African-American Athletes Are Investing Too Much Into Sports

Posted on February 3, 2012 by Al Woods

African-American males look to professional sports superstars for their role models

The African-American athletes’ entire future rests upon a professional contract and nothing else matters.

Sports in the African-American community has always been viewed as a way out of the inner city and on to financial freedom.

Education doesn’t matter, world events doesn’t matter, the only thing that counts is that professional contract.

You can drive around any inner city in the country and you’ll see African-American young men throwing a football around on the city streets or playing basketball with some make-shift basketball hoop.

In the mornings, when young African Americans are on their way to school, instead of carrying their books and book bags they’re bringing footballs and basketballs to school because that’s their role model; books are just a requirement to get through the day.

There are very few role models in the inner cities.

You don’t grow up in the African-American community where you’re living next to lawyers or doctors or even business owners; those people just do not exist in most inner city African-American communities.

African-American males look to professional sports superstars for their role models, believing that if they work really hard playing football or basketball that they can have millions of dollars and all the fame and success that comes from being a professional athlete. Becoming a doctor or lawyer does not appeal to them or the so-called hip-hop generation of black males.

Everyone knows about Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant because those are the role models for African Americans. These athletic superstars are on TV all the time, they have big-time major endorsement deals and this lifestyle is so fascinating and appealing to a lot of African Americans who believe that with hard work playing their sport, they can also live the lifestyle of the rich and famous black athlete.

Education does not seem as important if you play sports but without it, what kind of future are you going to have if you don’t beat the odds of being the one in a million who makes it to the pros? African-American athletes are putting every ounce of the strength they have into sports without the thought that they may not make it to the pros. Even if they are a success in college many of them still leave a four year institution without a college degree.

The barber shop is an African-American gathering place in the inner city and the conversation is often about politics, community events and sports. Young black kids are going into the barber shops getting haircuts and are being asked questions about what they want to be when you grow up?

Before the young black man can answer the question the members of the barbershop will already know the answer, “you’re going to be a football player or you’re going to be a basketball superstar, right?”

It’s never about you’re going to grow up and get a law degree or medical degree or go off to a fancy college and get a high powered education to be whatever you want to be. The conversation is about sports and what the local teams are doing.

There is a huge cultural difference between blacks and whites when it comes to sports. Whites grow up with the mindset of going to college to get an education and to one day have a career, maybe as a lawyer or a doctor.

It is not the same conversation with blacks in their community. The conversation is all about music and fashion and becoming a sports star as their ticket out of the inner city. The conversation is rarely about using education as a means to success.

Being a superstar in sports and music is a one in a million shot at the big time but what happens to the millions who never make it, who didn’t do enough in school to have something to fall back on if they didn’t win first place on American Idol or were the number one draft pick for the Chicago Bulls, now that is the question.

It seems to me that too much time and energy is spent on sports and only viewing that as their ticket on the yellow brick road to a better life.

These young African-American ballplayers are focused on going to a major college program because it can help them in their belief of going pro. It’s all about going pro; getting that scholarship only gets them one step closer to becoming a professional athlete, it doesn’t bring them one step closer to getting a college degree.

I love sports but it’s a one in a million shot for African-American young men that need to focus on education to first, be able to become a businessman and to then become a leader and a role model in the African-American community.

Here’s Why You’re Not Getting Into College This Year.

Posted on January 5, 2012 by Al Woods

No one is recruiting you for your sport because you are so hung up on D-1 programs that you overlook all other programs. Every high school student athlete can’t play at the major college level. You may have talent and the skill to play at a major college level but you have a 1.5 GPA and didn’t bother to take either the SAT or ACT tests.

Now you got game, you’re one of the best players in your state but you did not take care of your business in the classroom and that can be a problem.

Everyone has lied to your ass, from coaches to recruiters to the bad recruiting service to everyone and now you can’t get on at a junior college because you got the wrong advice.

You’re playing too many high school sports and not focusing on the best sport that is going to give you your best chance to play in college.

You’re not going to get in college because you are not doing enough to get your name out there, every day, to the right college programs. Think about this: most high school student athletes will, at some point, receive letters and phone calls from D-3 schools. Now how did they hear about you?

If you get your name out there often enough to D-1 and D-2 programs then you give yourself a greater chance of getting recruited by those programs. You may not end up at a major college program but you never know until you try.

Most student athletes are lazy and will not do what is needed to let college programs know where to find them.

This to me is one of the major reasons why students will not get into college.

Do all of the little things or you will not get into a college for your sport!

Information on College Recruiting Steps for Parents

Posted on November 3, 2011 by Al Woods

Whether you play football, volleyball, run track or you’re the best baseball or basketball player in the state, the college recruiting process is all the same.

For parents who will spend money on their very talented kid, here are some things that could be helpful:

1. Take the SAT or ACT tests early and often and keep trying to get a better score each time. The test scores carry more power than the GPA. Many student athletes make the mistake and wait to take the test in their senior year. At the latest, take the ACT or SAT during your junior year. You can take the practice tests, too.

2. Go to camps or events or showcases where you know there are going to be a number of college coaches in attendance. If enough college programs can see you play over a long summer then that’s a good thing. Never go to an event and there are no college coaches there. You’ll be wasting your money.

3. Get a good DVD made. This is very important because college coaches are not coming to high school games anymore. Get a copy of a good game and mix in some highlights. Make sure you identify who it is in the DVD. I would say get 100 DVD’s made and mail them to 100 college programs.

Mix up your list of programs of big programs and small programs. Also, make sure you have the talent to play at any of these programs before you mail the DVD. Have some extra DVD’s just in case someone did not get one or you think of another college to mail to or better yet, a coach calls and asks for a DVD. You can have tape or film when talking to a college coach. It’s all the same. Get them a DVD!

4. Have the student athlete in the family call the coach or an assistant coach and let that coach know who you are and that you have an interest in their program. If you’re a little shy, write them a hand written letter. That will make a great first impression! Email will at first get lost with all the other junk that’s out there so write to the coach.

That is just a small list of things you can do to get you going with the steps you need to make it to the next level.

Do Stats Matter In Recruiting

Posted on October 4, 2011 by Al Woods

In this new world of recruiting high school student athletes do stats really matter? Now these days with so many message boards, websites and blogs you can get the latest news and information on just about any high school player’s games and their stats sometimes written up minute by minute in real time.

Think about this one for a minute: do stats help you get recruited for college or not? I have seen many high school football games where it’s a blow out by half-time and the coach takes out all the starters. One may be a quarterback or running back whose numbers may not look too overwhelming. If it’s a quarterback and he passes for just 200 yards in the game, if he’d played until the 4th quarter he may have passed for 300 or maybe 400 yards in that game.

When you read about that game in the Sunday paper, that team won but that quarterback only passed for 200 yards some would think he had just an average game and others may think that he’s not as good as some other player across town. Did this quarterback’s stats really tell the full story or can these numbers be somewhat misleading? You be the judge.

What about the basketball player who, just like in football, does not play the whole game and their numbers are down but with more playing time could have a 20 point or higher game average. Sometimes the numbers don’t tell the true story. I have seen high school basketball players who average 30 points per game in high school and when their stats are published in the newspaper you would think that this player can really play ball and that they are on their way to a major college program. Big numbers really catches everyone’s attention because if you didn’t see the game that’s all you would have to go on, right?

There are factors involved that the average person or fan of high school sports may not truly understand. What kind of competition are they playing against? What is the talent level of the other players? Often, the numbers don’t tell the story and should not always be used to make it seem like one player is better than another player. The numbers or stats, if you will, cannot really tell if that player can play at a high level college program.

Here’s something that will not make since to you at all about stats and recruiting. Most of the time recruiting is done by mailing or emailing information to college coaches about players. And most college recruiters will see the numbers. That is one way to get the college coaches attention. If a player was rushing for 250 yards per game or scoring 30 points per game coaches would take notice right away because the numbers have gotten their attention.

The numbers cannot always be used in getting a player recruited for college or trying to get a college coach’s interest. In my many years as a college recruiter I try to tell the story about that player’s story; about what he or she is capable of as an athlete not the numbers. The thing is that college coaches want to see more of than numbers and stats is ability and skill and heart and passion for the sport. Can they really play?

Many times the real followers of high school sports will know that it’s about that player’s talent level, can they play at the college level and are they any good? Many high school players with big numbers sometimes get more hype because of message boards, websites and blogs, the sports page and T.V.–because they have great numbers.

It’s always a better story to cover a basketball player who scored 50 points in a game or the football player who rushes for 300 yards in a football game. They make for better sports news. The player who only gets 100 yards passing or 15 points in a basketball game will not be mentioned anywhere. My point here is seeing is better than reading the numbers.

Many years ago there were two brothers who played on a good high school basketball team coached by their father. These players were very good. Both were about 6’5 maybe 6’6 and they played at a school just outside of Cleveland, Ohio. Every day I would read the paper and see their stats which read like 30 points, 20 rebounds and other items as well each week. The numbers were very good and sometimes good and often better than the week before.

Back in those days I use to attend a lot of ballgames to scout players for my business. It was a great way for me to meet players and their parents. I would go and see these guys play and they seemed to be very good and I, as a college recruiter, wanted to see what was really going on.

They were that good! When I got to the game these two brothers, coached by their father, really had game! But the points they scored were true; they got those points if it was 30 points or the other brother got 40 points, those numbers were real. But when I read the sports page the next day the other stats were not so real; 20 rebounds or 15 assists and I said to myself- I know they did get those other numbers but if I hadn’t seen the game with my own eyes, I would be lead to believe that they didn’t it all.

Come to find out, there were deeper issues with this family and the father who was their coach. The family acted as though they were free agents in pro sports moving from school to school, team to team. Their reason for doing this was to create buzz about themselves only.

These very good high school basketball players did not need to embellish their stats. They were looking for major college programs to come and see them play. That was their only goal. These two did end up at mid-major basketball programs and really went no further than that. They both had just typical college careers, nothing more. Stats mean something but they’re not always the true test of a player’s ability.

When it comes to recruiting, it’s about size and speed and what players can really do out there in the games against other good high school athletes. College coaches will recruit with their eyes and try to use good common since and not only see the numbers.

Many times, parents will put pressure on high school coaches to play their kid more or play them the entire game just to get their numbers higher. Most high school coaches want to win the game but also give the other players a chance to play as well.

The difficulty with stats is when it comes to being recruited, what should you use to measure one’s playing ability? Is the player who scores 12 points per game less of a player than the one who scores 20 points per game? Or what about the football player who gets 150 yards rushing per game and some other player gets 250. Who’s really better?

With stats, it’s a hard thing to measure one player over another or even use in recruiting. Think about the players who may not get as much playing time but are very talented or the players who are in the dog house with the coach and get no playing time.

Just remember: stats are not everything when it comes to who’s better, who’s not, who can play in college or even the level of college. Just look at the player. Can he or she really play?

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Money Can’t Buy The College Recruiting Process

Posted on July 13, 2011 by Al Woods

Do you think money can buy the college recruiting process for high school student athletes?

If money could buy the college recruiting process then all the rich kids in this country would end up receiving most of the attention from college coaches because they have the money to get the attention.

Money, in my opinion, does play a role because the college recruiting process is not free. You’re going to have to spend money to play AAU basketball and to be on a very good travel team regardless of the sport. Money is a factor throughout the college recruiting process because without it you may have a hard time gaining the attention of college coaches.

Talent and good grades are the key factors for any student athlete to stand out throughout the college recruiting process. No amount of money in the world can make an athlete superior over all other athletes, it’s just impossible. Either you have the talent to play at the college level or you don’t and money has nothing to do with it.

In my many years as a college recruiter, I have seen first-hand parents spending thousands of dollars on their kids to make them better athletes. These parents will get their kids specialized coaching and training to improve athletic ability and performance. Not a bad idea to get private coaching if you can afford it but just because you have that private coaching is no guarantee you’re going to get a scholarship. I’ve seen parents spend thousands of dollars to create recruiting portfolios and spend thousands of dollars more to mail stuff to college coaches who will only treat this stuff as junk mail.

Now don’t get me wrong, of course you’re going to have to spend money to gain the attention of college coaches but you should not have to take out a second mortgage on your house to do that. You should not have to forgo your summer vacation so you can get your son or daughter a professionally made Hollywood-type recruiting DVD made.

Because parents have the money and student athletes don’t, sometimes parents get a little bit crazy thinking that if they put a lot of money into this they will get results throughout the college recruiting process. On the flip side of this scenario there are many families throughout this country who have very little money but somehow their sons and daughters end up with a full scholarship.

I believe the best way to gain the attention of college coaches is to be seen by college coaches. Recruiting is like buying a car; you’re not going to buy a car because I told you about it over the phone or because I sent you some really nice pictures on what the car looks like. No, you’re going to want to see what the car looks like for yourself, you’re going to want to test-drive the car and find out how much this car costs and whether it’s worth the investment. Don’t you think recruiting is the same way in the eyes of college coaches? College coaches need to see players play and they need to see that player play a whole lot before they even think about wanting to give that kid a scholarship.

But hold on a minute. Your kid is not the only kid who can actually play, so now a whole new set of problems has presented itself. Student athlete vs. student athlete: which one will actually gain the attention of the coach over another student athlete in this never ending battle of recruiting?

So this is the part where some parents believe that if they can put some extra money into helping their kid get more exposure, this will give them the edge they need in the college recruiting process. Outside of trying to bribe a coach into giving your son or daughter a full athletic scholarship this will have very little impact in getting them that scholarship.

Money cannot buy the college recruiting process just like whatever part of the country you’re from makes no difference on who gets a college scholarship.

The bottom line in all of this comes down to talent. There are a lot of student athletes out there who don’t have talent so college athletics will not be a wise choice for them. There are some student athletes who are very good athletically and there is a place for these athletes to play at the next level.

Parents need to remember that to spend your money wisely throughout the college recruiting process but don’t ever make the mistake into thinking you can buy your way in.

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Should College Programs Provide a Money-back Guarantee?

Posted on May 9, 2011 by Al Woods

College programs are recruiting very talented high school student athletes all the time and in order to recruit these athletes maybe sometimes coaches might have to stretch the truth. Sometimes college coaches will guarantee playing time to certain players or include some type of extra benefits.

You might wonder how some of the top college programs in the country always stay on top? The answer I believe is because they have to do something extra to get these players.

Sometimes college programs make huge promises to the student athletes and parents just to make sure their college programs has a better chance of landing that big-time recruit.

The rules basically say you can only give a full athletic scholarship and that’s about it but we all know that most of these college programs break the rules so they can recruit players.

Now when these talented student athletes are signed up to play ball at a particular college, what if that college coach forgets about the promises that were made? My answer to that question is never believe anything that sounds too unrealistic from a college coach because it can’t all be true.

Many years ago I was recruited to play college basketball at West Virginia State College and our head coach made all of these ridiculous promises all in an effort to recruit the best talent. There were so many promises made by the head coach that it was almost like you needed to have your own account to keep track of it all.

When the head coach at West Virginia State College could not deliver on all the huge and ridiculous promises, that coach quickly lost all credibility. Never promise anyone anything no matter what it is and then change your mind.

Final thoughts: every year there’s a long list of college student athletes who can’t cut it athletically or academically at the college level. Those players generally disappear never to be heard from again or they just transfer to a different school. Because of all the promises that are made to get players, should they receive a money-back guarantee?

You Actually Need A Brain To Be A College Recruiter

Posted on March 31, 2011 by Al Woods

There are a lot of people out there who believe they can be a college recruiter, someone who helps high school student athletes get recruited and placed in college. To be a college recruiter you need to have a brain. You need to have a high level of intelligence to effectively communicate with student athletes, parents and college coaches.

I stumbled upon this recruiting service called “Coaches Calling” and after browsing their website my first impression was basically where is the information? If I was parent looking to sign my son or daughter up with this recruiting service I would want to see a list of the previous players this company has worked with.

The information on this website is very generic. When you click on some of the links there is no information on most of their pages so this would be a huge turn-off to me.

A website like this with very little updated information could be an indication that they’re out of business or that they’re probably getting very little business. Either way it shows this as a perfect example of how you have to have a brain to be a college recruiter. “Coaches Calling” should be kicked in their ass for putting up such a horrible website and even attempting to become a college recruiter.

The business of being a college recruiter should be taken seriously as a professional occupation. Anything less is unacceptable.

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