The Old Broken-Down Strategies No Longer Work 

Once upon a time, student-athletes relied heavily on their high school coach to get them recruited for college. 

The belief was the high school coach was all-knowing, all responsibilities were placed upon the shoulders of the coach. 

It was believed that the coach had connections, relationships, and a network of college coaches, all they had to do was pick up the phone, write a letter, or send an email or text message. 

What an amazing falsehood! It was trickery in the recruiting process. It is a trap setting up student-athletes for failure because that strategy is ineffective and has been dead for decades.

Unfortunate but true, the failure of high school coaches in the recruiting process has led to the explosion of recruiting services as an alternative.

Sidestepping the high school coach leads parents to do their own recruiting. 

They would write letters to college coaches, send emails to college coaches and, back in the day before YouTube and Hudl, parents shelled out big bucks to have a DVD developed and mailed out to a select number of college programs. 

Back in those days that was the only strategy the parents knew about. It was ineffective, time-consuming, and a huge waste of money. 

A gigantic level of frustration began to consume the parents’ thought process when they received little or next to no response from their recruiting efforts.

The parents, totally unaware that their efforts were disastrous, continued to throw money down the college recruiting drain of frustration. 

Later they finally realized their well-intended recruiting efforts we’re ineffective and wasn’t working. The progress was unexpectedly poor. 

To the parent’s credit this was all they knew.  They felt the high school coach was responsible, but some coaches barely lifted a finger which led the parents to jump in to try and save a sinking ship.

The modern era of recruiting is consumed by club teams and travel teams with parents spending thousands of their hard-working dollars investing into the travel expenses relying heavily on exposure events, tournaments, and games with the hope that college coaches would be in attendance and somehow catch a glimpse of their son or daughter’s athletic efforts.

There is a high level of craziness involved in the club team travel experience. It comes down to playing time, fighting for recognition and exposure. 

The thought process is, how will my son or daughter get recruited if they’re not in the game? 

How will my son or daughter get recruited if they’re always losing?

How will my son or daughter get recruited if they’re not playing in the best tournament against the best competition?

The well-meaning parents are voicing their displeasure loudly and within earshot of the coaches. 

It is a distraction and very annoying with some believing it is ruining the game. Parents have too much control monitoring every aspect of the game, scrutinizing and second-guessing every decision the coaches make as though they were being paid millions of dollars to make these decisions.

The unruliness from parents has gotten so bad it’s like the parents should be seen and not heard.

Many parents are unhappy with the club team, the coach, playing time, and their overall experience. 

Nowadays, student-athletes will jump to another club team, motivated and encouraged by their parents, seemingly believing there’s a better coach, a better travel experience, a better environment, somewhere else. 

When that doesn’t work out according to their plan they will attempt to jump to another club team and maybe another club team.

The merry-go-round of confusion is spinning out of control.  Sadly, if these student-athletes cannot commit to athletic development by sticking with one club program and working out problems or issues they will have the same destructive path at the college level.

I know many college programs are investigating deeply the patterns of the student-athletes before they offer them a big-time athletic scholarship.

There’s no easy solution to the old broken-down strategies of recruiting. There’s no algorithm that parents can pay for, no hidden secret formula only the rich are privy to.

Recruiting strategies are individually based. What works for you will not work for someone else and vice versa. 

My advice is to begin the recruiting process early. Be aggressive, be consistent, don’t give up, and minimize frustrations. Mistakes will happen, but you have time to correct them. Keep charging forward towards the Ultimate Prize: A college scholarship.

I would like to hear your thoughts on this topic. Please leave me a comment in the comment section below. Your comments are the oxygen that we need to continue to grow.

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 Ignore The Noise About Recruiting Services

Haters are going to hate. They are hating heavily on recruiting services to distract you and throw you off course because that’s what haters do.

Don’t listen to these haters when it comes to recruiting services. 

You could go on social media websites right now and ask someone their unprofessional opinion about recruiting services and I bet you nine times out of ten they will tell you don’t waste your money, do your own recruiting or some other nonsense. 

They most likely have never used one so how would they know?

The haters hate recruiting services and dislike their mere existence for a multitude of reasons.

They tried setting up their own recruiting service but failed. 

Maybe they had a bad experience with a recruiting service and so they want to blame every recruiting service for their own failure.  

They had a son or daughter who couldn’t cut it athletically and couldn’t make it to the next level and they’re angry, frustrated, and disappointed. They’d never rejoice in anyone’s recruiting success because there’s was a disaster. 

Haters have zero involvement in a recruiting process. 

They hate because they had no role, they hate to read about success stories, and they hate to talk about successes of other student-athletes. 

That is the story of the haters.

Stupid reasons exist of hate towards recruiting services. It’s mind-boggling that someone would hate on a student-athlete just because they play for a certain team or whatever the case may be.

Remember, haters cannot look past themselves. They don’t understand the valuable asset recruiting services can be. 

Recruiting services are not there to steal your money or to mess up your life. They are there to assist student-athletes, getting them the help and exposure they need. 

The haters will twist the narrative making you believe that all recruiting services carry around scholarships in their back pockets and if you pay them thousands of dollars in fees they will hand deliver you a full athletic scholarship.

Where it gets twisted is, from the parents perspective, a recruiting service is going to get you an athletic scholarship and that is false. It’s absolutely not the scenario whatsoever. 

Recruiting services are going to put you in position to get that scholarship by getting your son or daughter’s name into the hands of as many college coaches as possible. 

It is up to the college program to give your son or daughter a scholarship, not the recruiting service. 

If you continue to listen to haters they will drill into your mind this scenario confusing you, frustrating you, and distracting you from doing what is necessary.

Recruiting services have been in existence since the late 1970’s. They are growing in popularity and more inquisitive individuals want to become College Scouts setting up their own recruiting services. 

In my opinion, I think it’s great  that more individuals want to take that amazing step forward.

Based on the number of student-athletes that continue to slip through the cracks, recruiting services are needed and are a necessary component in the overall recruiting process.

Ignore the noise and the hatred about recruiting services. Remember, you only get one chance to go from high school athlete to college athlete and I think it’s critical to do everything in your power to achieve the goal of a college scholarship or a strong financial package. 

I would like to hear your thoughts on this topic. Please leave me a comment in the comment section below. Your comments are the oxygen that we need to continue to grow.

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Letters From College Coaches 

Receiving a letter from a college coach. 

What real value does it really create? 

What power does it have behind it in the eyes of student-athletes and often confused parents?

Did you know there are large numbers of college coaches who struggle to obtain information of value on student-athletes? 

The only weapon at their disposal is sending a letter with a packet of information to that student-athlete’s high school in care of his or her coach.

This process is backwards, interpreted by manipulation, thievery, and trickery on behalf of some high school coach who wants to control all aspects of the recruiting process to build up their own ego and to have power over the student-athletes. 

Unfortunately, it’s the parents who they are in a constant tug-of-war with. 

Letters often come with questionnaires that need to be completed and sent back in a timely manner. 

What happens is the student-athlete do not actually receive this information from their coach containing the most vital and critical information towards the recruitment in a timely fashion.

When the information has not been completed and returned in a reasonable time frame, college programs feel neglected and thinks that the student-athlete is not interested so that coach will quickly move on to the next student-athlete.

To bypass the silliness of manipulation, I would suggest student-athletes and their families map out a list of college programs to target on their own, completing the athletic questionnaires directly from that athletic program’s website. This seems to be a more reasonable process.

Now, the questionnaire is completed in a timely manner and received by college coaches. 

The student-athlete is on their mailing list and open to receive correspondence such as additional questionnaires and information of high-value and importance all of which can be sent directly to the student-athlete’s home address instead of the school where it could get lost, manipulated, hidden by a knuckle-head high school coach with horrible intentions. It happens still to this day, sadly.

This is not an indictment against high school coaches. 

Not all of them are stupid, but a large percentage of them are.  

There’s countless proof of high school coaches holding back recruiting letters intended for the eyes of student-athletes that never reaches their hands. 

I would like to hear your thoughts on this topic. Please leave me a comment in the comment section below. Your comments are the oxygen that we need to continue to grow.

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There Are Many Lies Told In Recruiting 

What is hidden in the dark will come out in the light. The truth about a student-athlete cannot be hidden forever.

Lies are being told, abilities are being fabricated, and stretching the truth is somewhat borderline criminal.

There are scholarship offers that don’t exist.

These offers are told to impress teammates and opponents.

Trying to slant the truth about recruiting in a favorable way to attract real offers from college coaches is a common lie told by student-athletes and parents who desperately seek scholarship opportunities.

How can you make yourself taller or faster? Is it possible to grow five Inches in three months or all of a sudden your 40 time is amazing! 

Bad-mouthing other student-athletes to gain a recruiting advantage is reckless.

Bashing another student-athlete makes you look bad so keep their names out of your mouth. Focus on your ability and your academics.

Telling lies will catch up with you eventually.

Stretching the truth and fabricating your abilities is a recipe for disaster. Student-athletes make up grade point averages to appear higher and stronger in the eyes of college coaches.

College coaches are not stupid. There is a thing called the NCAA Clearinghouse, eventually the truth will come out. The truth is a real indication on who you are and if you’re a liar, you’re screwed.

I totally understand the pressures every student-athlete faces in the recruiting process.

You’re trying to gain an edge, get the advantage and favorable responses from college coaches.

The scholarship is within reach or a strong financial package is available. 

Fabricating false claims about your athletic ability or your grades will ruin you in the end.

Nobody wants a liar associated with their athletic program. Don’t let that be you.

I would like to hear your thoughts on this topic. Please leave me a comment in the comment section below. Your comments are the oxygen that we need to grow. 

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 What Are College Coaches Looking For In Recruits? 

Positive impact are the influences student-athletes can bring to a college program from the point of view of the college coach. 

A bad attitude, rotten apples, or the bad seeds can upset the apple cart in terms of selecting the wrong student-athlete to recruit.

They don’t want you. The last thing a college coach ever wants to deal with is an orchard of bad apples, meaning student-athletes.

The off-season is as important as in-season in terms of recruiting. The deep investigations the college coaches undergo are analyzing every aspect of a student-athlete’s life. 

The questions are: What type of attitude does the athlete have?

How do they react if they lose a game or two? tell me about their work ethic? Is he/she a great teammate? These are the intangibles being scrutinized as though it was a grocery store shopping list.

The intangibles are the ingredients, like chicken noodle soup.

A bad attitude and poor work ethic will get you dumped in the trash. A selfish attitude and poor demeanor means you will be passed over even though you may have superior athletic ability.

None of that matters if you’re a jerk.

Understand, they’re watching the warm-ups, your interaction with your teammates, how you respond during timeouts or when you’re sitting on the bench.

Your behavior is constantly under the microscope.

Can you accept the coach? Do you argue visibly with your coaches? These are the aspects college programs are watching closely.

All negativity will eliminate you from the recruiting process quicker than you can turn off the light switch in your bedroom.

If all the criteria is not being met, then you’ll end up at a college program beneath your athletic ability. You’re too much of a headache and you will be dropped from one college program.

You will latch onto another one only to be dropped again because the negativity follows you around like bad gossip.

Your athletic future is being destroyed because of your negative actions, but you’re too dumb to see it.

I would like to hear your thoughts on this topic. Please leave me a comment in the comment section below. Your comments are the oxygen that we need to continue to grow.

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