To get recruited for college, high school student athletes must do things in a certain way. In my opinion, the college recruiting process is only about getting the best players possible for that college program.
If you are an average or maybe slightly above average student athlete then you are going to have to do special things to gain the attention of college coaches. If you are blue chip superstar high school player you know you do not have to do anything special because your game will speak for itself.
All the other student athletes will have to do things in a certain way such as spend money to attend camps, tournaments, travel club-ball season, specialized workouts and purchasing expensive equipment all in an effort to get better and to gain the attention of college coaches.
When you really think about it, if there was a scientific survey done, you would find that less than 1% of all the student athletes in a particular state, maybe your home state, will actually receive an athletic scholarship. The other 99% of student athletes will have to do things a certain way to gain the attention of college coaches or they may not get into a college program.
With only so few scholarships to give out at the college level for a particular sport, it is almost a certainty that a huge number of high school athletes will be totally shut out of the college recruiting process.
When it comes down to it, there is really not enough college programs out there to fill the needs of all the student athletes who are looking to get a scholarship or some kind of financial package from a college program. The competition is incredibly challenging each and every year. Parents, student athletes and, with the assistance of high school coaches, are trying to come up with creative ways to gain the attention of college programs.
I believe there is no real scientific approach to the college recruiting process; I believe what will help is student athletes being seen by college programs over a number of years. If a student athlete can network with college coaches where the coaches can see them play their sport this could gain them a huge college recruiting advantage.
Sometimes common sense is more important than dollars and cents in the recruiting process.
I’ve heard stories about parents sending out hundreds of DVD’s at a huge expense. This type of expense may only make a slight difference in the college recruiting process. I’ve heard stories of parents driving great distances to meet college coaches only to be disappointed by the lack of interest from those coaches. I’ve heard stories about parents who have sent their kids to a different high school all in an effort to gain an edge in the recruiting process when it actually makes absolutely no difference what school they play at. I’ve heard stories where parents have paid thousands of dollars to recruiting services with the hope of gaining a full athletic scholarship only to be disappointed by the lack of professionalism by that recruiting service.
I was a college recruiter for a long time and I’ve heard these stories from parents and the expenses they had in order to help their sons or daughters with the college recruiting process. Because there is no exact formula on how to make the college recruiting process work for you, parents are doing a lot of things a certain way to get results.
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Vince Biegel 6’3 205lbs linebacker
