NCSA College Athletic Scholarships Blog

Calling coaches can be one of the most intimidating aspects of a student-athletes recruiting process, but it can also be one of the most important. If you are interested in a school, it is vital that you be in contact with the coach. A coach is never going to invite someone to be part of their team if they’ve never heard their voice.

It is okay to have initial contact with a coach through email, as long as you progress towards phone calls. Coaches want to speak with you on the phone so they can get to know you better. Remember that you can call a coach at any time, but coaches have strict rules placed upon them by the NCAA depending on what year in high school you are.

Before you call a coach, you must prepare. First, you need to research the school you plan to call. You should learn some background information on the school and program so you will be comfortable talking with the coach and answering their questions. Second, you should write down a list of questions that you plan to ask the coach.

As a good rule, plan to ask only 2-4 questions per conversation; coaches are extremely busy and if the interest level is mutual, you will have plenty of future conversations to get all of your questions answered. Lastly, you should have at least a couple of practice phone calls to a coach. A good way to practice is to role play with a teammate, family member or coach.

Always remember to be enthusiastic when speaking with coaches so they will want to have future conversations with you. The most important thing to remember is that they are just like any other adult. They are aware that it is difficult for a high school student to pick up the phone and call them and they will respect you more for it. Prepare yourself as best you can and just be yourself!

We recently launched a new and improved FREE Recruiting Management System (RMS) for coaches.  The RMS introduces new tools for greater recruiting efficiency.  We hope these new apps can assist you and your staff with finding success with your next recruiting class.

Set Your Preferences

Follow a new easy to use widget to set and update your recruiting preferences.  NCSA will cater the athletes we send to you based on these preferences.  New ability to upload camp brochures and recruiting questionnaires along with program info available for student-athletes to use and research. Follow a new easy to use widget to set and update your recruiting preferences. You can update geographic, academic and grad year specific needs. Updating this information is also as simple as one click.

New ability to upload camp brochures and recruiting questionnaires along with program info available for student-athletes to use and research. Store your default email content as well.

Follow a new easy to use widget to set and update your recruiting preferences. You can update geographic, academic and grad year specific needs. Updating this information is also as simple as one click.

New ability to upload camp brochures and recruiting questionnaires along with program info available for student-athletes to use and research. Store your default email content as well.

Follow a new easy to use widget to set and update your recruiting preferences. You can update geographic, academic and grad year specific needs. Updating this information is also as simple as one click.

New ability to upload camp brochures and recruiting questionnaires along with program info available for student-athletes to use and research. Store your default email content as well.

Recruiting Profile

New options on the Recruiting Profile allow you to specify your interest level.  Opt out from receiving information on an athlete or add them to your tracker.

Recruiting Board

Allows you to track your recruits.  Track NCSA athletes or your own private recruits.  Track your interest level, communication, create custom groups, contact athletes in bulk and save notes on the athletes.  New options on the NCSA Recruiting Profile allow you to specify your interest level.  Opt out from receiving information on an athlete or add them to your tracker.   NCSA has also integrated with Front Rush to allow a one click addition of our athletes to their site.

Search Upgrades

New ability to save custom searches. Easily add athletes to your Recruiting Board from the search results. You will still have the ability to email, export to excel and forward.

Get Started!

Click this link to get started on your new and improved RMS today!

Coaches,

Answer the following questions and email the answers to mroe@ncsasports.org to be featured in an upcoming newsletter!

1. What do you look for when evaluating potential recruits?

6. What tips would you give coaches just getting started with recruiting?

April 15th kicks of a major day in the recruiting process and provides football players in the class 2012 a strong indication of where they rank on recruiting boards.  Do you know why April 15th is important?  Watch Coach Taylor and the NCSA Team dish out the inside scoop:

Have you received any phone calls?  Do you know where you stand?  Call the NCSA Recruiting Team at 866-579-6272 to gain a competitive advantage!

We recently conducted a poll for our community to help identify the most difficult aspects of the recruiting process.  Be sure to visit our Facebook community to stay connected and join the conversation.

Last week we unveiled Part 1 of the “Top 10 Most Confusing Parts of the Recruiting Process”.  This week we are rolling out Part 2.

5)  The most confusing part would be trying to get noticed without help from someone that is reputable.

The reality is that trying to execute a successful marketing is a lot of work.  Parents and athletes are able to “do it themselves” if they choose, but it is a lot of work!  Regardless of whether you try and navigate the process on your own or utilize credible third parties like NCSA, you need to create a highlight tape, contact 50-100 programs and properly develop relationships.  ALL athletes need to do those things.  Remember, NCSA has spent the last 10 years developing relationships with college coaches which provide our athletes with a competitive advantage.  Few parents have relationships with more than a couple of college coaches at most. 

6)  How do you determine which level you should play at? 

Every recruit needs an honest third party evaluation in order to establish realistic expectations.  Targeting the wrong schools will only lead to disappointment.  In order to schedule your free recruiting evaluation with a National Scout, call 866-579-6272. 

7)  The most confusing part of the process is being offered and dealing with the financial aid office to figure it all out.

Check out this video with NCSA Financial Aid Guru, Bob Shriner for some financial aid secrets.

8)  It is confusing trying to decide which email / letters I should respond to.  I have been distributed to colleges through NCSA and received tons of mail, but some of the schools just are not a good fit!  Do I REALLY need to respond to all of it?

The easy answer is “yes”.  This will allow you to keep your options open providing you leverage throughout the process.  (If you are really getting that much mail and interest, consider yourself lucky!  You might only have to respond to 80% of it, but most athletes should be getting back to every coach)

9)  By far the most confusing part of the recruiting process is trying to determine when a coach is sincerely interested in offering and when he is just keeping you on the hook to keep his options open.

That is very difficult to discern and leads to many of the issues families face.  Often times, athletes and parents confuse letters and even phone calls as signs that the athlete is high on that coach’s list.  This may or may not be true.  One good suggestion is to ask where you stand.  Be up front with the coach and more times than not they will give you an honest answer.

Also, check out NCSA’s “Gauge Your Level of Recruitment” e-book here to help answer some of your questions.

10) The most confusing part of the process is…EVERYTHING!

We agree!  Our team is no smarter than any parent or athlete going through the process, we simply have the luxury of doing this thousands of times each year – and most of us went through it as athletes.  It takes a lot of experience and most families only get one shot…which is why so many need help from someone.  Don’t be too proud to seek help from people who have been through it before.  That could be your coach, neighbor, friend…whoever!

As always, we encourage you to download your digital copy of “Athletes Wanted –the complete game plan for maximizing athletic scholarship potential” which is the most comprehensive guide for recruiting education.

Check out Part 1 Here.

Coach Taylor – I had a bad injury last year but have healed, should I tell college coaches when they ask?

Being nervous to tell a coach about a past injury is completely understandable.  Who wants to buy a damaged product?  If you are going to have that mindset, however, you are doing the coach a disservice by not telling him the truth.  In the recruiting process, honesty is almost always the best policy.

If a coach who is recruiting you asks about past injuries, be honest about it.  If you had a serious injury that has healed, explain the situation to the coach and make it clear that you are perfectly healthy and at the top of your game.  Understanding your injury specifically and being able to explain it to the coach can be surprisingly helpful in this conversation.  This will give the coach more confidence than saying, “Yeah I tore my knee last year and I think it’s better.”

Chances are if coaches are recruiting you despite a past injury, they like what they see.  Knowing that you can improve your ability even more as you progress through the rehab or recovery, the coach might view you as an athlete with a higher upside.

However, if you are fully recovered and are not showing any effects of the injury currently, it is probably not a great idea to proactively bring up the past injury unless asked.   Get on top of your recruiting process and be prepared for anything and everything that a coach might ask.

Coach Taylor – How can you make sure you child is on a coach’s recruiting “list?”

Coaches are extremely busy.  Remember that recruiting is only a part of coaches’ jobs.  As a result, coaches use the method of recruiting that will be most effective while also time-efficient.  With the availability of online film and recruiting profiles, coaches do their first evaluations online.

Knowing this, keep in mind that a college coach does not have the time to go through every single online recruit and evaluate whether he or she is worthy of recruiting.  This is where trusted sources of information come in.

Every year, college coaches use trusted sources of evaluation to find the best recruits for their recruiting lists.  This is why it is so important to get evaluated, get verified, and get that information online quickly.

Compare it to a very similar system, the job market.  The best places to search for talent are reputable sources such as well-known universities and companies.  A job applicant with a strong reference from a well-known company will get a much better look than a kid with self-edited and self-verified information.

Third party recruiting sources work in the same way.  Get evaluated, get your information verified, and make your information available to college coaches.  These are the first steps toward a successful recruiting process.

Coach Taylor, I got a verbal offer during my sophomore year.  Is my recruiting process finished?

That really depends on the strength of the offer and your current situation with the school.  No verbal offers are actually legally binding.  The only binding scholarship offer is a written offer and a signed National Letter of Intent.

There are loads of recruits who commit very early and eventually de-commit and choose to attend another school.  This is common practice especially in sports that have club teams and AAU teams.  Colleges have been known to verbally offer prospects as early as middle school.

Another possibility is to use this offer to try to milk other offers from schools.  If the school that offered you is your dream school, great.  However, if your dream school still has yet to offer you, another scholarship offer may be a great bargaining chip.   Continue to be proactive with contact, smart with communications, and respectful of all schools involved.

The best way to maximize success in the recruiting process is to be as proactive as possible.  Be on top of it every step of the way, set specific goals, and be diligent about completing them.

Coach, I see the term “third party” used a lot in recruiting.  Who or what is the third party?

A third party, in terms of college sports recruiting, an outside source of evaluation and information that is not a college coach, high school coach, or student athlete.  This is usually a network, website, recruiting analyst (Tom Lemming, NCSA Athletic Recruiting,etc).

The main purpose of a third party in recruiting is to verify information on a recruit, and get this information to college coaches.  Some third parties are more engaged in testing and verifying, while others are more engaged in the college coach community.

The fact of college sports recruiting is that reliable third party sources are important.  If you have a third party like NCSA that college coaches rely on and trust, you are leaps and bounds ahead in the process.  Online third party sources are becoming the primary tool of evaluation for college coaches with all the advancements in internet technology.

Get your scouting information verified, get your information online, and get going in the recruiting process.  It is never too early to get started and get plugged into the network.

Good Luck!

If you have any further questions you can always call (1-866-579-6272) to speak with a national recruiting expert.