NCSA had a chance to catch up with Dave Schuman, the founder of Schuman National Underclassmen Combines to discuss several college football recruiting topics. His expert recruiting opinions on combines, standing out from the crowd and star rankings are extremely enlightening.
I’ll let the listener form their own opinion on this one, but its a great look inside how a team interacts with each other at the college level. There is a special bond between scholarship athletes that allows them to feel comfortable crowding into a dorm room to (depending on your musical taste) make fun of themselves across the web. Its that type of camaraderie that inspires many to play college sports.
Hats off to Gatorade for a fantastic marketing campaign. Their Mission G campaign imagines what would happen if you could re-play your high school football rivals years later as grown men. They actually went to the lengths of replaying a high school game between Phillipsburg and Eaton that ended in a tie back in 1993.
The concept is fantastic. The game featured all kinds of great stories including two cancer survivors, a player who lost 57 pounds to get in shape for the game and even a player who discovered a serious leg disorder during a training physical (he is now on the road to recovery). The game was played in front of a crowd of 13,350 and the event was generally well received by everyone who participated.
However, while this story is fantastic it should serve as a reminder to all the potential football recruits across the country. Your time in high school and opportunity to earn a football scholarship will be over in the blink of an eye. Today athletes can’t even afford to wait until later in their high school career to begin the recruiting process. Many football scholarships are handed out well before senior year even begins.
Its up to the many football scholarship hopefulls; take advantage of your window, or risk having to replay your recruiting story on a Gatorade commerical 15 years after the fact.
2009 McDaniel College Commit
Ben Eveler, a 2009 graduate from Pennsylvania, just committed to McDaniel College. He wants to share his story of being patient, working hard, and keeping your options open. Here is his story:
“I felt the key to surviving the whole recruiting process was patience. A recruit will always be nervous as to whether that perfect school is going to come along. The truth of the matter is, there are no PERFECT schools but, there are schools that will fit you much better than others. NCSA will be sure to match you with these schools and you as the recruit have to continue to do your part as well. I know I was waiting around for the perfect school to come along and I did not find one that was in my perfect category but I found plenty that I really liked. Finding that school does not just come without any work. If you have heard of a school that may be a good fit for you, then you have to be the aggressor and contact that coach. Coaches can’t possibly know of every single recruit that fits their school so you have to have the courage to reach out to the coach. My last piece of advice about the recruiting process is to keep an open mind to all sizes, types, and levels of schools because you will be very surprised to find what certain schools have to offer.”
Sincerely,
Ben Eveler
There is quite the parity in the college softball ranks on the Division III level. The NFCA polls have changed with a new team in the top spot for the 5th time entering this 9th week on the season. Only Tufts University softball team remains perfect on the year at 32-0.
Last week we went over some of the most common questions that student-athletes can expect to hear from college coaches when the can begin calling recruits. In case you missed it, be sure to check it out here.
While knowing what questions to expect from a college coach and how to answer them is important, any conversation with a coach also allows the student athlete an opportunity to find out some critical information that will help them through the athletic recruiting process. The key is to know the right questions to ask in order to maximize your short time with a coach.
Every conversation with a college coach will be unique. Since the recruiting process moves at different speeds for prospects and coaches, the current relationship should dictate the type of questions that are appropriate. However, regardless of where you’re at in the process, we wanted to give you some advice that every recruit can take advantage of.
Before we go into specific questions that potential recruits should ask college coaches, let’s go over a few basics to keep in mind while preparing for the conversations.
Now, let’s go over some questions recruits can ask to make the most of the conversation. As we mentioned earlier, every conversation will be dictated the by current recruiting situation, but here are a few topics that should be covered and some sample questions from each…
Academics
Simply put, academics are the most important part of the process. If the college coach does not share your academic goals then it might be time to look at other options. Here are some academic questions every recruit might want to ask:
Athletics / Recruiting
These two topics overlap in many cases, as an athletic evaluation will determine how heavily the coaching staff will be recruiting a prospect. Here are some “must ask” questions for recruits at any point in the process:
Scholarship
As we noted, it is rarely appropriate for a recruit to ask if they will receive a scholarship in an initial phone conversation, however there are a few questions that will help you gauge your scholarship possibilities at that school…
College Life Questions
Even though athletics will obviously play a major role in the life of a collegiate student-athlete, every recruit should make sure they are going to be happy on campus even when they are not with the team. Make sure to ask about some of the following:
Important Final Questions
While there are many directions that a conversation might take with a college coach, one key goal should be to find out what comes next:
Hopefully this list will provide recruits a starting point for the types of questions they should ask a college coach. By no means is this list comprehensive, but it should assist a student athlete as they prepare for their first conversation with a coach.
As you can tell, there is quite a bit of information that student-athletes need to gather…This is one of the most important decisions a young person will make in their life. Get as much information as possible! That is also one of the main reasons why recruiting is all about building relationships. This process does not happen overnight, and will consist of a number of different situations in which a recruit communicates with a college coach. Phone conversations just happen to be an important initial step in building that relationship.
If you are prospect, at any age, who has yet to begin developing a relationship with a college coach, you might be falling behind. There are other prospects, starting freshmen year or earlier (your competition), who have already started speaking with college coaches. The earlier you start that relationship, the more time you will have to make the best decision possible. Make sure to get started today!
NCSA: Describe the sort of work that was put into the recruiting process.
Eck: With the help of NCSA the recruiting process was made substantially easier. They helped me with the initial contact of the coach, my highlight video, recruiting page and it was my job to remain in contact with all the coaches that I received interest from. I then had to fill out the correspondence logs to keep my recruiting counselors updated.
NCSA: What was the most challenging part of the recruiting process to be successful?
Eck: The challenges of the recruiting process was keeping in contact with all the coaches. Keeping constant contact week after week helped ensure that I didn’t count out any options in the collegiate search.
NCSA: What was the best part of the recruiting process?
Eck: The best part of the recruiting process was the actual commitment. It is a great feeling when you find a school that you like both socially, academically and in athletics. I felt that Washington and Jefferson College was a great fit in all of these areas.
NCSA: How did NCSA impact your recruiting process?
Eck: NCSA greatly impacted my recruiting process by making it easier to contact coaches and informing me on the recruiting process. Without NCSA I would have been lost and probably wouldn’t have had as many choices to choose from in the end. If you use NCSA to its fullest then being recruited almost always happen.
NCSA: What advice would you give student athletes going through this process?
Eck: Be proactive in your recruiting. Don’t wait for coaches to go out and contact you. Coaches like it when an athlete takes the initiative to contact them.
Thank you so much for your help throughout the recruiting process.
2010 grad, Karla Dixon is a 5’1″ midfielder from Ottawa Hills, Ohio. Dixon is a leader; which is why she is the co-captain of her Ottawa Hills High School varsity field hockey team. She is strong and quick and always continues to push herself on the field.
Outside of high school competition Dixon is involved with US Field Hockey Futures Program and has attended various festivals and camps throughout the years. Besides field hockey, she also is a level 9 gymnast, is 2-time all conference for her varsity softball team and runs track as a state qualifier.
Dixon understands how important your grades are and that is why she stated, “The commitment and focus I have learned from sports has helped to keep me strong in the classroom.” She maintains a 3.6 GPA and has been named Academic All Ohio twice. Not only does Dixon get it done in and out of the classroom, she takes time to give back to her community. Dixon is very accomplished and is definitely someone to watch!
NCSA student athlete Tanner Crum was named the Sophomore MVP of this Weekend Schuman Underclassmen combine in Chicago. Thumbs up Tanner!
