The college recruiting waters can be tricky to navigate, especially considering the pressure there is to play college sports these days. Here are a few college recruiting tips for how to handle getting recruited.
College Recruiting Tips
Focus On You During The Recruiting Process
In the social media age it’s easy to get caught up on what everyone else is doing, what offers others have, what club team they play for, etc. The key is tuning all of this out and making sure that you put in the work. If you think, well I’m better than that kid and he committed to school “X”, that’s not going to get you anywhere. Put in the most effort that you possibly can and make sure that when graduation comes, no matter where you end up, you did everything that YOU could.
Present And Protect Yourself
Social media is your best friend and can be your worst enemy. If you already have social media accounts, Twitter, Instagram, etc. immediately go clean them up if they are not appropriate. Seriously, stop reading and go put a PG-13 filter on everything you’ve ever posted. Even if they are private, which they should be, coaches have a way of finding things. Once everything is cleaned up, put your best foot forward. Think twice before each tweet, don’t be the guy that lost his scholarship while venting online.
Market Yourself
FILM. Unless you can physically play in front of every coach you’re interested in, you will need film. Make sure that your program is filming games, if not, find a way to make it happen. Once you have the film either get it professionally edited, use a program like hudl to edit it, or teach yourself basic film editing on YouTube. It’s surprisingly easy to make a highlight package with very little training. Once you have the film, send a personalized email to every coach at every school you’re interested in, fill out the recruiting questionnaire and tweet your film at accounts that you think may retweet it. I’ve found more than one potential recruit on accident while scrolling through my timeline.
Academics First
Every school has entrance standards. If you don’t meet those you won’t get in, no matter how talented you are. Additionally, the NCAA and NAIA have their own minimum requirements in order to be eligible. Meeting these minimum standards is important to get on the field, but exceeding them is important in order to get academic scholarship money. If you need help, ask for it. Don’t wait until midway through junior year to start trying. Teachers, coaches, family members and teammates are all sources of academic help. If you think you have a learning disability, get tested immediately. I’ve seen kids who could’ve been given extra test time as freshmen fail for several years before finally getting tested and receiving the accommodations they needed.
Keep an Open Mind During Recruiting
When being recruited, it is perfectly natural to have a dream school. But, it’s important to look at all of your options. For instance, if you have a dream of playing NCAA Division I athletics, but your only option is to walk-on at a pricey, private Division I program, is that really better than getting a substantial scholarship to a public Division II school? Yes, you won’t be playing D1, but you will save yourself thousands of dollars and still get a fantastic experience. No matter what level you want to play at, keep all options open and pay more attention to the final price tag than the scholarship amount. Don’t forget, there are Division II schools that can compete with some Division I teams anyway.
