NCSA College Athletic Scholarships Blog

Dear Coach T,

I was  injured last week, should I tell the college coaches that are recruiting me?

Dear Coach Taylor,

My high school team is not very good should I transfer high schools to play on a better team? I’m afraid college coaches won’t recruit me because my team is bad.

Alison Schmalz

Sport: Women’s Soccer
Position: Left Defender, Central Defender, Right Defender, Stopper
High School: Schaumburg High School ( Schaumburg , IL )
Graduation Year: 2012

Committed: University of Texas

C.J. Irvin

Sport: Football
Position: Center, Offensive Tackle, Long Snapper
High School: Manteno High School ( Manteno , IL )
Graduation Year: 2012

Committed: Illinois State University

Congratulations to both Alison and C.J. not only on their commitment for the next four years of their lives, but for the next 40 years!

Navigating through the recruiting process can be very overwhelming for a family, especially for the athletes themselves. These 17/18 year old student athletes are faced with a decision that will affect not only the rest of their athletic careers but their entire lives. It is important that student athletes are educated on every aspect of each school that they are deciding on. It is important when an athlete makes a final decision that they would want to go to that school if they were not going there for athletics.

Why?

Reason number one is that as an athlete you are only one ACL tear or break away from never playing sports again. Before you commit somewhere, ask yourself “If I can never play sports again will I still be happy at this particular school?”

In recent years a new issue in college athletics has created another reason student athletes need to chose the school based on other reasons outside of how much they like the athletics. As college coaching veteran Randy Taylor always says “make your decision based on the school, not the coach…”. While a coach can have a huge impact on your experience as an athlete, in this current environment college coaches are being fired, leaving for other schools or going to the pros. Coaches leave schools all the time and as an athlete you should have the security that if during your career, your coach happens to leave you will still be happy with where you are.

This is an issue that is most recently facing the 2012 football commits for Rutgers, yesterday in a very quiet move head football coach Greg Schiano was hired as the head coach for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. A move that not even his assistant coaches were aware of until news broke via the media. News broke while the assistant coaches were waiting for him at Don Bosco Preparatory School to lock up two more top recruits. Rivals.com has noted that Rutgers currently has  17 verbal commitments before Schiano’s left for Tampa,  many of whom took to twitter to express their frustration and shock. In what could have been Rutgers best recruiting class to date, five days before signing day many of their top recruits are now questing whether or not they should jump ship, to the other top schools who are now coming after them.

These student athletes world has been turned upside down, but before de-committing from the Scarlett Knights they need to sit down with the significant adults in their life and go over the reasons they originally committed to Rutgers, if it was because of the coach they need to look at their other options, however they should also keep in mind that any school they go to there is a chance that during their careers that coach could leave as well.

Making a decisions as a young adult that will affect the rest of your life can be a lot of pressure on these kids, especially if they are only thinking of things from an athletic stand point. As an athlete you need to remember that less than one percent of all athletes will go pro in their respective sports. It is important to remember that they are going to school to receive an education and set themselves up to succeed for the next forty years of their lives.

Signing day is about a week away and many athletes out there are wondering what Coaches look for when they offer student athletes scholarships. Coach Bob Chmiel discusses the three things he uses to evaluate players. Coach Chmiel spent seven years as Notre Dame’s Director of Football Operations and Recruiting Coordinator/Assistant Coach. Prior, Chmiel was the University of Michigan’s Football Recruiting Coordinator, where he also served as an assistant coach. He was named one of the “Top 11 Recruiting Coordinators of All-Time” in Tom Lemming’s book Football’s Second Season: Scouting High School Game Breakers.

NCSA recently caught up with MidAmerica Nazarene University Head Baseball Coach, Ryan Thompson to learn more about his program:

1. How would you describe yourself as a coach?

I am driven by my values

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

We are a small Christian school located in a big city.  You get the best of both worlds by living in a small, tight knit community while surrounded by the Kansas City which has a population of over 3 million people.

3. What do recruits need to know about you?

I will be honest with you during the recruiting process.

4. What do you look for in recruits?

We look for guys that fit our baseball team and our University.  Positionally, we look for versatile players that can run well.  On the mound, we are looking for guys that can throw multiple pitches for a strike.

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

Be proactive.

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

How can I help the program be successful?

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

Kids that just think about baseball.  Picking a college is a big decision, they need to consider everything about a school.

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

Player development and creating a team first environment.

9. Why should a recruit consider your program?

We provide a well rounded athletic and academic experience.

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

Fill our recruit form at our website and email our Recruiting Coordinator Rob Ramseyer at prramseyer@mnu.edu.

I talk to families everyday about their son(s) or daughter(s) and their abilities on or in the field/court/track/course/pool. It’s great! If you want to get to any parent’s heart, just ask them about their kids and they will be glad to talk to you for 6 hours if you have the time. Within my responsibilities I need to really find out important information regarding each High School (sometimes Junior High) athlete and how serious they are about taking their abilities to the college level. At NCSA (for those that don’t know) we have a standard of what types of athlete’s we are looking for, but the goal is to help all of those that want/need help. Each athlete that qualifies for the Athletic Recruiting Network of College Sports needs to have various abilities on the field/in the classroom/and all around that really help us get an idea of who they are and what their personality is like. So many times at the end of my conversations a parent will ask me “well how do you know exactly if he qualifies and how can we tell?”

Good Question.

A lot goes into whether we can qualify a student athlete and it goes in a series of steps. But what is most important and what we need to hear is the athlete COMMUNICATE and explain their desire to play their sport in college. If they aren’t serious about playing (insert sport here) in college then what are we doing here? I feel like this message misses young adults and parents everywhere. It’s all about communication and how you come across to people.

Communication is almost the most important step in this process. First you must communicate through your abilities and how pro-active you are about getting your name out there in exposure. Then you are asked to communicate to the coach through e-mails, written letters or to even call into their office during the coaches’ downtime. Finally they will be calling you once a week and meeting you in person! Then, IF you get lucky enough, you get to have four years under their guidance and direction through college sports. All of that being said, don’t you think that its fair to assume that if you can’t impress them with the first time you are asked to communicate with them then you probably won’t be afforded the second time (especially if you don’t run a 4.4 40 or have an 11 foot block jump). Communication is key; it is essential to making this process smooth and understood in whatever stage you are in.

Too many times on a daily basis I find myself on the phone with a student athlete/parent who don’t have the ability to speak up for something they want or to even express politeness and generosity in their voice. Trust me on this everybody, YOU WILL NOT GET THE OPPORTUNITY THAT THE PERSON NEXT TO YOU GETS IF YOU CAN’T IMPRESS THE COACH WITH YOUR COMMUNICATION OVER YOUR COMPETITION. If you are serious about playing in college, impress those that assist you in the process and hold the keys to your dreams, and that means doing more than just on the field, it means through your ability to express your intelligence and desire to earn your spot. Be polite, be sincere, and be you! Good luck!

Coach Taylor, when sending highlight videos to colleges you’re interested in, should a cover letter be enclosed or just a note stating my interest. If so, what exactly should it state besides my desire to play for their organization?

I would definitely recommend including a cover letter. The only reason you might not include a cover letter with your video is if you already have sent one to this particular coach. It is a good idea to keep track of what you send to each coach.

Here are some tips to keep in mind when constructing your cover letter to coaches:

1. Most every coach now relies on e-mail to both contact and receive contact from potential recruits. That is the preferred method of communication. To find out the e-mail addresses for the coaches you are looking to contact, simply go to the college’s athletic website and look for a staff listing of names and e-mails or ask your Recruiting Coach.

2. Be brief. Coaches at all levels receive dozens and dozens of e-mails/letters from high school-aged players. All you are trying to do is show you have interest, pass along all of your contact information, your resume, and provide each coach with an upcoming schedule of your matches so he can see you play.

3. NEVER HAVE ONE OF YOUR PARENTS WRITE TO A COACH. You are the one the coach might be recruiting, so he/she wants to hear from you directly. (If the relationship develops and it appears that you might be attending that college, they’ll be plenty of time for your parents to have contact with the coaching staff.)

4. Provide contact information for yourself and your coaches. Nothing is worse for a college coach than to have to track down your coach’s e-mail or phone number. By having both an e-mail address and a phone number listed after his/her name, it allows for the college coach to quickly e-mail or call your private and/or high school coach to follow up.

5. Always include basic information about yourself such as grad year, high school, athletic history, GPA, SAT/ACT scores. Tell the coach why you are a good fit for their program.

6. Do not send a form letter that starts out with “Dear Coach” and does not mention anything specific about his/her program and school. The bulk of your e-mail will be kept the same for correspondence you send out to various coaching staff; however a portion of it should be personalized. Bring in something specific about it that you learned by going through the website. State your interest in the school and specific reasons (like “my Dad went to Madison and I want to carry on the tradition” or whatever fits you personally)

7. Detail is important! Be sure that you use spell check and proper English. This is a reflection of your ability. You may send your letter to NCSA to revise.

8. If you are emailing rather than regular mail, DO NOT mass email a bunch of coaches. This comes across as lazy and shows the coach that you didn’t take your time to personalize for them. Make sure to address the letter Dear Coach [[last name]].

Send your recruiting questions to askcoachtaylor@ncsasports.org

You can also get your questions answered directly by contacting an NCSA Recruiting Coordinator at 866-579-6272.

Charlie Adams brings 23 years of experience covering the recruiting of high school athletes who reached their dream of playing college sports. Adams was an award winning sportscaster at television stations and is one of NCSA’s Recruiting Experts.

I was driving near Indianapolis this week and heard former Indiana University Basketball Coach Dan Dakich hosting his daily talk show on 1070 the Fan. A caller called in a little ‘bent out of shape’ that IU Basketball Coach Tom Crean had recently received two commitments from players that had yet to play a second of High School basketball. Two highly rated 9th graders had made their decision to attend IU. The caller just could not understand how they could be doing that at such a young age. Dakich, who was an assistant coach at IU for years and knows recruiting inside and out, wasn’t surprised. He said back when he was evaluating talent he could often tell if a 7th grader could play at a major D1 level like Indiana and the Big Ten. In recruiting, basketball is especially accelerated and seasoned evaluators like Tom Crean can project early if a kid can play. Back in the 1980′s, Bob Knight went down to Bedford, IN to watch a legendary 8th grader named Damon Bailey play a game. In the book, “A Season on the Brink” Knight made a comment to the author John Feinstein that “Bailey is better than any guard we have right now. I don’t mean potentially better, I mean better today.” Bailey ended up going to Indiana and was a very good player at that level.

It’s not that way for every basketball player that eventually plays D1, but it is for the special ones. Trey Lyles is one of the two players to commit to IU. He stands 6’9″ as a 9th grader. The other one is James Blackmon, Jr. His Dad was a very good player back in the day at Kentucky. Tom Crean and his staff have no doubt those two project to be winning Big Ten players. As Dakich said on his radio show, the IU coaches know what they are doing because they are seasoned evaluators. They have been watching those kids in the July evaluation events.

Less than 1% of the High School athletes will get this kind of “fawning over.” The rest have to be proactive in recruiting, and understand the process starts early whether you are a 6’9″ ninth grader or not. A 5’9″ 9th grade basketball player that is not even on the varsity team needs to understand how important it is to make his baskets in the classroom so that he can have more options in recruiting when he is a junior or senior. That kid may never get a D1 offer, but if he and his family get educated in recruiting and he works his tail off, by the time he is a junior and senior he will have more options in recruiting.

Charlie Adams

cadams@ncsasports.org