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This is the time of the year that I get the most emails and DMs from parents and players about what they need to do to get that ball rolling on their recruiting. Whether they are varsity players finishing up their sophomore seasons or juniors about to embark on the final off-season of their high school career, they all have questions. There is the age-old myth that says “if you’re good enough, the college coaches will find you.” Unfortunately, that is not a true statement across the board. Yes, there are coaches that will find almost every player. But a lot of those schools are Division III or non-scholarship programs. While there is absolutely nothing wrong with those programs, you will be paying tuition, or at least part of it, at those schools and they are some of the most expensive ones in the country.
There are five things you need to make sure you do to earn your scholarship offer. Here is the first of those five things: The Recruiting Profile. And as always, if you have any questions feel free to email me at scvarsity@sc.rr.com or follow me and send me a direct message on twitter @scvarsity.
- RECRUITING PROFILE
This is critical for prospects. This is the resume, if you will, to getting a college coach to find you and know a little about you. Remember, pertinent information only in this profile. College coaches don’t have time to go through stats that don’t matter. They are only interested in the relevant stats and test scores. You or parents can be done in a Word Document or Google Docs and are simple to put together. Here are the things that need to be included.
a. Contact Information
Make sure that the coaches will be able to see your address, phone numbers (home and cell), email addresses and social media accounts. And I would recommend that you clean up your social media accounts and be mindful of the things you post because they WILL be looking at them. Grades and
b. Academic Information
Every College coach knows what it takes to get into their school so make sure you have your core GPA and your SAT/ACT scores on your profile. Also, realize what it takes for you to be a prospect. Make sure you have those grades and scores. I’ve heard kids say “they sleeping on me,” because the schools aren’t contacting them. No, son, they are “sleeping” on your 1.8 GPA. Get the work in the classroom done FIRST. THAT is the difference between being a player and a prospect.Athletic
c. Accolades/Accomplishments
Make sure your stats are verifiable and accurate. Do not round numbers. Include any post-season honors, records and team accomplishments. Combine awards do not matter. Any accomplishments in other sports would be wise to mention. Coaches like multi-sport athletes.
d. PHOTO
Make sure it is an up to date photo and you look like a high school student-athlete. They aren’t looking for Rap Stars or Rock Stars. They are looking for athletes who will be good members of their college community. Look the part.
DON’TS:
- DON’T pay a recruiting service to do this job for you. Most of those services will take your money, build you a beautiful profile that you could have done yourself, charge you a large fee for “distributing” it to their “extensive contact list”, which is also something you can do yourself for free.
- DON’T put unnecessary information in your profile. College coaches don’t care about you being the junior varsity team offensive player of the year. They also don’t care about you winning the MVP at a combine.
Remember, this is the resume. This is the thing they are going to look at to make them want to look further into you. Get it right.
And as always, if you have any questions feel free to email me at scvarsity@sc.rr.com or follow me and send me a direct message on twitter @scvarsity.
Stay tuned: I will be listing all five of the things to do to kick start your recruiting.
