How to Avoid 4 Common Recruiting Frustrations
March 3rd, 2009 - byWhile college recruiting for many student-athletes is a rewarding and educational experience, the process can also be extremely frustrating and overwhelming. Unfortunately, this frustration often times results in too many student-athletes wondering “what could have been” and leaves everyone involved pointing the finger at someone else at the end of the process. Typically, there is no “one person” to blame and the common excuses are entirely understandable given the lack of experience most families have with recruiting.
The good news is that due to changes in recruiting in the last decade, many of the common excuses for recruiting failure can be easily avoided…
Do any of the following statements sound familiar?
“I play for a small high school and college coaches will never find me…”
“I am stuck behind a talented, older student-athlete and will never get the playing time I need to be recruited…”
“My high school team is 0-15 and they are killing my chances at getting noticed…”
“My high school coach has done nothing to help me with the recruiting process…”
For those of you who have gone through the recruiting process as a parent or student-athlete, you have undoubtedly heard one of the above reasons for recruiting disappointment. While these factors certainly have an impact on a prospect’s recruiting process, they do not make or break success the way they once did.
As a minor disclaimer…I thoroughly appreciate why these sentiments would frustrate a student-athlete and like I said, they will have an affect on the process, but….
Think about all the advances in technology and how they have made the exchange of information between recruits and college coaches much easier than in the past. The internet has opened new lines of communication, created efficient distribution channels, and quite simply, changed the way college coaches recruit. The recruiting playing field is more level than ever…you just need to know how to take advantage of it!
Let’s address the traditional recruiting frustrations one at a time…
“My high school coach has done nothing to help me with the recruiting process…”
Although we have discussed why your high school coach cannot get you a scholarship in the past, it’s certainly worth reviewing again because every year it seems to be a common source of contention. 20-30 years ago, the high school coach played a much different role in college recruiting. Much of this role centered on the access to game footage.
Back in those days, high school coaches were almost always the only ones who had film, which forced college coaches to partner with them. College coaches would plan recruiting trips that included stops at high schools that allowed them to review film. This forged relationships that did in fact have a strong influence on recruiting.
Today, college coaches have a variety of ways to review film. Families can now film their own games with affordable video equipment and distribute it directly to college coaches. While the high school coach can still be very helpful in this part of the process, they are no longer required. As a result, any authority they might have had over a college coach has been 
greatly diminished.
Make sure to develop a strong relationship with your high school coach, because they can serve as a great mentor and a reliable reference, but keep in mind the average coach has fewer than 5 contacts with the college coaching community. Recruiting responsibility ultimately lies with the student-athlete and no one else!
“I play for a small high school and college coaches will never find me…”
This seems to be the recruiting frustration most affected by the developments in technology. Simply put, geographic location used to have a huge impact on college recruiting based on the difficulty coaches had in receiving information about prospects from rural areas.
However, with the internet and subsequent recruiting resources that have emerged, geographic location can be overcome to a certain degree with even the slowest of internet connections. There are countless websites and online avenues that a student-athlete can utilize to gain exposure to college coaches.
Think about this scenario…
The year is 1980 and a student-athlete is interested in sending their information to 50 college coaches. Here is the process they would have to go through: First they would have to create a physical, paper athletic and academic resume. The next step would most likely include a trip to the local library to search through a college guide to find the addresses of each college program on the list. Once the list of addresses had been gathered, the student-athlete would have to put together a mailing list and send it out through the traditional mail…Seems rather tedious, doesn’t it? To top it off, since the college coaches had most likely never heard of that student-athlete before, who knows if the information would have been reviewed at all?
Today, a student-athlete can create an athletic and academic resume on line in a matter of minutes. They can then find the email addresses of most the college coaches in the country online and then put together an email campaign and send the information out. Now that sounds a little better, doesn’t it?
“My high school team is 0-15 and they are killing my chances at getting noticed…”
While there are unquestionably some exposure advantages that can be had from playing for a state powerhouse with a tradition for winning, even student-athletes at a weaker quality high school program can gain exposure. Using the internet as we have talked about and having a properly edited highlight and skills video can go a long way towards overcoming this obstacle.
In the past, playing for an awful team might have truly hindered a student-athlete’s potential to play at the next level. However, a student-athlete can now generate the initial exposure using the internet, and a college coach is ultimately looking for a qualified prospect regardless of the team’s success. If a college coach were to watch film on a baseball player who is throwing 90 mph or a quarterback who can throw the ball 65 yards, they are going to recruit that student-athlete regardless of how many wins the high school team has.
“I am stuck behind a talented, older student-athlete and will never get the playing time I need to be recruited…”
This one is tough. Yes, playing behind a quality athlete who might have the advantage of seniority can have an impact on a student-athlete’s recruiting. However, if the student-athlete who is on the receiving end of this lack of playing time is truly a qualified student-athlete, there is no reason they cannot distribute their information to college coaches. It will be important to capture any varsity game footage possible, even if its limited, and combine that with the athletic and academic information that college coaches would be interested in to get your name on their recruiting list. This way, come senior year, the college coaches will already know your name, you will have started a recruiting relationship, and they can make sure to monitor your progress. Waiting to get involved with college coaches until you begin playing every second of the game will significantly hamper the recruiting process.
Just as example of how you can use the resources available to overcome the playing time issue, here is a wonderful recruiting story that recently happened at NCSA.
We began working with a senior football player out of Texas. Due to quality competition, this student-athlete was not even starting at the varsity level as a senior. Although he received playing time, mostly late in the game when the outcome was not in question, based on his size and his willingness to pursue opportunities at all levels, our football department felt like he was someone we could help. Using the limited game footage, we introduced him to a number of DII and DIII colleges. 
Within weeks, this student-athlete, who hardly played at the high school level, had received two DII scholarship offers.
Does this happen to every backup varsity athlete? No. Is recruiting tougher if you are not playing full time as a Junior or Senior? Yes. However, if you are realistic in the level of competition you can play and you take advantages of all the resources that are available online and through technology, you can overcome many of the difficulties recruits once faced.
Finally, your high school athletic experience no longer defines your recruiting success. Club experience is now more accessible and more necessary than ever in many sports. College coaches love club experience. They view this experience as a higher level of competition and in some sports might not even recruit a student-athlete who lacks it. Sports such as soccer, volleyball, softball, basketball, and baseball all have strong club and travel team presences. Involvement with these types of teams in many cases will trump the high school experience all together, if not at least make up for a poor quality high school team.
The recruiting process will indubitably cause some sort of frustration for even blue-chip recruits. That reality is an unfortunate product of the current system. However, families should be optimistic that there are resources readily available, if they are willing to be proactive, to help get past a few of the traditional roadblocks that have plagued recruits in the past.
March 3rd, 2009 at 11:50 am
Read this
March 3rd, 2009 at 12:22 pm
My daughter and I started the process of recruiting back in her Freshman year. We did the research and built a database of all of the colleges she was interested in attending.
As her softball “career” continued to unfold over the next two years, and her level of talent became more evident we concentrated our efforts on where we thought that she would be a good fit and where those teams needed players for her position (catcher). It was a long process and what seemed like a full time job with all the emails and skill/game video edits also sending out schedules and little “tickler” notes to the coaches throughout the year to keep her name in front of them.
In the end she was recruited by a mid-level DI that we had no contact with throughout our recruiting process…go figure. She was recruited to earn a starting spot as a freshman (same as high school) and will begin her college career in fall ‘09. The reward is worth the chase.
March 3rd, 2009 at 12:26 pm
I might add that much of the information that you and your Student athlete will need is on the schools websites ie; stats, roster, schedule, record and coaches info. You have to do the research, it takes a while but you will get better at finding the information the more you try.
March 3rd, 2009 at 1:09 pm
As a college coach, I think it important for recruits to send an UNEDITED game film. Anyone can look like a star on a cut-up. What’s important in evaluating a player is to see what they are doing off the ball, and what mistakes they make and how they handle them.
March 3rd, 2009 at 1:23 pm
I am a junior and have been working through the recruiting processes for that last two years. I got cut from my school team because of politics. I’m so glad that you posted this because it proves that my determination to continue to play in college is worth it. Thanks
March 3rd, 2009 at 1:24 pm
Laura – Thanks for the feedback! I think “edited has a different” meaning depending the sport and the type of edits being made. Does it help a coach to be able to tell where the student-athlete is on the field with some sort of spot shadowing? Obviously full game footage is extremely helpful for a college coach for all the reasons you mentioned, but doesnt it change if you play baseball or softball where coaches tend not to ask for a full game?
March 3rd, 2009 at 1:32 pm
Adam- They may not ask for unedited footage, but they want to know how Johnny or Sally behaves after going 0-4 or making an error in the field. They also want to see if the student-athlete hussles on and off the field, if they stay focused on the game or are they chatting it up with friends when they’re in the dugout. Other things they look for — behavior before and after the game – focused and mature or ??
March 3rd, 2009 at 2:03 pm
Makes sense Mark. Those sound like really important tendencies and reactions to evaluate from a coaches perspective. Are those things typically captured on film (or should they be) or are those more often then not evaluted in person?
March 3rd, 2009 at 2:07 pm
We started late in the game. My son also goes to a small school. His sport is football and we just began and he is a junior. We recently went to a seminar – Junior’s Day – well I believe they should give the athletes the basics in 7th grade or 8th. It seems so overwhelming. My son has gotten some responses back from a few schools. We do have a highlight film. And tour highschool coach let us make a copy of a game film. I was told at the seminar that when you send in this information (and it was requested) that you should also send 2 letters of recommendation . And one more question who do I contact with the NCSA ?? The person who initially contacted me or the person that we had our phone conference with when we decided to use this service.
March 3rd, 2009 at 3:11 pm
SOFTBALL is a totally different animal, You really need to be on a well established gold team
March 3rd, 2009 at 4:21 pm
Hi Sandy: You can contact either one. They’ll get you to the right place. You can also call the office at 888-333-6846 during business hours. They’ll get you in touch with the right person.
March 3rd, 2009 at 4:23 pm
RG – Softball is not a totally different animal. My daughter plays D1 college softball and did play on a gold team. However, the majority of her interest came when she played on an 18 U team as a sophomore. To play at the D2 , D3, Naia, or Juco level, you don’t need to play on a gold team.
March 3rd, 2009 at 6:31 pm
SMALL SCHOOL FRUSTRATION
My son had 1st Team All-State success in football last year but played for a tiny school in the lowest class of high schools (measured by student size). Division I schools did not recruit him as a result, although he was recruited by smaller universities. He received an academic scholarship to his school of choice, a D-I university with a football program, and accepted it.
He next tried to get the coaches’ attention so that he could walk-on. He sent a professional and fairly impressive hilight DVD to the recruiting coordinator, position coach, and head coach. Result: no response. He re-sent it to them. Result: no response. He emailed them, with no response. His high school coach then sent the DVD along with a letter to the head coach. Result: within a day he got a call from the position coach enthusiastically inviting him to be a preferred walk-on. After a few weeks of pre-season practice he had impressed the coaches enough that he was told he would play his first year and was well on his way to earning a scholarhip.
LESSONS: 1. Don’t give up — keep marketing yourself until they say “no thanks.” Don’t assume they’ve seen your DVD and aren’t interested. Instead, assume that they haven’t gotten around to viewing it yet; 2. If you are from a small high school, don’t let that deter you. You may just have to prove yourself first; 3. If you realistically think you can play for a D-I team, consider the walk-on route. It’s not easy, and is high risk, but is a viable alternative.
This story has a sad ending, though, as my son received a career-ending injury before the season started. Nevertheless, the lessons remain valid.
March 4th, 2009 at 4:15 am
after high school its hard to go and play college sport because its either you dont have the money to go to that college or you didnt get a scholarahip to play for that type of school. but this is so true about getting frustrared. we do get frustrated because first of all we all do want to get recruited into a sport we love to do but its pretty possibly hard to get recruited when you dont have much of a highlight video, and also getting noticed by coaches and what not. ive been wanting to play college soccer but the only possible way to do so is to try out/walk on. if time to do it. i do fget lucky enough probably talk to a college coach and ask if i could try out. neverthless its not to hard to do but you got to find the
March 4th, 2009 at 4:17 am
and also i played soccer for my old high school and now a freshmen in college in maui,hawaii. i really want to play college soccer,and i will someday.
March 4th, 2009 at 9:47 am
While its very difficult to play after already entering college, its not impossible, I would suggest doing extensive research and sending out your high school footage to find the best possible walk on situation. Perhaps you could reach out to your old HS coach and teammates for possible leads.
March 4th, 2009 at 10:22 pm
im a freshman and i play football at a JV level, and although our JV had a 10-0 perfect season, im wondering if its really needed to be in Varsity for four years to get recruited by a good college? this was my first year playing, but i am a starter but do i have to wait untill im at the varsity level to start the recruiting process? and how much will it affect my chances?
March 5th, 2009 at 10:15 am
Saif…Those are great questions. First, You absolutely DO NOT need to play 4 years of varsity to play college sports. Very few student-athletes spend all 4 years at the varsity level. Second, you DO NOT have to wait until you are playing varsity to get involved with recruiting. Although college coaches proabably wont be interested in your JV game film, there is nothing stopping you from starting to research schools academically and study the rosters and start developing a gameplan for connecting with those schools. You can begin buildling your resume immediately which is something you are going to add to for the next 3 years. To put it simply, no one has ever started the recruiting process too early, but MANY people have started too late.
March 6th, 2009 at 2:41 pm
Its good to know that the four biggest frustrations in the topic will not necessarily keep my daughter from her dream. She is a freshman at Citrus High School in Inverness, Florida on the JV softball team. Her name is Lisa Sykes. I think something else that can also be distracting is listening to all of the other parents who just “know” what they are talking about. Its is definitly better to hear things from the pros at recruiting and the process.
March 6th, 2009 at 5:15 pm
Thanks, Jennifer, for mentioning that the know-it-alls in the stands don’t know it all (or even some of it!
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March 10th, 2009 at 5:41 pm
Thanks supportive dad, thats good to know