NCSA College Athletic Scholarships Blog

As a review, you know the need to market your child in order for her/him to be recruited.  You know that you could do this yourself or you could use an expert.  In either case, you’ll have to invest time and money into the process.  The need for this service is even greater than it was in the 1980’s for several reasons.  Among these are:

1. the cost of college today
2. the even greater restrictions the NCAA has placed on college coaches. 
3. The internet.
4. The accelerating recruiting calendar.
5. The misinformation about recruiting from so called experts like HS coaches, Athletic Directors, and parents who went through it 15-30 years ago.

 

But whether a family chooses to navigate the recruiting waters by themselves or chooses to hire professional help, they are going to have to spend time and money on this process.  They are also going to have to coach their kids on how to speak to college coaches.  No college coach will offer any student-athlete a college scholarship without knowing that child.   So where do you allocate your marketing dollars?

 

You could choose to go to a lot of college camps.  As you’ve learned from the 5 things you need to do, your child must be involved with at least 100-200 realistic possibilities.  How many camps will you be able to attend?  Are they the right ones?  How much will they cost including transportation?  What makes you think your child will stand out from others at that camp in a college coach’s eyes?  My child received recruiting interest from 145 college coaches.  She never attended a college camp after the 8^th grade.  We went to one and that was all it took to realize that the camps are money makers for the coaching staff at the school.  Can a kid improve their skills?  Maybe.  But don’t expect to get your child recruited by attending camps.

 

You could market your child on our own.  You’ll have to research 100-200 realistic college opportunities.  You’ll have to determine if they have roster openings.  You’ll have to get your child’s information in front of that coach.  You’ll have to hope that information is believed and isn’t trashed.  You’ll have to put video together and do it the right way.  I’ve seen college coaches turn video off after 5-10 seconds of viewing.  Would you want that to happen to your child’s video?  You need to update coaches as your child makes progress.  And, Mom and Dad, the most important thing you need to do is to teach your child to be the “front” person with the college coach.  If you are the one calling and writing college coaches on behalf of your child, that raises a huge red flag in the coach’s mind of how serious this is for the child.  A coach will recruit a lesser athlete that is articulate, serious, and a team player over a child who relies on mom and dad to do the talking. 

 

As you navigate the process, how are you going to advise your child on maximizing his financial aid package?  How are you going to advise him on what happens if a college coach ceases communications?  How are you going to advise her/him on how to make the best choice for them?  All parents want their children to make the best choice.  Empowering a child to make that choice is the best gift a parent can give their child.  Do you want amateurs who have never been through recruiting in the internet age advising your child?  Or do you want a professional, whose expertise is navigating this process and have seen over 25,000 recruiting situations, advising your child?  If you choose to navigate this yourself, you must read this book.

 

Finally, you could choose professional help.  If you choose a recruiting company, find out the following:

• 1) Are they organized as a franchise? Are you speaking with the franchise owner? How long has the owner owned his franchise/territory? If they are not a franchise organization, what year was the first recruiting class they worked with? (Hint, if 2005 or later, they haven’t been in business long enough to develop an impact with the college coaching community.)
• 2) How are their student-athletes marketed to college coaches? Is it a targeted approach to the right schools? Or, is it a shotgun approach to all colleges? Is 21^st century technology used, or is it still snail mail and faxes? Can you track which college coaches reviewed your child’s resume and video?
• 3) What is that organization’s true relationship with college coaches? If that organization doesn’t attend college coaches’ conventions, do they really have relationships with those college coaches? College coaches are not allowed by the NCAA to endorse recruiting companies. But those coaches do request student-athletes from those companies. Ask to see a list of those college coach requests with dates.
• 4) Who are the partnerships of that recruiting company? Companies who partner with recruiting companies do a lot of due diligence before putting their good name with someone. See who those partners are.
• 5) Find out about the client service after signing up. Find out the contact information and expected response times to your questions.
• 6) Find out about the financial aid advice the recruiting company offers.
• 7) Find out about the standardized test preparation a recruiting company offers.
• 8) Find out how your student-athlete can determine what college coaches are truly interested in your child.
• 9) Find out about what happens if a child suffers a career ending injury and can’t play in college. Do you get your money back?
• 10) Some recruiting companies like to do the “up-sale”. They’ll entice you with a low price and then constantly ask for more money as you move forward. Make sure your recruiting company spells out exactly the service you’re receiving and the time frame that service is available.
• 11) As with all businesses, make sure the company has been in business long enough to ensure that it’ll remain in business. If the company has been in business less than 5 years, be careful.

 

Doing your due diligence with any decision involving your child is important.  The most important due diligence a parent can help their child with is their college choice.  Getting professional help is a great way to help your child with their college decision.  To choose the right professional help ask those due diligence questions listed above.

 

Good luck to all of you who have the good fortune to be the parent of a talented student-athlete!

 

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 28th, 2009 at 8:26 pm and is filed under Academics, Athletic Scholarships, College Baseball, College Basketball, College Cross Country, College Field Hockey, College Football, College Golf, College Hockey, College Lacrosse, College Soccer, College Softball, College Swimming, College Tennis, College Track & Field, College Volleyball, College Wrestling, Financial Aid, Getting Started Early, Parents. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.