NCSA College Athletic Scholarships Blog

Student athletes and parents have undoubtedly spent countless hours in the recruiting process narrowing their search for the right college and using relationships with coaches to build leverage in the process. After learning valuable tools about how to create leverage, don’t leave these tools unused during the financial aid process.Leveraging your financial aid package works much the same as leveraging your athletic opportunities. Colleges compete for students just like coaches compete for athletes. Always keep in mind that a school doesn’t want to lose a student to one of their competitors just like a coach doesn’t want to lose a recruit to a competitor.

So, how do you know what a good leveraging opportunity looks like? There are three keys to look for that will give you insight as to how strong a leveraging tool a certain school is when negotiating with your number one choice.

1) Look for schools in close geographic proximity

2) Look for schools in the same athletic conference

3) Look for schools that have strengths in similar areas of study (Leverage an engineering school with another engineering school)

If you are still unsure which schools are the best leveraging opportunities you can always ask your number one choice school. Simply ask them who their main academic competitors are. This will give you some solid information when trying to keep the right schools in the mix to ultimately come away with the best financial aid award package possible.

One of the key components of a student-athlete making their college choice is their experience that they have while they are on campus for their visit.  Sometimes, the visits last 48 hours but often they take place on a Saturday morning for 4 hours.  While this is a great opportunity to see the campus and having the ability to meet with a handful of faculty and staff it is just the tip of the iceberg.  Schools are showing off their best in a 4 hour span and this makes everything about the school appealing at the moment.  The best way to get a true understanding of how life would be like at that respective school is to take in the experience as much as possible. This would include staying in the dorms and having that feeling that this is a place where you can see yourself.  The hands on experience is the ideal way to truly gauge if that is the correct fit for you and your future.  Eating the cafeteria food making the walk to the athletic facilities from the dorms, and interacting with people that are on campus all the time can benefit you if you use them as a resource. Camp is a great time to compete and train at a high level but the biggest advantage is to take in the actual college experience first hand and to have the opportunity to work with the coaching staff.  Attending one college camp is something that I would highly recommend to do at least once in your high school years.  If the schools of your choice don’t offer a camp then it is still beneficial to attend a camp at another institution so that you can use your camp experience and compare it to the campus visits that you take down the road. 

Making the right impression on a coaching staff is an extremely important part of the recruiting process.  Recruits make impressions in a lot of different ways; by sending a quality DVD and performing well at a combine or camp are a few of the better known mediums.  However, one of the underrated ways to make a solid impression is the unofficial visit.  Coaching staffs take these visits very seriously because they know its an incredible opportunity to make a first impression.

Tennessee Football Coach Lane Kiffin is going to great lengths to make a memorable impression at their Junior days.

More than 100 high school players, including several of Georgia’s elite prospects, attended Tennessee’s Junior Day. Things started off rather routine. “It was just like your normal Junior Day, with coaches and other people from the college talking,” Brookstone tight end Brian Vogler said. “You could see heads bobbing, with eyes falling a little bit. But the second they split us up from the parents, it got so much more intense.”

The prospects were led to the film room, where Kiffin thanked the recruits for making the trip and considering the Volunteers. “Then this other coach [assistant] got up there and said that Tennessee takes special teams very seriously, that it’s a big key to winning,” recalled Northview defensive lineman Denzel McCoy, who has 31 early scholarship offers.

“That coach said they get real fired up on special teams and yelled for everybody to ‘Get up, get on your feet, and get fired up about special teams.’ Then this other coach ripped off his shirt Superman style. It was crazy.”

After things appeared to calm down, Tennessee recruiting coordinator Ed Orgeron gave a rousing pep talk, which caused the whole scene to repeat itself, only more intense. “The last time, everybody was hyped up and feeling it,” Loganville tailback Storm Johnson said. “People were jumping all over the place. It was rocking. You should’ve seen it. Even the podium got knocked over.”

Of course Coach Orgeron and Kiffin both served on the USC where this video was taken.

The point I want to make to recruits isn’t to rip off your shirts when you first meet a coach, but to be prepared to stand out in their own way. Take as many visits as possible and conduct yourself appropriately on those visits. Coaches are trying anything possible to stand out, and recruits need to do the same.

Spring Practice is around the corner for many college football players which means a return to the practice field.  But, leading up to those important practices teams will have already put in hundred of hours of off-season work.  The Atlanta Journal Constitution detailed the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets final 90 minute sessions before actual practice can begin.  

Congratulations to our latest Schuman Underclassman Combine Leadership Grant winners Wesley Boone (8th/9th Grade), Brandon Taylor (10th Grade), and Derek Ballard (11th Grade). 

An excerpt form the USC Rips It Blog by Coach Chris Carlisle

Your philosophy must be able to be put in to a concise clear organized statement. Let’s say fewer than 25 words. My training philosophy is: “How To / How Fast / How Much.” Six words. When my coaches go on to the field or out on the floor they will carry this with them.

Too many programs I have seen are based on “How Much / How Much / How Much” – where the only concern was to see how much you can load your athletes, how much you can run your athletes, how much work can you get in during a workout. All the focus is about quantity, not quality. In the end these programs get so caught up in creating “media numbers” they forget to do their job … which is the development of better athletes.

The USC program has been building a culture that is reflected in their players attitudes and work ethics.  If you are a recruit who has the desire to play collegiate athletics I recommend you approach your college search with the same determination. 

I’m sure most sports fans have seen the above Jim Calhoun clip that will surely go down in the YouTube Hall of Fame.  However, the clip brings to question several issues in college athletics and society at large.  Themes of class war fare that are often played out in Congress, but rarely at a press conference following a basketball game.  Given today’s challenging economic environment and Jim Calhoun’s standing as his states highest paid and most likely well known employee, was the exchange appropriate?  If not, who was at fault?  What do you think?

Like so many of you, I am a parent. My wife and I have six children between us. Several of our kids are potential college athletes in the sports of swimming, cross country, basketball and track and field. Knowing how important academics are, my wife and I work hard to make sure their grades are as high as possible.I delivered “College Recruiting Simplified” in Dryden, Michigan recently. Brian and Bonni Hazen were among the parents in attendance. I thought they had a very interesting way to motivate their athletic son to reach a GPA goal. This is what they wrote me:

Charlie,

When our oldest son started his high school career, Bonni and I stressed the importance of his achieving good grades.  We noticed that as the year progressed, and especially after basketball season started, that he seemed to never have homework, and his grades started slipping.  Knowing how important it is to teenagers to learn how to drive (after all, we were once teenagers too, believe it or not), our son was given the ultimatum that unless he improved his grades and achieved a 3.5 GPA, he would not be signed up for drivers training.  He was unable to meet the requirement by the end of his freshman year.  At the start of his junior year, and although he still fell just shy of the mark, I informed him that since he had shown that he was willing to work hard, he had earned the privilege of taking the training. 

Although his not being able to drive has been rough on the family since we have to drive him everywhere, it has been worth the sacrifice. All too often, it seems as though many young people have a sense of entitlement, and an unwillingness to work hard. 

We do not know if our son will go on to participate in college level athletics, and if he does, that will make it that much harder to be successful academically.  Learning at a young age that every one of us must work hard to attain the goals that we set for ourselves, will make it all the more possible.  

We very much appreciate you visiting our school, and the presentation that you gave.  The things that you talked about helped to reinforce the value system that my wife and I are striving to instill in our sons.  Sometimes, as you most likely know, there is a greater impact when somebody else says it, particularly if it’s an individual who has achieved success in their endeavors.

Brian and Bonni Hazen

While 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. 

We strongly recommend that students take a free practice test, either an ACT test or an SAT test or both, with a test prep group that provides substantive and individualized test assessment to determine if test prep might be a good investment of the student’s time and the parents’ money.