There are many NFL and NBA ballplayers out there that did not attend a major college program to become a professional athlete.
The most important thing to remember for high school athletes is to get in college then, once you are there, you need to work as hard as you can to improve athletically every single day.
If you can develop athletically while still in college, you will attract the attention of professional teams no matter where you attended college.
There was a situation recently where a high school basketball coach used the “N” word towards African American athletes. This coach’s lamed-brain excuse was to motivate the players to be better. The players were extremely offended by this coach’s actions and refused to play anymore games until this coach was removed.
I know that this generation of high school athletes is a little bit on the softer side; they’re not as hardcore and tough mentally and physically like they used to be back in the day.
A lot of these new generation student athletes cannot take harsh or strong language from high school coaches and this is where conflict begins. I don’t have a problem with the coach getting in the face of a student athlete if that’s what it’s going to take to make that athlete better or to motivate that player to do better. Coaching is about teaching and about motivating players and coaches do have a tendency to yell at players.
African Americans are improving economically and are no longer interested in living in the inner cities where the school systems are bad, the crime is high and the housing situations are horrible. African Americans who have improved economically deserve the right to move to a better neighborhood with better schools and with better housing. It only makes sense to do that.
Now African Americans are invading into white folk’s territory; going to their schools, living in their houses and shopping in their stores that used to be all white all night. I think what’s happening now is white people are not use to being around black people and maybe they’re somewhat offended by the fact that blacks have moved into their neighborhoods and are in their schools and are improving academically and athletically.
There are some coaches who are white who may not be totally accustomed to the culture of African Americans and they may say things as a joke or make racial slurs or comments not thinking that they have caused some kind of harm and offense. These coaches feel that they were just joking around and that it is OK to do or say certain things towards blacks.
These types of inappropriate comments towards African American athletes does not do anything but piss people off, get people fired and cause a whole bunch of unnecessary B.S.
African Americans are also guilty of using the “N” word towards each other and that’s totally inappropriate as well. Using that kind of language is a racial slur and if white people hear enough black people using that word then they’re going to think it’s OK for whites to say it also.
It comes down to understanding of people of different ethnicities on the part of white high school coaches. If white coaches are going to be coaching African American athletes (and other students of color) then I think it’s important for those coaches to understand all races.
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There are a lot of student athletes who are in their senior year of high school and are finding it challenging to get college programs interested in them. Some of the student athletes may have received a letter or phone call or two from a college program but not much else. This could mean that your college recruiting strategy may be a little off and could use some recharging. I thought I would come up with a list of some things you could do to improve the college recruiting process for you:
1. Start calling college coaches now. If you’re in your senior year of high school and the recruiting process has slowed down, now’s the time to take a more aggressive approach. There may be schools that contacted you by phone or letter and maybe email. I would take a hard core approach and call each and every one of those coaches. Your goal is to see if they have an interest in you and if they don’t then move on.
2. If you’ve established yourself with college coaches and they know who you are then I would start emailing these coaches every day until you get a response from them to find out exactly what their intentions are. If these college programs are interested in you, you can ask them how to move forward. If they’re not interested in you, you must move on.
3. The handwritten letter approach is a powerful and personal approach for student athletes. Student athletes who are in their senior year should be writing a personal letter to college coaches. This could help recharge the college recruiting process. A one page handwritten letter may not get lost in all of the other junk mail that college coaches receive each day. If there’s a particular coach that you are writing to, of course address that letter directly to that coach. In your letter get right to the point and ask that coach what their intentions are with you. If they write you back with their answer then go forward from there. If there’s no interest then move on.
Final thoughts: Sometimes the college recruiting process can change for seniors. College programs can be very interested in you but for some unknown reason, they change their minds. I believe it’s important to have a long list of college programs to start the college recruiting process because anything can change. If the college recruiting process has slowed down for high school seniors, you must move into attack mode and aggressively start contacting as many college programs in the remaining months and weeks as you can before you graduate from high school.
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Sometimes we forget that high school student athletes are just teenagers; that they are really not that far removed from eating cereal with a plastic spoon. Sometimes we forget that they’re just immature adolescents at an age where the majority of them cannot think for themselves or make decisions.
When it comes to the college recruiting process, we want to think of these kids as young men and women who can make strong decisions. I believe sometimes this is the problem with high school sports; were placing high expectations for these student athletes to make decisions that they’re not capable of making. These are things about student athletes that I don’t like.
Division one college athletics is the main focus of many high school student athletes. All they think about and dream about is the D-1. The sad part about all of this is that most of the student athletes cannot come close to playing college ball at that level, but somehow, somewhere they believe they can or someone told them they can.
Just about every high school student athlete I’ve ever talked to only mention the major college programs that they want to play ball at.
The reason I believe so many student athletes are stuck on the thought of playing only at major college programs is because those are more recognizable names. College programs play on TV and have a huge following so it’s easy to understand why they are so fascinated by that.
My problem with the student athletes and parents is that they will put everything they’ve got into a major college program believing it’s for them.
Division one college athletics is a curse because of the amount of time and attention put towards believing that you are a division one player. Student athletes should focus on going to the best college program that fits their athletic ability.
High school student athletes are not entitled to anything. You have some student athletes who have had a privileged athletic career. These athletes feel that they are owed something because they can play their sport very well.
When the so-called privileged high school athlete does reach the college level, they quickly realize that the other players on their team are just as good as they are and are now finding it a harder at the college level because it is now a challenge to be the best.
I also believe the high school athletes should work harder, keep their mouths shut, quit complaining and try to improve their game every single day. I’ve seen so many high school athletes who thought they were the best only to crash and burn once they saw how tough it was at the college level. The college level is no joke; all the players are good, all the players are more than likely the best player from their high school team.
Sometimes you get these kids who turn out to be cry babies and really had no business being at that college program in the first place. I believe this is one of the big reasons you see so many transfers because these kids could not cut it at the major college level.
My final thoughts are that high school student athletes should just stay focused on being the best high school athlete they can possibly be. There are so many high school athletes who are trying to achieve the same thing: getting a college scholarship. The competition is extremely competitive but that’s what’s important about competition; only the best will succeed.
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Are you going to be one of the millions of high school student athletes who never get recruited for college?
Why should we care if you don’t get recruited for college? So many high school athletes are giving everything they’ve got to get recruited by a college program that does not care about them.
Millions of high school athletes and their parents are going to great expense, frustration and anxiety over the college recruiting process when in reality, they’re wasting their time because nobody cares.
When the college recruiting process begins college coaches more than like will already have players that they’re interested in. If you’re a high school athlete and you’re not on their exclusive, highly privileged list, then you have absolutely no chance of ever being recruited by that coach.
Anything you mail to these coaches will get thrown in the trash. These college programs are not going to look at your DVDs and could care less about your academic transcripts. Most of the college programs could care less about your team’s win/ loss record and most of them do not want to hear from you because they don’t know you and they don’t like you.
If you go to a camp or an exposure event, so what. Who cares? What’s the big deal? The college programs that are in attendance at these events are still not going to pay any attention to you.
I’m sorry, but its true; college programs only care about the players who can, without a shadow of a doubt, help them win games as soon as the season starts.
College sports has changed so much that it’s only about winning and in order to win games, college coaches are only going to recruit blue chip, superstar athletes and everyone else who is not in that category have absolutely zero chance of ever hearing from that college program.
Someone may ask if there is a solution for high school athletes looking to play ball at a major college program, and my answer is plain and simple: there is absolutely no solution.
The dream for many high school athletes is to have the opportunity to play their sport at a major college program that has their games on television. Who wouldn’t want their games played on TV?
The fact of the matter is, it’s not going to happen for you no matter how hard you try.
Every now and then, a very talented high school athlete will fall into the hands of a college program but, that is very rare. If you’re thinking that you could be one of those rare, talented athletes out there forget about it, because that’s not going to happen.
Even the division two level of college athletics are becoming extremely challenging in terms of recruiting. The players who were overlooked by the big-time college programs end up going to the top quality division two programs.
Your ass is now in serious trouble. As a high school athlete, you may become invisible. As a matter of fact, there is a strong probability that college programs at the D-2 level will not want your ass either.
The competition for the absolutely best high school players around the country is extremely competitive. If a college coach manages to bring in an outstanding recruiting class, this could make all the difference in that coach’s future and ultimately determine how much money that coach will be paid. A college coach only wants the best players and it’s also true at the lower level division programs. They need great players to win games, to keep their jobs and to get paid.
For student athletes who may be average players, you have absolutely no chance of going to college and playing ball so you should think about doing something else. College coaches are only going to talk to the best players and you’re not one of them.
There are thousands, if not millions, of high school student athletes and many of them are very talented but there is no place to play after high school. No matter how good you are or how good you think you are, you’re not getting into college. One main reason is that you probably went about the college recruiting process the wrong way.
You did not start the college recruiting process early enough. You did not start the college recruiting process with a clear plan in place on how to get recruited for college.
I think some student athletes, along with their parent’s help, believe that they do not have to do anything-that the college program will find them anyway. Many high school student athletes and parents believe 100% in the high school coach’s ability to secure college placement. Because of all of this confusion many high school athletes will end up without a college.
College recruiting letters and what they really mean can be confusing when you are just getting started with the recruiting process.
One way you can look at recruiting letters us by keeping score: how many letters did you get today; how many letters did you receive this week, etc. It’s all a game when you really get down to it.
Many high school players feel that when they get a letter from an interested college program that it means they are being recruited by that college program. This is not true.
These letters are just Letters of Interest. There are a hundred other student athletes who have also received letters in the mail from that same college program.
Receiving a letter from an interested coach is nice but I would rather get a phone call from a college coach because a phone call carries more weight than a recruiting letter.
Does a letter from a college program that was sent to your school have more value than a letter mailed to your house or is it the other way around?
There are many high school ballplayers who get letters every day and they are not jumping for joy like they just won the lottery.
These ballplayers keep the whole letter thing in perspective because they understand that most of these letters are just junk mail anyway and that they may never receive a legitimate offer from these programs anyway.
For all you student athletes who somehow believe that a letter from a college coach means you’re being recruited, it’s not totally true.
Sometimes these Letters of Interests from college program can be used to keep you, the student athlete, on the hook thinking that you really are being recruited.
It would go over more powerful if student athletes wrote letters of interests of that program to those coaches then when they write back, it’s all good. You know them and now you have established their trust.
The bottom line here is recruitment letters from college programs serve some purpose but just don’t be overwhelmed by the process.