Monthly Archives: November 2011

You Are Not ‘All That’; Your Attitude Does Count

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I’ve been to many high school games and have observed the behavior of high school student athletes.  Many of the student athletes believe because they have incredible athletic ability that somehow they are on top of the world and can do no wrong.

Players sometimes have poor attitudes towards everyone and everything because of their athletic skills.  Just because they are a star athletes they feel like they can slouch in their chairs in the classroom or walk around school with the ‘I don’t care, I’m better than you’ attitudes.

Because they have a gigantic ego many of these student athletes feel that they are entitled to certain things and should be given special treatment.

I can understand where the confusion in the minds of many of these exceptionally talented ballplayers can come from.  No one is buying a ticket to watch some kid take a math test or hear a student give a speech in history class.  We do buy tickets to see student athletes perform and this is where the confusion begins.

Most people pay attention to what student athletes are doing.  Because of all the attention athletes receive, it can sometimes play a positive or negative role.

Academics and athletic ego plays big a role in whether a student athlete ends up at a major college program, a small college program or no college program at all.  Having a 1.9 GPA and you’re a 6’6 basketball player who has the talent to play at a big time college program does not guarantee that college program will overlook your horrible grades just because you can play ball.

The NCAA will begin to penalize college programs who bring in student athletes that cannot meet the academic requirements once they’re in college.  Too many times student athletes who have poor grades coming out of high school are accepted into college and many of them haven’t even graduated.  Academic reform is about to take place.

It use to be that if you did not meet the academic requirements coming out of high school, you can still go to a junior college and then transfer to a university after two years.  Now things are changing; in order to transfer, you still have to meet academic requirements even at the junior college level in order to move up to a four year institution.

Many student athletes are not graduating from college and these changes are necessary if you’re in college to get an education, not just to be an athlete.  Far too many players, regardless of the sport, believe that one day they can turn pro and earn millions of dollars.  We all know the odds of reaching the professional level in any sport are slim to none and I do believe sometimes the ‘I can do no wrong’ attitude can prohibit a student athlete from becoming a success outside of sports.

How many times have we seen these piss-poor student athletes who think they’ve got it all going on but end up not getting recruited to play college ball and eventually become a forgotten name in their community?

I think attitude plays a large role in student athletes’ academics because it shows how good they will be athletically and whether or not they end up with a scholarship.

Student athletes, no matter where they are talent wise, should always be humble but should always be working on all aspects of their lives.

You Only Have 48 Hours Left For Recruiting, What Would You Do?

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What if you only had 48 hours to make something happen in the college recruiting process, what would you do?

One of the biggest problems I see is procrastination on the part of both parents and student athletes.  What happens is that student athletes think that the college coaches are going to come to them first.  I believe it’s a big mistake to sit back and wait for something to happen.  Parents are also guilty of waiting to see what’s going to happen. Parents and student athletes must make something happen first.

Student athletes and parents both need to remember that college coaches don’t know who you are.  Once you begin to make a name for yourself at the high school level college coaches still may not know who you are athletically.

You only have 48 hours to make something happen with recruiting; what action are you going to take first in the recruiting process?

The first thing I would do is come up with a list of 100 college programs and write a one page handwritten letter to all 100 coaches.  This process may take several hours to write that many letters but if it’s a team effort of parents and student athlete working together it can get done.

The student athlete can write the letters and the parents can go on the Internet to look up the addresses to the 100 coaches.

Let’s say you had 25 DVD’s already produced and ready to mail.  You need to be very careful at this point on exactly who you’re going to mail these DVD’s to.

Because of the limited time, you may also think about emailing 100 coaches a brief description of what you can do athletically and of course academically.  If you have a link to other information about your athletic skills on the Internet, I would include that in the email.

If you have a copy of your high school transcript, I would include that when mailing the DVD’s to college coaches along with the handwritten letter.

We’re talking about 48 hours and you have to compile a huge amount of information in a limited amount of time.

Also have other family members to share in some of the responsibility.

The college recruiting process can be a tag team effort of family members working together to compile information to quickly get into the hands of college coaches.

Parents and student athletes: don’t sit back and wait for something to happen. Waiting for that phone call from that college coach or checking the mailbox every day for that recruiting letter believing that this will be the start of the recruiting process for you.

When you let weeks turn into months without actively pursuing college coaches, you put yourself in a situation where you may not have any time left to effectively reach college programs.

I’ve seen it happen too many times where the student athlete has reached their senior year and very little has been done with recruiting.  Now panic begins to set in and parents believe that maybe they’ve missed their opportunity to connect with a lot of college programs.

All is not lost in the recruiting process even if you have wasted months of time. With the 48 hour approach to recruiting, it is possible to compile a lot of information and get it out to the college coaches.

This fast break approach to the college recruiting process can happen anytime. You don’t have to be in your senior year to start a mass market approach to recruiting.

Some people may feel that 100 college programs might be too many but I would disagree. Why not plant many seeds now because you never know where the scholarship opportunity will come from.

The 48 hour strategy is simple if you just figure out where to begin and for those next two days just totally focus on recruiting and nothing else and you will be greatly surprised in your results.

Are Recruiting Services Trying To Eliminate High School Coaches?

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There are thousands of college recruiting services that exists out there but are they trying to eliminate high school coaches from the college recruiting process?

Yes and no would be the best way to answer that question.

On one side, you have student athletes with talent to play at the college level but their high school coach may not be doing all that is necessary in assisting that student athlete with the recruiting process.

On the other side, there are the dedicated high school coaches who are doing everything in their power to help student athletes get to the college level.

Recruiting services only exist because there’s a void in the college recruiting process.

The simple argument could be that if high school coaches were helping student athletes and keeping parents totally involved in the process, then there would be no need for a college recruiting service.

I’m sure high school coaches would argue that they are doing everything within their power to help get their athletes recruited and are keeping parents involved in all aspects of recruiting.

College recruiting services are out to make money; they are businesses and they’re in business for one reason: to provide a service and to make a profit. They’re also out to help student athletes get recruited for college. Those are the main reasons for their existence.

If somehow all the recruiting services that exists could sign up all of the under-exposed student athletes, then many recruiting services would end up being multi-million dollar companies.  In the common sense approach of business, it is to the advantage of recruiting services if there were more high school coaches who did not help student athletes.

If more parents and student athletes felt that high school coaches were not going to help them at all with recruiting then they would use a college recruiting service to avoid any college recruiting disasters.

I don’t think recruiting services are deliberately trying to undermine anything a high school coach is trying to do to assist their student athletes.

What happens if you are a talented high school ball player and your coach is doing little with recruiting to help you?  As a student athlete, do you sit back and wait for something to happen because the longer you wait, there are many college scholarship opportunities that may disappear.

If the college recruiting process is starting to slip away from you, then chances are parents and student athletes will be proactive in searching for a college recruiting service to help fill any college recruiting shortcomings they are having.

The problem I have with some of these college recruiting services is their lack of professionalism and experience. Many of these recruiting services are started by individuals who have no understanding of what it’s like to be a high school or college athlete. Because of their lack of experience and true knowledge of the recruiting process, many parents end up being taken advantage of by these wannabe college recruiters.

In my opinion, to be an effective college recruiter you should have played high school sports and gotten recruited into college.  The best way for a recruiting service to relate to student athletes I think is to have the experience of being recruited themselves. Former athletes can always relate to current athletes because you have lived that college recruiting experience.

The facts still remains that college recruiting services do exist and they’re not going away as long as there is this major void in the recruiting process.

There should not be a monopoly in the college recruiting process; it should be open to whoever can get the job done.  High school coaches should always be given the opportunity to help their student athletes with recruiting.  If these high school coaches fall short of assisting student athletes then absolutely there should be other alternatives.

You only get one chance to go from high school athlete to college athlete and I believe parents and student athletes should do everything necessary to reach the college scholarship level.

Three Really Huge Mistakes to Avoid in the College Recruiting Process

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Every high school student athlete dreams of one thing being a college student athlete.  Sometimes it is not easy going from high school athlete to college athlete therefore, any student athletes along with the help of their parents, high school coaches or other outside resources are heavily involved in helping student athletes reach the college level.

There are situations where student athletes and the individuals who are assisting them do make mistakes.  No one is perfect; mistakes are bound to happen. I want to talk about three mistakes to avoid in the college recruiting process.

1.  The lack of a real deal strategy: I believe that in the college recruiting process there has to be a starting point.  The problem is that many student athletes and parents do not sit down to figure out a strategy to get their son or daughter recruited for college.

There are a lot of very talented student athletes; college coaches can’t recruit them all.  As parents, what is your strategy to get your son or daughter’s name on the list of some college programs?  Parents and student athletes often sit back and wait for college coaches to come to them when it should be the other way around.

Other than a strategy for contacting college coaches, what is your strategy for academic success?  What is your strategy for the summer months which is a critical time for exposure?  Parents and student athletes need to come together and figure out their strategies on how to contact these college programs.

You just cannot sit back and wait for coaches to contact you or wait until the last minute to decide which standardized tests to take.  Without a real deal strategy many student athletes are going to miss out on the recruiting process and may end up in a college program beneath their athletic ability.

2.  No academic vision: Outside of having a good grade point average, if you do not score high enough on the standardized tests, you will end up going to a junior college. This mistake is lack of planning and preparation for the standardized tests.  I understand that taking the ACT or SAT can be a little bit intimidating and stressful.  But if you prepare yourself in advance then you can eliminate anxieties and fears about taking this most critical test.

A strategy would be to take the study guide books on standardized tests with you during the summer months as you travel around the country participating in tournaments, camps and showcase events.  I believe the summer months gives you the best time to study that way as the school year begins, you will be prepared to score very high on the standardized tests.

3.  The summer months and exposure: I believe the recruiting process is about being seen by college coaches.  Regardless of the sport, you need to participate in as many camps where college coaches are in attendance, tournaments where college coaches are there to evaluate players or showcase events where college coaches are present.

College recruiting has changed somewhat; it use to be that college programs would go to high school games to recruit players.  Those days are over and it makes better sense for a college coach to see a large number of players in one setting.  The mistake for parents and student athletes is not participating in a number of these events.

It’s very important to be seen by college coaches; they’re not going to recruit you until they can see you.

Big 3 Scouting Company Was Barely Awake When I Called

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I wanted to find out what “Big 3 Scouting” was all about so I decided to call them. When Tim Dickens, the guy who runs this company, answered the phone he just said’ hello’,  he did not reference the company’s name or his name or anything to let me know that this was a recruiting service. He sounded like some guy sitting at home hoping for the phone to ring. I could also hear the television in the background; that was just so unprofessional.

The company is based out of Miami, Florida. Tim Dickens has been running the company for three years and claims to have at least ten years of college recruiting experience.  To me, he sounds like one of those guys that has never played sports in his entire life. I really don’t know if he played sports and not; I never asked but he did talk as though he was happy to have a conversation with anyone about recruiting. During our conversation, Tim was talking so much and making very little sense, he made it almost impossible for me to ask any questions.

He didn’t ask me anything about recruiting he just kept talking and talking over me the entire conversation. When I asked Tim what’s his process is when contacting college coaches he told me that he would like to see a DVD of the athlete first then he decides on what fee to charge the parents.

He never mentioned what his fee is. He just kept talking the entire conversation barely giving me the opportunity to jump in and ask any questions. When someone is talking that much during a conversation without giving you the opportunity to really jump in and ask a question, it kind of sounds like they have something to hide. During the conversation, he assumed I had a son that played football so I went along with it and I told him my name and that I was in Cleveland, Ohio. The sad part was that he was struggling just to name a few college football programs in my area; he could not come up with a single name of a college program.

A college recruiting service, who claims to work with student athletes across the country, should know the names of college programs without having to look them up and should be able to say these names without hesitation. This guy made references to another recruiting service, NCSA, talking about how they sent out hundreds of emails to college coaches and how much they charged.

He claimed during our conversation he had worked for another recruiting company, I’m assuming that he worked for NCSA because of his constant references back to what NCSA does. The whole conversation with this guy was not good. I don’t believe he knew what he was talking about and I’m quite sure he probably doesn’t know what he’s doing either. Before ever using a recruiting service, make sure you come out with a strong list of questions to ask.

Ask about previous experience, ask whether they played high school and college sports and, if they are a little slow in their answers, that should tell you that you could be wasting your time and throwing away your money as I believe you would be if you chose Big 3 Scouting.

Overall, it sounds like another company wanting to get into the game of college recruiting but has no real experience.

Athletic Quest Is Becoming a Major Player in the College Recruiting Process.

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The college recruiting process is about information and offering guidance to high school student athletes, that is the strength behind Athletic Quest.

I had a conversation with Chad Kartchner who is the Chief Operating Officer of Athletic Quest.

Basically, the company’s main focus is to identify quality student athletes where they can educate them on all aspects of the college recruiting process.  The mentors are all former college coaches who clearly have the experience and the knowledge of the recruiting process.

Athletic Quest guides student athletes step by step through the college recruiting process using former college coaches as mentors.  I believe their approach to the college recruiting process is extremely positive because of their hands-on, one-on-one connection with student athletes.

Each year Athletic Quest is working with anywhere from 500 to 700 student athletes and, in some situations, topping out around 1,000 high school student athletes.  Their success rate is around 90% of student athletes who use their services and who end up in college.

Athletic Quest works with student athletes all across the country and assigns each student athlete a mentor to guide them and their parents through the recruiting process.  In my opinion, this is an excellent strategy that separates Athletic Quest from many other recruiting services that only care about money.

Athletic Quest evaluates and identifies the student athletes’ strengths and weaknesses. They do not accept every student athlete into their program only those athletes who qualify academically and athletically.

The company has been in existence since 2004 and was incorporated in 2006 by their founder, John Scott.

Many parents and student athletes are going through the college recruiting process for the first time and many of them are not clearly sure exactly how the process works.  Athletic Quest understands that and this is why they provide experienced, former college coaches who are mentors and who understand every aspect of recruiting. This is why I believe this company stands out over many other recruiting services.

I think it’s critical that a college recruiting service has individuals who’ve actually played high school and college sports. This is what impressed me the most about Chad Kartchner; he actually played college basketball therefore, he can relate to student athletes.  Many recruiting services have individuals who barely, if at all, played high school sports and were never recruited into college. Those other services, in my opinion, will never know or understand what it’s like to be an athlete.

Not only does Athletic Quest understands what athletes go through they also employ former college coaches and players who have firsthand knowledge and experience of recruiting.

Their website has a lot of information and they offer a free e-book on the college recruiting process.  Companies like Athletic Quest are clearly going about it the right way.

What Does “Potential”, As It Relates to Student Athletes, Really Mean?

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How many times have we all heard the phrase, “That player has potential!”?  The word “potential”, in the world of athletics, basically means that the player can be really good or he or she can be the greatest student athlete ever.

There are a huge number of highly skilled high school athletes who all have the potential to be great.  Many of these talented high school athletes are trying every day to figure out how to get better athletically.  All student athletes work very hard to get better and are constantly looking for ways to improve.  ‘Potential” basically means all of that.

Because of high expectations for high school athletes, many will fall short of achieving any level of athletic success.  The reason: competition. There’s always going to be a player out there who is working just a little bit harder than you are.  There’s always some high school athlete who wants that success more than the average player.

Only the high school athletes who are the absolute best will have the skill set to reach the college level.  That’s exactly what college programs are looking for; only the best high school student athletes.

“Potential” is a funny word because you can look at a high school athlete who may have all the skills, the size, and many other incredible intangibles and college programs will take a chance on a player who they can develop just because they have this “potential”.

Then, there are high school student athletes who possess a certain level of skill and a certain level of talent but it may not translate to the college level or it will translate to the division three level where many high school athletes basically are not interested in that level of competition at all.

Sometimes I think the word “potential” can even be a damaging word to high school student athletes because of the pressure placed on them.  When you see a high school athletes who are really doing well, automatically everyone will say he/she has the potential to be great.  When a student athlete falls short and does not reach their full potential, then that high school athlete becomes an embarrassment.

High school student athletes: if you do not want to fall short athletically based on the word “potential” that has been placed on all athletes, I suggest you work as hard as you possibly can on your game.  The pressures of failure should be your desire to work ten times harder, to never see failure.