Subscribe to the NCSA BlogThe NCSA Experience
June 11th, 2009 - byIn this blog, I sometimes share insights from recruits from various sports and their families about how they are utilizing NCSA to navigate the recruiting trail. Their experiences can help to educate you. While speaking at a recent Combine, I meet Ronnie and Jennie Watkins of Corbin, KY.
“We enrolled our son Caleb in NCSA in the summer of 2008, before his junior year” they told me.
Caleb Watkins is a Running Back, Outside LB, Wide Receiver at Corbin High School. He plays multiple sports and
Caleb Watkins
aspires to play College Football.
“After we went into NCSA,” said his mother Jennie, “we got general letters right away and then they became more personal. This helped because otherwise Caleb would have been unknown. We went to a lot of junior days at schools to learn more about them. On April 15th we got four calls from schools like Eastern Kentucky and Wofford.”
Caleb has recently been to invited Camps at Furman, Wofford, E. Kentucky and Ball State. “They knew who he was at those Camps,” said his Dad, Ronnie. That’s key. It means he is on lists, which is vital.
Caleb is level headed about where he wants to play. “His dream is Kentucky,” said his Dad, “but he wants to go to a school where he can get all or a lot of his education paid for, so he is open. That could be a 1-AA school or NAIA or one of the levels. We know some schools will come at us with the preferred walk-on pitch,but we are saying no to that.”
“Caleb has been in the NCSA Huddle calls with Bob Chmiel, former recruiting coordinator for Notre Dame,” said Jennie.
“NCSA has led a lot of schools to us,” said Ronnie. “We have also contacted schools and emailed them the link to his NCSA profile. That works out really well.”
Caleb’s academics are strong. His GPA is 3.78 on an unweighted 4.0 scale and 4.31 on a weighted scale. His best ACT has been 26 and he is prepping to take it again, with a goal of reaching 28.
I asked Caleb’s Dad to summarize what he has learned about recruiting as his son enters his senior season:
“You have got to start early,” said Ronnie, the Dad. “You don’t want to burn kids out, but you shouldn’t wait until senior year. If a kid has talent, or skills that can be sharpened, you should really get going before the sophomore year or earlier. You have to get their name out there. We had a real nice player here in Corbin (KY). His family waited until into the senior year. They were trying to get video and all. He’s not going to play anywhere. It’s just so competitive out there. And this idea of ‘if you’re good enough they will find you’ is just not right. A lot of small town kids get overlooked. You can’t depend on your coaches. They are too busy and it isn’t their job. ”
Charlie Adams
NCSA Educational Speaker
