Mistakes in the athletic recruiting process

The college recruiting process is often paved with a myriad of mistakes by parents, students, and high school coaches. Some mistakes are fairly obvious, others are not. The Making of a Student-Athlete was designed to help parents, students, & coaches avoid these mistakes. Here is a brief list of common mistakes that can really put you at a disadvantage in your recruiting process.

• Parents often believe their son or daughter is better than they actually are, and assume they will be recruited and they wait for their mailbox to fill up with scholarship offers or wait for phone calls from coaches.
• Student athletes overestimate their ability and often believe they are better than they actually are, assume they will be recruited and they wait for their mailbox to fill up with scholarship offers or wait for phone calls from coaches.
• Student-athletes often underestimate their ability and assume there must be players out there just as good as they are and they often don’t pursue more opportunities.
• Parents and student-athletes often see other athletes get recruited and assume the same thing will happen to them since “I am better” or “I am just as good as they are.”
• Parents and student-athletes often feel anything less than an athletic scholarship to a D1 program is unacceptable. As the emergence of camps, showcases and private instruction takes on a new and more important role, many families feel that they need a scholarship to justify the time and expense they have already put into athletics.
• Student-athletes get a letter in the mail from a coach and think they are being recruited and think they are now a top college prospect.
• Parents and student-athletes assume that if they are talented enough on the athletic field, that their grades do not matter much because a coach will get them into the school.
• Parents & students don’t realize how rare a full scholarship is. Aside of Division I football and basketball, most scholarships issued to players are partial scholarships and most college teams have only a few scholarships to divide up to several players or the entire team. There are many D1 programs with teams that are lucky to have 2 or 3 scholarships for their entire team, which may consist of 30 players.
• Parents and students assume their high school coach will handle everything when it comes to the recruiting process.
• Parents & students do not always know how to evaluate athletic ability accurately. Success on your team or league does not mean you are ready to be a college athlete or capable of receiving a college scholarship or even competing at the college level.
• Parents & students to not always know how to evaluate the talent and skill level of college athletic teams and often end up applying to schools that are too strong athletically or maybe too weak athletically.