NCSA College Athletic Scholarships Blog

Around the country, college coaches are huddled around their fax machines, waiting for the NLI’s from student athletes across the country, hoping that in the last seconds their rival school didn’t steal their top recruits. Today, NCSA had the pleasure to watch as one student athlete finally make his dreams come true. Maurice Fleming came into NCSA Headquarters at 8 AM to sign and fax his National Letter of Intent to the Iowa Hawkeyes. He was surrounded by his biggest fans: his mom, his grandma, and his high school coach.

Following this special moment he called his future coach to let him know that the fax was on its way. Both Maurice and the Hawkeye coaching staff could not be more excited for their futures together.

Maurice hopes to make an impact on the field as early as his freshmen year. During an interview with the Daily Iowan, a reporter asked him questions about his future with the Hawkeyes and how he felt switching from the offensive to the defensive side of the ball. Like any true athlete, he said that he was hesitant at first, but he knew that with hard work and his athletic ability, he would be able to transition into his new role as a defensive back just fine.

Despite missing the majority of his senior year due to an ACL tear, Maurice is expected to make a full recovery. He is already at 85% and working out five days a week, and thankful that the Iowa staff stayed loyal to him throughout his injury and recovery. He is prepared to take on the demands of being a college athlete and cannot wait to take the field in black and gold.

Everyone at NCSA is extremely proud of Maurice and cannot wait to watch him continue to be an Athleader,by empowering others to lead through sports and giving back in his community. Congratulations Maurice, you have just opened the doors of the rest of your life.

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.

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.

What is the National Letter of Intent?

The NLI is a binding agreement between a prospective student athlete and an NLI member institution

• A prospective student athlete agrees to attend the institution full time for one academic year (two semesters or three quarters
• The institution agrees to provide financial aid for one academic year 

Penalty for breaking this contract

• Student athletes have to serve one year in residence at the next NLI member institution

• Sit out for one season of competition in all sports

What is Signing Day?

• Signing day is the day you actually sign the NLI

Does every division 1 and 2 athlete sign an NLI?

• Most people will say that every D1 and D2 athlete will sign an NLI, but this is not the case.
• It is not so much about being in a certain division as it is whether or not the school is a member of the NLI program.
• There are 600 schools who participate in the NLI program
• All D1 schools are involved with NLI except for service academies and Ivy league.
• A majority of D2 programs participate in the program
• No D3, NAIA, Prep schools or 2 year colleges participate
• For a complete list of schools who participate in the NLI, visit the NCAA’s website (more…)

The University of North Carolina is polling as the number one team in men’s college basketball. Their highly respected head coach, Roy Williams, shares valuable recruiting insights in his book HARD WORK (Algonquin Books), which I recently read. I highly recommend it, and wanted to share with you some of the parts that specifically deal with recruiting.

NCSA Speaker Charlie Adams speaks with parents after a Talk

Williams started his rise through coaching ranks as an assistant coach at North Carolina. He worked the Tar Heels’ summer camps, then coached by the legendary Dean Smith. Williams writes about how they always wanted to get top prospects to their summer camps so they could watch them in person – and possibly offer a scholarship.

Williams had heard from trusted sources about an up-and-coming young player named Michael Jordan, and invited him to a summer camp. After watching Jordan’s every move during his first scrimmage, Williams told the rest of the staff that Jordan was the best 6’4′ player he had ever seen. Williams writes that Dean Smith had breakfast with Jordan one day, lunch another, and offered Jordan a scholarship before the end of the camp. Jordan didn’t accept the offer, but when he attended the prestigious Five Star camp, he found he had a new shadow: Roy Williams.

“When Jordan went to one court, I followed him. When he moved to another court, I followed him. It was like there was nobody else there. I watched every step he took.”

The next year, Jordan signed with North Carolina.

Williams was an assistant coach at North Carolina for many years, then served as Head Coach at tradition-rich Kansas. He returned to UNC in 2003 to be Head Coach there, and has won two National Championships (and counting) since then. In his book, he writes at length about recruiting:

“I recruit through a process of elimination. If I see a big guy who can’t run, I don’t recruit him because I want our team to run. If I see a point guard who can shoot, but has no savvy, I won’t recruit him, because I need a point guard who makes great decisions. Whenever I go out and recruit, I’m thinking, ‘This is the way I want to play. Can that kid do what I want him to do?’”

“If I am there to watch one individual, I’ll watch every move he makes. If I’m watching a group of players at an All-Star Camp, I wait for somebody to jump out at me and I’ll write his number down on my pad every time he does something I like. One summer I was at a tournament in Louisville and they had four games going at the same time. My assistants had me watching a player on Court 2. Every time the play would stop on my court, I would glance over to Court 3, and number 34 was just killing people. I kept writing down the number 34 over and over. He was so outrageous with his effort and rebounding and how he could run. At some point in the second half I just turned away from my court and started watching number 34. That player’s name was Richard Scott and he ended up being a three-year starter for me at the Kansas.”

Of course, at a top-tier basketball program like the University of North Carolina, a coach has to make talent his number one priority to field a competitive team. Character is his number two priority – ahead of Academics.

“I once had an elementary school principal in Wichita, Kansas, tell me, ‘Coach, I wish you’d say academics is the second priority.’ “No, ma’am,’ I said, “because if he’s a great player and a 4.0 student but he’s going to be a pain in the rear end, I want it to be somebody else’s rear end.”

“I remember going to recruit Marvin Williams, and in one game he had 36 points. But that wasn’t what sold me on him. Marvin fouled out of that game, and while the crowd was giving him a standing ovation, he walked over to the end of the bench and grabbed five cups of water and handed them to the five guys who were going back into the game. I said to myself, ‘I really want this kid.’”

“They have to be kids that I’m going to enjoy being around every day. Since I became a head coach, I’ve had three recruits visit campus that my players thought wouldn’t fit in, so I stopped recruiting all three.”

At the Division One level, recruiting is so competitive that coaches like Williams go all-out to let their top prospects know how much they want them.

“During warm-ups before we (Kansas) played the 1991 national championship game against Duke, I went around the corner from our locker room to a phone and made a recruiting call to Jason Kidd.”

“Shane Battier had the most organized recruitment I’ve ever been involved in. He selected six schools and said he was going to have phone calls every Monday night. Each coach had 15 minutes. I made the phone call every Monday at 9:30.”

Recruiting has accelerated over the years, with coaches identifying prospects at an earlier stage than ever before. Williams writes about it.

“The whole thing is an insane experience. Players are being recruited when they are still just kids. There are guys in 9th and 10th grade thinking about making commitments, and our admissions office will say, ‘How can we decide if a kid should come to college when he hasn’t taken sophomore English?’”

HARD WORK is out in paperback and it has a lot of valuable content that would benefit parents coaches and athletes, especially those who have set playing Division I as their goal. The book also has a companion website with more resources. The video on Coach Williams’ background is inspiring, and will motivate young people to understand the power of a hard work ethic

The Roy Williams Book site

Charlie Adams, Speaker, NCSA Athletic Recruiting Network

cadams@ncsasports.org

‘Stoke the Fire Within!’

To learn more about what level of College Sports you would qualify for at this stage of Recruiting, click here

As of early August, when this year’s Guide for the College Bound Athlete was unveiled, the NCAA adjusted an important recruiting rule regarding Official Visits. Starting this academic year, Senior prospects are allowed to take an unlimited amount of D2 official visits (still with a limit of one per school), just like the D3 rule. However, they included a provision regarding student-athletes that are taking both D1 and D2 visits: If the prospect ends up enrolling and would like to be eligible to participate at the D1 program they take an official visit to, you could have only taken upto 5 official visits between D1-D2 (same rule as last year).

If you are not confused by this, consider yourself one of the smarter ones.  Here a simple breakdown for coaches to understand what this means to them:

D1 Coaches:  Each Prospect is still allowed to take one official visit to your program. They still can not exceed 5 total official visits between your institution and any other D1 or D2 school to be eligible to play at your program.

D2 Coaches: Each Prospect is still allowed to take one official visit to your program. Starting this year, each prospect you recruit is allowed to take as many D2 (and D3/NAIA) official visits as they like.

NAIA Coaches: Unaffected

D3 Coaches: Unaffected

See pages 22-23 the Guide for College Bound Athletes in the official visit section for confirmation of this rule change.

Tough Time Landing Recruits because Your College is Unique?

How many times have you heard that your college is in too rural of an area, too small, or too expensive? NCSA speaks with recruits on a daily basis and we are going to share some of their feedback with you about what’s important in choosing a college or university.  Hopefully you can use this information to turn those objections around and get more recruits interested in your school.

Fact #1:

There are over 3,500 colleges and universities in the United States and approximately over 40% of colleges have an enrollment of 2,000 or less. Also, just over 200 of them have an enrollment of 15,000 or more students

• Perspective One: The number of small colleges far outweigh the typical “college atmosphere” at a larger university. Student-athletes and families are not aware of this and need to be realistic about their chances to play a sport in college are greater at a small college.
• Perspective Two: If you are at a big college which doesn’t receive as much publicity then this is a strong advantage.

Fact # 2:

Approximately over 78% of all colleges are east of Colorado

• Perspective One: Your school is unique and an opportunity to play at a college on the West Coast is limited.
• Perspective Two: The student-athlete needs to be open to your school east of Colorado because their chances of playing in college are limited if they stay in the west.

Fact #3:

Approximately 92% of colleges compete at the division two, three, NAIA, and junior college levels

If your college is more rural and smaller…

• Focus on Academics
  • According to our survey with over one thousand student-athletes, academics were the most important factor in choosing a college
  • The second most important factor was that the college has the major they want to study
  • Student to teacher ratio
  • Lack of travel time in your conference allows more time to concentrate on schoolwork

• You can also focus social side of the college:
  • Relationships / Networking

If your college is expensive…

• Most private schools can usually give more non-need based aid versus public schools depending on the endowment at the college
• Make sure you know your financial aid packages that may be available
  • If a student-athlete knows there is a scholarship available this creates immediate interest
  • If a parent knows they can afford the college then that also creates immediate interest
  • Recruits expressed they may be nervous to ask about scholarship opportunities
  • Parents won’t know how to ask these questions most of the time

If your college is far from the student-athlete’s home…

• Explain that the athletes will have friends (teammates) immediately when they step on campus, a group that they will always be bonded with
• The opportunity to go home through the year is rare anyway, even if you are within driving distance due to being so busy with practice and the season
• This is a chance to experience a different part of the country and new people as well as become independent from their parents

Keeping these tips in mind as you communicate with student-athletes can help them understand your perspective in recruiting and, more importantly, should get them excited about your program!

Making the Most of Your Summer Camp

Every year it seems that both the number and quality of summer camps have increased.  With student-athletes having limited time (and funds) during the summer, it is important to know what ultimately influences a student-athlete to choose a camp and ensure they walk away with a good experience once they arrive.  At NCSA, we have an opportunity to interact with 1,000′s of recruits’ everyday and have shared some of their camp experiences below.

Brett Virgil, a senior at Elmhurst College, attended a major Big 10 college camp going through his own recruiting process.   Brett stated that his absolute favorite part of the summer camp was getting to work with a major college coaching staff. He also realized that attending smaller school camps would have greatly benefited his ability to work 1-on-1 with coaches. This can be a selling point for some lower division camps. Emphasizing the ability of your coaching staff to give a student-athlete college-level coaching in a more personalized setting can be a big “attention grabber” when marketing your camps.

Camps can many times be missing a key ingredient in selling your program; current players.  The benefit of having players on campus or participating in your camp greatly increases the comfort level a prospect has in joining your program. The ability to interact with future teammates puts the prospect at ease in determining whether or not the program is a fit for them. Feedback and small talk with a prospect from a current player during camp has proven to greatly increase a prospective student-athletes interest in the program.

Dan Tudor, of Selling for Coaches, points out that relationship building at camps is the single most important selling point for a program. A coach taking a moment to pull a prospect aside who is on your board greatly increases the chance that you remain high on his or her list.   Dan recently hosted a webinar on the NCSA site on “Building a Perfect Campus Recruiting Visit”.  You can view a recording of the webinar at the following link: http://connectpro96398706.adobeconnect.com/p1za94tstp8/?launcher=false&fcsContent=true&pbMode=normal

These are all thing to consider when making your camp a success during the summer.  Providing great instruction, using current players to connect with recruits, and communicating with student-athletes while they are on campus can be a great benefit in helping you identify recruits and build interest in your school throughout the summer.  It can also help in bringing more prospects to campus and ensuring a good experience while they are there.

Robert Ferguson is the Head men’s & women’s tennis coach at Huntington University.  He was recently named 2010 MCC Coach of the Year.  Robert recently answered a few questions about how he recruits, located below.

1) What do you look for when evaluating a potential recruit?

Obviously talent and skill along with good academic results form the basis of our initial evaluation. After that, I look at the player’s personality and how they will mesh with our current players. A good work ethic and a desire to improve are a few more of the variables that round out our evaluations of a recruit. More often than not, it takes far more than being a good athlete for me to offer a recruit a spot on our team. I look at the “whole package”.

2) How do you initially reach out to a recruit?

Generally, a first contact by me or a member of my coaching staff is made through an introductory type e-mail. We inform the recruit that they appear to be someone we would like more information on and would like to follow up with a phone call.

3) Discuss your 1st call strategy for a recruit?

During our initial phone conversation I ask general questions about what the recruit is looking for in terms of a college and a tennis program to find out if we’re both on the same page. Surprisingly, I ask very few tennis related questions because I generally research a player’s tennis background before I commit to a phone call. The call is usually short and I make sure to tell the recruit what the next step is in our recruiting process and arrange to schedule another call, e-mail or visit.

4) How often do you communicate with your recruits?

That depends on where we both are in terms of the recruiting process. A top recruit that seems interested in our program will usually hear from me or one of my assistants once a week. A recruit that seems to be shopping around for offers may hear from us every two weeks and a recruit that we would like to have but shows no sign of interest, maybe once a month.

5) How do you “Close” a recruit when you want them to commit?

Our recruiting style is very relaxed and one on one. After we lay out what the school and tennis program has to offer them and we feel they are a good fit with our team, we ask for a formal commitment from them. We don’t pressure a recruit to commit, but we do make them aware that no matter how much we would like for them to become a player in our program, there is a small window of opportunity for them to make a decision.

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

I would suggest the coach should be aware of admissions requirements and to work closely with the financial aid office on preparing an offer package to a recruit. Always be honest when talking to a prospect about playing time and where they currently fit in the line-up. In other words, never offer more than you can deliver.