There has been a lot of attention Herb Magee, the head coach of Philadelphia University, who just passed Coach Bobby Knight to become the all-winningest coach in NCAA men’s basketball history. However, Coach Magee still trails Northern State’s Don Meyer and his 922 wins between the NAIA and the NCAA. His incredible story proves that sometimes the greatest stories in college sports don’t happen on national TV at the Division I level.
Coach Taylor, How Can I be sure that coaches really use NCSA?
Great question. To tell you the truth I was very skeptical the first time I walked into NCSA. I had spent over 30 years recruiting student-athletes and assumed that I knew the best and only way to recruit. When I first walked in the door I was amazed at just how behind the times I had fallen. Take a quick look at why coaches REALLY use NCSA.
Now take a quick look at the reaction we get from college coaches after they use our Recruit-Match System (Note: All of these comments have come this week).
Thanks for all your help for the 2010 class we are on some good players. We have already begun work on 2011 and continue to use your website exclusively.
The ability to see video and transcripts is key. We can make a quick decision on whether we will take the recruiting of that athlete to the next level instantly.
Thanks again for your service it is a tremendous help to us in identifying potential prospects for State.
We like the format you use in sending information to us on recruits. You make a good impression and the info on each person is well presented.
We like the way that you accurately rate the player’s level. Very good and very helpful.
I think you do a fantastic job of getting the information we need to make a judgment of whether or not we want to recruit a young man to State College. Keep up the good work!!
Over 99% of all college student athletes go pro in something other than their sport. So what will your profession be? After having phone conversations with over 5,000 student-athletes, I’ve found that less than 10% have a real clear picture of what career field to pursue. I’ve also learned that the vast majority of college students will change their major at least once while in college. All of this is NORMAL. So when I hear parents tell me that they’re going to wait until their kid decides what they want to do before looking at colleges, I cringe. Waiting on researching colleges for any reason limits a child’s opportunities.
Part of deciding on career fields will be finding out what career opportunities are available in those majors. Thanks to my colleague, Byron, here’s a link to help you research this topic. Read the PayScale College Salary Report to gain insights on what you (your child) should major in. Also, don’t forget that NCSA is with our student athletes until they graduate from college. The life skills a child learns by navigating the recruiting process are transferable to the job search.
Coach Taylor – When is the right time to ask a coach, “Where do I stand on their recruiting list?”
You have to ask some preliminary questions to coaches before asking where you stand on their list.
1) Ask them if they have seen you play? If not, do they need a game schedule or a higlight video? If they have seen you play…
2) Ask them if you’re an ideal recruit for their program? If not, what will it take to get on their recruiting list? If you are on their list already…
3) Ask them how many (your position) they are looking at for (your graduation class)? If they are looking for someone like you…
4) Ask them where you stand in terms of priority on their recruiting list? The coach may say that they need to see you play more or need additional film for further evaluation…or they might let you know you are near the top!
Just remember, you cannot ask the final question until they have evaluated you as a player.
Coach Taylor - My son is not receiving much playing time from his coach due to politics and favortism. How can I help him maintain his focus and earn more playing time in the hopes of pursuing collegiate opportunities?
We get a lot of questions concerning “politics” and playing time. The truth is that 99% of the time there is an underlying reason why a coach isn’t playing an athlete. The answers can range from off-court behavior, practice habits, respect for the coaching staff, roster makeup, and the toughest of all – lack of talent. Remember in team sports its a coaches responsibility to field the best unit, not group of individuals. Sometimes players are asked to sacrifice for the team. Many times players are unwilling or unable to do this.
My best advice for any athlete who feels they are being slighted on playing time is to talk to the coach. Never, bring the parents into the equation. This always escalates the situation. The player should find the right time to polietly and professionally ask his coach if he would mind sitting down to discuss an issue. If a player is honest with his coach and treats the conversation professionally they should receive an answer. The player may not like the answer, but its up to him to take the advice and run with it.
The other important thing to remember is that a player now has more options to market themselves to coaches. A player might be a back-up, but can still prove to a college coach they have collegiate ability. Getting together any film you have and getting it to a college coach is sometimes enough to gain initial interest. From there its up to the recruit to take the ball and run with it.
Coach Taylor – What does it take to play my sport at each division level?
We get this question a lot at NCSA. There is a lot that goes into an evaluation by a college coach. NCSA has spent the last 10 years evaluating players for college coaches and has a tremendous amount of data stored up. We used this data to develop our Exclusive Recruiting Guidelines to help give recruits an idea of what schools they should realistically be targeting. They are guidelines, not hard fast rules, but they can give recruits an idea of where they fit.
If you’ve read these pages enough, you know that a college decision is a life-altering, life time decision. To make that decision without fully understanding the vast landscape of opportunities available is irresponsible at best and negligent at worst. Another motivation for doing all you can to make a great college choice is found in Bob Greene’s article talking about great, enduring friendship.
I talk to families every day who have no plan on how to pay for college. When I ask the question, “How important is a scholarship when choosing your child’s college?” The typical answer is, ”a scholarship is real important, but s/he is going to college no matter what.” What they mean is that they are willing to borrow all kinds of money, go into all kinds of debt, to make sure the all important degree is obtained. It is clear from these answers that these families are not aware of the quickly changing landscape in lending practices now.
In this article in yesterday’s Washington Post, the rising costs of college and the reduced availability of student loans is documented. The key sentence is, “The upheaval in financial markets did not just eliminate generous lending for home buyers; it also ended an era of easy credit for students and their families facing the soaring cost of a college degree.” Read the entire article. If you need a plan for paying for college and a student who is also a good athlete and enjoys playing their sport, that may be a way to reduce those student loans. To learn more about opening up opportunities to play sports in college so your child’s education can be funded by means other than student loans, go here. If your child is an 8th grader or older and you haven’t begun to plan for college expenses, you’re already late.
The National Bureau of Economic Research declared that the current economic downturn (recession) began in December 2007. In the intervening 2 years, I’ve spoken with about 3,000 families about their child going to college. Naturally, part of that discussion involves how families will pay for college. As seen here, the average cost of a college education is above $30,000 per year. The rate of increase is around 7% per year. If you have a freshman in high school, your college expense will exceed $35,000 per year, on average. These facts have led to some serious discussions between parents and their children on how they’ll pay for college. In some cases, parents of good students are considering the local junior college route to get the core courses out of the way and save a lot of money during the first 2 years. In other cases, the parents have encouraged their children to search for scholarships on the internet. These kids are spending a lot of time doing this. In some cases, parents are giving their children a budget to work with and any expense exceeding that budget will be the responsibility of the child. In short, 99% of the families that I speak with do not have enough money stashed away to pay all college expenses. So they’re at great risk of having their children graduate with a large financial burden called student loans.
Financial Aid has two main categories: grants/scholarships, i.e. money that doesn’t have to be repaid and loans. To see the impact of student loans, read this NY Times article. Because every college and university has different funding sources, financial aid policies, and pools of money available to offset the cost of college, it’s impossible to navigate this process efficiently by yourself. You can’t gather all of the information from all potential schools with less than thousands of hours of grinding research on the internet. Most families don’t have that kind of time. Most don’t know enough about how financial aid is granted to increase any grant or scholarship awards. NCSA has data from thousands of colleges and experts that will help families navigate the financial aid process. One important aspect of this is completing forms correctly and on time. Many families lose need-based aid because of inconsistencies on their FAFSA. Others lose because they’re uncertain on timelines. NCSA’s financial aid experts aid families in navigating financial aid. The most important thing a family can do to increase financial aid if their student is also a talented athlete, is to make sure that there are a number of college coaches recruiting their child.
In my case, my child received recruiting letters from 145 college coaches. About 20 had real genuine interest. My child narrowed those schools down to 3 great academic choices. She’ll graduate from her selected college in May, 2010. She would have never had this opportunity if it wasn’t for the hard work she did and the help we received from NCSA. My return on that investment is she’ll graduate with no student loans. My out-of-pocket expense for all 4 years was less than one semester at her private high school she attended. My return on NCSA’s investment was 6,677%. But the real return is priceless: Four years of playing a sport that she loves, a college degree from one of the top academic universities in the country, developing friendships that last a lifetime, and job interest in a career field that she chose. What parent doesn’t want that for their child? If you need help to get that for your child, go here.
If you’ve read these pages enough, you know that a college decision is a life-altering, life time decision. To make that decision without fully understanding the vast landscape of opportunities available is irresponsible at best and negligent at worst. Another motivation for doing all you can to make a great college choice is found in 
