Recruiting and Scholarships
"Tips from a father of a Division I Scholarship Athlete"
All parents think that their son/daughter is the best at their sport, and as such, in today's climate they deserve a scholarship to college for their hard work and dedication to the sport. As a parent who has just gone through the recruiting and scholarship process, there are ways to go about making the first statement come true for you and your son/daughter. Listed below are some tips I learned, as my daughter and I attempted to obtain a lacrosse scholarship for her.
1.) Unless your child is a star athlete i.e. all-state, national team member, McDonald's All American, your child is as good as the next, and there are hundreds throughout the country who are as good or better.
2.) Most coaches don't have the time and budget to recruit from all over the country, so they recruit the kids that they personally have seen or have been recommended by another respected and known coach.
3.) Grades are the most important aspect of your child's resume. In college athletics today, in most cases if you don't have the grades, you don't get a scholarship.
4.) Know the rules and regulations of the NCAA pertaining to your child's sport. Know when the recruiting periods begin and end.
5.) Don't expect someone else to do the job for you.
The five items listed above are probably the most important items to understand and overcome when attempting to garner a college scholarship for your son/daughter. Let's go through them one by one to see how you overcome them and be successful.
1.) As good as your child is their are hundreds as good, throughout this country. However there are also hundreds of colleges and universities through out the United States looking for scholar-athletes like your son/daughter. Not everyone gets to play for nationally known D-I schools, however there are plenty of good schools out there looking for scholar-athletes, you just have to target them. The best thing your son/daughter can do to help in this process is use the Internet to research all the schools that have the major he/she intends to study, in addition to playing the sport they participate in. By doing this you narrow your focus and start a correspondence with the coaches at these schools. You save a lot of time, energy and money by targeting a select few. Do this as early as possible in your high school career. It also shows the coach you have initiative and are interested in their school. YOU NEED TO STAND OUT AMONGST YOUR PEERS!!
2.) Only the major football and basketball programs have the resources to scan the country and recruit the best athletes. Most of these coaches are just like your high school coaches only paid a little more. They have numerous tasks to juggle as a college coach and don't have the funds or time to find you. YOU HAVE TO FIND THEM, AND DO IT EARLY!! This means finding out about the schools you are interested in, and whether or not they have summer camps for your sport. If they do, go to their camp as early as possible in your high school career, freshman is not too early. These camps usually only last for 3-5 days each and normally only cost between $300-$500 per camp. Even if you have to fly to it, maybe the entire camp and transportation will cost $1000.00. Isn't is worth this minimal investment to possibly obtain a college scholarship that could be worth anywhere from $60,000 to $200,000 for a 4 year scholarship? If possible go to the same camps each year of your high school career, if you are truly interested in that school. Again it shows that you are interested in that school and more importantly you become a familiar face to the coach you are trying to impress. Another positive about attending these camps is that a lot of these coaches use their current players as counselors/demonstrators at these camps. In some instances you get to play against their current players at these camps. My daughter went to a Penn State lacrosse camp and played an entire week as goalie against the current Penn State goalie in intra camp games. How great is it for both your child and the coach to see that you can hold your own against the current college players. The coaches use these camps as a way to see prospects without breaking any NCAA rules. DO YOUR HOMEWORK, FIND OUT ABOUT THESE CAMPS AND ATTEND, ATTEND, ATTEND!!!
3.) Grades are mandatory now!! No longer can you get away with poor grades and expect to receive a college scholarship. Each school has a limited athletic budget for scholarships, but a much larger budget for academic scholarships. There is much more money available for academic scholarships, so coaches love it when they can pull money from this source to recruit a player. This leaves them more money out of their athletic budget for the real borderline players. Coaches and schools are being scrutinized heavily by the NCAA for academic violations. The first question all coaches want to know about is what is your grade point average. Each school has their own requirements, and coaches can't be bothered with trying to squeeze in a marginal academic prospect, when there is so many athletes to choose from. Get good grades now!!! Don't wait for your junior year when most coaches can actually talk to you, it's too late. Your GPA seems to be much more important than what you actually score on the SAT's. Additionally make sure you participate in other activities in school, such as Student Counsel, SADD, MADD etc. Coaches want to see a reliable, responsible well rounded individual, who can juggle multiple tasks. REMEMBER, IN COLLEGE YOU ARE ON YOUR OWN, PROVE TO THE COACHES YOU CAN HANDLE IT!!!
4.) Each sport governed by the NCAA has their own rules and regulations regarding recruiting student athletes. You must register with the NCAA Clearing House to ensure your amateur status before any athletic scholarship can be offered. This link NCAA Rules and Regulations can tell you when and how college coaches can contact you. However is most cases there is no problem you contacting them first. In my daughters case they were not allowed to call her before July of her Junior year. In most cases though that is too late. You are only leaving your Senior year as the defining moment of your career, if you wait this long to start contacting coaches. As I previously mentioned, start early, write letters, go to camps, attend lectures/clinics that these coaches hold. Show that you are interested in their schools. BE PROACTIVE NOT REACTIVE ABOUT THESE SCHOLARSHIPS, THIS IS YOUR FUTURE YOU ARE DEALING WITH!!!
5.) Don't expect your high school coaches to help you find a scholarship! Some have good contacts and work for you, some don't. It's your future, don't leave it all in someone else's hands. If they can help, that's all the better, and that's more people working for you. Your future is at stake, take the time energy, effort and even money to invest in it. This is probably one of the most important decisions you are going to make in your life. You have worked all your life to achieve the status and top goals of your sport up to now. IT HAS BEEN YOU DOING THE TRAINING, THE WORKOUTS, GIVING THE EXTRA EFFORT. NOW IT HAS TO BE YOU TO MARKET AND OBTAIN THE GOAL OF YOUR DREAMS. T-H-E S-C-H-O-L-A-R-S-H-I-P
The Bottom line to all of this is that you have to make your son/daughter stand out from the rest. You have to do your own marketing of your child, in most cases there aren't going to be a lot of people helping out as you would wish. We did the following 4 things that I truly believe helped her obtain a college scholarship to a Division I Lacrosse program in Maryland.
1.) She determined which schools had her major and played lacrosse in the area of the country she wanted, by using the resources available on the Internet and at school. Once those were determined we set up appointments with coaches, department chairmen, admissions counselors and then visited each school.
2.) We developed this web site so that we could do the following things without breaking any NCAA violations. We were able to keep in contact with the coaches through the use of e-mail. We were able to post all of her academic and athletic achievements on the web site for all to see. We would constantly send e-mails to coaches anytime we updated the site with information.
3.) We created a laminated trading card similar to a baseball card with her picture on the front and all of her academic and athletic achievements on the back, that we gave to all coaches, administrators, dept. chairman etc. so that SHE WOULD STICK OUT AMONGST HER PEERS!!
4.) We sent her to various goalie and regular lacrosse camps during her high school career. The purpose was to meet and play in front of as many coaches as possible. The coaching community is a small tight knit group of individuals. They all talk to one another, in my daughter's case the coaches from Maryland had never seen her play, however we had just come from the Penn State camp, where she had just held her own for a week. We gave the Maryland coach the Penn State number to get a recommendation. Unless coaches are competing for the same player, they love to talk to each other about any possible recruit, it just makes their life easier. I would highly recommend sending your child to these college camps instead of local camps run by former pro ball players, in almost 99.9% of the cases none of our kids are going to become a professional athlete, so focus on the best thing for your child a college scholarship.
I hope these tips will help you and your child obtain that scholarship you deserve!!