It Pays to Visit
August 17th, 2009 - byTaking Unofficial and Official Visits to college campuses in an essential ingredient in the college athletic recruiting game. These visits allow for a student-athlete to get better feel for a program allow a coach to evaluate a player’s character first hand. Usually recruits only take a handful of visits beofre settling on a school, however that approach could potentially limit your options. The reason? Many recruits don’t take visits to schools the perceive as a lower quality.
New Mississippi State head coach Dan Mullen told ESPN about the importance of showing off his school first hand to recruits.
When we get kids on campus, most of the reports are when they leave campus something along the lines of, ‘I can’t believe it was that nice,’ or ‘I didn’t know it would be that nice.’ It’s not just our athletic facilities. But walk through campus on a school day. Go downtown. It’s a great community and just a really nice place to live and a great family atmosphere that revolves around the university. That’s what makes it a neat place. The issue we fight is getting kids here. Once they come, they’re amazed.
The recruiting lesson is simple. Don’t cross schools off your list until you understand exactly what that school is all about. Many recruits don’t realize that there is no limit on the amount of unofficial visits. Taking extra visits just to be sure is one strategy athletes should take advantage of.
