It’s your son or daughter’s senior year in high school. They just received an official visit invitation from a college coach. The dream of playing their sport in college is within reach. Given the intense competitiveness of college recruiting, the invitation is a special honor. It means your student-athlete is being recognized for their hard work, dedication, and achievements. There’s no doubt this college coach is very interested in having them become a member of their team.

However, waiting until your child’s senior year and hoping for an official visit invitation may be inadvertently risking their ability to generate offers from other coaches/colleges.

NCAA guidelines provide high school recruits two basic types of college visits: unofficial and official visits. The abridged definitions are as follows:

The unofficial visit is any visit by you and your parents to a college campus paid for by you or your parents.

During an official visit, the college can pay for transportation to and from the college for you, lodging and meals. Before a Division I college or university may invite you on an official visit, you must be a senior and will have to provide the college with a copy of your high school transcript and ACT, SAT or PLAN score and register with the NCAA Eligibility Center.

There are three main factors driving the importance of the unofficial visit in college recruiting today.

1.) Early Verbal Offers

College coaches are recruiting younger and younger student-athletes every year. Although each sport has its own NCAA recruiting guidelines and nuances, it’s not uncommon for high school freshman and sophomores to receive D1 verbal offers. These earlier recruiting cycles mean that college coaches cannot risk losing a top recruit by waiting until a prospect’s senior year to offer them an official visit. As a parent, it makes sense to want to minimize your costs and hope that an official visit invitation materializes in your son or daughter’s senior year. However, by not actively pursuing other realistic roster spots, you’re potentially diminishing their ability to generate verbal offers from other coaches/programs that are recruiting much earlier than that.

2.) College Recruiting Budgets

College sports programs have limited resources to locate and attract proper-fit high school student-athletes. Although each college and university establish their own recruiting budget and allocation per sports program, let’s look at the University of Notre Dame as an example.

A few years ago, the Fighting Irish had one of the highest annual college recruiting expenditures in the nation, spending approximately $2,000,000.00 for all of their sports programs. To add perspective, Notre Dame’s $2,000,000.00 figure easily doubles, triples or quadruples that of many other low to mid-NCAA DI programs. Relating Notre Dame’s recruiting expenditures to NCAA DII and DIII programs would be like comparing the gross national product of the U.S to that of Denmark. There simply is no comparison.

The two sports programs in any school that normally dominate recruiting budgets are football and basketball. The simple reason: they typically produce higher revenue generating opportunities for their school. At Notre Dame, 75% or approximately $1.5 million dollars was spent on 3 sports programs: football and men’s/women’s basketball (with football consuming the lion’s share at $1,000,000.00).

There are almost 8 million high school student-athletes in the U.S. Roughly 65% of all college recruiting expenditures to go towards travel costs (i.e. airfare, hotels, transportation, entertainment, and on/ off campus recruiting activities). Given these figures, and knowing that most colleges have far less money to spend on recruiting than a school like Notre Dame, it’s easy to see why college sports programs have a difficult time locating and evaluating all of the talented high school student-athletes in the U.S and abroad. They simply do not have the resources to accomplish the task. This is even more evident if your student-athlete competes in sports outside of football and basketball.

3.) Building Relationships

An unofficial visit allows the opportunity for your son or daughter to begin building a personal relationship with a coaching staff outside of stated contact rules and windows.

From the coaches’ perspective, these visits provide an invaluable opportunity to meet with a recruit face to face and learn more about their backgrounds, upcoming competition schedules, and personality. It allows the coach to legally meet a recruit outside of established “contact” rules and does not adversely impact their minimal recruiting budgets. A coach knows that when a family pays to travel for an unofficial visit, they probably have a genuine interest in their school/sports program and are not just fishing for an offer.

For the families, these visits provide invaluable information as to the viability of a school and sports program being a potentially good fit for their student-athlete. It’s one thing to see and learn about a school and sports program on-line and quite another to see it all first hand by meeting the coach, walking the campus, visiting a classroom, eating the food and meeting with administrators. If time permits and the travel costs fall within the family budget, an unofficial visit can produce tangible outcomes and results. It may ultimately provide your son or daughter a distinct advantage over other recruits that have not personally met with the coach.

In the previous blog post, we discussed that waiting until a child’s senior year to receive an official visit invitation may be risking their ability to generate offers from other coaches/colleges. Instead, there is still the opportunity to make unofficial visits.

In order to ensure a productive visit for your student-athlete and the college coach, we collected some important guidelines:

Honest and Accurate Evaluation

If your student-athlete has not already heard from a particular college or coach of interest than prior to scheduling an unofficial visit, get an honest and accurate evaluation from a club or high school coach. Ask them to assess their abilities and what level they may see them playing in college. Sometimes, in order to get reliable feedback, it also may be necessary to contact local coaches from different teams/organizations that have seen your child compete or where you may send a highlight tape. Try to get multiple evaluations to paint an accurate assessment and take the emotion out of this process. Then begin matching your child’s athletic and academic abilities to the proper collegiate sports divisions (DI, DII, DIII, NAIA or Junior Colleges) and schools. If your child is strongly dedicated to playing their sport in college, don’t waste your family’s time and money by taking an unofficial visit to a school where the sports program or school is not a potential match for them athletically or academically. (Unfortunately, this is the point where many families don’t accept the reality of their child’s collegiate potential and continually chase “dead-end” options.)

Scheduling an Unofficial Visit

Do not just show up on campus unannounced and ask to meet with the coach. If you do, more likely than not, you will be handed to an assistant coach who is being pulled away from a project or deadline and will have little time for you. This may end up as a less than ideal visit.

Have your son or daughter email the college coach approximately 2-3 weeks before your planned visit and provide your schedule availability. In the same email, share specific athletic and academic background information, video and grad year. In the email, ask if the background matches the coaches’ recruiting needs. If the coach sends a generic response, politely responds there is not a match at this time, or does not respond back to one or two email attempts, don’t schedule the visit. If the coach responds in the affirmative, schedule the visit. Then be prepared to ask the coach well thought out questions about him/her and their program. Be prepared to answer questions the coach will ask you. Be able to articulate why this school is a potentially good fit for you. Other important things to do on the visit include: scheduling a meeting with admissions, financial aid, or academic departments of interest, visiting a dormitory, sitting in a classroom, eating in the cafeteria and taking an official tour of the campus. It is wise to visit colleges at different division levels to gain a clearer perspective of their offerings and opportunities. Beginning this process as a freshman or sophomore provides ample opportunities to visit and meet coaches at realistic target schools.

Most families have limited travel budgets. So pick your unofficial visits wisely. Save money by trying to coordinate visits with your club team’s tournament travel schedule or family vacations. This recruiting strategy may ultimately help your child play their sport at a college that best meets their athletic, academic, financial, social and geographic needs.

If your high school son or daughter is seriously interested in playing their sport in college, then they have already begun climbing the college recruiting mountain.

If your son or daughter are:

• not hearing back from college coaches,
• attending top showcase tournaments and camps, or
• only receiving questionnaires and generic coach email responses…

this means they are NOT being “actively” recruited by college coaches. It also means they are at the base of the recruiting mountain and may have a considerable journey ahead of them to reach the top and secure a roster spot or scholarship offer.

One of the keys to successfully climbing the college recruiting mountain and securing multiple offers is to begin developing meaningful and ongoing relationships with college coaches.

Listed below is an email sent last week from a NCAA DI college coach in Southern California to a SportsForce client that illustrates this point:

“We have heard great things about you. I wanted to let you know that we are very interested in building a relationship with you and your family.

I would love to get on the phone with you today or tomorrow. Please pass this message along to your parents/guardians, as I would love to speak with them as well.

Let me know a good time to call.

This is my cell number so please lock me into your contacts and feel free to call/text anytime.”

The SportsForce client that was the recipient of this email has scheduled a college visit and has begun building a strong relationship with this coach and staff. Although it may take some additional time to ensure there is a mutual fit between this coach and our student-athlete, they are clearly off to a great start on their journey to the top of the college recruiting mountain.

In the 1990’s, the surge of competitive youth sports and club teams exploded in the United States. Since that time, joining a competitive club team and attending showcase tournaments or camps have become the dominant choice of more serious middle school and high school student-athletes. The driving motivation is typically to improve their skill sets, compete year round and ultimately enhance their college recruiting opportunities.

Due to NCAA recruiting restrictions and minimal recruiting budgets, college coaches have relied heavily on the ability to evaluate student-athletes at large tournaments, showcases, camps and combines. For the past 20 years, most families of high school student-athletes, have (knowingly or unknowingly) aligned their approach to college recruiting with the club team and tournament experience to look like the model listed below:

Freshman Year: The student-athlete has a high level of passion and desire to excel in their chosen sport. They commit to spending additional hours on personal training and skill work, or hire a sport specific specialist to help. At this point, they have most likely already joined a club or travel team to compete outside of the high school season and are often attending numerous tournaments, camps, combines or showcases annually. As the year progresses, the student-athlete goes on to play for their high school team. The hope is that their improved skills and abilities catch the eyes of college coaches in attendance at one of their competitive events.

Sophomore Year: Repeat the process/cycle

Junior Year: Repeat the process/cycle

Senior Year: Repeat the process/cycle

The tragedy taking place today, is that most student-athletes and families are still following this outdated 1990’s approach to college recruiting, or what we call the “hope” strategy.

Why can this recruiting approach be so limiting and usually ineffective for the more than 8 million high school student-athletes in the U.S.?

The importance of joining a competitive club team or playing in appropriate tournaments is not in question here. They can greatly help to advance your son or daughter’s skills in the off-season, or possibly assist in being evaluated by a college coach at a large showcase event. The club team coach may even know a few college coaches they can call on behalf of your son or daughter to provide additional feedback.

However, the approach families take to college recruiting is being challenged in three key areas.

1.) First, most club teams simply do not possess all of the necessary tools, time or resources needed to personally mentor and guide each of its players over a two, three or even four year period, let alone helping them to secure and manage multiple offers.

2.) Second, the majority of parents do not understand how to effectively promote their son or daughter to right-fit college coaches and programs.

3.) Last, families are spending thousands and thousands of dollars each year to attend multiple ID camps, tournaments, showcases, or combines in the hopes of generating interest or “looks” from college coaches for their son or daughter with too often, little or no results.

Unfortunately, most parents don’t fully understand how coaches evaluate and recruit at these events. There are normally several hundred, or maybe over a thousand players in attendance at a showcase tournament and college coaches do not have the ability to scout every player.

SportsForce is a College Recruiting Advisory Group based in San Diego, CA. Our entire team of college recruiting advisors dedicate their passion, time and attention to evaluating, educating and guiding qualified student-athletes and families through the college planning and recruiting process.

 

As we have mentioned many times, the summer recruiting period is one of the most key times for a young student-athlete. With the summer half way over, many families have already been to at least one recruiting tournament, showcase, or camp this summer. These events can serve as a great way for you to greatly increase your recruiting exposure. They can serve as a great way to increase your contact with the college coaches on your target list and to maximize your college recruiting and scholarship opportunities. You need to make sure you are taking advantage of these opportunities!

Have you connected with college coaches both before and after your events?

Many of these events are set up to include many top colleges coaches from across the country. You should choose your events by figuring out where your target schools are attending and where you can play against the best competition and maximize your exposure.

Click here to set up a college prospect evaluation call to find out where you stand in the recruiting process.

Reaching Out Before an Event

The first thing you need to do is reach out to all of the coaches from the colleges on your college target list that will be attending your upcoming events. You will want to introduce yourself, let them know your interest in their program, and how and where they can see you at the upcoming event. (See a full example down below)

Here is what you want to make sure you include in your email to coaches:

– Full Name

– School

– Club Team Name

– Club Coach Contact Info

– Position(s)

– Grad Year

– Jersey #

– GPA

– Tournament Schedule (Fields/Courts, Times, etc.)

 

Example Email to Coaches before a Recruiting Event

Email Subject recommendation:

Your Name – 2018 – Example Position(s) – Example HS, 6’0” 180lbs – ATT. – Example Event Name (Example Team)

Email Body recommendation:

Dear Coach Smith,

My name is Your Name from Example HS in Example City, Example State and I will be attending the Example Event this weekend playing for the Example Team.

I am a/an Your Position graduating in 2018. I’m 6’0” 180lbs and I’m an athletic playmaker with great instincts and I play aggressive defense.

(Add in any great stats or athletic awards here that will help distinguish you from other athletes).

WATCH MY HIGHLIGHT VIDEO

(Hyperlink your video here if you have one)

I will be attending the Example Event this weekend and would like you to make the time to see me play and evaluate my skills and playing style.

Team: Example Team

Coach: Example Coach – 555.555.5555, examplecoach@gmail.com

Position(s): Example Position(s)

Grad Year: 2018

Jersey #: 24

GPA: 3.87

Game Schedule:

Friday, July 31st

12:00 PM – Example Team vs. Fake City Tigers on Field 10

Saturday, August 1st

10 AM – Example Team vs. Fake Town Jaguars on Field 4

Sunday, August 2nd

1:00 PM – Example Team vs. Fake Village Lions on Field 3

I am very excited to be heading out to the Example Event and hope you be able to make it out to see me play!

Thanks,

Example Name

Cell: 555-555-5555

Home: 555-555-5555

Email: examplename@gmail.com

Following Up After an Event

Many of these events are designed to give many coaches a great chance to see many potential recruits playing against top competition. Do you feel that you have had a good amount of coaches at your games? Did you contact your target schools ahead of your events and did their coaches come out to watch you play?

If yes, the most important thing to do now is to follow up with them and thank them for taking the time to come out and watch you play. The biggest challenge in the recruiting process is establishing a solid relationship with your target school’s coaches.

With the remaining summer events, it is important that you stay relevant in these coaches’ eyes… Get a highlight video made, follow up with them and make sure that you stay on their radar.

We know this may seem like a lot to take on, and that’s where our college recruiting advisors can really help you out. They have been through the same process as players, coaches, or as both! Click here to set up a college prospect evaluation call to find out how you are doing with your summer game plan and where you stand in the college recruiting process and timeline.

Please use the comment section below to tell share your summer recruiting event experiences so far!

Emailing College Coaches & Sending Your Highlight Footage

Emailing your target list of college coaches is critical in attempting to establish your interest in becoming a part of their program. Including a highlight video in your email is a great way for you to allow coaches to quickly familiarize themselves with you and your athletic skills…

So how do you get started and stand out?

Personalization

You want to begin by personalizing the emails you send to coaches by including the coach’s name in your introduction. Don’t send out a mass email to all of your coaches just saying “Dear Coach”. You want to take the little extra time to show the extra effort.

This personalization will help build a relationship with the coaches as well as generate a conversation. It is important that you send the email from your personal college recruiting email address (*see an example below)

For each email that you send to a college coach, you want to make sure to include the key facts that these coaches are looking for in your first email such as:

• Why you are specifically interested in joining their program

• Where they can find your statistics and achievements both individually and as a team

• Camps, Clinics, or Tournaments you will be attending in the near future

Do you have an email that has been designated for recruiting?

Your email should include your name (ex. johnsmith@gmail.com)

Keep it professional!

We recommended both student-athletes and parents have the user name and password to make sure emails are being read and responded to as promptly as possible. However, parents should not be the ones sending the emails. Parents should be involved to provide support and assistance and to help proofreading for spelling, punctuation, and content appropriateness.

Keep in mind: Not all coaches are going to immediately respond to your emails, and this is OK.

Coaches receive hundreds of emails from prospective athletes and do not always have the time to respond personally to each. If there is no reply from the coach, it is acceptable to send a follow up email 7-10 days later.

Sending Highlight Videos to Coaches

Highlight videos are important to give coaches an opportunity to see an athlete’s skills and abilities without having to watch them in person. Other benefits to a highlight video are that it allows the entire coaching staff to see you play as opposed to just one scout reporting back to the head coach.

Here are some steps to create a highlight tape of your own:

• Get game footage of yourself from coaches, parents, or film it yourself

• Pick out your best plays and make sure to have the very best plays at the beginning

• Edit your video and use your top clips using programs such as iMovie or YouTube

What separates a good from a great highlight video?

There are a few collective characteristics which are prevalent among the best student athlete highlight videos, these include:

• Video is five minutes or less

• Showcase your best skills and plays first

• Showcase all skills of the game

• The athlete is easily identifiable (arrow or circle highlight)

• Include basic introduction information such as the athlete’s Name, Graduation Year, Vitals, and Contact Information

Common mistakes can be made while creating a highlight tape and these mistakes can really hinder how a coach perceives your ability. Here are a few ways to make sure your video does not commit any of the dreaded “Don’ts” that hurt so many highlight tapes:

• Do not use shaky or blurry video shot from an iPhone or cell phone

• Do not randomly order the plays being shown, instead show off your best plays in the beginning of the video

• Do not have the video be longer than 10 minutes, ideally keeping it under 5 minutes in length

• NO MUSIC in the background of your highlight tapes

• Do not use the first 30-40 seconds giving statistics or video information, this should be included in the first 10 seconds

Click here to view “How to Make College Coaches Love Your Highlight Video”

Continuing the Conversation

Once you have started a conversation with a college coach, it is important to keep these coaches updated on your athletic achievements.

When updating coaches, be sure to include both individual and team accomplishments, anything from winning a league championship to improvements in personal stats. Updated highlight videos should also be included in order to show your progress throughout the season.

Not only should coaches be updated on your athletic achievements, but they should be updated on your academic progress as well. Notifying coaches of updated SAT and ACT test scores expresses that you are working hard both on and off the field. Coaches really do care about how you will fit in academically into their program, not only athletically.

Finally, inform coaches of the other schools who have shown interest and are actively recruiting you. Ask coaches where they are in their recruiting process. Questions that you should be asking after the first few emails should be:

• Are you recruiting athletes in my grad year and position?

  • This is beneficial in eliminating college options who would not be recruiting you.

• Have you been able to watch me play live or have watched my video?

  • Lack of time makes it hard for a coach to see every athlete play, so checking in will give you a better opportunity for your skills to be noticed.

• Do I fit in to your recruiting plan, or where do I rank on your recruiting board?

  • This is a very important question, because the answer will dictate if you want to continue to pursue that school.

Remember, when contacting college coaches, to be upfront and honest with them in order to have the most successful interactions and decide if they will be the best fit for your future. Always try to be direct, clear, and build a relationship just as you would when talking with a parent or friend. Get to know the coaches more personally by asking:

• What is your coaching philosophy on developing players inside of your program?

• What is a typical day in both the in season and off season? (This question should typically be asked after there is shared interest between athlete and coach)

 

Do you have a solid game plan in place when it comes to contacting college coaches?

Talk with one of our college planning and recruiting advisors to see where you stand in the recruiting process and what the next steps should be in your college gameplan.

Click here to schedule your College Game Plan Q&A Call

Top 10 NCAA Recruiting Showcase Tips

Andrew Beinbrink, the founder and CEO of Sportsforce, recently completed a live online workshop focusing on how to maximize the benefits of recruiting showcases. He emphasizes various aspects of NCAA recruiting showcases while providing valuables tips to increase an athletes success at these showcases. (See the video of the workshop down below) As a former NCAA Division I and professional baseball player, Andrew has experienced many recruiting showcases providing him with first hand experience to share.

Click here to view the video and slides from the workshop

Are YOU Getting the Most Out of Your Recruiting Showcase Appearances?

Choosing the Right Recruiting Showcase

• Assure that the showcase’s format will allow the athletes to gain the most exposure
• Research which colleges and coaches will be attending the showcase
• Is the time and energy being invested have an equal future return?

“Only attend individual camps if a large number of schools are attending the showcase, or if there is a high amount of interest in that particular athlete”

Maximizing Performance at Recruiting Showcases

• Be sure to get 8 hours of sleep and always stay hydrated
• Play with passion attempting to do your best at all times
• Show your ability to work in a team environment

“Coaches look to see if athletes are showing glimpses of a level of skill and ability that they know they are going to be able to coach and get better”

Contact With Coaches

• Email coaches with some basic information about yourself as well as why they should care about you and the easiest way to scout you
• When meeting a prospective coach be sure to give a firm handshake and make eye contact
• Continue with a follow up email to coaches after their evaluation of you

“You want to make coaches say, I am going to make the time to come see you play. So letting them know where you are going to be gives you the best opportunity to be recruited”

Have a question or are looking for some potential help?

It all starts with an honest NCAA evaluation by an expert who knows what college recruiters are looking for and where you stand, an evaluation of what level of college is right for you.

Click here to learn about scheduling your NCAA evaluation & consultation

Why the Fall is Soooo Important

So you are a student-athlete that really really wants to get recruited and play at the college level, but you might not be doing some of the basic things to help you make your dream a reality. We see it happen over and over again…

* The BIG QUESTION we ask you today:

Do NCAA Coaches know your fall schedule & how to see you play?

5 Common answers players and parents give us:

1. I just play in tournaments and that’s where the college coaches are so I’m good right…
2. My coach will let coaches know and they take care of it all…
3. I don’t really have a college target list put together so…
4. I don’t know what to send coaches and who to send my schedule to..
5. I don’t know what colleges I am a good fit for….

These are all very poor reasons or excuses why coaches don’t know your fall schedule.

* College coaches don’t have the time to keep track of every potential prospect. They need to be contacted, reminded, followed up with and assisted in the recruiting process big time.

3 Steps to Take:

1. Find or list your fall schedule (events/games, dates, locations)
2. Create a target list or have your target list evaluated
3. Make sure you are focused on the right showcases, camps and schools to target (many families waste lots of TIME & $$$$)

The fall schedule and communication is just one of the keys to success as part of a complete college game plan to ensure your success.

Have a question or are looking for some potential help?

It all starts with an honest NCAA evaluation by an expert who knows what college recruiters are looking for and where you stand, an evaluation of what level of college is right for you.

Learn about scheduling your NCAA evaluation & consultation by following the link provided

http://www.sportsforceonline.com/college-prospect-evaluation-form.php

 

We want to congratulate Blake McNamara on signing with Wheelock College. Here is Blake’s recruiting story and interview from after he committed. We wish Blake the best as a Wheelock Wildcat!

1. Share your recruiting story and status (what was the process like?)

On April 29, I committed to Wheelock College. I phoned the coach and infomed him of my decision. The process was exciting. I really enjoyed conversing with College coaches and recruiter (asst. Coaches). I went on several visits to different schools to get a feel for the campus, the coaches, etc. each time my family and I were invited to watch the team play. That piece gave me a real good idea of what type of players the coaches recruit as well as the coaching styles.

2. What school are you going to, and why did you choose them?

I choose Wheelock because their collegiate Basketball program is top notch. What I mean by that is the Coach LeVangie is great, he truly invests himself in each player and took a great deal of time to meet with myself and my family. Coach LeVangie meets with players once per week to check in on their academic load and how it’s going, he looks out for his team and it is a comforting to know he has your back. The campus is nice and right in the heart of Boston, it is in the “Fenway Five” district (5 area colleges in the consortium).

3. How did SportsForce help in the process?

SportsForce was instrumental in getting my video and portfolio out to college coaches. They assisted me every step of the way, with making the video, providing guidelines for my initial and consequent contact with college coaches, offered advice for my college visits and meetings with coaches. SportsForce was great!

4. What advice would you give to other players and parents with the recruiting process?

Get your emails out early to college coaches, contact as many coaches as possible. Some colleges that I added to my list later in the year meant that the deadline to apply to the school had passed. Send emails early and leave enough time to visit the school and apply. Many deadlines for applications are the beginning of Jan or Feb.

5. How excited are you on your future in college?

I am very excited to take my basketball career to the next step and play at the collegiate level. This is something that every boy dreams of and now my dream has come true, with a lot of hard work and help from SportsForce!!!

6. How much money do you anticipate your family saving in college expenses?

I am not exactly sure how much money I saved as a result of basketball but my parents estimate it to be around $35,000 – $40,000 (over the 4 years). The money at Division III does not come directly from athletic funds or scholarships but is rolled into the financial aid package.

7. Would you recommend SportsForce to any other student-athletes? Why?

I would recommend SportsForce to any high school athlete who has the desire to play ball at the collegiate level. They are helpful in a variety of ways and the money you put into the program comes back around, for just under $500 my family is saving an upward of $35,000 and to play ball at the collegiate level……PRICELESS!!!

Over the last five years SportsForce Recruiting has helped over 1,000 student-athletes and families successfully navigate the college recruiting and athletic scholarship process while saving families on average $50,000 in college expenses.

 

Finding the right college fit can be one of the most difficult tasks in the college recruiting process…

However, once you do, it will be one of the most rewarding decisions you make in your entire life!

You’ll need to consider everything from athletics, academics and location to the financial costs and social atmosphere of each school. All this criteria goes into creating your college target list and what you and your family should consider when making a decision before you even contact a school.

All these tools are in our College Recruiting Resources Section.

EXAMPLE CASE: Let’s say you’re a student who has a 3.0 GPA and a 1400 SAT score. Those are solid marks, but not in the upper ranks for academics. Likely, that student-athlete and family shouldn’t target Ivy League schools or schools like Stanford or UCLA on the West Coast. Rather, you should do some research and determine what schools are a better fit for you both athletically and academically.

ACADEMICS

There are some great websites like collegeboard.com that can help you determine what schools might be a great fit for you to attend.

Keep in mind if you are being actively recruited, you don’t have to have the same grades that are required for the listed academic requirements for most schools.

ATHLETICS

Athletically, the best thing you can do is to go out and see a college team play, or watch them on TV to see the caliber of play and if you are capable of developing into that caliber an athlete.

Visiting the athletic website for each college is a must as well.

Here you’ll want to look for the following:

– Get an idea of the type of roster they have and what positions are already filled

– See what their depth chart looks like

– Take note of what the backgrounds of the players are. Were they All-League in high school? All-County or All-State?

Remember, it’s great to dream and have a vision for your career, but it’s also important to be realistic and use your time wisely when you’re looking at the college decision and college recruiting process.

You can get started today by getting a personal scouting evaluation – CLICK HERE TO GET STARTED

What does it mean to get actively recruited?

This is a topic that constantly pops up when our team of college recruiting advisors has conversations with college coaches and student-athletes and their families.

Most families think their child is getting actively recruited if they are receiving emails or letters. This is WRONG and a common myth that continues to exist in the college recruiting process. Being actively recruited depends on where you’re at, freshman, sophomore, junior, or senior year.

“Blanket” emails and letters are being sent to often hundreds, and sometimes thousands, of student-athletes by individual college coaches.

Here’s an example “blanket” email (Click on the image to enlarge):

After July 1st of your junior year, college coaches are allowed to call you. If you’re a junior or senior and you are aren’t receiving phone calls, and still just receiving emails or letters in the mail, that means you’re not being actively recruited.

Getting actively recruited is a common myth that usually costs many student-athletes the chance to maximize their college recruiting opportunities.

View the quick video below to hear SportsForce Recruiting’s founder and CEO Andrew Beinbrink explain the importance of being actively recruited and describe a real life example of one of our college recruiting experts. (View Nate Nelson’s story below)

 

A Real Life Example of NOT Being “Actively Recruited”

One of our college recruiting advisors, Nate Nelson, who played football at UC Davis, tells this story over and over again. He came out of San Diego as a pretty solid football player. He started getting letters as a sophomore and as a junior. He thought, “Oh this is great, I’m going to get recruited my senior year!” Next thing he knows, his senior year season has gone by. It’s the spring after his senior year of football and he’s got nothing. There are no offers. No schools are interested, no opportunities, and he’s scrambling to find a school that would be a good fit for him.

Now, understand this, he had received letters before his senior year from UCLA and from USC, and they fell off. It just didn’t happen. The bottom line is he wasn’t on their recruiting board. He was never getting actively recruited…

What was actually happening is, he was being marketed to by these various college programs. The school that he ended up going to was a Division I-AA school called UC Davis. It ended up being the exact right fit for him both athletically and academically.

It ended up being a great choice for him. However, the stress that he and his family had to deal with as being an unsigned senior was almost unbearable. This is what we try to help avoid.