NCSA College Athletic Scholarships Blog

 I was recently reading an article on Rounding Third – How To Play Baseball At The Next Level, a great baseball blog, and found a study from a parent in California. If your son plays baseball in California please click on the link above to read the article named ”A Numbers Game” to learn about the limited opportunities for collegiate baseball in California.

 Two weeks ago, I discussed why your high school coach cannot get you a scholarship.  As I mentioned, every high school coach has a different level of experience with the recruiting process.  Some high school coaches have played college sports and helped a large number of their athletes get to the next level while others fall at the other end of the spectrum and have zero knowledge about college recruiting altogether.  This wide range of experience will most likely dictate how much help they will be able to provide. 

In order to avoid the headaches and frustrations that families experience from placing unrealistic expectations on their high school coach, it is critical to gain clarity on who is responsible for which aspects of a student athlete’s recruiting process.

Every high school coach plays a critical role in the recruiting process even if they lack experience guiding student athletes through it.  They control so many variables that will factor into a student athlete’s goals of playing at the next level that they must be involved to some degree with the understanding that they should not be expected to get student athletes scholarship.

As soon as a student athlete realizes that they have serious interest in pursuing their sport at the next level, a meeting should be scheduled.  Waiting too long to schedule this meeting will lead to trouble, so get it out of the way early!  The meeting should include the student athlete, parents of the student athlete, and at the very least the head coach if not the entire coaching staff.  Simply put, this meeting will establish accountability that will build a solid foundation for recruiting success.

A few weeks back, I finished our series of the “Five Recruiting Requirements” that must be accomplished in order to be successfully recruited.  The core of the meeting with the high school coach should be focused around who will be responsible for the five requirements and how much help the high school coach will provide.
Below is a general outline of how the meeting should be conducted along with examples of questions you should ask:

Intro

The beginning of the meeting should involve the student athlete clearly stating their desire to pursue collegiate athletics and ensuring all parties involved are supportive of this ambition.  This portion of the meeting might also include a general idea of what the student athlete is looking for in a college depending on how old the student athlete is.

The beginning might also be a good time to learn how experienced the high school coach is with the recruiting process.  Here are some general questions to gauge their experience:

• Did you play college sports?
• How much experience do you have helping student athletes compete at the next level?
• Will you support my goals of playing in college?

Evaluation

The first Recruiting Requirement is receiving an objective, third party evaluation from an expert.  This evaluation might come from your high school coach assuming he is qualified to make that type of assessment.  Here are some questions to determine that:

• Do you have position specific recruiting guidelines from college coaches for DI, DII, DIII, NAIA, and Junior Colleges?
• Have you coached athletes who have gone on to play at all levels?
• Have you watched film with college coaches to learn what they are looking for at all levels?
• What variables and measurables will you base your evaluation on?
• Will you serve as a reference to support your evaluation?

Online Athletic and Academic Resume

The second Recruiting Requirement is developing an online resume in order to market the student athlete’s information to college coaches.  Student athletes need to know how much help the high school coach will be in creating the online resume.  Here are some questions to find out:

• Have you created an online academic and athletic resume for student athletes in the past?
• If so, do you have any examples?
• Does your coaching staff track stats and are they easily accessible?
• Will your staff measure sport specific athletic information that college coaches are looking for?  Examples of this could be the 40 yard dash for football or the jump touch for volleyball.

Highlight / Skills Video

The Third Recruiting Requirement is an enhanced highlight / skills video.  This step is critical to being successfully recruited, and if not done properly, could greatly reduce scholarship opportunities.  Remember, the raw footage needs to be taken, edited, sequenced correctly, and spot shadowed.  Here are some questions to determine how much help the high school coach will be with the video:

• Does your coaching staff film the games, events, matches, etc?
• If yes, does the staff provide student athletes access to the footage?
• How much experience do you have producing highlight / skills video?
• Do you have position specific video guidelines that college coaches have provided to ensure the right skills are being showcased?

College Coach Contacts

High school student athletes serious about playing at the next level need to be involved with a minimum of 100 college programs.  As I pointed out in the past, the average high school coach has less than 5 contacts on average.  With that in mind, it’s crucial to find out how many contacts your high school coach has with the college coaching community and how he will utilize those to help his student athletes.  Here are some other questions to ask:

• How many college coaches do you have relationships with?
• What colleges have your former student athletes gone to play at and what was your role in developing that relationship?
• Do college coaches contact you directly about your student athletes?  If yes, which colleges?
• What is your protocol of communication when a college coach contacts you about one of your student athletes?

Guidance

Every student athlete needs expert guidance throughout the process.  Often times the high school coach can serve as this type of mentor, however they must be educated on all the NCAA rules and regulations if they want to be placed in that position.  Here are some good questions to measure the high school coach’s knowledge about the recruiting process:

• Have you read the Guide for the College-Bound Student Athlete?
• How familiar are you with NCAA rules and regulations?
• How familiar are you with the recruiting timeline for that particular sport?
• How much coaching will you provide on how to build an effective relationship with the college coach?

There are a number of questions that you might want to ask in addition to those pointed out above.  The most important thing to keep in mind is that communication about the recruiting process between the student athlete and the high school coach is essential.  The meeting that I have outlined is a great initial step towards opening the lines of communication which will continue throughout the student athlete’s entire career.  As long as everyone involved is on the same page regarding who is responsible for which recruiting requirements, everyone will be comfortable with what needs to get done and make for a more enjoyable experience. 

Our team of football analysts spent the last week analyzing their notes, watching film and had a few good old fashioned arguments to come up with our 2009 Top 25 recruits from the 2009 US Army All-American combine.  Watch for this elite group of athletes to pop up all over recruiting boards across America.

OL - Bryce Gwynn -     6’5″ 306 lbs – McNiel, TX – A big agile lineman that runs well. Tremendous prospect.

OL – Robert Crisp – 6’7″ 302 lbs – Chapel Hill, NC – A huge young man with feet and athleticism. His upside is tremendous.

OL - James Hurst - 6’5″ 275 lbs – Indianapolis, IN – Like the way he uses his hands in pass pro and moves his feet.

DL - Sharrif Floyd - 6’4″ 297 lbs – George Washington, PA – Best lineman at the combine.

LB - Travis Williams – 6’2″ 189 lbs – Lake Taylor, VA- Rangy linebacker, runs very well.

WR – Kyle Prater – 6’2″ 215 lbs – Proviso West, IL Great size and speed, attacks the football. Prototype big receiver. video

WR – Adrian White Jr. – 5’11″ 169 lbs - DeSoto TX – Runs very well, has ball skills, competes, not the most fluid hips but has make up speed.  video

WR – Markeith Ambles – 6’3″ 185 lbs – Henry County, GA – Best route runner at the combine. Very good running the comeback route. Looks the part, physical, good body control, played the bump coverage well, understands route running and positioning.

WR – Kenneth Scott – 6’2″ 190 lbs – Colony, CA – Great size, uses hands very well, physical, runs descent routes, can stick his foot in the ground and change direction, good ball skills, good speed.

DB - Deitrich Riley – 6’1″ 180 lbs – La Canada, CA – Most impressive DB at the combine, good all around athlete. Can play safety or corner. Most natural at safety.

CB – Toney Hurd Jr. - 5’10″ 169 lbs – Thurgood Marshall, TX – Physical, nice bump and run coverage, can change direction but a little tight in the hips.

CB – Tony Grimes – 6’0″ 170 lbs – Hollywood Hills, TX – Aggressive ball skills, good speed and hips, good change of direction.

QB – Austin Hinder – 6’5″ 178 lbs – Steamboat, CO – Skinny, long stride, can spin it very well, throws nice looking deep ball, has good arm strength. Good upside.

CB – Dayonne Nunley – 5’7″ 168 lbs – Gateway, PA – Best cover skills in event, great feet, hips, can recover, runs well, athletic, size is only concern.

RB – Sialis Redd – 5’10″ 190 lbs – King Norwalk, CT – Top RB, Great combo of speed and strength. Made plays after the catch.

OL – Maurice Goodman – 6’2″ 308 lbs – Morgan Park, IL – Plays with good leverage and knee bend.

LB – Nick Forbes – 6’1″ 215 lbs – Thomas Johnson, MA – A good looking kid that excels on either side of the ball, runs well with power.

DB – Donavon Edwards – 5’10″ 160 lbs - Midwood, NY – Very nice bump and run coverage skills.

ATH – Spencer Ware – 5’9″ 210 lbs – Cincinnati, OH – A big physical, thick kid, good arm strength, check accuracy and consistency, really good athlete, project to RB.

QB – Chandler Whitmer – 6’0″ 179 lbs – Downers Grove, IL – Nice calm feet, accurate, consistent, can make most of the throws needed, very solid QB, maybe the best looking passer at US Army.

WR – Demarco Cobbs – 6’2″ 198 lbs – Tulsa, OK – Nice looking kid, good body, runs nice routes, could be a little more natural catching the ball, one of better receivers at US Army.

QB – AJ Derby – 6’4″ 215 lbs – Iowa City, IA – Looks the part, size and strength, inconsistent, size and other tools are there but needs coaching.

DB – Brandon Ifill – 6’0″ 180 lbs – Pittsburgh, PA – Nice Ball Skills, has a nose for the ball; and making plays.

OL – Dominic Espinosa – 6’3″ 276 lbs - Cedar Park, TX – Moves feet well and competes.

DL – Nick Acree – 6’6″ 300 lbs – Richmond, VA – A terrific looking physical specimen, great strength and confidence.

 I was reading SI.com last week and came across this article which features Reeve Koehler, an eight-grader from Hawaii.  Reeve seems like your ordinary 13-year-old in that he has a strong passion for football.  Never mind the fact that he is 6-foot-4, 280 pounds, or the minor detail that Reeve has already been offered a scholarship from a DI college even though he has never played in a regulation football game.  Alright, the more I think about it, Reeve is far from normal.

While there are many intriguing aspects to this story, I would like to focus on this article as it pertains to the thousands of families navigating the recruiting process.  More specifically, how it provides insight on one of the most common questions that we receive:

When does the process start?

The question seems quite simple, which ideally would produce a simple answer.  Unfortunately, it is not that easy. 

The answer varies greatly depending on which perspective you are viewing the process.  For college coaches, it depends on which level their program competes and the sport involved since the recruiting timelines are different.  The bottom line is that most college coaches prefer to discover student athletes as early as possible.

Throughout the recruiting process, college coaches are doing everything they can to differentiate their school from all the others (competition).  The more time they have to court the student athlete, the more likely they are to develop a strong relationship, and at least be given the opportunity to be considered when all is said and done.  Much like people never forget their first true love, student athletes rarely forget their first communication (letter, phone call, offer, etc) with a college coach.  College coaches know that.  College coaches want to be that first relationship.

With that in mind, logic would hold that the process begins for student-athletes freshmen year…or earlier.  Again, it’s not that easy.

In reality, the answer depends on the student athlete.  Here is the “one question test” to find that answer:

Is the student athlete serious about playing college athletics?

If the answer is “no” then the process probably has not yet started (even though it has-without them).   If the answer is “yes” then the recruiting process has started…yesterday.

I realize very few 13-year-olds have any clue what they want to do in five years and no one is forcing student athletes to commit to playing college athletics.  However, as evidenced by this story, college recruiting really does start earlier than most people think.  If a student athlete does have serious interest in pursuing collegiate athletes, make sure they get educated and get started…yesterday.

College coaching is a tough job.  Coaches are expected to recruit, graduate players and most of all win.  Sometimes even that isn’t enough.  This week Boston College fired their head football coach Jeff Jagodzinski for interviewing with the New York Jets.  Strangely enough the administration warned coach Jagodzinski ahead of time that if he interviewed he would be fired.  Ultimately, he felt that he had to take the chance to move up the coaching ladder and accepted the interview.

Of course this landed him swiftly in the unemployment line, but was this ethical?  Isn’t Boston College the type of University that prides itself in the upward mobility of its graduates? Wouldn’t a coach be expected to encourage his student-athletes to succeed in the real world?  Doesn’t career success sometimes involve leaving one job for another?  What do you think?

I just returned from Nashville, Tennessee where NCSA has a large presence at this year’s American Football Coaches Association (AFCA) convention. I was there to kick off the event and greet a few coaches personally, and NCSA’s Director of Football Operations, Bob Chmiel, will be at the event through Tuesday afternoon along with Football Recruiting Coordinator Randy Taylor and Recruiting Coaches Matt Webb and Ryan Newman.

Webb and Newman work with NCSA prospects on a daily basis and they are downloading with a lot of DII, DIII and NAIA coaches who are still looking for 2009 grads. DI coaches are already grabbing NCSA’s 2010/2011 prospect DVDs. In addition to discussing prospects, Webb and Newman are also showing off NCSA’s free Recruit-Match searchable database. The database was unveiled in July of 2008 and coaches are excited to have open access in order to search for athletes and review NCSA scouting reports at any time.

I expect that when the dead period ends and coaches return to their offices, recruiting will heat up for NCSA student-athletes.

I attended the American Baseball Coaches Association Convention in San Diego the first weekend of January and learned a lot from college coaches. Many people attended – travel coaches, high school coaches, but mainly college baseball coaches. It was a great way to learn from all of these coaches, but the biggest thing I took from that weekend was that COLLEGE COACHES WANT TO HEAR FROM THE STUDENT-ATHLETES FIRST.

These coaches do not have all the time in the world to go out and meet every student-athlete they want. Time and time again these coaches said I want to hear from the student-athlete first before I take the time to go see a game or reach out to them. Many of the coaches have a second, maybe third, job to supplement their income and they also have families that require their time. Keep these things in mind the next time you ask, “Why have I not heard from this coach?”

The so called recruiting guru has been getting a lot of press lately.  Most of it has been negative.  The traditional media suddenly is outraged that the “Internet media” has been blowing recruits’ expectations out of proportion.  Never mind the fact that the traditional media has been running columns non-stop and broadcasting All-star games across the country.

Yesterday Jeff Sentell of The Birmingham News took a shot at the “recruiting gurus.”

Here’s what I know: As a whole, the recruiting machines expose players from pockets of America that get little exposure because their school has few resources or doesn’t get press coverage.

That’s about the only good.

The bad is that it sets up an ego system that’s bad for concepts like team unity and chasing championships. Case in point: If Timmy is already rated as the top tackle in the country and has accepted an offer to Southern California, what’s the use of his season? Another letter for the jacket? Where’s the need to improve?

Let’s not forget the dot.com recruiting services are businesses that market information. I’ll never be convinced subscribers do not influence their rankings for select players. When you market something to fans, its good business to tell them what they want to hear.

Do these sites ever goose the ranking of an uncommitted player who’s been offered by five big team-subscriber sites? Look at A.J. Green’s rating dip after he committed to Georgia. His stock dropped after his verbal pledge to a school was no longer a marketable piece of information.

But no service takes into account things like focus or will to compete or ability to handle tough coaching. About having to maintain dual lives as student and athlete. About playing the game for the love of it.

Those are as essential to stardom as 40-yard dash times, vertical leaps and the ability to fire off the line like a bottle rocket.

I believe that he paints recruiting experts on the Internet with a very broad brush.  I won’t deny that certain media organizations have some negative impact, but every company is different.  At NCSA we strive to take every factor of a recruits make-up to find them the perfect college fit.  We spend time with each athlete and their family to understand exactly what they are looking for in a college.  We have no incentive to inflate anyone’s ego by sending them to schools they don’t qualify for.  At NCSA we strive to take the best of the web and eliminate the negatives.

NCSA conducted a survey with over 9,000 Takkle.com users to determine the most asked recruiting questions by student athletes.  Here are their questions and our answers.

How do I get my information to scouts to look at and evaluate?

College coaches depend on verified information from trusted sources to find talent.  Most coaches attend tournaments, games and camps with a set list of student athletes they intend to evaluate, not with the hopes of discovering prospects.Take advantage of credible sources to get your name in front of college coaches!Unless you’re a “top-1%-in-the-nation” athlete, you will most likely not be “discovered” by a college coach. You need to be pro-active in getting your name, academic scores and athletic achievements in front of coaches.

I run track and I was wondering, are recruiters at the big meets such as regionals or do they look at your stats and records online. If I’m hoping to go to a college far south from where I live, how would recruiters see or find me?

College coaches do a majority of their initial evaluation by looking at video – requested or received from credible sources – often delivered online or via e-mail. After watching video, a coach may decide to have a member of his or her staff make an in-person evaluation.Make sure to have your highlight video online in a format that can be easily distributed to college coaches.What is a good size for a division 1 athlete?

Take a look at NCSA’s Sport Specific Recruiting Guidelines. They take our entire Recruit-Match Database and average the size and speed of players at every single division level for every sport.

Do you have to be a certain age to be recruited?

Academic performance/requirements count from Day One of freshmen year. College coaches can begin sending letters to potential recruits as early as freshmen year, and potential recruits can write, call, and visit college coaches at any time. Bottom line – recruiting starts freshmen year!

Is there any way I can reach out to coaches and take the initiative? Am I guaranteed to be heard by them?

Absolutely, unless you’re a “top-1%-in-the-nation” athlete, you will most likely not be “discovered” by a college coach. You need to be pro-active in getting your name, academic scores and athletic achievements in front of coaches. That means sending out RecruitMe Sheet, following up with phone call and sending out game tapes.

What should I do if college coaches are not responding to my emails or website links?

College coaches are extremely busy. If they don’t get back to you right away, don’t give up! It can take several phone calls and follow up attempts before you reach a coach.

 Central was off to a good start but now we are into October the highlight of the season the time to show your worthy for playoffs. Our first game was October 3^rd against the Lewisburg Dragons at Bucknell University. It was another important game to prove we were back! But once again we beat ourselves and this was another team we should have beat! But sadly we lost 24-7 another heart breaking loss making us 3-3 Varsity. Next Monday was another JV game against the Dragons. We were 0-4 and I hated it! And after the dragons manhandled us we were 0-5, we lost 26-8. In the game I had 10 total tackles, 6 assists, 4 solos and 1 forced fumble.

Our next game was the most important game for our school…. our homecoming game! It was against the Milton Black Panthers and they didn’t know what was headed their way! We practiced hard and focused on mental work and by game day we were ready to let them have it and we did! When we ended the game 55-6! This was my first regular season varsity appearance when I played on kickoff and later offense and defense in the second half. In this game I had 2 total tackles one solo and one assist. I also made a good diving pass deflection. On offense I did great holding off those big boys I also got one pancake block. We did great that game and the next day we saw it again during Saturday practices, I also went to our Homecoming dance later that night.The next Monday we played a JV game against Milton. Most of their JV was also their Varsity so I knew we could beat them, plus I was so mad at our 0-5 start that I just played my heart out and unleashed on every Black Panther. In the end we came up with our first win, 16-0! And I had my third consecutive JV game with tackles in double digits when I got 13 total tackles, 6 assist, and 7 solos! I also dominated on offense playing Tackle when I usually play Center; on offense I had a career high 9 pancake blocks! It was a great game!

(more…)