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The College Recruiting Process By Al Woods
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5 Effective Strategies To Reach College Coaches Now And Forever!!
The college recruiting process is a marathon.
Most of the high school student athletes out there are looking to play at the next level and most days you are looking for ideas to help with the college recruiting process. I have cam up with a list of things that can help you in the process of getting your name out there.
1. Come up with a list of 100 college programs that are in your home state or in the neighboring states.
The more college programs you have the better it will be for you in the long run.
2. Write to each coach that is on your list. I feel the best and most effective way of going about this is with hand written letters. This give a powerful touch to any college coach that you are trying to reach and makes a great first impression.
3. Get a DVD made. The DVD is critical to the college recruiting process, the reason is that most college coaches are not coming out to high school games anymore and the only way they can evaluate your talent and skill is by seeing you play on DVD.
4. Follow up man! Or woman. Most of you never follow up with a college coach, you must stay in touch with a coach who has written to you or has mail you information. By this time you may be able to email a coach so do it every week. What you should do is let that coach or coaches know what is happening with you from game stats to academic performances.
5. The Summer, you must play your sports during the summer months this is where college athletic recruiting will start and when all college coaches can get out and see you play. Always play where there are college coaches in attendants anything else is a waste of time.
The college recruiting process is a marathon of hard work of dedication to your sport of consistency to develop into an outstanding student athlete. Recruiting is never easy for huge number of student athletes who wish to play there sport at the next level.
It will take many hours of hard work to gain the attention of college coach there are no shortcuts in the process of getting recruited. What may work for some one who is going through the recruiting process may not work the same way for you; you must develop a plan and stick to that plan until you have signed your letter of intent.
You will increase your chances of being heavily recruited if you are an outstanding athlete and an outstanding student this will give you major advantages over all other take shortcuts look for the easy way out when it comes to the process of college recruiting.
Talk To College Recruiter Al Woods Today
I am an experienced college recruiter that helps high school student athletes and parents with information on the college recruiting process.
Sometimes the college recruiting process makes absolutely no sense and receiving valuable information and college recruiting tips can be extremely helpful.
I’ve always said that you get one chance to go from high school athlete to college athlete and you should do everything in your power to see that you achieve this goal.
Parents only: If you’re interested in talking live with an experienced college recruiter, I’m providing a one-on-one college recruiting phone call to everyone who’s interested.
You will receive a 30 minute phone call with Al Woods for the low price of $35.00.
Once we receive confirmation of your payment via PayPal, I will email my phone number and available dates for our phone conversation.
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.
Who wants to be a college recruiter?
Every year toward the end of the high school sports season and the college season there are many individuals who all believe they can help student athletes get recruited and placed in college.
The excitement surrounding the end of the sports seasons often brings a certain level of interests in becoming a college recruiter.
Maybe it’s because being a college recruiter will keep many people who enjoy sports connected to the game some type of way.
On the outside looking in, it looks very easy to be a college recruiter. Basically you watch a lot of high school games, you talk to a bunch of players, you tell them you can help them get into college and you ask them to pay you a fee.
If you think being a college recruiter is as simple as that then you’re an idiot and you should go back to watching TV all day.
Being a full time college recruiter is a profession just like being a high school or college coach; it’s a serious job with a huge amount of responsibilities and attention to detail. There are a lot of men who all want to take that next step in becoming a college recruiter because of the thrill of it all.
It is very exciting to sit and watch games all day and talk to players all the time. Ideally, who wouldn’t want that job?
College recruiting is an exciting job with many benefits outside of the fee you’re going to receive from the parents of the student athletes.
When I was a full time college recruiter I would often get tickets to games, invites to camps or free athletic gear.
The only problem with being a college recruiter is there is no information available on the step by step process on how to do the job. There are actually college courses in sports management to be a sports agent but there’s nothing available on how to be a college recruiter.
So if you’re sitting there watching sports on ESPN and thinking about being a college recruiter, I would really think about doing something else.
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3 things you should know before becoming a college recruiter
For those of you who may not know, I started my professional career as a college recruiter back in 1989. I thought it would be a great professional business opportunity for me to get involved with.
I played basketball on every level so I thought with the knowledge I had, I could use it to help other student athletes reach the college level.
Back then, there was basically no information available on how to become a college recruiter. There were no college courses to take, no information on the Internet, basically there was nothing available.
There are so many people out there who are fascinated with the entire process of being a college recruiter that I wanted to provide my perspective on the things you will need to do to become a college recruiter.
GO TO CAMP. One of first things I did as a college recruiter was go to camps. I started out with basketball because that was the sport I played all my life. By going to camps all over the country, it helped me to get a greater understanding of what parents are seeing and thinking about when it comes to their kids and college recruiting.
Going to camps also helped me gain exposure to college coaches and build up a strong network. I felt that if these coaches knew who I was, then I could develop some kind of professional relationship and a level of trust.
I believe it’s critical for all new college recruiters to be seen by parents, players and especially the college coaches. This will help build your reputation as a college recruiter.
LOOK THE PART. Being a college recruiter is just like any professional business; you need to look the part. If you’re serious about being a college recruiter then get yourself some clothes that represent the fact that you are a college recruiter.
Maybe get a polo shirt or some kind of athletic-looking gear that has the name of your company on it. Also get your fat, out of shape ass in the gym and at least look like you played sports by having an athletic body or something close to it.
I’ve been all over the country to many tournaments, exposure events and camps and have seen many of these wannabe college recruiters who look like they’ve never picked up a ball in their life. Get in shape! Look like something out there.
GET THE EQUIPMENT. To be taken seriously as a college recruiter you’re going to the need a blog. I would choose a blog over website because you can update your blog with NAIA news and fresh information all the time and it’s easier to use than the old-fashioned websites.
Get a domain name that says you’re a college recruiter and then your company using something that’s short and catchy.
It’s important to get all the necessary tools and equipment to be taken seriously as a college recruiter. Get business cards and hand out to every athlete and every parent of an athlete.
Also your email should be off of your domain name and not one of those freaky mail services. Again, it’s all about professionalism.
Technology is critical so get a cell phone with plenty of minutes on it so you can be available to your clients 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Computers are, of course, just as important as anything you would ever need in your business. Go out and get the best computers available, in your price range of course. I believe it’s important to have at least two desktop computers and maybe later a laptop or Ipad.
Your computers are the engines for your business because this is where you will write your athletic profiles on high school athletes, email back and forth with college coaches and your prospective clients.
For me personally, I have two desktop computers that I use in every aspect of my business.
GET BUSINESS TO COME TO YOU. It does not matter how smart you are, what college you went to or even what college coaches you may know. If you cannot get businesses to consistently come to you every day, then you’ve got nothing.
Just because you want to help high school athletes get into college doesn’t mean a damn thing if you cannot get a huge number of student athletes to talk to each and every week.
You must advertise your business in order to get business, you must find out online and in the newspapers where the student athletes and their parents, who are most critical in this process, will be.
I believe it’s easier to reach a larger number of parents of high school athletes over the Internet because that’s where they’re going to look for information on how to get recruited for college.
One of the best resources available to market your business is on the Internet. Message boards that talk about high school sports or websites or blogs that talk about high school sports are the best places to advertise your business.
The most important things to remember is you DON’T want to spend your advertising dollars on a message board or website that has very little traffic and little exposure. You want to advertise on message boards that are extremely popular with the parents of high school athletes.
You are marketing your business to the parents of high school athletes because they’re the ones who will pay for anything their child needs on their way to getting recruited for college.
IN CLOSING. I believe these are very important steps in the process of being a college recruiter. When I first started, I went out to camps and exposure events for years. Even though I was a former high school athlete, a college athlete and then a professional athlete, I felt I needed more inside information on how the college recruiting process worked.
Keep in mind, there are no college courses available on how to become a college recruiter. What I did was go out and I talked to people. I talked to the parents at the camps that I attended, I talked with the players at the camps and I made a point to get as much information as I could from college coaches.
My opinion of the college recruiters out there today is that many of them do not know what they’re doing and they only care about the money and not about getting the kids in college.
I think it’s important to think about how you can best help the parents and the student athletes get into college and you will make a lot of money because you will have a great reputation of service to others, so you will get paid.
Is there too much presser on high school athletes?
There is more presser on high school athletes more now than ever before many who don’t play sports or never have played sports in there life time may not understand what some high school athletes must deal with everyday.
High school student athletes; that title right there gives extra presser than just a regular student who just goes to class everyday and maybe an after school job then home for the day.
The high school student athlete has more exposure on then all the time there is someone always looking at then witching there every move only because they are an athlete only because they are on the team. Much of this is not going to make scents to many of you reading this but the daily expectation on high school student athletes are enormous eyes following there every mover is crazy and being ask question on a daily bases.
As an athlete you become something when you make the team then there’s practice then there’s games and if your any good you must always be good you must always win you must always be the best, no big deal right, I mean that’s what these kids do is play sports the game is suppose to be fun right?
The sports they play is only a kids game but there is an expectation place on that kids game they must perform; people are witching them and that’s where the presser comes in always being judge; always being talking about or criticize for how good they are or how bad they are.
Now that these athletes are in the spot light everyday just because they are on the team and fans of there sports expect then to do something, many fans expect some of then to be great to always win to always lead there team to be that great student or leader in the community, now that’s presser place on a kid remember these are just kids who are still growing up and may not be physically or mentally mature.
It use to be back in the day, high school ball players would play there season and when it was over it’s over and players would have a break from that season to do other things, like maybe be a kid again if only for a few months. You explore the outside world again and see how the other student live there daily lives; maybe get an after school job or just relax from sports for a wild.
Now that the season is over the presser will ease for a wild there’s no practice after school or a game to prepare for it’s just you and the outside universe you can be free no coach always on your back about something, your free just to hang out with other kids who may not play sports just to see what there lives are like without playing a high school sports. The presser is gone, the eyes have stop looking at you everyday and expecting you to do something special just because you are an athlete.
Now days high student athletes are still playing games long after the regular season is over; If it’s basketball there’s the AAU travel season to if it’s volleyball then there’s your club season; football there’s camps and combines to attend if it’s baseball, it ‘s showcases and I could go on and on but by now you get the point there is no off season anymore with the major impact place on getting recruited for a major college program.
High school athletes no matter what sports they play must compete year around just to keep up with another athlete in another part of the county looking for that same scholarship that means more workouts or meetings more traveling to and from practice all the time. These day’s parents are hiring personal trainers, these kids are getting specialize coaching there spending money on instructional DVD’s there is an extra expense for being a high school athlete. The investment many parents make into there athletic son or daughter does build some kids on inter presser on these high school student athletes.
The high school student is not under such scrutiny most of then can go un-notest no one is going to care what they got on a history exam or weather they were late for school or not.
But if the high school student athlete get’s a low score on that same history test or is late for school everyone will no about it, and there could be some consequences because of it, not fair but that’s what it means to be an athlete in high school someone is always witching waiting for you to make a miss step; now that’s presser right?
Many outsiders who may not understand high school sports will say what’s the big deal there kids and that’s how it’s suppose to be. Playing a sport in high school will come with a lot of extra attention, some outsider would say, “If they don’t want that kind of attention they should not play”. Statements like that are often said by many who never pick up and ball or where good enough to play of a team in high school.
There’s always haters out there no mater what a high school athletes does you read about it on sports message boards and website and blogs of criticism on high school kids. The talk can be how this player is not as good as that player or where he or she may go to college or weather or not they are a major college recruit or not! The talk can be harsh and could often times be down right evil towards these players that we care so much about.
Many fans who enjoy high school sports will leave comments on sports forums may not understand that these are kids there talking about and not some high price pro athlete. A large number of high school athletes are really not that fair remove from middle school we are talking about kids some of them are just 16 and 17 year olds and at that age many of these athletes are still growing up mentally and placing that kid of presser can rune them.
We have all herd of high school athletes being burnout and just want to quit playing. Most of us will look at a high school athletes as something more than a kid. We may being looking at that star ball player as future pro or at lest a big time college athlete and when that kind of expectation is place on these over work athletes something has to give.
The presser from the parents what do we now know about parents and athletes? Parents understand what it means to be a good high school student athlete many parents see that the better you are as a ball players could lead to that kid of theirs getting a scholarship to a big college program and possibly to keep playing there sport for at lest 4 for years.
Parents some may see dollar sings in the players “he may be the next Tiger Woods or Michael Jordan or great pro athlete.
A number of parents just want there kid’s to just have fun playing that sport without all the presser that often times comes with playing in high school.
We all have herd stories of over baring parents, pushing parents, parent stepping outside there roles and trying to coaching the team or instruct the coach on how to coach the team or lead the team.
Parent as we all know are the power behind that the high school athlete reaching there athletic highest to greatness.
Parents have made huge investment in there kids athletic development from putting money into all sorts of things such as summer camps equipment travel club teams off season workout program, they just want a return on all that money they have invested over a 4 year high school career. Parents want scholarship parents want the T.V schools biggest and the best and if they don’t get it then heads will roll just look at the numbers of high school coaches who quit every year mainly because of outside presser from parents.
Can you blame the parents for there what can seem to be crazy behavior all they want is a return on that money.
The high school coach may or may not understand how to deal with parents or even care they just want to coach without the outside distractions from fans or parents and school administrator But there is something about leading kids or coaching kids in high school that gets people liking what your doing or hating your guts!
Do high school coaches add to the presser that many high school student athletes must deal with? Are high school coaches really trying to develop the talent that they have or do they just roll out the balls and just let them play?
How much of an impact does a high school coach have on the kids?, there are countless stories of the good coach, the bad coach and the ugly coach.
Some high school coaches are in it for the kids and want the players that they coach to do well and to reach great athletic achievements they try to help these athletes reach higher goals everyday by motivating the players to not only win games but to have a goals to work towards and sometimes there are life lessens that are taught by these coaches other that there sports. Some high school athletes may come of homes where there is no father and that coach is looked at as a father finger a leader of young-men and ladies. High school coaches want to be a coach because they feel that they can be the diffidents maker in that young person life and they are in coaching for that very reason.
The bad in coaching can lead to added presser on high school players some coaches do cheat or recruit players from other teams just to win a few more ball games.
Some coaches do very little in the development of high school players some high school coaches do nothing to help there own players get recruited for college some high school coaches don’t know what they are doing and many more high school coaches may have just fell into the job as coach because nobody else wanted the job.
The huge amount of presser on high school student athletes is real there’s no running around that issue we all know that all eye’s are on them we know that fans of the game and hater too read about high school sports post comments in forums about high school sports this is real.
Some will say that life will be hard as these kids mature and that we are only getting them ready for what the real world will be like some day and that in this completive society we live in we are always competing for something better schools, better coaches, better teams better everything that is what life is all about and some high school student athletes this kind of presser is no big deal they think nothing of it; where others all of this may be too much to handle keep in mine they are just kids.
There is life after high school sports for some it maybe college athletics others it just may they want to be college student somewhere and leave the presser of playing sports behind them for ever! There are academics issues and presser to deal with all the time outside of just playing there sport. Athletes must study and past the SAT or ACT test, they must scours well they must get that test in order to be recruited in the first place.
There recruiting issues to finger out most parents, student athletes and some high school coaches are learning how the process works for the first time. Now that’s real presser! The high school student athletes is different as long is we all care about high school sports there will always be presser of kind on the kids on matter what.
College Recruiting Help Now
Getting college recruiting help is a serious situation for all high school student athletes who wish and dream to play in college. Most have game and skills to impress a huge number of college programs but the problem, like so many others, is exposure. As hard as you work on your game and as hard as you excel in the classroom, nobody knows who you are.
This is a major problem that many high school student athletes have to deal with every year and, by no fault of their own, they go unnoticed and unrecognized by college coaches.
Many out there who follow high school sports closely will say, “If you’re good enough they will find you.” That statement is ridiculous because there are more high school athletes than there are colleges to recruit them.
Some high school athletes out there will be lost in the college recruiting shuffle no matter how good he or she is. That’s just the way it is. I believe if you are good enough at the high school level that there is a place for you at the college level. The college recruiting process does not make sense to most parents. There are too many twists and turns that parents and student athletes must deal with and it can become frustrating at times.
There is no easy answer or solution for why a high school student athlete loses out on getting recruited. I’ve talked about this subject many times before and will continue to do so. My goal is to help student athletes and parents with every aspect of the college recruiting process.
There is no easy answer or solution for why a high school student athlete loses out on getting recruited.