How to Get a College Coach to YOUR Game
December 9th, 2009 - byPicture this:
It’s the biggest game of the year against your arch rival high school. The stands are packed. Despite the pressure, you have the best game of your life and everyone watching recognizes you are the best player on the field. This includes dozens of college coaches, who have read your local paper and realize the big game is taking place. Based on your performance, all of them decide to offer you a scholarship to attend their schools.
This is exactly how the recruiting process works…or is it?
Unfortunately, the vision above is far from reality. Each week, NCSA receives dozens of questions similar to this:
“How can I get college coaches / recruiters out to my game?”
Most of the recruits with this question believe that having a college coach come to your high school game is the first and most important step in the recruiting process. Again, this is far from reality.
I asked NCSA VP of Recruiting Operations, Lisa Strasman to share her advice with recruits who are waiting for college coaches to attend their games. Here are her five doses of reality and advice:
Reality Check:
- College coaches on average have less than $500 to recruit. To expect them to maximize their budget by traveling all over the country to games is unrealistic.
- Coaches rarely discover athletes by watching games live. When coaches attend games, they have a list of athletes they are going to evaluate. While it’s possible a great performance might catch their eye, I would not rely on that.
- Coaches do not just attend games randomly – they watch games according to specific prospects they are recruiting and teams they know are traditionally successful
- Coaches of some sports (softball, soccer, hockey, etc) rarely, if ever, will attend a high school game. They go to specific club games and tournaments to utilize their time effectively.
- At the end of the day, a college coach might NEVER see you play in person. With technology and the internet, some coaches are willing to offer spots based on a recruiting profile or video. While this might be more common at the DIII level, it does happen.
My advice? Stop waiting for college coaches to come to you. Go to them!
First, you need to make sure you are on their recruiting lists or else they might never watch you play in person. You can do this by contacting the right programs with your online recruiting profile. Once you have done that, follow up with the coach to make sure they received your profile and start a relationship with the coach. Next, make sure you are sending film to the coaches, which might catch their attention and motivate them to watch you play in person. Finally, be prepared to communicate with the coach and find out where you stand on their recruiting list. Most importantly, remember that your future coach might NEVER see you play in person during high school.
Quit looking in the stands for college coaches and focus on working hard in the classroom and on the field…and when you think about recruiting, make sure you aren’t waiting for college coaches to discover you at your next big game.
If you want to quit waiting for coaches to come to your game click here.
