Monthly Archives: July 2011

Third Party Resources And The College Recruiting Process

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If the high school coach and the parents are not involved in the college recruiting process, more than likely it’s a third party.  Third party resources plays a major role in the college recruiting process whether you like it or not.

College recruiting services are the obvious choice of being a third party and resources.  Recruiting services have been around it seems forever and play a role in connecting student athletes with college programs.  The reason recruiting services exist, I believe, is because of the lack of attention to detail by some high school coaches.

“7 on 7 Football” is a third party resource that is now playing a huge role in the college recruiting process for high school football players.  Just like AAU basketball, “7 on 7 Football” is giving student athletes an alternative outside their high school coach to gain major exposure in the college recruiting process.

A long time ago, the high school coach had all the control and the power when it came to recruiting.  The coach was responsible (so we thought) for getting information about his student athletes out to college coaches.  The problem was too many high school coaches were using their power as a way of control over student athletes and parents.  The high school coach was the only choice for recruiting.  There were no other alternatives for parents and student athletes.  You either had to deal with the high school coach or you were not going to college to play ball.

I believe what has changed the recruiting process is that the players are now starting recruiting services or have developed their own club teams like AAU basketball, travel baseball and 7 on 7 Football.  The players from years ago realized that there was a major disconnect from high school coaches to college coaches when it came to exposure for these high school student athletes.

High school athletics across the country is a big deal; it can make or break a young athlete’s future and could have an impact on their education, so the players from years back stepped up and got involved and created alternatives for student athletes and parents.  Gone are the days where student athletes relied heavily on high school coaches for everything and anything recruiting.

A “Monopoly” basically means you have control over everything and that’s how it’s been for a long time with high school coaches.  I believe third party resources, used the right way, can be a major benefit to student athletes and college coaches.  This will eliminate the total control and domination over student athletes by high school coaches.

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Here’s Why You Suck!

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What does it take to be an athlete?

High school athletics has become a year-round sport with constant training, skill development and athletic competition.  The purpose for all this is to ultimately earn an athletic scholarship.  If you do not put in year-round training to become a superior athlete in your sport you have no chance to earn an athletic scholarship.

Many student athletes believe that they do not have to put the necessary time in to get better therefore, they will under-achieve and receive no scholarship offers.

There are many student athletes that truly suck at their sport and oftentimes they are left wondering why no one is recruiting them or why they did not get any scholarship offers.

An athletic scholarship is a privilege, given only to those athletes who have superior athletic and academic talents. Just remember that there are only so many scholarships per sport to give out in any particular year any way.  Student athletes: how many hours are you going to spend in the weight room to gain muscle and strength? How many hours will you put into individual development of your overall game? When the other athlete is up before the sun rises running miles to get better, will you still be sleep? Will you still be just getting out of bed? Will you still be looking for your running shoes or will this be another long list of excuses on why you can’t workout today?

There are high school student athletes who have very little God-given natural talent but, with an incredible work ethic to their sport they somehow over-achieve to get that full athletic scholarship offer. These athletes sometimes get overlooked because they are not very flashy but they still get the job done.  Those athletes do not have superior skills athletically but work 10 times harder than the athlete with superior talent and skill. 

Student athletes who spends all of their time developing their athletic skills generally are the ones who succeed all through high school, through college and somehow manages to get a professional contract.

I have seen many athletes with great talent athletically, but put very little work into getting better.  I have known many of the superior athletes who have reached the highest level that they could reach in their sport but because of their unwillingness to work on their game, they did not stay at the highest level of their sport very long.  Those incredibly talented athletes believe that their athletic greatness would somehow sustain them forever.  What they did not realize is that everyone at the highest level works on their game every single day so they can stay there at that high level.

The game changes from practice to actually playing in the game.  There are those players that look incredibly good in practice, who can do all the drills and who can totally dominate but when the lights are turned on and there’s actually people there to watch them play, those players end up fading out, cracking under the pressure and disappearing totally. 

The reason for this is because they did not put the extra time in to develop their confidence; they did not put the extra time in to develop their athletic talents.  When it became game time, they realized mentally that they were not ready.

When I was in college at West VirginiaState, all the players on the basketball team were good. Even though I had talent and was 7 feet tall I felt I wasn’t good enough.  What I did was find every sort of way to get better.

I would jump rope in the evenings after I studied for the day. On the weekends if we didn’t have practice I would run on the track or run the stadium stairs at the football field.  I would get in the weight room and lift weights, I was looking for ways so I could keep up with all of the superior talent we had on my college basketball team.  I just went out there and worked very hard every single day and I did not make any excuses.  For me it was about the challenge, wondering if I could compete with all of these great players? So I stepped up and faced the challenges head on.

For me personally, it was a daunting task but through it all I kept working hard, I did not give up and most importantly, I did not quit.  Many of my college teammates could not handle the day to day pressures of being a college athlete. The weaker ball players crumbled under the pressure and ultimately quit the team.  I’m sure no matter what they did throughout their lives they were always a quitter.

The reason so many athletes suck is because of their unwillingness to push themselves athletically, farther than they’ve ever been pushed in their entire lives.

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Money Can’t Buy The College Recruiting Process

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Do you think money can buy the college recruiting process for high school student athletes?

If money could buy the college recruiting process then all the rich kids in this country would end up receiving most of the attention from college coaches because they have the money to get the attention.

Money, in my opinion, does play a role because the college recruiting process is not free.  You’re going to have to spend money to play AAU basketball and to be on a very good travel team regardless of the sport.  Money is a factor throughout the college recruiting process because without it you may have a hard time gaining the attention of college coaches.

Talent and good grades are the key factors for any student athlete to stand out throughout the college recruiting process.  No amount of money in the world can make an athlete superior over all other athletes, it’s just impossible.  Either you have the talent to play at the college level or you don’t and money has nothing to do with it.

In my many years as a college recruiter, I have seen first-hand parents spending thousands of dollars on their kids to make them better athletes.  These parents will get their kids specialized coaching and training to improve athletic ability and performance.  Not a bad idea to get private coaching if you can afford it but just because you have that private coaching is no guarantee you’re going to get a scholarship.  I’ve seen parents spend thousands of dollars to create recruiting portfolios and spend thousands of dollars more to mail stuff to college coaches who will only treat this stuff as junk mail.

Now don’t get me wrong, of course you’re going to have to spend money to gain the attention of college coaches but you should not have to take out a second mortgage on your house to do that.  You should not have to forgo your summer vacation so you can get your son or daughter a professionally made Hollywood-type recruiting DVD made.

Because parents have the money and student athletes don’t, sometimes parents get a little bit crazy thinking that if they put a lot of money into this they will get results throughout the college recruiting process.  On the flip side of this scenario there are many families throughout this country who have very little money but somehow their sons and daughters end up with a full scholarship.

I believe the best way to gain the attention of college coaches is to be seen by college coaches.  Recruiting is like buying a car; you’re not going to buy a car because I told you about it over the phone or because I sent you some really nice pictures on what the car looks like.  No, you’re going to want to see what the car looks like for yourself, you’re going to want to test-drive the car and find out how much this car costs and whether it’s worth the investment. Don’t you think recruiting is the same way in the eyes of college coaches?  College coaches need to see players play and they need to see that player play a whole lot before they even think about wanting to give that kid a scholarship.

But hold on a minute. Your kid is not the only kid who can actually play, so now a whole new set of problems has presented itself. Student athlete vs. student athlete: which one will actually gain the attention of the coach over another student athlete in this never ending battle of recruiting?

So this is the part where some parents believe that if they can put some extra money into helping their kid get more exposure, this will give them the edge they need in the college recruiting process.  Outside of trying to bribe a coach into giving your son or daughter a full athletic scholarship this will have very little impact in getting them that scholarship.

Money cannot buy the college recruiting process just like whatever part of the country you’re from makes no difference on who gets a college scholarship.

The bottom line in all of this comes down to talent. There are a lot of student athletes out there who don’t have talent so college athletics will not be a wise choice for them.  There are some student athletes who are very good athletically and there is a place for these athletes to play at the next level.

Parents need to remember that to spend your money wisely throughout the college recruiting process but don’t ever make the mistake into thinking you can buy your way in.

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Is AAU Basketball More Powerful Than High School Basketball?

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I found a great question the other day on Twitter about how AAU basketball has more power and control when it comes to college recruiting.  Here’s the actual question:

Quote from Twitter Coach Alton Clark “Can someone please tell me why AAU/CLUB basketball is now more of a focal point than HS basketball in college recruiting?”

I believe the reason why AAU basketball is more important than high school basketball when it comes to recruiting is the number of games the players are involved in during the summer months.

In addition to that, there’s more attention paid to AAU basketball by college coaches and it’s much easier for college programs to evaluate a large group of ballplayers than to attend one individual high school basketball game.

During the high school basketball season, the statistics count, the games count, people pay money to see these players play and this is the time where players are developing their overall basketball skills.

High school basketball has some value because there are many things in high school basketball that count and that matters but, with that being said, fewer and fewer college programs are coming out to individual games to see players.  I don’t think it’s cost effective for a college program to travel 4 or 5 hours to see one player play their sport.

AAU basketball also has a greater advantage because of the number of players all under one roof and it’s easier for college coaches, who have limited budgets, to see players play in one space.

From a fan of high school basketball, the games count because you know who is playing against who, you know all of the players and you can read about what they’re doing in the newspapers and follow their statistics.  With AAU, basketball is generally a summer event with all of the games taking place in one gym during a weekend or a week to host the event.  There are no real statistics kept, you really don’t know all of the players and there’s very little coverage about the event in the newspapers.

From a recruiting perspective, AAU basketball is more powerful and will continue to be more powerful than the regular high school basketball season.

One of the most important things about AAU club basketball is that it gives an opportunity for many athletes in different age groups the chance to play all the time and to get better.  The bottom line is for players to always improve their game, to get better and to gain the attention of college recruiters for the future.

If you like this blog post, then please sign up for my weekly newsletter. It’s free! We also offer college recruiting tips and information along with reviews on sports athletic products and gear.