which she did after CCC. Well this turned out to be key as although she did well at CCC and did in fact hear from several schools, it wasn't from her top choices. She performed extremely well at the Sacred Heart camp and at the end Coach Blais was arranging for an official visit in the fall. During the summer she also played lacrosse for a club team that went to a few showcases in NY and MD and she did well. ironically she caught the interest of Coach McCue at Fairfield. She ended up with an official visit and an offer to play there as well, but it was for lacrosse. In the end, field hockey was her first love so she accepted SHU's offer and has received a significant scholarship. She also applied early decision and has been accepted, so that has been a huge relief. After going through the process and finally committing, her confidence really grew. As one of the tri-captains, she help lead her high school team to an 18-0 season culminating in the first state championship for her High School. She then made all-state and made it through 2 tryouts to earn a spot on the Granite State/Twin State All-Stars who will play the VT All-Stars next June. So, as you can see it was truly a storybook ending. I have been working with some of the parents of the underclassmen who also have ambitions to play college field hockey. I have already provided the business cards for your book and linked them to the web site. Please feel free to use any of this info in your promotions as I am a strong believer in your system. I have to say you and Ray did an outstanding job. The Making of a Student-Athlete is very thorough, yet clear and concise and the timing of the book was perfect for my family. Brian - New Hampshire
Just wanted to send a note letting you know that after a long but exciting process that involved multiple offers from numerous schools my son just made a verbal commitment to UNC Chapel Hill to play football. Your book has provided us with a fantastic resource throughout the whole process. It took the mystery out of the "Coach Speak" that we got from a few of the coaches and understanding the entire process as well as knowing what questions to ask and more importantly knowing ones which ones not to ask! I have already recommended this book to many of our friends looking for some insight. I even donated my copy to our school's college counselor. Since she had never gone through the recruitment process before she needed the resource too. Eric, Virginia
I just wanted to let you know that I used your book, religiously, to get my son recruited to a D1 school for lacrosse for fall 06. It was a godsend, and it was the only tool I found that really helped me understand the process. Even though we started late, very late (September 5 is when I sent out the 45 DVD's to the coaches), he still got plenty of notice from lots of schools. He was invited on four official visits, and in the end he chose ********. He is very happy, and so are we. No scholarship money, but perhaps next year. He is just delighted to be a California kid that got noticed by the big guys back east. Anna R. - California
My son was a talented quarterback on his high school team as a senior this year. We expected that the recruiting process would take care of itself. We've come to realize that expectation was unrealistic given the size of our school and the type of offense we run. We really like his coach, and assumed he would be handling the recruiting process for our son, but he hasn't been as proactive as we'd have liked him to be. Your book is exceptional and has really guided us through this process. My only regret is that we didn’t learn about it sooner. By the time we learned what to do in the recruiting process and really started to contact schools on our own as you recommend, we found very few opportunities and even less scholarship money available at such a late date. I’ve recommended your book to several people and hope they’ve followed my advice. Your section in the book on D3 schools is exceptional and really opened my eyes to the opportunities that exist at many other schools. Jeanne – Parent, AL
First of all I would like to thank you for the candid wonderful book you wrote for all the Student Athletes. We would not have had the knowledge necessary to make the final decision without it. It has been like a bible for us these last few months. I told you I would follow up and let you know the results of Michael's choice. We found the perfect fit. Not the one we thought it would be. Michael will be the Big Fish in the Little Pond but I really believe it fits him well and he received a $70,000 scholarship. The coach has also given us an indication that he will see significant playing time as a freshman. Again I would like to thank you very much. I will be recommending your book to anyone in our position that will listen. - Mike, Michigan
I have read two other recruiting books but I found The Making of a Student-Athlete by far the best. What separates this book from others is not only the number of individual topics they cover but the depth and level of detail Dave and Ray go into to explain each one in much detail. I got the sense that these two authors truly care about the success of families involved in the recruiting process and that is reflected in their writing and in their web sites. - Andrew S - New Orleans, LA
I really hope you purchase The Making of a Student-Athlete because it will give you a huge advantage in the athletic recruiting process, and I also hope you don't purchase The Making of a Student-Athlete because it will give me a huge advantage over you! - Anonymous - New Jersey
Just a short note to say thank you for such a great book. I recently purchased The Making of a Student Athlete and actually just finished reading it. I have a son who is a sophomore in high school and he has goals of playing college baseball. I found your book to probably be the best $30 spent in a long while!! It will be most valuable to us in the next few years as we look for colleges to attend. Bob T, - Parent - Vermont
Not only was The Making of a Student-Athlete all that it's claimed to be, but the authors spent time with me via email addressing a particular recruiting challenge I had with our high school and high school coach. Sara, - Parent - Palo Alto, California
"Chapter 6 (Athletic Recruiting) could have been its own book and the rest of the information was icing on the cake. Fantastic!" Claire T, - Parent - West Virginia
"I have just ordered a second copy of your book. I have other parents fighting over the first copy! I would sincerely appreciate if you could get it sent as soon as possible." Alex C, - Parent - Pennsylvania
"I don't know of anything else like The Making of a Student-Athlete on the market today. Even though it is not volleyball specific it really covers the athletic recruiting process. I've had three kids go to school on volleyball scholarships and I wish I'd have had something like this book as a reference before starting the process with my daughter many years ago." Dave W, - Parent - Illinois
"The information on visiting, selecting, and applying to colleges was more in depth and informative than 2 other books I purchased solely on admissions and the authors tie in the athletic recruiting process and the college selection and application process extremely well." Sara L, Parent - Buffalo, NY
"I recently purchased your book; "The Making of a Student Athlete" Your book has been passed around and a few have been purchased by parents I've talked to. We've received lots of positive replies from loads of college coaches in response to your books' advice. It has taught us how to research and target schools that are a better fit for our daughter and as a result we have had many meaningful recruiting visits with several college coaches who have expressed an interest in recruiting our daughter. Rick B, - Parent, Massachusetts
"I have several recruiting books, but The Making of a Student-Athlete is without a doubt the most informative recruiting guide I have seen." Mike L, Parent, - Leesburg, VA
"I'm so happy that you've finally put your information into to book form! I want to purchase one for donation to our High School's Career Center. I know your website helped us way more than any High School counselor ever did. "Joan B - Dallas, TX
"I want thank you for putting together such a well-balanced book on college recruiting. I've read a number of books in the past year and the level of detail the book provides is very much appreciated." James R - California
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