NCSA College Athletic Scholarships Blog

Coach Holton Named Conference Coach of the Year

1. How would you describe yourself as a coach?

 Enthusiastic and hard-working

2. What’s unique about the experience at Avila University?

A small, intimate college campus located in a safe, quiet suburb of a large city.

3. What do recruits need to know about you?

I always look for and expect the best out of them.

4. What do you look for in recruits?

Dedication to improving their golf game, a positive, can-do attitude,

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

Spend time researching the school and the team, it’s previous record as a team and the commitment from the coaching staff

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

Do you work with us on our golf skills/swings. How dedicated are the other players? Do you have any suggestions on how I can get better over the summer to get ready for college competition?

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

Impatience or frustration from the recruit with his/her golf game/shots. An attitude that they know everything about the golf swing or their game already.

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

 Developing the tournament performance of the players from when they come in as Freshman to the next year/years when they can really see improvement in their scores.

9. Why should a recruit consider your program?

 If they love the game of golf and really want to improve, and if they want to play for a successful, winning organization. I hate to see recruits go to programs where I know they won’t find much structure to the organization.

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

Call my cell phone or email me directly

1. How would you describe yourself as a coach?

Fairly laid back. I have been doing it for 25 years and have seen lots of changes. I try to work with the player’s on course thinking.

2. What’s unique about the experience at Turman State?

The thing about Truman State University is that we try to fit the golf into the academic life of the student/athlete. This is a very demanding academic atmosphere and golf comes after classes in the priority of our golfers.

3. What do recruits need to know about you?

I will try to be as honest as possible with them at all times. I am not the type that stays on their case, if they want to improve, then we are here to help, but we are not going to force them.

4. What do you look for in recruits?

We look for golfers that are very strong students and are self-motivated individuals.

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

Respond back to coaches, if you are not interested in a school, tell the coach that fact. It saves time for the coach and for the recruit. Most coaches have been turned down before and will be turned down again in the future.

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

I really prefer that they ask questions of my players so that they can see what really goes on in the program.

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

When the communication is by the parents and NOT by the athlete.

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

Having our golfers graduate on schedule and having them become successful in their professions.

9. Why should a recruit consider your program?

That is a hard one, they are going to finish with an excellent education at a reasonable cost.

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

Email is great and they can sell themselves. Phone calls are okay, but unless they catch me in the office, I can not return calls until the NCAA dates for that.

Recently, I’ve had a number of conversations with 2008 HS grads who didn’t receive any help in the recruiting process.  These are student-athletes playing various sports at D1, D2, D3, and the Juco level.   These conversations were also with student-athletes who never got the chance to play beyond high school.   One thing was common to all I spoke with:  They didn’t receive any help in the recruiting process.  All expressed a wish to do the process over.  Of course, they’ll never have that chance.

I’ve also spoken with over 6,000 families about recruiting and I understand what their hopes, dreams, and desires are.   To put them in a few categories would be unfair.  Every situation is unique to that family.  So each definition of success is unique.  However, there are some common themes that emerge – in no particular order.  First, a large number of families define recruiting success as getting scholarship money to play a sport in college.  For those who have read these pages and all of our education materials, you realize that scholarships are more likely to be “partial” not “full” scholarships.  Second, recruiting success is attending a college where the student-athlete gets to play.  Over 80% of the student athletes I speak with would like to play during their freshman year in college.  Most student-athletes have never sat the bench in their lives.  Third, parents want to ensure that their children graduate.  Most realize that a child’s success in the classroom will correlate with their success on the playing field.  Those parents want the college coach to care as much for their child as they do.  Fourth, student-athletes want to play at a college where they can study what they want.  Most parents don’t realize that this isn’t available at all colleges.  Some are shocked to find out that some college coaches dictate the degrees their student-athletes can pursue.  Finally, adults realize better than their children that the college decision will impact their child for the rest of their lives.  That’s at least 60 years in this day and age.  Getting that decision right is crucial!

So knowing all of this, why do parents insist on entering the recruiting process without competent help?  Why do they think that the “fan in the stands” who had their 2^nd cousin, once removed get recruited knows anything about college recruiting?  Why do parents think that someone who was recruited 20 years ago, know about recruiting today?  Why would a student-athlete rely on the high school coach in this process?  Most HS coaches don’t have the time or resources to help a child find “Recruiting Success”.  They don’t spend enough time getting to know the family to find out what that definition of success is.  Why do parents spend thousands of dollars on activities that will not help their child get recruited?  I’ve heard of families sending their kids to Australia, Hawaii, Europe, and other exotic destinations thinking this will help their child’s recruiting resume.  This is a foolish waste of resources if you have limited funds to devote to recruiting success. 

What is recruiting success?  It’s what you define it to be.  But a family needs to clearly write down those expectations so they can achieve success.  If you need expert help to achieve recruiting success, click here.

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!!

After watching and reading why coaches really use NCSA I hope you don’t make the same mistake I made for years;  Maximize your Recruiting Potential with NCSA.

Send your recruiting questions to askcoachtaylor@ncsasports.org

If you would like to speak with a NCSA Recruiting Coordinator about your personal recruiting situation, call 866-579-6272.

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.

Baseball Recruiting Guidelines

Men’s Basketball Recruiting Guidelines

Women’s Basketball Recruiting Guidelines

Men’s Cross Country Recruiting Guidelines

Women’s Cross Country Recruiting Guidelines

Field Hockey Recruiting Guidelines

Football Recruiting Guidelines

Water Polo Recruiting Guidelines

Men’s Golf Recruiting Guidelines

Women’s Golf Recruiting Guidelines

Ice Hockey Recruiting Guidelines

Men’s Lacrosse Recruiting Guidelines

Women’s Lacrosse Recruiting Guidelines

Soccer Recruiting Guidelines

Softball Recruiting Guidelines

Swimming Recruiting Guidelines

Men’s Tennis Recruiting Guidelines

Women’s Tennis Recruiting Guidelines

Men’s Track and Field Recruiting Guidelines

Women’s Track and Field Recruiting Guidelines

Men’s Volleyball Recruiting Guidelines

Women’s Volleyball Recruiting Guidelines

Wrestling Recruiting Guidelines

Send your recruiting questions to askcoachtaylor@ncsasports.org

If you would like to speak with a NCSA Recruiting Coordinator about your personal recruiting situation, call 866-579-6272.

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.

Recruiting testimonial from Allison Kippers who will be a freshman on the McNeese State University women’s golf team fall 2010.

When I first began playing golf, I never would have thought that I would have advanced to the game I have today. Before joining with NCSA, I was emailing colleges like I was supposed to. I sent them my transcript, my resume, and a nice statement of interest, but I never got anything back.

Once I joined with NCSA, they told me that the reason I was not getting anything was because the emails being sent weren’t from someone of professional stature: being NCSA. They took the same material I sent before, and sent them to colleges, again. The change in responses was phenomenal. I was getting actual scholarship offers rather than simple letters of interest. It was amazing.

The only regret I have with joining with NCSA my senior year is that I wish I would have joined my sophomore year. The amount of colleges that would have shown interest would have been significantly different. Once with NCSA, the recruiting process of simple. I just sat back and watched the emails roll in.

 The only tough part was letting the colleges that had interest in me know that I had just signed with another college, and would not be attending their college.

If you are questioning whether or not to join with NCSA, do join. They will get you signed with a college. They actually care about your success and future, which was a bright surprise for me. So keep up the hard work, improve your game, maintain a good GPA, and join NCSA. You are guaranteed to get a scholarship with them.

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.

I had a chance to talk to University of Indianapolis women’s golf coach Ken Piepenbrink to get his thoughts on the recruiting process. He has turned the U of Indy into one of the Division II national powers. One of his golfers, Lindsay McBride, was the individual National Champion not too long ago. Here is what he had to say:

“Charlie, I am getting recruiting letters from freshmen in High School. They tell me what tourneys they will be in and get me video, which is very helpful. I see where they are skill-wise. When I go to Junior Tour events and see a list of who is competing, their name jumps out and I watch for them.

Recruiting has accelerated. Here in Indiana, the girls State Tournament is over in September. I start hearing from seniors then. Well, I was done recruiting their class in August before their senior year started. I already have a short list of juniors. It is about starting early, especially if you want to compete at a high level.

Summer Tournaments in golf are very important. It’s what you do in the Summer. To me, it shows how committed you are. I put kids on my recruiting list and if they keep improving, they get more stars. If not, they get knocked off. I am looking at attitude and at sportsmanship. You are selling yourself. I really pay attention to parents. If they are overbearing then I think that this could be a problem down the line.

I like young people that show an interest in our University first and then the golf team. Academics are very important. Just about all the girls on our golf team get full tuition paid for because of their academic success.”

Coach Ken Piepenbrink

University of Indianapolis Women’s Golf Coach

Charlie Adams

Speaker, NCSA Athletic Recruiting Network

cadams@ncsasports.org

To Talk with a College Recruiting Expert on How to be Successfully Recruited by College Golf Coaches click here