NCSA College Athletic Scholarships Blog

Yes, it is already time to start planning your summer! Each student-athlete and family should be preparing for the spring and summer months. It is very important that we are playing year round. This will help you get bigger, faster and stronger, as well as, stay in shape and get a chance to get in front of coaches. At the very least, you will be able to provide video footage to coaches.

It is important that all recruits are researching teams to play on an AAU, Club and/or Travel team! Talk to your teammates, research the web, and ask your coaches about local teams. Some teams may have tryouts as early as February. I understand that there are other factors that will determine your decision; like cost, locations of teams, if you play a spring sport, e.t.c. If you live in a small town or there are not any local teams, look into starting your own summer team or see if you can join another team as a guest player for big tournaments.

If you go to the AAU website you can search to find a team, events and more.

If you can’t get on a travel team to get in front of coaches, you can always look into camps and showcases. There are a wide variety of camps and showcases out there, you just need to ask your teammates, coaches and research the web. I always recommend to first ask the coaches you are in contact with, where will you and your staff be recruiting this summer? If you know where the coaches you are interested in, will be this summer, it might help you plan your summer events.

If you find a camp or showcase that will have coaches in attendance, ask the organization what coaches are confirmed and then reach out to those coaches to see if they are recruiting your position for your grad class. It is also important to attend camps that you will be able to get training and/or new skills.

It is important that you spend your summer wisely. Athletes are made in the summer.

Happy Planning!

Much had been made about USC’s Lane Kiffin much publicized decision to offer a 13 year old a scholarship. True to form he followed up with one outrageous move with another by declaring there is a decided difference between USC and UCLA players. He also can determine that difference almost immediately.

“We know within the first 10 minutes,” Kiffin said in a report by the Orange County Register, “whether they’re the type of guys that want to play here or there.”

Kiffin said he can tell the difference by “the questions that they ask,” the way the recruits carry themselves and a certain “feeling” he gets about them from having worked the area so long, according to the Register report.

He talked about his new recruits at defensive back as an example.

“One of the things I like is not one of these guys asked about a depth chart or who was here or how much can I play or worried about being able to beat people out,” Kiffin said. “Those are the guys that we want to come to SC. Everyone was like that, but especially this group.”

All kidding aside Lane’s recent statements are a reflection of the entire recruiting process.  It does start earlier than ever.  If the USC staff thinks a 13 year old is worthy of a scholarship, then it makes sense for them to be first to extend a verbal offer.

His comment about evaluation time is pretty accurate as well.  Coaches often make snap judgments on blue chip players after only a few plays.  They are what NCSA Recruiting Expert Coach Bob Chmiel calls “2 footers,” as in he only had to watch 2 feet of 16 mm film before he knew he was a scholarship player.

While the USC example is a case of extremes, the underlying lessons need to be absorbed by all recruits.

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Super Bowl hero New Orleans Saint Tracy Porter is a great example of why high school rankings really don’t matter.  In fact he wasn’t even ranked by Rivals coming out of high school.  It didn’t stop him from getting a full scholarship to Indiana.  It didn’t stop him from being an All-Big Ten first team selection.  It didn’t stop him from being a 2nd round draft pick. It didn’t stop him from picking off Peyton Manning and clinching the Super Bowl.

Bobby Freeman of Snellville GA and Shiloh High School  has a 3.62 GPA with 10 AP classes and other honors classes and was on the Gwinnett County GA All-Star Team. He has just committed to play football at Davidson College, and since they do not give athletic scholarships they gave him a HUGE academic scholarship paying over 75% of his tuition.

Bobby was matched with college coaches 5 times, had two separate videos processed, and participated in a group coaching session.

Bobby’s Grandma, Janice wrote:

Thank you for the exposure he got through NCSA!

We at NCSA want to congratulate Bobby on his commitment, and wish him the best of luck at Davidson!

What is your NCSA story? How did you start working here?

My NCSA story is a little unique (many have heard it before) and I feel more fortunate to be working at NCSA than anyone. I interviewed with Joseph more than 5 years ago and was ecstatic when I received a second call letting me know I was hired as an intern. I started shortly thereafter and for the first few weeks, Joseph referred to me as “Brian.” I was just happy to be here so I did not correct him until he started writing my name down as “Brian” on real documents. Months later, after he had decided he wanted to keep me around for a little while at least, he let me know that he had in fact intended to hire another candidate named “Brian” and that he had called me by mistake. Lucky for me.

What were you hired to do? What is your current position?

I was hired as an “intern” which equated to the first Recruiting Coordinator. I was lucky enough to do some work in a number of departments which gave me an appreciation for everyone’s role. Currently I am the Marketing Director.

What lead you to the position you are in now?

After working as an intern, I was hired to become a full time Recruiting Coordinator, eventually became a “Senior Recruiting Coordinator” and oversaw that department for more than a year before I spent some time as a full time Scout.

How long did it take for you to reach your current position?

More than 3 years.

What was the biggest challenge or frustration along the way?

Dealing with the natural growing pains that every small organization experiences. Since I started when NCSA was much smaller, I had absolutely no idea where I would be in 5 years let alone 5 months. There was no career path and we had never even enrolled 100 families in a month over the phone. That uncertainty was hard to cope with at times, but a belief in the potential and future of NCSA kept me focused on being productive at whatever role I was in.

What do you think was most integral in your success up to this point?

Belief that we were / are going to be a great and remarkable organization and the ability to be involved at a young stage presented an opportunity that I used as motivation to work hard and build my personal brand with NCSA.

Did you have any mentors throughout your career?

Yes, several. Most importantly would be Joseph Curtis who not only hired me but encouraged, supported and advised me for the last 5 years professionally and personally.

What is your why? Why do you work here?

Aside from giving back, I work here for three reasons:
1) I love the people that I work with (even though I get frustrated at times) and I believe that is critical to a culture. I can’t imagine going to work each day with people I don’t enjoy or respect.
2) I love what we do. We get to help people realize their goals while also working in sports. I also appreciate the ability to learn about many aspects of business while being a part of the growth. It has been personally fulfilling and professionally stimulating.
3) I love the opportunities. There are not many places where I would be given the ability to speak directly with the CEO, VP of Sales and Marketing and COO of a company and have my voice be heard. With our growth and culture, that possibility exists for many people and that should be exciting.

Any advice they would give to those trying to grow in the company?

I wish I had something groundbreaking but my advice happens to be fairly cliché. More than anything, work hard. Nothing can replace hard work regardless of how talented you are. If you want a normal 8:30-5:30 job with the ability to advance, NCSA might not be the best place. Secondly, have a good attitude. I constantly work on this and am by no means an expert – but I try to take the Standards of Excellence seriously and consciously work on my attitude every day. Lastly, know your role. While you may not LOVE every aspect of your day to day responsibilities, keep the big picture in mind. Whether you are cleaning the dishwasher or fixing the computers, know that being excellent at your job will help you advance regardless of what you want to do. Everyone has frustrations – I complain about the unbearable heat every day more than I should – but don’t let that get in the way of your success. Look for solutions and don’t exacerbate the issue by making that the conversation at lunch or on a break. Focus on your role with hard work and a good attitude while keeping one eye on the big picture by looking for ways that you can raise the bar and twist it. What’s the worst that can happen?

The University of Michigan offering Aundrey Walker a full-athletic isn’t ground-breaking news.  The 6’5″ 355 offensive tackle has been receiving offers from colleges across the country.  What is ground-breaking is the manner in which he heard from Michigan Coach Rick Rodriguez on his Facebook page.

“I just checked out my Facebook page and Coach [Rich] Rodriguez just sent me a message that I had an offer from them,” Walker reported. “I’m blessed and honored, but at the same time I am staying humble because it can be taken away from me at any time.”

Walker replied to Coach Rodriguez with his home address so he can receive the official offer from the Wolverines in the mail. He said it is likely he will make an unofficial visit to Ann Arbor on Feb. 20 for Michigan’s Junior Day so he can learn more about what they have to offer.

“I’m interested in anybody who is interested in me,” Walker said. “Now that [Michigan] has offered me and shown me that they love me, my interest level is medium to high.”

College Coaches are now actively using Social Media to contact recruits in a meaningful and personal way.  Recruits would be wise to:

1) Create Recruiting Specific Social Media Sites, so coaches can easily contact them.

2) Make sure to monitor everything that goes up on the page to ensure it is always professional.

National Signing Day has come and gone, but the ramifications from this week will be felt for years.  The important thing to remember is that no one will be able to tell what kind of an impact these recruits will make until they actually step on to the field.  In many cases it will take years of development before anyone can tell who actually “won” Signing Day.

However, that never stops every news organization (including NCSA) from making snap judgments awarding National Championships 4 years in the future, and pronouncing coaches fired. The Sporting Blog presented their tongue in cheek, Recruiting Classes that Will Spell DOOM for FOREVER!

3. Minnesota. Like our upcoming #1 school of DOOM, the entire point of Minnesota’s head coach is that he can recruit, and he can’t even do that, really. Minnesota pulled in two-four star recruits, suffered through eleven decommitments, and failed to get Seantrel Henderson despite offering his extremely marginal best friend JD Pride.

2. Miami. A Miami class with 28 commitments in it that has two more four stars than two stars is mindblowing, even given the ‘Canes current middling status. Making things worse are the classes of Miami’s two primary in-state rivals, which owned.

Miami picked up one top 100 recruit. It is in Florida. This is a very bad sign. Even worse: Baylor(!) is a notch ahead of them in star average on Rivals.

1. Illinois. Doctor Saturday covered this in detail today. In sum: this is Zook’s worst class ever, with one four star, and his best class ever just exited stage right without a bowl bid. Rivals has them 70th, 8th in the Big Ten. If Zook couldn’t hack it with actual talent, what’s he going to do with these guys? Probably watch them on TV after he gets fired.

Maybe these classes will eventually be proven sub-par, but that judgment is still years away.  UCONN Coach Dan Edsall offers a dose of sanity.

“It’s all very stupid, in my opinion,” he said. “For anyone to go out and rank classes, and to evaluate thousands and thousands and thousands of kids that are 17 and 18 years old, and think they’re going to watch all this film and put a ranking on them, it’s propaganda. And it’s one of the things that’s ruining the game, in my opinion.”

“It’s ruining kids. I just hope some people come to their senses soon and does something about the recruiting process because we’re in this to help young people and this process isn’t helping young people. It’s hurting them.”

Schools like Wisconsin, Cincinnati, Boise State, Utah and numerous others have all gone to BCS Bowl Games with recruiting classes that were laughed at by the “experts.”

Why do I raise these points when even NCSA ranks the top players in America?  Recruits need to understand that the only evaluation that really matters is the one they get from college coaches.  NCSA uses our relationships with college coaches to ensure student-athletes get evaluated by coaching staffs at schools big and small across the country.  We use our recruiting experts to analyze recruits and then introduce them to a variety of schools so they can be evaluated in the only meaningful way;  by a College Coach.

Register to build your FREE Recruiting Profile and Get Evaluated by an NCSA Scout!

Coach Randy Taylor and Coach Bob Chmiel Present NCSA Today

The Top 10 Recruiting Classes in America

NCSA’s Top 5 Recruits and the Major Signing Day Themes