What Every Recruit Really Needs
January 5th, 2009 - by
It has been a special week here at NCSA. Aside from the annual excitement of New Years Eve and the holiday season, the beginning of each January also signals NCSA’s presence at the U.S. Army Combine. The U.S. Army Combine brings together 500 of the best underclassmen football prospects in the country and NCSA was on hand making in person evaluations on behalf of the college coaching community.
While there were a number of memorable moments at this year’s combine, I would like to focus on one that will linger for years to come and truly demonstrates the “NCSA Difference.”
One of the most rewarding aspects of guiding student athletes through the recruiting process is finding out which schools they have decided to commit to. Already this year, NCSA has had hundreds of our student athletes commit to pursue their sport in college and we expect thousands more in the coming months. While we are extremely proud of all these commitments, The U.S. Army All American Bowl provided a unique platform for one of NCSA’s most recent commits to announce where he will be playing college football next year.
Jonathan Bostic began working with NCSA in early 2007 as a sophomore football player from Florida. Over the last year and a half, NCSA has worked with Jonathan as he navigated the entire recruiting process from helping him prepare his video to introducing him to college coaches, and plenty of guidance throughout. On Saturday, January 3rd, Jonathan announced his intention of playing college football at the University of Florida for Coach Urban Meyer’s staff.
What was so unique about this announcement? It was made on NBC in front of a national audience. Not exactly your typical commitment. Here is a short video including Jonathan’s announcement and what both he and his father had to say about their experience with NCSA and the U.S. Army Bowl:
While Jonathan’s recruiting story has a happy ending, too many recruiting processes result in frustration and confusion. The reason for these recruiting headaches is due mostly to a lack of guidance.
The most common mistake that families make is assuming if their student athlete is “good enough,” college coaches will simply discover them. As mentioned in his interview, Jonathan indicated that NCSA helped him “get on a lot of recruiting boards.” Keep in mind, this is an elite athlete from the football hotbed of Florida and even he needed a jump start with exposure.
However, the next and maybe most alarming error families make is assuming once they have received some initial exposure, the remainder of the process will simply take care of itself. As Jonathan’s father mentioned, they desperately needed a “guide” to get through this overwhelming process. A failure to understand how to successfully navigate the recruiting process may result in the student athlete picking the wrong school which can be a life altering mistake.
As I have talked about for years, athletics should be used as a vehicle for a college education. Whether athletics help you get into a better college, receive some financial assistance, or enrich your overall experience, the focus should remain on earning a college degree at the best possible school for that individual – which is exactly what Jonathan Bostic did when he chose the University of Florida. How perfect was the University of Florida for Jonathan? He actually finished high school early so he could enroll on campus yesterday so he could get acclimated to the Gainsville campus as soon as possible.
In his interview, Jonathan talked about why he ultimately picked Florida and it had nothing to do with the quality of their 
football team (although I am sure their perennial place in the top 25 rankings did not hurt). At the end of his process, Jonathan was picking between some of the best football schools in the country, but he made his final decision because University of Florida had his desired major on campus. How refreshing.
The moral of this story is not that every student athlete has to commit to a nationally ranked DI college in order to consider their recruiting process a success. Rather, make sure to approach the process with the intention of finding the absolute right fit for that student athlete whether that happens to be DIII, Junior College, or NAIA.
Congratulations to Jonathan and all the other student athletes who realize the importance of picking a college for the right reasons. For those student athletes who have yet to commit, make sure to put yourself in a position where you have a number of the right options to choose from and the proper guidance to make the best possible decision for your future. It just might change your life.
