Woods Recruiting

There is nothing free about college recruiting for any high school student athlete and their overly-anxious parents. The process of getting one’s name out there to a huge number of college programs can be costly over the period of 3 to 4 years of a high school student athletes’ career.

The costs of DVDs are a major part of the recruiting process. Keep in mind, if you’re a major college talent you may not need a DVD but if you’re not a big college player then the cost to have 25 or more DVDs can run you $300 to $500 dollars and then there’s the packaging and mailing costs.

Many high school athletes play on travel teams or play in a lot of tournaments during the summer. These events are a must if you want to be seen by college programs and, they too, can cost big money to attend. You almost need a bank loan to cover the high cost of college recruiting!

These days, parents are hiring personal trainers to help in the development of their kids and for the most part it helps I think because the more an athlete can do to get better, the more it will help win that scholarship.

College overall is not free and if you can get a full scholarship then, in most cases, future success is guaranteed in your kid playing a sport and being very good at it. This can get you that free education.

All of those college athletes you see on T.V. playing football or basketball got there because they were very good and because they had talent. Their lives are set because they did all the right things to get there; they paid the price-on and off the field of play.

There is a number of costs involved during the college recruiting process and for any parent, please make sure you plan well and give yourself time to work that plan.

The cost is a lot but the reward is worth it!

 

 

 

 

 

 

First of all, getting recruited for college is not easy especially if you’re not a major college recruiter and you have hundreds of college programs coming after you every day. If you’re one of those high school athletes who has it going on like that then you’re okay. All you have to do is sit back and pick the school, that’s it. There are millions of other very talented high school athletes who need some type of recruiting help and that’s the way it is; there’s no way of getting around it.

 

My reasons on why many high school student athletes are not going to get in college or get that major college program to know that they exist are:

 

1. You suck as an athlete and that’s very evident to everyone right off the top. If you have no game then be happy by just being a college student. That’s why you’re not getting into college.

 

2. You did not tell enough college programs about yourself enough times. Many high school athletes and parents feel that all they have to do is mail out information to a bunch of college coaches and sit back and wait for the phone to ring or the letters to come in. You have to do more than that! You have to follow-up with college coaches, you have to build a plan and know how to attack these college programs because if you don’t then you will lose out on a lot of valuable time in the college recruiting process.

 

3. Where’s the game tape/DVD? With the way things are these days with gas prices very high, not many college coaches are coming out to very many high schools games. You must have your game highlights on tape/DVD at the ready to mail out to college coaches. This is one of the best ways to get your name out there fast and to really see if you have the game to compete at the major college level. The cost of getting a tape or DVD made is not cheap but if you want to have a college contact you, you’d better have one done.

 

4. Academics. Outside of athletic ability I think academics is huge in getting to the college level. There are some high school athletes out there who still don’t get the message about having good grades but, too bad for them. Many of them will end up at a junior college somewhere in some small town! Get a very high GPA and get very high test scores. That way, you won’t have doubts with any of the college programs about your ability to handle college life. I think all high school student athletes should take the SAT or ACT tests as many times that it is offered. Going in, you should know how many test dates there are, how much the test will cost, and where the test will be held. You need to know all of that.

 

5. Your coach is not very good. Sorry high school coaches, but some of you, not all, suck at coaching and helping your players get to the next level and because of this, many student athletes will lose out on real opportunities of ever playing in college. Don’t get me wrong here, but I have talked to too many high school athletes and parents about the problems with their coach. Some of the problems I have heard are coaches holding back letters that are mailed to the high school from an interested college program or the coach won’t play them or the coach won’t help and the list goes on. But it your high school coach did not help the players from last year’s team you can bet he or she is not going to help you.

 

6. Establishing a rapport with college coaches. There are some people who still think that college coaches will find you among the thousands of other high school athletes playing your sport. That somehow your name and phone number will just appear on their desk or somehow they will find you some other way! No, you’re wrong. You or someone else has to tell that coach at the college level that you have an interest in them and that you want to play ball at their school. I think early on in the college recruiting process you should hand-write a letter to several college programs that you reel you can play for. Now remember, if you’re not a major college player then don’t write a letter to a major college coach.

 

The personal touch is good and should go over well with college coaches I think. Emails are good but remember that everyone else is emailing to that coach all the time and if you want to bust through and be heard, I think a hand-written letter is the best way to go. Tell the coach about who you are first as student and as an athlete, give stats and grades and make sure you include how that coach can get in touch with you. Include your cell phone number and email address. Home address is okay, too! By writing to coaches, they will write back and now you’re on your way to getting the college recruiting started.

 

7. The summers are when true athletes are made and what I mean is; are you working on your game? Are you finding more ways to get better every day? What are you doing to make yourself standout among others working towards the same goal that you are and who want the same scholarship just like you? The competition to get into college is great and you must out work everyone every day to be the best and to get the best.

 

The summers for the real athletes are not to be wasted because you really don’t have much time to get better if that time has been wasted. Some high school athletes who have great talent sometimes feel that they don’t have to work on their game like some high school kids; that they are just good and can turn it on when they need to and off when they don’t. These very talented athletes will soon find out that there are many other great players out there and that they are not the only ones who can play.

 

8. Travel season. What team do you play for during the summer? The summers are a time to be seen. It’s a time where you can showcase your skills to the college recruiting community. You must be seen by college coaches many times before they will recruit you or make you an offer. No matter the sport; not being seen during the summer months will almost kill any chances of your going to college. The summer travel season is the time that all college programs can come out to see you play so if I were you trying to get into college, you need to be seen during the summer.

 

9. Procrastination is, by far, one the biggest killers of the college recruiting process. There are so many parents who feel that the college recruiting process starts at the end of the senior season in high school. These parents are suggesting that for a year or more, college programs just do nothing at all; that these programs want to follow players for years. Why I put this on the parents is because these are the people who give guidance to the student athletes; they more or less control that athlete

 

10. You’re just stupid! And that can be a big reason why you will not get recruited for college and not get in college at all. Some high school student athletes will follow behind the wrong people who may not have their best interest at heart. These are bad people out there who will use high school kids to get what they want and in the process ruin their chances of ever playing in college. There are many stupid things high school kids have done that has had a major impact on their athletic lives. Kids are kids and it’s up to the parents or a role model to help guide these young athletes and help them make the right decisions. That’s all.

 

There’s my short list of the top ten reasons you’re not getting into college.

 

Hardin-Simmons is a division III basketball program located in Texas. I’m sure this is a good college to attend but its men’s basketball program is something different altogether. The program is led by Craig Carse, an old and past his prime, basketball coach.

Coach Carse is not what he says he is people! If you are looking for a basketball program to send a young man to, don’t send them to Hardin-Simmons! I’ve heard from many of Coach Carse’s former players and many of them still hold ill-will towards him.

Why write about Coach Carse? Why bring up what he did to players in the past and my answer is because he is still messing over young men’s lives and it needs to come out, once and for all!

I use to play basketball for this man back in the 1980s and my time at West Virginia State College was not great at all! I wish I had never gone there in the first place because of how my playing basketball went for me at State. The only reason I am even writing about any of this at all is because what happened to me and many of my teammates is still going on and it’s happening to other very good basketball athletes! Someone needs to warn them about this coach!

I would also be a fake as a blogger if I did not write about this and anything else that I know about and that needs to be said.

Back in the summer of 2008, I began writing about Coach Carse and I had some real good stuff that I posted on my blog but some of my old teammates talked me out of telling about what this man is really all about.

One of my old teammates called my radio show to cry about how I should not have said what I said about this coach. Well, maybe I should not have used the kind of words that I did and maybe I could have written something better about how I felt about that old basketball coach but, this time I will have my facts straight and I will talk to players, old and new, to get my information right. I removed what I wrote about Carse from last summer that was on my blog.

I just can’t let Coach Carse mislead young basketball athletes again, I can’t do it.

One of my former teammates said that I should let others be the judge of Coach Carse then let them see what he is and let them decide for themselves. I would think people would want as much information about any college coach and their program anyway, right? Wouldn’t you want to know about a coach before you sign up? 

Coach Carse must be exposed now!

I was a guest on the prepnow.org radio show last Friday and the point of transferring to another high school came up. The show’s host, Wayne, has a son who, when in high school, moved his son to another high school to help better his son’s chances of getting recruited for college and it worked out for him.

 

My point with this is that too many parents want to move their son or daughter from one school that’s losing games to another high school that’s winning games.

 

Is that the right message to send to young athletes; that if you lose a few games or you may not have the best talent then you are going to jump to another school that looks a little better or wins more games???

 

In my opinion, the only time that you should transfer to another school is if that school is not committed to winning, bad coaching, or if there’s no help with recruiting. Then make the move if you want.

 

All I know is that you only get one chance to go from high school athlete to college athlete and you should do everything in your power to make it happen, to make it work out the best way for you.

 

Wayne felt it was necessary to move his son and that move paid off .I think if I had a son who played sports, I would have done that same thing because you want to give your son the best opportunity to succeed, always.

 

A college education is real and not everyone will be able to attend college. I also feel that it is the parent’s duty to guide their million dollar baby in their athletic and academic future.

 

Transferring is not for every high school athlete and in some states, they make you sit out a year before you can play for the new school but this is what high school sports is sometimes about these days. 

 

 

High school players are trying to get noticed by college coaches all the time. We all know that. The problem here is that there are many high school athletes who play sports in small towns high schools across the country and a huge number of them feel that because of that, they will be lost in the college recruiting process and, to a certain degree, they are right!

 

Small is small and there are not too many people will pay attention to high school players who play at a small-town high school.

 

Now there are towns in this country where football is huge, where everyone comes out to support the team and its players, where the town shuts down for the evening on a Friday night to see the game. Other sports like basketball also have a big following. The game is big news when the team wins or loses. It’s news either way and that’s great.

 

When it comes to recruiting, playing sports at a small-town high school has its drawbacks. For instance, the competition you go up against may not be as good as, let’s say, a much bigger high school with more students or the talent pool at your own high school may be limited to just a few skilled players. How do you know if you’re really any good playing ball at a small-town high school with so many limitations?

 

I think the best way to find out just how good you are is by playing your sport during the summer or go to football camp where there will most definitely be other very good players from other areas of the states.

 

Basketball players: get in a good AAU program or play ball at a team camp. Playing summer ball applies to all athletes from all sports. Just play and then you will see just where you stand and you will know whether or not you can hold your own at that level or find out if you need to work more at your game.

 

I’ve been to some small-town games and the atmosphere is incredible; big crowds at the games, everyone shows up to give their support for the team and they care so much about the young people. It is great to see.

 

Those high school players are the big names in town. It’s when they go off to college that they see that there are many others out there who are just as good or even better than they are.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Money is what you need to start the college recruiting process. It will cost you to do this. Many parents don’t want to face the facts that they will have to come out of their pockets to pay for recruiting. Parents, don’t overlook the facts to get your son or daughter recruited for college. It does cost money.

 

You have to get college coaches to pay attention and that costs money. Going to camps cost money, hiring special coaches cost money, buying equipment of any kind will cost you money, getting that priceless athletic scholarships will cost you money. There is no way around it.

 

The process of getting recruited is nothing like you may think. Student athletes can’t just play and expect someone to find them.

 

College coaches are getting bombarded every day with all sorts of information; from parents and high school coaches and players from all around the country. Information is being mailed daily such as, DVD packages and/or cover letters. Most of the players accumulate all the costs and there is a huge amount of time being spent on sending out this information. I’m sure many parents feel that with all the expenses of college recruiting, that maybe the high schools should pay or help pay the costs of getting their  child recruited for college.

 

To help make your life easier during the college recruiting process, have a plan in place. Set some type of budget and work with that plan or you will be spending money on everything that pops up.

 

Know that because you will have to spend some money in the college recruiting process, make sure you know what you’re doing from the beginning to end.

 

DVD’s are a major part of the college recruiting process. This is one of the major steps in evaluating high school players. By having a DVD, college coaches want to see you play. College coaches are not coming out to high school games anymore. It’s very rarely just for them to go to watch one player.  So, if they can look at 5 or 10 players on DVD’s in the comfort of their own office that’s a major benefit to that coach as suppose to having to travel all the way to see a high school game and they may not get to see the player they really want or get to see.

 

So DVD’s, you still need one. DVDs are important because it saves time and saves money and effort. There are also many websites out there that will put up your DVD, create a 3 to 5 minute highlight video, and say that college coaches are interested in that, and that’s not necessarily true.

 

Three to five minutes is not enough for a college coach to make a determination on whether you can play for their program, whether you are a fit for their program.

 

Plus they want the whole DVD of game, of a good game, highlights, game action and all of that. They also want to compare you to other players.

 

They may need to look at your DVD, five, six, seven times and compare you to another player. So, it’s important to have the DVD.

 

To have DVDs made, to be able to get this is out to college coaches.

 

The more they can see you play the better it is so it’s important for you the have a DVD where there’s good game action at DVD, where there’s mixing along with highlights. You don’t necessarily have to have music and rolling statistics and all the subject kind of stuff.

 

College programs want to see you play and they’re going to compare you versus another player but they can’t do that on a 3 to 5 minute video highlight clip on some website. That’s not going to give them the information they need.

 

So again, DVD’s are still important in the recruiting world. So get your DVD made, get it and get it mailed!

 

 

 

The once great O.J. Simpson is no more to me O.J. lost it for me when me killed his ex wife and her friend but for that O.J. was on top of the world he had everything from being in commercials and movies all the time to doing football games. O.J once cared the Olympic torch  running through the streets of L.A  just like he would do in those hurts commercials you remember O.J. running thought air ports trying to catch that plane. O.J. had it all he was one of the greatest football players of all time he once rush for 2000 yards in a 14 game season once back in 1973 yes O.J. Simpson had lived A life that many of us would kill for, when up until he really killed those people.

 

You never really know someone for years O’J. was Mr. cool everything in his life seemly was great who knew what was going on behind close doors, I just he was just like everyone else in this world. We all have problems in our life we all have something that maybe we wish could go away or just get better.

 

I use to look up to O.J. just like many others who would witch his greatest on the football field. I can remember him being on Monday night football and the Bills where not a very good team but because of the great O.J. Simpson there games where always on T.V.

 

Most of us these days will now think of O.J. as the person who killed 2 people and tried to robe others and now O.J. will most likely spend the rest of his days in the prisons.

 

O.J. is an idiot we all know that he should have left the county after he was found not guilty of those murders and never came back. O.J. was a marked man there where people who where out to get him everyday or looked to make money off of his some kind of way. There was never going to be any pace on earth for O.J. really.

 

O.J. may have gotten off once but they made sure there where going to put him away for ever thing time you could see it coming.

 

What is O.J. thinking now?

This question is for all the high school and college athletes out there. Knowing what you know now about either your school, team, coach, and teammates is there anything you would do differently?  How about college athletes?

What would you change or do differently? Maybe when you were recruited the coaching staff made promises to you that were not kept or the coach is not the same person you knew when they were recruiting you.

 

Now that you’re on campus the coach has changed. What would you change, if anything?

 

I live in a city where we have three pro teams in Cleveland: The Browns who, right now, suck big time; The Indians, who suck just a little bit and The Cavs who are very good team right now.

 

I’ve been to see all the home teams play, what about you? Now there are some who may not have a team in their city but I still have to ask: have you ever been to a pro game and if so, how was the experience? Did you have fun? Was it worth the money? Let me know.