The Scholarship Crunch
January 12th, 2010 - by“Can’t my high school coach use his contacts to help me get a scholarship?” It is a question we hear a lot at NCSA. Quite frankly, there was a time when a high school coach could easily call in a few favors to get his top players a shot at the college level. Unfortunately, for high school athletes at powerhouse high schools, those days are no more. Lets take a look back at all of the events that have occurred to change the relationship between high school and college coaches.
1) At one point college coaches were extremely dependent on high school coaches to identify the top talent in their recruiting areas. High school coaches were the only ones with access to what little 16 mm film was shot of games. Slowly, this began to change…
2) Increasing high school sport participation and specialization meant there were more qualified athletes than ever before. Unfortunately, NCAA scholarship limits started to squeeze roster sizes (At one point a college coach could have 100 scholarship athletes on his freshman football team!) and forced college coaches to make tougher evaluations and scholarships decisions. Never before had they had so many talented athletes with so few scholarships available.
3) Technology broke down recruiting boundaries. First the VHS tape, then DVD and finally the Internet allowed recruiting information and video footage to travel at an ever increasing rate. Coaches could now watch recruits from their office across the country and make an evaluation. Calling a high school coach on the phone for his opinion of a player was no longer necesary.
4) Finally, the dollar amounts involved with recruiting exploded. Camps popped up across the country. Shoe companies started sponsoring combines and tournaments. Most importantly, coaching salaries exploded. Their jobs were now on the line every single week as dictated by big money boosters. In short, the days of a friendly conversation between a high school and college coach leading to a scholarship were over.
Is this bad news for recruits? Not really. Sure, some recruits will now have to put effort into the recruiting process, but it allows for everyone to have an opportunity to impress a coach. Cronyism is taken out of the picture. The responsibility for taking ownership of the recruiting process now lies solely on the recruit. Perhaps that is how it should have been all along.
