The recruiting process can often be difficult for parents and students because finding a college that offers the academic and athletic opportunities you are looking for isn't easy. Often is the case that the right school for you isn't interested in recruiting you, and the schools that are recruiting you are not the right school for you. Finding a match can be difficult. Here are some tips to help you research different programs.
Keep your academic focus While recruited student-athletes often have an advantage in the application process with coaches pushing for them, it's important that you work as hard as you possibly can on your tests and grades. While the NCAA has minimum academic standards that must be met, each individual school will have far higher standards. Being a top athlete doesn't guarantee your admission to a particular school and most college coaches will not be interested in your abilities until they have established your academic strength and probability of being accepted to their college. There is also far more money available in the form of academic grants than there is athletic scholarship money, so being a top student is often more important than being a top athlete if you are looking for additional funding for college.
Be open-minded There are over 1,200 NCAA throughout the country not to mention hundreds of NAIA schools and Junior Colleges. Many parents and students only focus on top academic colleges or schools they have heard of and dismiss other opportunities at schools they are unfamiliar with. The problem with this is that there are hundreds of thousands of students competing for those same spots at well-known colleges. Harvard University routinely gets over 20,000 applications a year from qualified students but only accepts about 2,000 students a year or roughly 10%. Despite your talents and accomplishments, it's often a numbers game and you have to have a wide net of possible colleges that offer programs that you are interested in, in order to be more successful.
Communicate with college coaches It's important to not only initiate contact with college coaches but to keep in contact with college coaches. While the NCAA has strict contact rules for college coaches calling athletes, athletes are allowed to call coaches at any time, including emailing coaches when need be. Keep coaches up-to-date on your progress, your interests and your schedules.
Communicate with you high school coach Whether your high school coach can help you with the recruiting process remains to be seen, but you need to find out what role they can play. Some high school coaches cannot or do not want to help their players, others get too involved and try to do everything. It's important to make your coach aware of your desire to play in college and establish what help if any they can be to you. If they will be unable to assist you, then you need to formulate a plan as to how you are going to conduct your recruiting process.
Be positive College coaches want to recruit confident athletes who can communicate their skills and desires with them and student-athletes who can articulate their goals and desires. Your ability to show confidence when communicating with college coaches whether it be on the phone or in person will help you stand out from the pack.
Be realistic While playing football for Notre Dame or basketball for Duke would be an admirable goal, programs like these are recruiting the very best high school athletes in the world. Some of the top programs in the country have a list no longer than 10 or 12 recruits they are actively pursuing each year and might only be looking for 2 or 3 athletes to fill their roster in a given year. Your ultimate goal is to get the best education you can and as Isiah Thomas once said, "Use basketball, don't let basketball use you!" What Thomas meant was that the point of going to college is to get an education and if you focus all your energy on your athletic pursuits, you will miss the bigger picture. Try and find programs that match your athletic skills, gives you a realistic chance to compete for playing time and offers academic programs you are interested in.
Ask questions Since the recruiting process will be new to you, it's important to ask as many questions as possible. College coaches understand that this process is difficult and will be happy to answer any questions you have.
Attend a game Many recruits think they can play at a certain level without really understanding the skill-level required to play at many programs. Each individual college team is unique in it's own right and past success, location, reputation, school size, coaching experience, etc, can play a major role in the talents of individual teams. Before you place labels on certain schools, try to go see different teams play to get a sense of what level they compete at and how you might fair there. You may be surprised and find very talented and physically gifted athletes at all levels of college.
