The Role of Your Coach in Recruiting
November 24th, 2009 - byFor years I have often heard, “I thought it was the job of the coach or athletic director to get my kid a college scholarship.”
As I speak on how to get recruited, I spend a solid amount of time in presentations going over that particular point.
Former New England Patriot running back Tony Collins is one of our Senior National Speakers at NCSA. Tony was on that Patriots team that got steamrolled by the Bears in the Super Bowl Shuffle Year. Tony is a great guy. His knees are too shot to coach because it’s hard for him to stand for long periods of time , but he can stand long enough to deliver College Recruiting Simplified, which he does very well. He has a passion for educating and inspiring families and athletes to find the right fit for their son or daughter to play college sports. Not only did Tony go through recruiting. He is also a Dad who has gone through it as a parent. I asked Tony to share insights on the Role of the Coach in Recruiting for this blog:
“Charlie, my oldest son was a 4 star football prospect when we were living in Miami. His High School Coach was really involved in recruiting. The Coach made sure my son was getting things done. If a college coach came to the school, he would even get my son out of class to meet the coach. So I thought the Coach really did take care of recruiting.
Then, with my youngest son, we were living in San Antonio. We all know Texas is a football hotbed, so I am thinking the Coach there will take care of recruiting. I know for a fact there were five D1 caliber players on that high school team, and none played in College like they could have. That particular coach didn’t do a thing with recruiting, even though it was Texas.
So three weeks before Signing Date I start scrambling and get my son to Nicholls State. My son’s a receiver, and they ran the wishbone offense! It wasn’t a good match. He was unhappy, so he transferred to my old school, East Carolina. He had to start at walk on at the bottom of the pole, and pay huge out of state tuition the first year. Things settled down, but it was a bad experience for him because I was thinking his High School coach was going to take care of it. To be honest, I was upset at that man. I never got mad at him in person, which I am glad about now. That’s good because I came to realize it’s not his job to get my son a scholarship.
As I deliver College Recruiting Simplified around the country, there are a lot of parents out there depending on the High School coach – more than we probably realize. After my Talk, many come up to me and say, ‘I am going to take charge now. I understand what you are saying, Tony.’”
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Thank you, Tony, for those insights. That is a powerful example of how important it is for families to understand it is not The Job of the Coach to get their kid a scholarship. Generally, there are 3 levels of HS and Club/AAU Coaches involved in Recruiting
• 1 The Coach who does have some contacts and who is very involved in Recruiting. This is often a veteran coach. Many of those have been retiring in recent years.
• 2 The Coach who is pretty involved and will do what they can to help, but has a lot on their plate.
• 3 The Coach that just doesn’t know what to do, doesn’t particularly care to be involved, or is simply too swamped with family and other issues, such as not even being in the school building.
The bottom line is you can’t blame your coach for not getting you a scholarship. It is your job as a family and athlete to be proactive in the process. You want to have a good relationship with your Coach. You should meet with the Coach and share your aspirations of playing College. You could find out things such as if you can have access to video. Make sure you are on the same page.
At some point the College Coach is going to want to visit with the HS or Club Coach. THAT is why it is important to have a good relationship with them. If you have an “issue” with your coach, now is the time to meet and clear that up.”
Again, it is YOUR responsibility to do everything possible to get a college athletics or athletics/academic scholarship. The Coach plays a role. By being proactive, you will get the college coach to your HS or Club coach.
The average high school coach has contact with fewer than 5 college coaches and most of them are local. College Coaches change over at a rate of 30% per year, so it’s impossible for HS and Club Coaches to stay up on who is coaching everywhere in College.
I want to thank all the Athletic Directors and Club Directors that are bringinging us in to deliver Recruiting Education. NCSA can help guide you in the process. Many AD’s and Club/AAU Directors are doing their job in making sure you have an opportunity to be educated on the recruiting process. Rod Creech, Director of the prestigious Midwest Basketball Academy, said, “Charlie, I do have a lot of contacts and college coaches ask me about our kids, but I want all of our basketball players to have as many opportunities as possible to be recruited, and that’s where I see NCSA’s education and connections to be so valuable. I don’t know or have connections to all the coaches out there.”
