Eleven Quotes to Help YOU Have Recruiting Success
February 22nd, 2012 - byWhen I write, my goal is to share insights from the thousands and thousands of interviews I have done on recruiting since 1983. From time to time, I will share top quotes from recent events that can help you to have success in recruiting and finding the right fit for your daughter or son. Anything I can do to help in the development of Athleaders is a major goal of mine.
Notebook always ready, Charlie Adams interviews a College Coach on what he looks for in Recruits
Here are Eleven Powerful Quotes from interviews I have done within the last two years alone. They were done everywhere from Combines to the offices of College Coaches, to Club Events, to High School Events, and on and on:
“I watch how players are in the dugout. One time I was recruiting a really good player with good grades, but when she came in the dugout, she sat down and screamed, ‘Mom!!! Red Gatorade – NOW!!!’ I took her off my List right then and left.” – College Softball Coach
“We really like the good players that express a sincere interest in our program. We are happy to look at them. We don’t want anyone to slip by.” – College Soccer Coach
“Everyone wants to be successful, but few are willing to pay the price. Not every athlete is willing to run that extra 100 in the heat, or get off Facebook or off the phone with their girlfriend and get to studying. You have to do the little things right all the time, and most importantly you have to take care of your business in the classroom. You have to give your best effort. An old coach of mine told me: you are either getting better every day, or getting worse.” – former SEC All Conference Football player
“While ratings are very important, it is not always the bottom line with our program. We look for that player that has that insatiable desire to keep getting better.” – College Tennis Coach
“A myth our families have is that it is okay to wait until senior year to do anything about recruiting, and that the high school coach can do it all or has all the answers. They also do not understand the levels of college sports. We have one volleyball girl going D1, and two juniors being recruited D1 in basketball. We have 540 athletes in a school of 1650. Three are D1 out of 540 athletes in the whole school. I think about 20 will sign at different levels. Other things where they make mistakes: they don’t take the ACT or SAT until senior year, which they should do sooner, and they don’t get in the NCAA Eligibility Center or the NAIA one. Some of our coaches understand that, and we are trying to do more to educate our coaches, but it is not their job.” – High School Athletic Director
“One time I watched a good prospect who checked out with grades and ability. I waited in the stands until well after the game. When he came out his parents were there waiting to greet him. He brushed past them like he was too cool for him. I took him off our List. He always wondered why we didn’t recruit him more. Well, one of the Ten Commandments is to Honor your Parents. Kids need to realize we are watching a lot more than how athletic they are.” – College Basketball Coach
“95% of kids have never seen a college volleyball game. They have no idea of self-evaluation. They don’t know the level of college they are capable of playing. We will have High School or Club Coaches contact us sometimes and say they have the perfect D2 kid for us. I ask, ‘Can she play Division One?’ All of our kids here have been recruited by D1 programs. We recruit against Ball State, Western Michigan, Eastern Michigan. We want to hear from the kid that specifically is interested in us. A young person that writes ‘I had a knee injury in the 7th grade that made me interested in Physical Therapy. I know you all have a strong PT program. I also understand you have just 1 Libero on your roster and I am genuinely interested in playing for you.’ We will pay attention to that kind of email. Videowise, show us what you can do with attacking right off the bat, unless you are a Libero or something like that. If you can touch the rim, show it. Getting verified information is a challenge.” – D2 College Volleyball Coach
“We look for that player that loves tennis, that isn’t doing it because he feels he ‘has to’ or because he has been doing it his whole life. While we like to learn about players in the 9th grade, you never know if they will stop putting in the work, fall in love, or just not develop.” – College Tennis Coach
“There are two things I really look for. One is your work ratio. Do you work hard all the time? The other is how you interact with your team, how you react to questionable calls. Your character is just as important as your ability in my opinion.” – College Soccer Coach
“What families don’t understand is many times an athlete can get a better scholarship package at a D3 school even though they don’t offer athletic scholarships. Some kids get just $3,000 with a D1 athletic scholarship. What’s that in the scheme of things?” – Director of Club Lacrosse program
“Some parents get concerned about their kids being on club teams that aren’t good. To me, that’s not as much of an issue as playing, getting good instruction, and playing the game. I do think the club season is too long, but volleyball players do need to be working to get better. The analogy I use is our admissions department wants students to always be working on getting better academically. Same with us. Athletes should continue to get better. A myth in volleyball recruiting is that you have to play for one of the clubs that competes for a national title. However, if you want to be recruited nationally, you need to play on a club team that plays more than a regional schedule. If you want to play college in your region, then a regional team would work.” – D1 College Volleyball Coach
From time to time in the future, I will share more insights from the many College Coaches and Athletes that I interview, as well as from parents, AD’s and Club Directors. I hope these are helpful to you. As always, I appreciate your feedback. I can be reached via the email below.
Charlie Adams, Speaker and Recruiting Expert
cadams@ncsasports.org
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