NCSA College Athletic Scholarships Blog

The Chicago Examiner wrote a fantastic piece on the realities of the recruiting process for the vast majority of student athletes. It outlined several extremely important factors that every student athlete needs to consider before making the most important decision of their young lives. 

This time of year a lot of high school seniors choose their college and juniors start exploring their options. For the potential Division I athletes, the process is over for seniors and already well under way for younger athletes.  But for the majority of high school senior athletes — those likely to play for Division II or Division III schools — this is decision time.

Plenty of Division I athletes become disenchanted, but the greatest problems are among the next tier. The athletes are plenty good — some even stars — in high school. And they want so badly to play in college that they see the college as an extension of the team, instead of the other way around.

Athletes need to explore beyond the fields at colleges. A few suggestions:

Location:, location, location: Real estate agents know what matters and so should the college recruit. And if a small-town college in the north wants the big-city kid, that’s fine. But before sending in the deposit, remember what how you felt during the last February ice storm. Did that wind and sleet bother you or was it just a minor inconvenience. And can you handle a single movie theater and diner for entertainment? Just know what to expect and be ready to embrace the variety, not resent it.

» Size: Division II and III generally mean smaller schools. And that’s perfect for many. But some players from bigger schools come home complaining they didn’t like the limited housing, nightlife, clubs or diversity. Some players come home griping their high school team could have beaten their tiny college team. Know what you are getting.

» Coach: A simple rule here, you have to like the coach. But never go to school because of the coach. They’re on career paths, too, and might not be around for the next four years.

» Academics: Keep the right priorities. College sports are great fun, but they are not the sole pursuit of the next four years. No matter the athletic prospects, the rest of the package needs to fit. Sit in on a few classes. Talk to some non-athletes.

» Visit, visit, visit: Do not ever, ever, select a school without visiting several times. Spend the night in a dorm. Walk around the town. Listen. Watch.  Spend some time with the players before you go to school. They are going to be your friends, roommates and confidants in college. You better like them — and like their style of play. Ask questions. In short, pursue the college the way you would if you never planned to set foot on an athletic field. In the end, the sport may not work out and that is a sad reason to have to find another school.

All these factors should tell the student athlete one thing:  Get going early!  You need to start researching potential schools as early as possible.  It would be infeasible to accurately weigh all of these factors if you waited to the last minute.  Remember just finding a place to play isn’t good enough.  You need to find the RIGHT place to play.

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 17th, 2008 at 10:12 am and is filed under Athletic Scholarships, The Recruiting Wire. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.