It’s that time again…summer club season.

By this point in the year, most high school lacrosse players have sifted through the multiple club teams, showcases, prospect days, and tournaments to which they have been invited, and tough decisions are being made. Likewise, college coaches are finalizing their plans, allocating precious recruiting resources to various tournaments and events throughout the country.

In this installment of our College Game Plan Education series, we’ll provide a basic overview to get the most out of your summer investment.

So let’s stay at a high level and get started with a few questions:

Have you narrowed the list of schools that you’re interested in?

There are over 350 colleges with NCAA Men’s Lacrosse programs, but only a few schools that align with your academic, athletic, social, geographical, and financial goals. Taking the time up front to focus only on best-fit schools will save you and your family tremendous amounts of time, money, and frustration. We call this developing a “target list” of schools. Factors such as what academic programs are offered (and their rating), school size, location, social aspects, level and culture of the lacrosse program, and the coaching staff must be considered to make an informed final decision and should be part of developing your target list.

What coaches from your target list committed to attend your events?

The questions I most hear from families in late spring revolve around one topic: the BEST teams/camps/showcases to attend this summer to be seen by college coaches. The answer to “which is best?” comes down to how many of your targeted schools will be at an event and whether you can interest them enough to come see you play. For example, a showcase heavily attended by Ivy League schools would likely not be the best use of resources for a player with a 2.5 GPA. If you have the grades, the desire, and the talent to attend Harvard or Princeton, however, it would likely be a great event to attend.

Have you contacted any coaches to let them know where you’ll be playing?

Many players believe that if they’re on the right team or at the biggest showcase, they’ll simply get noticed. NCAA rules limit the amount and type of contact a coach can have with an underclassman (currently 2018 and below), so you can’t expect to have meaningful conversations with them when you see them or meet them in person at events. While accolades like all-star teams and all-tournament teams on your resume can certainly have an impact, a college coach usually arrives at an event with a list of names they’ll be evaluating and those players’ schedules, so it’s important to make personal contact and begin to establish relationships with coaches in the weeks leading up to your events.

Do you have an effective online presence?

Lacrosse is quickly growing into a nation-wide sport, with more and more new players picking up a stick each year. College coaches are flooded with emails and phone calls from high school players that desperately want to attend their school and be a contributor in their program. It’s wise to make it as easy as possible for a coach to evaluate your potential as a recruited player rather quickly. In today’s recruiting landscape, a highlight video, your academic information, and your measurable statistics (height, weight, speed, etc.) are a bare minimum. It is a good idea to also include references and their contact information, your upcoming schedule, a copy of your transcript, and even a personal statement or a list of college goals you’re looking to achieve. Your goal is to establish a relationship with these coaches, so the more you set yourself apart during the initial evaluation phase, the more likely you’ll be recruited by multiple coaches and programs.

Steps to Maximize Your Summer Game Plan

1. Develop a target list of potentially best-fit schools and lacrosse programs
2. Create/Update/Maintain online presence that markets YOU
3. Establish contact with college coaches, interest them in your information
4. Be yourself, ask questions, and learn all you can from the coaches you meet
5. Have fun playing lacrosse
6. Conduct follow-up with interested coaches after each event

Other tips for success:

1. Stay hydrated and have a nutritional plan at summer events
2. Play hard all the time, you never know who may be watching
3. Play smart- it’s still a team game in the summer
4. Always display sportsmanlike conduct
5. How you look & act between games matters

The common thread in everything we do in the recruiting space is that it’s all about relationships. Choosing a college is an extremely personal and emotional decision for every family, and the investment is likely the largest any parent makes in their child’s future. As such, every player and parent feel the need to be personally comfortable with the school, the campus, and the lacrosse program before committing to attend. Likewise, college coaches earn their living based on how their team performs on and off the field, and the stakes are high, so they have to truly get to know the young men they invite to play for their program. Developing relationships with college coaches should be one of the main goals of your summer, and will require you to formulate a plan to make the best use of your summer lacrosse schedule and the opportunities you will have to be seen and evaluated by your best-fit programs.

When a student-athlete becomes serious about playing their sport in college, it helps to understand when a college coach is truly recruiting them. Many families have difficulty interpreting the various types of correspondence from college coaches. They just can’t tell the difference when a coach is genuinely interested in developing a relationship versus one who is just marketing their school’s sports program.

Understanding this difference is not only vital to your success, it saves you valuable time, money and resources on chasing opportunities that will never be realized. When your efforts are focused on the coaches and schools that really have an interest in you, the results tend to reflect more offers, higher scholarship amounts and a shorter recruiting cycle.

At SportsForce, we like to help our families visualize this process. The diagram below shows a person climbing a mountain. This represents your son or daughter. They’re ascending the college recruiting mountain with possibly several hundred thousand other student-athletes also competing for a college roster spot for their particular sport. But on average, only about 5-6% of those few hundred thousand make it to the top of the mountain with an offer or scholarship.

The areas listed on the right are the basic steps and communication that takes place along the way. More specifically, the areas in red are what we call “Base Camp One” on the mountain. That’s where a lot of student-athletes stop in terms of their college recruiting. At this point, they have no contact with college coaches. Another key indicator of being at Base Camp One is they might attend or be invited to a big tournament, combine or camp. They might also receive generic emails, questionnaires or form mailings from a coach. But that’s about as far as it goes. The red color means they have not advanced their recruiting progress.

The key to knowing when you’re being “actively” recruited, is when your son or daughter have an ongoing personal dialog with a college coach. The area in yellow highlights some of these types of activities and communication. If they’re receiving personal texts, phone calls, emails or hand-written notes, this means they’re being actively recruited. If they are invited for an unofficial visit or Junior Day event, this also aligns with active recruitment. The yellow color means caution. Just because your student-athlete is actively communicating with college coaches does not automatically mean they will receive a written offer from them. College coaches are also pursuing other players, not just your son or daughter.

Once in the green area, student-athletes (if they have not already) may begin receiving verbal offers. Those may lead to further official visits, which may produce written offers and ultimately a signed National Letter of intent. The green color means go and your student-athlete is receiving offers and probably achieving their college recruiting goals.

Where is your son or daughter on the college recruiting mountain? Do they need assistance in building personal relationships with college coaches or deciphering their communication?

Contact us today for a personal college recruiting evaluation. Our highly trained team of college recruiting advisors have either played or coached their sport at the college level. Our entire team of professionals dedicates their passion, time and attention to properly evaluating, educating and successfully guiding qualified student-athletes and their families through the college planning and recruiting process.

For a personal college recruiting evaluation and honest estimate of your potential to compete at the next level, contact us at:

Phone: 1.888.9787084
Email: scouting@sportsforceonline.com

Connect with us on Facebook and Twitter!

What does it look like when a professional and those with less experience try to secure college offers, earn significant scholarships and play their sport in college?

Let’s highlight some of the key differences in the two approaches.

Professional Approach

• Meets with certified counselor to ensure high school courses are in line with NCAA core course eligibility.
• Analyzes best classes to take in order to maximize GPA while maintaining an appropriate strength of subject content. This is based on the academic requirements of their college target list.
• Analyzes and determines the best test to take (either SAT or ACT) based on individual strengths and focuses on studying for one test. Uses professional help/guidance in studying for tests.
• Receives proper athletic evaluation. Creates and executes a customized game plan to begin the recruiting process. Targets appropriate colleges that match student-athletes academic, athletic, geographic and financial desires and abilities. As a result, enjoy shorter recruiting cycles. Begins in the freshman or sophomore year.
• Develops ongoing and strong personal relationships with multiple college coaches. Makes it easy for college coaches to communicate and interact with them. Understands when a college coach is genuinely interested in them, or if the coach has no interest in making them an offer.
• Executes their game plan and secures multiple offers from best-fit schools.

Inexperienced Approach

• Does not understand core course NCAA eligibility requirements. Does not regularly meet with certified counselor to properly track high school course load.
• Only takes mandatory courses or classes of interest with no link to specific target college academic requirements.
• Studies for, and takes both the ACT and SAT tests. Then determines what might be the best test to take again. Does not use prep testing services.
• Sits back and waits for college coaches to contact them. Hopes to be discovered by college coaches at a camp/tournament/showcase. Rely on outside factors such as club or high school coaches to help them be recruited. Receives and acts on poor advice from well-intentioned people. Gets serious about recruiting late in the junior or senior year.
• Wastes time trying to communicate with coaches that have no desire in recruiting them
• Wastes a lot of money and time on attending multiple camps/tournaments with no idea if these are the appropriate ones to participate in.
• May secure an offer from a school they are not strongly interested in, or may not secure any offers at all

Managing the recruiting process like a professional is not easy. Most know that they will experience this event only one time and making mistakes are costly. It’s competitive and hard work. It requires focus, sacrifice, determination and the appropriate resources. The professional is prepared and committed to achieving their goals over the long haul.

Inexperienced people typically do not take control of the recruiting process. They usually fall short of achieving their college recruiting goals. They lack a well-conceived game plan and find it difficult to execute basic strategies. They typically repeat activities that are ineffective and unsuccessful. Inexperienced families and student-athletes do try their best. Even though they sometimes may achieve incremental gains, much of their success is left entirely to chance.

Of the 8 million students playing their sport in high school, approximately 94% or 7.5 million never go on to compete in their sport in college. The competition is too fierce, the roster spots and scholarships are too limited, the process is too complex, the college recruiting budgets are too small and the stakes are too high to manage this process without the necessary tools, guidance and professional support.

You don’t have to go it alone. As the nation’s premier college recruiting advisory group, SportsForce provides families with a highly trained team of college recruiting advisors who have either played or coached their sport at the college level. Our entire team of professionals dedicates their passion, time and attention to properly evaluating, educating and successfully guiding qualified student-athletes and their families through the college planning and recruiting process. We can help you too.

For a personal college recruiting evaluation and honest estimate of your potential to compete at the next level, contact us at:

Phone: 1.888.9787084
Email: scouting@sportsforceonline.com

Connect with us on Facebook and Twitter!

To greatly improve your chances of competing at the collegiate level, it’s critical to understand the importance of building and sustaining personal relationships with college coaches. This is sometimes the essential separator between two equal recruiting candidates.

Because player statistics and videos don’t tell the whole story about a student-athlete if a coach is interested in recruiting you, voice to voice contact or in-person meetings are ultimately necessary. During these moments, it’s absolutely critical to make a good impression. Always be prepared for the encounter whether over the phone or in person. The most effective way to accomplish this task is to:

1. Take time to learn about the school, the coaches, and the sports program. Go online and read about the coaching staff backgrounds along with the programs’ successes and challenges. Learn about the conference they compete in and the other teams they play against. Understand the current roster of players and where you might fit in based on your specific position, measurables or stats. Learn about the school academically and be prepared to share with the coach why it is a top fit school/program for you. Keep notes next to the phone to help remember key things you want to discuss with the coach. Keep a journal of personal notes about your calls for future decision-making purposes.

2. Ask intentional questions. Before a call or meeting, write out a list of questions that you want to learn about the school and the coach. College coaches always appreciate well thought out and intelligent questions. Some things to uncover in these conversations may include the programs’ graduation rates, team GPA, team goals, in-season and off-season training schedules/expectations, team bonding events and how the coach sees you fitting in the program.

3. Be memorable – write a hand written note. After a conversation or meeting with a coach, write a hand written note thanking him or her for their time. At the very least, send a thank you email within 24-48 hours.

4. Introduce yourself at camps. Don’t be intimidated or afraid to walk up to each coach and introduce yourself. Let them know your name, high school, grad year, position and that you’re excited to be there. To make this first introduction even easier, send the coaches in attendance a letter prior to the camp, along with your game video so they have a better chance of remembering you.

5. Stay connected. At the end of a call or meeting, ask the coach if it would be okay to email and update each other every 1-2 months. Also, ask what social media platform they prefer and keep in touch that way as well. Monitoring the success of a college program and or congratulating the coach shows you have a strong interest in their school/program.

Maintaining consistent touchpoints and building personal relationships with college coaches will typically produce very positive recruiting results. Results that will help you to determine your best-fit school, best coaching staff, best athletic/academic programs, best offer and the best future career opportunities.

 

Over the last five years, SportsForce 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.

We would like to congratulate Jake Fosgett on his commitment to Concordia University of Nebraska! Here are Jake’s recruiting story and interview after his commitment. Good luck as a Bulldog! 1. Share your recruiting story and status My college recruiting process began a little later than what probably would have been ideal. I began after the summer of my sophomore year in high school, following a solid season of pitching for San Dieguito Academy. The only time I really showcased myself was when I participated in tournaments trying to get some exposure from college scouts/coaches. During my junior year in high school, I teamed up with SportsForce to get actual advice from people with actual experience in the field of recruiting. I was given LOTS of help from the SportsForce guys. I got some recruiting knowledge such as: what questions to ask coaches, how to contact those coaches, and how to effectively proceed through the recruiting process. Helpful tips for my pitching form were even given in areas that needed to be improved upon. All this eventually led me to perform in a Prospect camp that put me in contact with my future coach at Concordia. He was impressed at how well I performed on and off the field, including grades, and showed a strong interest in me for his team. I committed in October of 2015, three months after coming in contact with the coach at my school. 2. What school are you going to, and why did you choose them? I am going to Concordia University of Nebraska. The two main reasons I chose the school would have to be the baseball coach there and the strong education that I am anxious to receive in my major of Computer Sciences. 3. How did SportsForce help in the process? As I said before, SportsForce gave me an abundant wealth of advice that helped me converse and contact college scouts and coaches. 4. What advice would you give to other players and parents with the recruiting process? I’d say that one very important thing would be to start as early as you can. The first big step you should take is during your freshman and sophomore year. If you’re starting a little later, as I did, don’t panic! However, you will need to give more dedication to participating in tournaments, camps, and showcases in a shorter amount of time. 5. How excited are you for your future in college? I’m very excited about college. Obviously, I’m quite nervous for it, but feel I made a great decision going to Concordia where there are some really cool baseball guys that will be my future teammates. 6. How much money do you anticipate your family saving in college expenses because of you being recruited? I currently have a $17,000 scholarship to go to Concordia, which is half the Out-of-State cost. For four years, that is $68,000 in savings for college. 7. Would you recommend SportsForce to any other student-athletes? Why? I would recommend SportsForce to anybody willing to put in all the necessary effort for college and baseball, and then some. If you’re going to be a student-athlete with SportsForce, then grades, baseball, and family are going to need to become your top priorities to succeed in the recruiting process.   Our Mission at SportsForce Baseball: We are on a mission to help our select number of qualified and evaluated players maximize their recruiting offers and make the best college decision. Started by CEO & founder Andrew Beinbrink, SportsForce Baseball is a nationally recognized college recruiting advisory group with over 40 former college coaches, players, and MLB scouts in 10 different states. During the last 11+ years, we’ve helped over 1,000 players make their college commitments. Read below, why we are different from every recruiting group in the country. Why SportsForce is Different: * View our Home Page Video Unlike most recruiting companies, we do not just partner with anyone for our hands-on recruiting programs. Instead, we only partner with qualified players who meet our Five academic, athletic, and coachability selection factors. We evaluate between 10,000-12,000 players each summer and fall at top showcases and selectively advise, and advocate for only a limited number of players each year by directly contacting college coaches to help them maximize recruiting offers. Each of our expert college recruiters is limited to how many players they will advise so there is the best combination of hands-on guidance and personal recruiting outreach to college coaches. Social Media Exposure: We also utilize our growing Twitter following at @SportsForceBB which is followed by over 500 NCAA D1, D2, D3, NAIA, and JC coaches nationwide and growing fast. To Get Evaluated by Our Expert College Recruiting Staff: Option 1: Complete our Recruiting Questionnaire Option 2: Email us at scouting@sportsforceonline.com Options 3: DM us on Instagram @SportsForceBB or Twitter @SportsForceBB and share recent video, stats, or measurables (velocity, 60, exit speed, pop time, etc…) for our scouts to evaluate. Find out if Your Son’s Qualifies for One of Our Hands-On Recruiting Programs? Twitter Recruiting Education & College Needs Posts: We post ongoing recruiting education and post NCAA D1, D2, D3, NAIA, and JC needs year around. Follow us on Twitter @SportsForceBB account and join over 500 hundred NCAA D1, D2, D3, NAIA, and JC coaches nationwide that follow us and growing fast. Tagging us: If you have some good video to share with us, make sure to tag us @SportsForceBB or DM us and we will review it.

We would like to congratulate Tyler Hazlett on his commitment to Hawaii Pacific University! Here are Tyler’s recruiting story and interview after his commitment. Good luck as a Shark! 1. Share your recruiting story and status I play for a small Division 5 high school team in Temple City, California. I began participating in baseball showcases in December of my junior year. While attending a baseball camp at USC, I met the General Manager for Trosky Baseball and later that year was asked to play for the Trosky 18U team the next summer. Playing for Trosky was the best experience of my high school career and consistently put me in front of dozens of college coaches. We quickly realized that even starting the recruiting process as a junior we were somewhat behind. Some of my Trosky teammates were committing as sophomores and juniors. We felt behind in the process from the beginning. My coaches and I knew I would play somewhere but we didn’t know where. I didn’t commit until the middle of my senior year. 2. What school are you going to, and why did you choose them? I committed to attend play baseball for Hawaii Pacific University in February of my senior year. I was being watched by many colleges and actively recruited by a handful. I visited the campuses and met with the coaching staff of the schools that were actively recruiting me. This was a very important experience and all I can say is I just knew that HPU was the right college for me. I considered the education, campus, location, team, coaching staff and the opportunity to make an immediate impact. The home field is not the best and the campus is not very traditional, but it all feels right to me. I met several families from Hawaii while playing for Trosky and the love and kindness they showed me and my family also influenced my decision. 3. How did SportsForce help in the process? My mom heard a presentation from SportsForce at a college showcase and told my dad we needed to look into their service. We set up a phone call with Andrew (Beinbrink, CEO/Co-Founder of SportsForce) and he gave us some valuable advice about the recruiting process and what was required to be marketable. We decided to sign up because it seemed like Andrew really understood the process and we felt like we were already behind. My dad tells his friends that the recruiting process is another full-time job. My initial list had 50 possible schools from NCAA Division I to Division III. In baseball, there are only so many coaches and even fewer opportunities for them to see you play. Communicating to coaches when and where they can see you is the most important piece of the puzzle. SportsForce helped us email every single coach on the college staff on my target list before every game or tournament. SportsForce also helped us determine if a coach was really interested in me or just marketing their program. An invitation to a camp is not the same as a phone call or text message from a coach. 4. What advice would you give to other players and parents with the recruiting process? The process is different for every single person, start early but don’t be discouraged if you do start late. It’s hard to believe early means freshman year or earlier for some, but that’s what it means in baseball. A highlight video is a must and has to be short and focused, but playing or showcasing in front of coaches is most important. Be flexible, schools I thought I wanted to attend didn’t feel right when I actually visited the campus. Grades are also extremely important. A GPA of 3.5 and above puts you in a different category for coaches and impacts the amount of academic money a college can offer you. A coach has a lot more flexibility when he can rely on your academic achievement. My offer was stacked with an academic scholarship and an athletic scholarship. The process is not easy! Responding to emails from coaches can take hours after a game or tournament. You need to be organized and I relied on my parents a lot. My dad had his friends call me as mock college coaches so I would be prepared when the phone calls came. Research the schools you are interested in and be able to talk about yourself and what you like and don’t like about a school. Be honest with the coach and yourself and make sure it feels right to you. 5. How excited are you for your future in college? I am extremely happy with my choice and look forward to a great college experience. I love the campus, the coaches, the people and the food. And hey, the location is Hawaii. 6. How much money do you anticipate your family saving in college expenses because of you being recruited? My offer is for $18,000 a year, so we will save $72,000 over the four years. 7. Would you recommend SportsForce to any other student-athletes? Why? I play for Trosky Mizuno and we play and travel a lot in the summer. My Dad said we would not have been able to manage the email communication without SportsForce. SportsForce started out sending over two hundred emails at a time for me when we started. Darrell (Mazon, Co-Director of Client Team at SportsForce) kept me on task and made sure I got my emails to coaches in time so they would be able to schedule a time to see me at games and tournaments. When communication and offers started coming in, Andrew was there to provide advice. One of the best parts was that I was able to see which coaches watched my video and which coaches opened my emails.   Our Mission at SportsForce Baseball: We are on a mission to help our select number of qualified and evaluated players maximize their recruiting offers and make the best college decision. Started by CEO & founder Andrew Beinbrink, SportsForce Baseball is a nationally recognized college recruiting advisory group with over 40 former college coaches, players, and MLB scouts in 10 different states. During the last 11+ years, we’ve helped over 1,000 players make their college commitments. Read below, why we are different from every recruiting group in the country. Why SportsForce is Different: * View our Home Page Video Unlike most recruiting companies, we do not just partner with anyone for our hands-on recruiting programs. Instead, we only partner with qualified players who meet our Five academic, athletic, and coachability selection factors. We evaluate between 10,000-12,000 players each summer and fall at top showcases and selectively advise, and advocate for only a limited number of players each year by directly contacting college coaches to help them maximize recruiting offers. Each of our expert college recruiters is limited to how many players they will advise so there is the best combination of hands-on guidance and personal recruiting outreach to college coaches. Social Media Exposure: We also utilize our growing Twitter following at @SportsForceBB which is followed by over 500 NCAA D1, D2, D3, NAIA, and JC coaches nationwide and growing fast. To Get Evaluated by Our Expert College Recruiting Staff: Option 1: Complete our Recruiting Questionnaire Option 2: Email us at scouting@sportsforceonline.com Options 3: DM us on Instagram @SportsForceBB or Twitter @SportsForceBB and share recent video, stats, or measurables (velocity, 60, exit speed, pop time, etc…) for our scouts to evaluate. Find out if Your Son’s Qualifies for One of Our Hands-On Recruiting Programs? Twitter Recruiting Education & College Needs Posts: We post ongoing recruiting education and post NCAA D1, D2, D3, NAIA, and JC needs year around. Follow us on Twitter @SportsForceBB account and join over 500 hundred NCAA D1, D2, D3, NAIA, and JC coaches nationwide that follow us and growing fast. Tagging us: If you have some good video to share with us, make sure to tag us @SportsForceBB or DM us and we will review it.

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.

 

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