Recruiting Can Be An Overwhelming Process For Parents
With all of its many details, the college recruiting process at times seems overwhelming to parents of high school student athletes.
Parents are the power behind the recruiting process because they are the ones who can help influence student athletes’ decisions.
Because there are so many different things that must take place with recruiting it can become overwhelming and frustrating. What generally happens sometimes is that parents would most times do nothing and leave it up to someone else to handle the details of the college recruiting process.
A parent who has a son or daughter that’s extremely talented athletically but maybe somewhat in between being a major college athlete or a small college athlete should take the necessary steps to help gain more exposure for their son or daughter which could possibly get them into a major college program.
But, because recruiting and all the details involved is stressful along with being overwhelming, extremely time consuming and expensive, many well-meaning parents might say, “The heck with it all!” and leave it up to someone else.
The solution to combat the process of recruiting is to come up with a list of goals and strategies that are written down and can be your guideline or road map to college recruiting success. You must also:
1. Contact by mail 3 to 5 college coaches per week. The best approach is the handwritten letter because of its personal touch.
2. Build a strong relationship with those coaches. This will allow you to email college coaches on a regular basis which will be easier and faster when you’re trying to reach a large number of college programs.
3. Set aside a certain number of hours per week to devote towards recruiting. For example, you may want to spend a Sunday afternoon working on the recruiting process. This could be writing handwritten letters or creating and sending emails to college coaches. If you have a set schedule per week, this could help reduce stress associated with the recruiting process.
The recruiting process does have a certain level of anxiety because you are unsure of the outcome. As parents, if you can develop a simple list of strategies to focus on it will help reduce the overwhelming aspects of the many little details that must take place in recruiting.
Hi Al,
I have a HS Freshman boy that if he continues to work hard I think will be a D1 FB recruit just based on his size-he's 6'9" 280lb. Other than just continuing to learn and getting good grades, what else can I do at this point to assist him?
I think the best approach would be to come up with a list of division one college football programs and write a handwritten letter to each of those coaches.
You may want to try 50 college programs during his freshman year were you can build some kind of relationship with that many coaches.
You may want to tell these coaches what this football player he is, his size some of the things he can do athletically and where he stands academically. Building a relationship early with college coaches will go a long way in ultimately receiving multiple scholarship offers. Also stay on top of the academics find out the exact core courses that are needed for graduation and for college placement. Do not overlook the standardized tests which are critical in ultimately getting accepted into college. Finally I offer a college recruiting newsletter and it is free to become a member I look forward to your participation.
Thanks,
Should that letter be from me or from him?
The letter should be from him but clearly help him write it.