Yeah it’s crazy to think Peyton Manning will be wearing another NFL team’s jersey. To many experts, he’s arguable the greatest QB of all time. Last year he showed why he’s a 4-time MVP winner. Without Peyton on the field the Colts were an embarrassing 2 – 14 and they were painful to watch with their QB by committee approach. Bringing Collins off the couch and out of retirement to play for the team was a desperation hail mary that wobbled out the Colts hands and fell about 30 yards short of the nearest receiver…it never had a chance of being complete.

Even with all that said I still don’t blame Jim Irsay for not resigning him at all. Remember people, the NFL is a business first and foremost! It’s a business that happens to play a sport not a sport that happens to be a business. The NFL is more then a just an ordinary flourishing business it’s an exploding sports oligopoly, yeah look up oligopoly it’s like a legal cash cow monopoly. I pulled that one out of a spelling bee I watched on ESPN! Okay back to my point. Imagine you were the owner of the Colts and you had to commit $XX million dollars and likely a multi-year contract with XX millions guaranteed to a XX year old player that’s had 3 serious neck surgeries (to manage his degenerative disc disease of the cervical spine) in the last 16 months and your team is about to draft the first can’t miss quarterback prospect since John Elway.

From a pure numbers game, this is as smart a business decision as it gets. This is a QB league with superstar rookie QB’s making more of an impact then ever before (Cam Newton, Andy Dalton) and players like Andrew Luck only come around every 10 or 20 years. Heck, even the Colts fans have been quietly wishing for the next Peyton behind the scenes and that might just be how their Luck goes come April!

You get the point! C’mon what would you do?

I know you might be saying “If I was the owner” I would sign Peyton for two years and have him groom Luck like the Favre-Rogers scenario in Green Bay. Yeah in an ideal world where money didn’t matter and Peyton wasn’t dealing with a potentially career ending disease of the spine and Andrew Luck actually needed two years of learning and purple horseshoes and green leprechauns existed that would all make sense.

That’s not the case here. So I’m 100% in support of the Colts decision and I hope Peyton returns, is 100% healthy and has a hell of year for a new team. I’ll leave you with one final picture to think about. Can you see it now…Peyton playing for the Redskins with Shannahan; or with Rex running the D and Peyton running the O with Jets; or how bout with Regis Philbin…er, Joe Philbin with the Dolphins.

Wherever Peyton ends up, one thing is for sure. Stories and drama like this is why we love the NFL; the storylines never take an off-season!

STEP # 1 – Talk to Your Coach

The first thing we recommend is talking to your high school and/or club team coach. Most often, these coaches have been involved in this process for a long time and have coached student-athletes that have been through the recruiting process before. Their experience will give them a good idea of what potential level you could play at in the future.

Parents and student-athletes need to ask their high school or club team coach what level they should look at for playing beyond high school. Often, the coach will give you an idea of your skill set and abilities athletically and academically. You must use your high school and club team coach as a resource to get an assessment, advice and then a recommendation. Remember, they’ve often already been through this same process with other athletes, and can be a good evaluator of your skill level because they have seen many other teams and players compete.

STEP # 2 – Watch

The next step in picking the right collegiate level of play is watching. Look at colleges from all levels of play (Division 1,2,3, or Junior College) and try to figure out when they’re going to be playing in your local area. If you can, go to a game and watch them in person. Try and scout college freshmen, sophomores, juniors and seniors to see how they’re playing and what their skill set is like physically. This will give you a good idea of where you fit in best. SportsForce recommends that student-athletes and parents attend a few local games to get an idea of their caliber of play.

If you can’t physically attend a local game you can also watch a number of games over the Internet. Again, it is important that you evaluate the caliber of play for each collegiate level. For example, if you’re watching a Division I football game, you can get a solid idea of how good the quarterback is at USC or how good the running back is at University of Alabama. Once you understand this you can ask yourself if you stack up with that level of size and athletic ability.

STEP # 3 – Research

It is also essential that you visit the websites of your potential colleges and look at their team roster. For example, go to a number of Division 1, 2, and 3 team websites and look at the size and background of their players. What do they look like physically? What kind of academic or athletic awards did they receive in high school? Try to match your physical traits and athletic and academic success with the right collegiate level of play.

To get started today take advantage of our FREE 30 Day Trial.

For more College Recruiting Tips and specific details on our proven Step-by-Step College Recruiting and Athletic Scholarship system contact one of our college recruiting experts at 858.350.5889 or visit www.sportsforceonline.com

What most student-athletes, parents and coaches don’t realize is that DI offers less than 20% of the college sports opportunities for most sponsored college sports. The reality is most DII, DIII and NAIA recruiting budgets are small and thus the student-athletes and parents have been even more proactive in the process of getting evaluated and recruited.

3 Quick Tips to handling the DII, DIII and NAIA recruiting process:

1. RESEARCH: Research which schools offer the academic and athletic fit you are looking for at the DII, DIII and NAIA. There are plenty of great college programs at these levels. Use these two websites to help:
   1. College Coaches Online – www.collegecoachesonline.com (Contact us about a discount to their membership)
   2. College Board – www.collegeboard.com
   3. NCAA Rules & Regulations – Click HERE
2. KNOW THEIR LIMITATIONS: Since smaller programs don’t have a large recruiting budget you have to make sure you provide them an opportunity to evaluate you. A highlight video is critical for them to evaluate you as well as potentially attending one of their camps. Also DIII does not offer any athletic scholarship money. However they can put together a great financial package using financial aid and academic scholarship money.
3. BE PROACTIVE: Create a list of target schools and market yourself to those schools. Be pleasantly persistent and make sure you provide them a completed resume and highlight video so the coaches can easily evaluate your skills. Your goal is to get evaluated and know where you stand with each school you are interested in.

To accelerate your education on the college sports preparation and recruiting process I recommend signing up for our FREE SportsForce College Sports Recruiting Guide.

* FREE Sign up click HERE

SportsForce premium members have an over 80% college sports success rate with an average of more than $50,000 in college scholarship & financial savings per family.

Click HERE to learn more about our programs.

Article courtesy of SportsForce, Home for professional and affordable College Sports Recruiting Tools, Tips, Online Profiles, Highlight Videos and Premium Services.

www.sportsforceonline.com

info@sportsforceonline.com

858.350.5889

Hopefully you had a chance to read Part I of this article, which highlighted two critical questions to ask yourself as a student-athlete.

1. What type of college experience are you looking for as a student-athlete?

2. What are your key college decision factors?

Here’s the link to Part I in case you missed it.

In Part II you will take steps to realistically evaluate yourself as a student-athlete.

Student-athletes:

Have you ever asked yourself what level of athletics is right for you?

Parents:

Have you ever wondered what level of athletics would be the right fit for your son or daughter? Have you said to yourself “my son / daughter is definitely a DI or DII / DIII athlete?”

Here are some simple ACTION ITEMS you can execute to get a realistic idea of what level of athletics and academics is appropriate for you or your student-athlete.

3. Student-athlete evaluation

A. Talk to your coaches: As a student-athlete, you need to talk to your high school and/or club team coach to express a desire to play college sports and also ask them for an HONEST evaluation of your potential to play at the college level. Also ask what areas need improvement to reach your full potential on and off the field.

B. Talk to your academic counselor: Ask them for an HONEST evaluation of your academic standing and make sure you are on track to play college sports. Also go over the academic guidelines that different colleges are looking for including GPA, SAT and ACT scores.

C. Get tested / evaluated: Attend a combine, camp, showcase or training facility where you will be objectively tested so you can compare your athletic ability and skill level with other athletes and get a clear understanding and measure of your current ability.

D. Get a highlight video: College coaches don’t have the time or budget to travel to many games and evaluate athletes in person. If you provide college coaches a 3 – 5 minute highlight video and resume with all of your athletic and academic information, they can evaluate you quickly and easily. We recommend getting your video and resume online so you can easily email coaches.

Visit the SportsForce website (www.sportsforceonline.com) to view some online profile and highlight video examples from more than 10 different sports including:

football, basketball, softball, baseball, lacrosse, soccer, water polo, field hockey and more.

E. Evaluate & research college athletes / teams: Watch college athletes and teams compete in person, on TV, over the Internet. See first-hand what the caliber of play is at the DI, D2, D3, NAIA and junior college level. Visit college sports websites to see the biographies of the athletes and their high school sports statistics, awards and achievements (ex. High School statistics, height / weight, All-State, All-League, All-County).

F. Evaluate and compare yourself to other athletes: Try to realistically evaluate and compare yourself to other student-athletes who are older than you or your same grade level who are getting actively recruited by college recruiters or signed with a college. Ask yourself if you are as good as they are right now athletically and academically? If not, do I have the same potential to reach their ability?

GOAL = To get clear on where you are and what you should focus on to reach your college sports goals.

To accelerate your education on the college sports preparation and recruiting process I recommend signing up for our FREE SportsForce College Sports Recruiting Guide.

* FREE Sign up click HERE

To get access to more advanced college recruiting tips, strategies and advice visit our website and RESOURCES section.

The SportsForce team, which is comprised of former college and professional athletes and coaches, is relentlessly committed to providing an ongoing education to help you best navigate your journey as a student-athlete, parent or coach to reach your potential.

Article courtesy of SportsForce, Home for professional and affordable College Sports Recruiting Tools, Tips, Online Profiles, Highlight Videos and Premium Services.

www.sportsforceonline.com

info@sportsforceonline.com

858.350.5889

Are you looking to feel more confident as you look to prepare for college sports and the recruiting process? At SportsForce we hear many different questions, opinions and stories from student-athletes, parents and coaches all the time.

Here are some of the most common college sports recruiting questions our staff receives:

When do college coaches start recruiting?

What are college coaches looking for?

How can we maximize exposure to college recruiters?

What do we need to do and when do we need to do it?

What about the SAT, ACT, financial aid, NCAA Eligibility Center, etc…

Here are two simple and proven ACTION STEPS you can use today to begin taking control of your sports career and college sports goals.

Step 1: Student-athlete assessment

ACTION ITEMS:

1. Ask yourself “What type of college experience am I looking for?”

Attention student-athletes:

You need to reflect on what type of experience you are looking for. Write your thoughts down in a casual format (bullet points are fine) and be able to verbalize what type of college experience you are looking for.

Attention parents:

We recommend parents asking this question and letting your son or daughter answer this question with no undue pressure. See if your student-athlete can describe the type of experience they are looking for.

GOAL = To get a clear idea of what college experience you want as a student-athlete.

2. What are your key college decision factors?

Create a list of all of the key decision factors and give 1 to 5 points for each decision factor (5 being an extremely important decision factor). We recommend doing this on a spreadsheet and then ranking the potential colleges you are interested in by using this system to create an overall point total for each school.

Potential decision factors including: Academics (Majors offered, career development, alumni), Athletics (level of competition, W/L record, tradition), Social environment, Size of school, Public vs. Private, Cost, Location, Coaching Staff, Intuition (gut feeling, emotional connection)

GOAL = To have a proven ranking and college decision making system to know what potential colleges you are really interested in.

To accelerate your education on the college sports preparation and recruiting process I recommend signing up for our FREE SportsForce College Sports Recruiting Guide.

* FREE Sign up click HERE

To get access to more advanced college recruiting tips, strategies and advice visit our website and RESOURCES section.

The SportsForce team, which is comprised of former college and professional athletes and coaches, is relentlessly committed to providing an ongoing education to help you best navigate your journey as a student-athlete, parent or coach.

Article courtesy of SportsForce, Home for professional and affordable College Sports Recruiting Tools, Tips, Online Profiles, Highlight Videos and Premium Services.

www.sportsforceonline.com

info@sportsforceonline.com

858.350.5889

The GAME has changed! The fact is, the college recruiting process has changed dramatically over the last 10 years and understanding how to play the game is important.

The college recruiting process is often misunderstood by many parents, student-athletes, coaches and fans. Are you a sports parent or a high school student-athlete who is asking yourself “How do I maximize my recruiting exposure to college coaches?” If so, you are not alone. This is a very common issue across the country that we often help student-athletes and families proactively address at SportsForce.

In this article you will learn more on how to introduce yourself to a college coach, what type of recruiting events to consider and gain an understanding of how video and the Internet are radically changing the recruiting process. At the end of this article you will have an opportunity to sign up for our complimentary SportsForce College Recruiting Guide to learn more keys to college recruiting success. See link at the end of the article.

Step 4: Get Evaluation in person: Target Key Recruiting Events

• Identify key recruiting tournaments that some of your target colleges will attend
• Email coaches your online profile link, team name, schedule and jersey # before the showcase to make sure you are evaluated
• Potentially attend a few college camps for specific exposure to that program

Step 5: Get quality video, online profile & share

• Video is key, college coaches don’t have the time to see every player
• Create a custom highlight video to showcase your skills (3 – 5 min. long)
• Create an online profile to add your athletic, academic and recruiting information

Some example SportsForce profiles below:

• Girls Lacrosse: http://www.sportsforceonline.com/athletes/jmills
• Softball: http://www.sportsforceonline.com/athletes/mbradvica
• Soccer: http://www.sportsforceonline.com/athletes/kdick

Here is an example profile and highlight video of one of our senior clients Nick Melka that recently committed to Columbia University to play football. Nick and his family were proactive in the process and were able to maximize his exposure and generate significant interest from many of his top college choices.

Here’s a link to Nick’s profile –http:/www.sportsforceonlone.com/nmelka

To get more advanced recruiting tips, strategies and advice visit our website and sign up for our complimentary SportsForce College Recruiting Guide and updates below.

FREE sign up for SportsForce College Recruiting Guide:

http://www.sportsforceonline.com/resources/resources_recruiting_recruiting_guide.html

Article courtesy of SportsForce, Home for professional College Sports Recruiting Profiles, Highlight Videos, Tips and Tools – www.sportsforceonline.com

The college recruiting process is often misunderstood by many parents, student-athletes, coaches and fans. The fact is, the college recruiting process has changed dramatically over the last 10 years and understanding how to play the game is important.

Are you a sports parent or a high school student-athlete who is asking yourself “How do I maximize my recruiting exposure to college coaches?” If so, you are not alone. This is a very common issue across the country that we often help student-athletes and families proactively address at SportsForce.

In this article you will begin to learn the basics of maximizing your college recruiting exposure and some key facts to understand about the recruiting process.

At the end of this article you will have an opportunity to sign up for our complimentary SportsForce College Recruiting Guide and get access to recruiting tips, advices and insight to learn more keys to college recruiting success. Click Here for the full recruiting guide.

First, a few key facts to keep in mind before we talk about maximizing exposure:

– College coaches are recruiting earlier and earlier (often evaluating freshmen & sophomores)

– Colleges often don’t have the budget to recruit many players in person and are relying more and more on video to help make better recruiting decisions

– 80% of college sports opportunities exist outside of DI level teams

– Over $1 Billion dollars in athletic scholarship money is awarded to student-athletes each year

– A recruited student-athlete has a significantly better chance of getting accepted to a college over a non student-athlete with similar grades

– College coaches are using all sorts of technology including: email, smart phones (Blackberrys, Iphones, etc.), online recruiting databases, social media (YouTube, Facebook) and more to find and evaluate players.

If your son or daughter is seriously looking to play college sports, your goal as a parent should be to support them and provide them an opportunity to best position themselves to reach their goal and find the right college fit.

You might be asking yourself what is the RIGHT FIT?

The right college fit means understanding what type of college experience your child is looking for and what’s best for the family. When creating a list of potential colleges focus on the most critical decision factors and criteria including: academics, athletics, location, cost, level of competition, coaching staff, social environment, potential playing time and scholarship opportunity.

Now that we have some more information on the table lets discuss “How to Maximize College Exposure.”

Step 1: Determine what College Programs are right for the Student-Athlete

– Conduct a realistic student-athlete assessment (stats, skills and grades)

– Ask for a coach’s evaluation (HS & Club team)

– Research & create a target list of schools based on critical decision factors and college criteria (10 – 30+ colleges)

Step 2: Express Interest / Build Support

– Meet with high school / club team coach regarding your college goals and commitment and make sure everyone is on the same page

– Network with other trainers, coaches and parents to seek potential qualified college coach introductions

Step 3: Introduce and Market Yourself

– Start early (Ideally Freshman and Sophomore years)

– Introduce yourself to college coaches and express your interest (use email, phone or an in person meeting to make an introduction)

– Remember you can call a college coach even though they might not be able to call you based on NCAA regulations

– Provide complete resume / profile and highlight video for a college coaches evaluation

Some example SportsForce profiles below:

• Girls Soccer: http://www.sportsforceonline.com/athletes/kdick
• Boys Soccer: http://www.sportsforceonline.com/athletes/scallahan

– Follow up is KEY (email, phone and unofficial trips)

We will include more in Part II on “How to Maximize Your College Recruiting Exposure” Click Here to read Part II now.

To get more advanced recruiting tips, strategies and advice visit our website and sign up for our complimentary SportsForce College Recruiting Guide and updates below.

FREE sign up for SportsForce College Recruiting Guide:

http://www.sportsforceonline.com/resources/resources_recruiting_recruiting_guide.html

Article courtesy of SportsForce, Home for professional College Sports Recruiting Profiles, Highlight Videos, Tips and Tools – www.sportsforceonline.com

This past weekend SportsForce partnered with 16^th Annual San Diego Premier Classic . The tournament was held at several different fields throughout San Diego. Over 200 teams turned out for the tournament which offered play for both Boys and Girls U9-19 in Silver and Gold levels.

SportsForce filmed some of the top Mens U18 teams including the Del Mar Sharks 92 Premier, Arsenal FC, PQ Premier Red, SE Cosmos (Texas) and the United FC Black. SportsForce also caught the top action out of the Girls Division, where the SoCal Blues Defeated the San Diego United FC 3-0 in the finals of the U16 Gold Division.

Below is a list of the games we filmed and links to purchase professionally shot and edited games for $30 + tax & S / H.

If you are interested in having SportsForce cover your tournament games please contact us directly here.

Girls Games:

8/16/09 Girls U16 Championship: SC Blues vs. San Diego United

Boys Games:

8/16/09 Boys U18 Semifinals: Del Mar Sharks 92 vs. SEFC Cosmos

8/15/09 Boys U18-S: San Diego United vs. Carlsbad Lightning

8/15/09 Boys U18-G: Del Mar Sharks 92 vs. Arsenal FC

8/15/09 Boys U18-S: Del Mar Sharks 92 vs. PQ Premier Red

8/15/09 Boys U18-G: PQ Premier Red vs. Arsenal FC

8/15/09 Boys U18-G: PQ Premier Red vs. SEFC Cosmos