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The following article is sponsored by National Scouting Report. Visit NSR’s web site at http://www.nsr-inc.com/
RECRUITING BLOG: 7 SIGNS YOU DON’T UNDERSTAND THE COLLEGE RECRUITING PROCESS
By Gary Silvers
Welcome back to another school year!
For high school student-athletes, that means another year of training, practices, games and college recruiting.
If you’re a varsity athlete, hoping to play in college, you better understand the recruiting process. Recruiting is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity – a small window of opportunity – and there are no second chances. You need to know how to attract college coaches, keep them interested and, ultimately, receive offers.
During the school year, I will share lots of valuable tips in my biweekly recruiting blogs. So you don’t start off on the wrong foot, here are seven signs you don’t understand the recruiting process:
1. You think: “I’m only a freshman/sophomore; I’ll wait until junior/senior year.”
Believe it or not, many college coaches start recruiting athletes in middle school. You need to get on the recruiting radar as early as possible. You’re notonly a freshman/sophomore, you’re already a freshman/sophomore. The longer you wait to be recruited, the less opportunities you will have. College coaches won’t wait for you!
2. You think if you’re good enough, college coaches will find you.
Nothing could be further from the truth. Perhaps it was true when your father played college sports, but not today. Due to the economy, college recruiting budgets have been slashed. Coaches don’t have as much time or money to recruit. Therefore, you can’t wait for them to find you. You must find them.
3. You think your high school or club coach will get you recruited and put them in complete control of your future.
Would you put all of your money into one stock? Then why would you put one person in charge of your athletic future? Sure, you would like your coach to help in the recruiting process, but you can’t depend entirely on him/her. What happens if your coach doesn’t have the time? What happens if he/she doesn’t have the contacts? What happens if he/she doesn’t come through? You need all the help you can get -- from anyone and everyone.
4. You think your level of play will make up for your lack of grades.
Are you serious? Obviously, if you think that, you’re not a serious student. If you don’t have the grades to qualify for college sports, you won’t be eligible to play. The better you do in school, the better your chances of playing in college. For one thing, more schools will be interested in recruiting you. For another, you will be competing against hundreds, perhaps thousands, of other prospects for scholarship money. If two prospects have equal athletic ability, the one with the better grades gets the offer.
5. You think you’re being recruited because you’ve received a camp invitation or questionnaire.
Camp invitations and questionnaires come a dime a dozen. Virtually every high school athlete receives them. College coaches often send them to high school coaches to hand out. Unless your camp invitation is personal and identifies you as a college prospect, it is merely a solicitation for your camp money. Unless your questionnaire contains a prospect code, you are just another face in the crowd.
6. You are only hearing from small schools in your area.
The reason most prospects only hear from small area schools is because they are not on the national recruiting radar. Due to their proximity, local small-school coaches are the only ones who have seen or read about them. If your goal is to play for a small school close to home, that should satisfy you. But what if you want bigger and better opportunities? Wouldn’t you rather be on the national recruiting radar?
7. You are junior and don’t have at least 20 schools recruiting you.
College recruiting is a business. You want as many schools as possible recruiting you. You want to create competition among college coaches. The more schools that recruit you, the more offers you can expect. The more offers you receive, the more money you can expect. If you only receive one offer, you only have two choices: take it or leave it. Why wouldn’t you want more?
National Scouting Report, the world’s oldest and largest high school scouting and college recruiting organization, receives hundreds of requests from college coaches seeking prospects (2016-19) in all sports. If you would like to be personally scouted and interviewed for college coaches, contact NSR Area Director Gary Silvers at (215) 480-8764 or gsilvers@nsr-inc.com. More than 95% of NSR’s qualified prospects receive scholarship offers.