NCSA College Athletic Scholarships Blog

Read about Ave Maria University softball from head coach Tim Speakman as he offers some information to our coaches corner:

1. How would you describe yourself as a coach?

I see myself more as a Mentor than a Coach. I am here for greater reasons than coaching softball. I am here to mentor these young ladies at one of the most crucial stages of their lives. They are here to get an education and to improve their skills as young adults in order to be a productive and positive influence in our society. Softball is only a small piece of the puzzle but they can learn important life skills while being a part of a collegiate sport that requires discipline, hard work, and commitment.

2.What is unique about the experience at your school?

Ave Maria University is a vibrant liberal arts university located in beautiful Southwest Florida. It is an academic institution that pledges faithfulness to the teachings of the Catholic Church and is committed to providing one of the be finest classical liberal arts curricula available.

3.What do recruits need to know about you?

I am here to help them to continue to grow as young adults and to provide them with experiences that will hopefully help them later in life. I will also be monitoring their educational progress to make sure that they are staying on track to reach their ultimate goal, and that is a great education.

4.What do you look for in recruits?

I look for young ladies that represent themselves and their families with a “positive image”. When you play a collegiate sport you are representing not only yourself, your family, but also an entire university, therefore I recruit student athletes with “high character”. I also look for student athletes that are not an academic risk. I want them to stay here at our university for 4 years and get their degree and that takes a great deal of self discipline and commitment to be able to juggle their academics and a collegiate sport.

5.What is the one thing every recruit needs to do with the recruiting process?

Be honest with yourself and the coaches that are recruiting you. Research the university in every way possible before you make a commitment to make sure that it provides your needs for the education that you desire and the atmosphere for which you will be exposed to.

6.What sort of questions do you really like to hear from recruits?

What can your university provide me for the education that I desire? This tells me that their education is important to them. Where do you see me fitting into your softball program? This gives them an idea as to where they will fit in to the program and if this is where they want to be for the next 4 years.

7.What turns you off when you are recruiting a student-athlete?

Long e-mails with a life background!!!! Keep e-mails short and to the point and include important information such as ACT/SAT , GPA, and game schedules. Coaches want to see grades, scores, and ability by personal evaluation.

8.What do you think your program is the most successful at?

Providing one of the best liberal arts educations in the world and being able to play collegiate softball in one of the most competitive states (Florida) for women’s fast pitch softball .

9.Why should a recruit consider your program?

We will provide them with one of the best educations they could possibly receive in one of the most beautiful areas in the United States. On the softball side of things we are committed to building a program that will compete for conference as well as national championships.

10.If a recruit is interested in your program, how should they reach out to you?

Send me a brief e-mail with important information such as: ACT/SAT scores, desired path for their future education, and how and when I would be able to evaluate them as an athlete.

You can never be sure when you will have that perfect recruiting moment when you have a unique opportunity to connect with a college coach. When that moment happens, will you be ready to act?  Do you have a recruiting website and video to point them towards? Do you know how to answer their questions? Will you make the perfect impression?

The only way to answer all of these questions, is to start the process now.

Coach Taylor, you always talk about expanding your college search to find the right fit.  Is there an easy way to find out which schools offer my sport across the country? – Shooter

Shooter, I’m really glad you asked that question.  To help student athletes with that exact problem, we are excited to launch our proprietary College Search Map technology to all NCSA memberships.  Now,  both free unverified members and NCSA Verified Recruits  in our recruiting network can log in to their recruiting management system and access this powerful tool.  With one click you can evaluate a list of schools in a preferred state or region and link directly to the critical information about each.  Researching college programs that offer your individual sport has never been this easy!

 To be perfectly clear:  Everyone Can Access this Tool!

If you aren’t plugged into the network, be sure  to  join now!

Send your recruiting questions to askcoachtaylor@ncsasports.org

The SMU administration made a few enemies last week when they denied admission to two incoming recruits, despite the fact that both had qualifying grades and would most likely be admitted to most Division I football schools.  The football program issued a typical blanket statement supporting the administration, but privately it seems storms are brewing.

Coach June Jones arrived at SMU a year ago to revive the once-great football power that was dismantled by the NCAA in the 80′s for a host of rules violations.  In one season he engineered an 8-5 record and the first bowl win in 25 years.  But now it appear he is at odds with the administration.   He has refused to sign a large contract extension and insiders are saying he is fuming.  The Dallas Observer reports:

Darryl Jackson and a host of hostile alumni vehemently disagree (with the administration).

After Jackson and co-recruit Jeremy Hall were recently denied admission by SMU’s Faculty Athletic Admission Subcommittee, an irate group of fans formed a “We Are Not Going Back” committee. The faction, headed by members of the school’s Lettermen’s Association, asked for $300 donations to, in part, pay for an anti-Turner ad proposed to run this week in an issue of The Dallas Morning News unless the president apologized in writing to Jackson and Hall and allowed them to enroll at SMU in time for fall classes and football season.

“We are fed up, and no longer willing to accept the administration’s position with regards to (specifically) the refusal to admit certain incoming student athletes to SMU,” read an e-mail circulated within the group last week. “If these demands are not met, the gloves are coming off. It will be ugly and it will be very public. Enough is enough. We are not going back to the days of Phil Bennett and 1-win seasons.”

In conjunction with Jones’ arrival in January ’08, SMU remodeled its admissions policy to be, according to Tunks, clearer but not necessarily more lenient. Though competing schools like Texas Tech and Baylor accept NCAA qualifiers, prospective SMU athletes are automatically referred to the admissions board if their SAT is below 900 or their high-school GPA below 2.5.

The five-member committee is charged with granting admission to athletes who have a “reasonable chance of success,” defined by SMU as having at least a 50-percent chance of graduating.

“You’ll never get a perfect system because it involves judgment calls,” Tunks says. “But I think it’s working. No university wants a losing team. But at the same time, it’s not fair to ask these students to do something they can’t do. That would be setting them up to fail.”

Sounds simple and, at least statistically, it’s efficient. Tunks said that since Jones’ arrival 25 incoming freshmen football players have gone before the committee and 23— either initially or after a maximum of two appeals—have been admitted. It’s the two who were denied—Jackson and Hall, the last two to go before the board—that have alumni pissed and coaches perplexed.

Is the school making the right call?  Should coaches be upset?  Is it wrong to have a recruit sign a Letter of Intent, then refuse to admit them?  What do you think?

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July 1st is a critical day in the recruiting process for baseball players.  NCSA Head Recruiting Coach, Brandon Liles, recently conducted a live educational huddle with hundreds of the most serious prospects around the country to explain the significance of July 1st.  We recorded the session so all baseball players could gain access to the valuable information.

If you want to get a free recruiting analysis to discuss your situation and lay out a game plan for success, call the NCSA Recruiting Team at 312.624.7430

Deion Sanders.  Bo Jackson. Tony Gonzalez.  Do those names sound familiar?  These are some of the most famous two sport college athletes ever.  However, their stories are not the norm.

Typically, being a two sport athlete in college is a challenge. There are some sports that naturally fit together, i.e. Football and Track. But for most athletes participating in two sports in college is only achievable if they focus on finding the right opportunity, and more importantly the right coaching staff that will allow them to balance, what in most cases, will be quite the undertaking. Generally, it’s a bit more common to find a two sport athlete at smaller level colleges where the demands in any single sport are not quite as high.

For any athlete that is considering this path, I would first warn them that they will need to assume more preparation with the recruiting process. You’ll need to understand recruiting rules, regulations and strategies for two separate processes. Most recruiting cycles vary greatly for each individual sport and it will be difficult to approach both. At some point you’ll need to have a conversation with the coaches who express a strong interest in you about your desire to be a two sport athlete. Towards the end of the process the coaches from each individual sport will work together to finalize everything with you and your family…but be prepared to begin the process with each individual coach/program and see them come together at a later point in the process.

Being a two sport high school athlete has almost become the standard. For most college coaches it’s a big bonus to find an athlete that is not only involved in multiple sports, but excels in multiple sports. Typically it will show the athletes’ future coaches their all around athletic ability and passion to compete and work hard.  So being a two sport athlete is a plus in the recruiting world. For those athletes that haven’t yet decided which one of the two or three sports they want to pursue in college, I encourage you to work the recruiting process for as many as you can balance, weigh your opportunities in the end and choose the school that is the best fit for you.

Remember, one of the reasons that athletes are unable to play two sports in college is because they have different abilities in each sport.  Some recruits are DI caliber in one sport and DIII caliber in another.  Unfortunately, they will often target the same schools for both.  It is difficult to find one school that would like to pursue you in both sports, but if you can accomplish that, you just might find your name on a list with Bo Jackson someday.

If you want to learn what college programs you qualify for, call the NCSA Recruiting Team at 866-579-6272 or click here

The Major League All Star game is tonight. One of the stars for the American League will be Evan Longoria of the Tampa Bay Rays. He ranks 8th in Major League history with 60 home runs in his first two seasons. Yet, as a High School baseball player growing up in southern California, he wasn’t heavily recruited. I was in Bradenton to speak to athletes and their families at the IMG Sports Academies this past week, and saw this article by Marc Tompkins of the St. Petersburg Times. Here is part of it:

“Longoria wasn’t very big and wasn’t very good coming out of St. John Bosco High (California), ignored by the pro scouts and – to the not-always-concealed dismay of his parents – barely noticed by major college coaches.

“Nobody wanted him,” Mike, his father, said.

The Longorias couldn’t compensate by making him what former Long Beach State coach Mike Weathers calls “a show pony,” the kid whose parents trot him out to every showcase event and travel league to get him noticed and hire private coaches by the hour.

Longoria had some other junior colleges interested but took the promise of playing time at Rio Hondo Junior College and made the most of it, getting bigger and stronger and better.”

A Division One program, Long Beach State, heard about his swing, and signed him as a transfer. More physically mature, he just kept getting better and better as a player and became the 3rd pick in the Major League Draft.

Junior College can often be an option for players who need to physically mature or perhaps shore themselves up academically. I was speaking with former Washington High Athletic Director Marilyn Coddens one time before I spoke at the school and she couldn’t understand why more kids didn’t consider Junior College.

For Evan Longoria, it was the starting point..

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While in Bradenton, Florida this past week, I also spoke at the Bollettieri Jr. Tennis Tournament at the IMG Academies. I am constantly interviewing college coaches to get their insights on the impact of being a college athlete because I strongly believe that is one reason young people should strongly consider playing their sport in college. Before speaking down there, I was talking on the phone with the head coach of a men’s Top 25 ranked Tennis program. He shared two powerful examples of how being a college athlete is a 40 year decision, not just a 4 year one.

First, he told me of a player they signed around 1999 that started out as “the worst player on the team.” He was pretty good. He had to be to be on a D1 Tennis team that was in the Top 25 about every year, but compared to the rest of the roster, he was the worst. He worked his tail off on skills, weights and everything to become a better tennis player. From his freshman year on he also took the toughest Finance and Business classes. He didn’t just get by in the classroom. Why? Because his college coach had told him a common denominator of the most successful people in life is that they work hard at EVERYTHING. Where some college athletes will work hard on their sport and not so hard on academics, this young man worked hard at both!

By the time he was a senior he was Captain of the team and educated to the max from taking tough classes at one of the nation’s top Universities. He also had a boatload of networks that come from being a true college student-athlete at a highly regarded academic institution. The coach told me the young man graduated and took all his skills to Manhattan where he has become a multi, multi millionaire. He has had two years where he has made over twenty million dollars, and he is just in his 30′s.

Not that life is all about making huge money, and there’s probably not that many examples of former college athletes (that didn’t play pro) having two years of twenty million dollar incomes by age 30 (!), but this young man is an example of how the true college student athlete is equipped for the next 40 years of his or her life. He had learned to manage his time on the tennis court and the classroom. He was very competitive, confident, and results oriented. He had set big goals and was determined to reach them.

When Kevin Garnett left the Minnesota Timberwolves to sign with the Celtics, the young man bought his home to have a home closer to his family in the midwest.

The other example the coach shared about how special it is to be a college athlete is about the “bond” that athletes form as college teammates. He told me of one of his former players that was working way up in one of the World Trade Towers on 9/11. After one of the planes crashed into the building, he was able to make it down 60 floors. No doubt, being an athlete helped him quickly get down all those floors and help others along the way.

“Cell service was spotty,” the coach told me. “He called his parents first to assure them he was safe, and then he called me. He said, ‘Coach, they are all going to be calling you! Tell them I made it out!’ He knew that all his former teammates knew where he was working, and that they would call me to see if he was okay. Sure enough, I started getting all these calls.”

It was a unique example of the special bond college athletes form for life. They all knew where each other worked, and even though they head their separate ways after college, they will always be connected, and the coach will be the hub.

I always say if you have the chance to play the sport you love at the appropriate level in college, why in the world would you not take advantage of it?

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I always encourage young athletes to read anything they can on what has made other athletes successful. Former Ohio State linebacker Chris Spielman will be enshrined in the College Football Hall of Fame in downtown South Bend this weekend. I read a story on him in the South Bend Tribune this week. Check out what he told writer Al Lesar that he did to reach his potential:

“I would put a piece of bologna in my pocket and let my dog chase me around,” he said. “It helped me work on movement. Growing up, everything was about becoming a better player. I recognized as a young kid what I had to do to get where I wanted to go.”

Okay! First reader to try the bologna in the pocket routine has to tell me how it turned out!

I once knew a young lady who wanted to be a great rebounder in basketball. She lived on a farm with grain bins. Every evening she would get her father to throw the basketball up on the uneven grain bins, forcing her to quickly figure out the angle of the ball as it came bouncing off the roof. She went on and became her High School’s all time leading rebounder and earned a college basketball scholarship.

Having success in recruiting involves a lot of things, including separating yourself with effort.

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