NCSA College Athletic Scholarships Blog

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

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 had a long conversation with a mother and father whose daughter, a soccer player, had just found the right fit for college.

She was found by the college coach when he was looking at another recruit’s video. The other recruit was not clearly identified on the video, and the college coach noticed their daughter making plays on it. This is why you cannot make college coaches play detective in trying to figure out where you are on video, or some other kid will get a scholarship off your tape. I have found the NCSA guidance in this area critical. An arrow pointing at the recruit at the start of a play is very important. One of the points of College Recruiting Simplified is to make a “winning Highlight/Skills video.” The key word there is ‘winning.’ Families often have no idea how much more successful they will be in recruiting if they had a better understanding of how to work the video process. I continue to be amazed at how many families don’t even have a plan for it, and don’t have video of their kid – even as 12th graders sometimes!

The mother, father and daughter made several unofficial visits during her High School days. The young lady evaluated out to be a NAIA or D3 player, so they met with several coaches. One young head coach got all wound up during their meeting and talked about how they would have a “D1 mentality” at the D3 school. He was a little too gung-ho. They appreciated his fever and enthusiasm, but wanted to find someone a little calmer. They continued the process, made more visits, and found a school with a veteran coach who still had the fire for coaching. It wasn’t the reason they picked the school. Their major reason was the school would allow her to grown in her faith, athletics and academics, but they felt this particular coach had the calm, steady approach and decades of experience to better fit her. Now, the next kid might eat up that other coach’s wound-up approach. It’s all part of getting out there and finding the right fit. I spoke at the Mizuno Mid East Regional Volleyball Qualifiers in Indianapolis earlier this year. I talked with one mother whose daughter had already been on three unofficial visits in the Fall of her junior year, and was close to firming up the right fit. It was because she was “out there.”

For an Evaluation of your College Recruiting potential

Charlie Adams

NCSA Senior Speaker

cadams@ncsasports.org

In this article by Curtis Eichelberger found on Bloomberg News today, you can read about the advantage students who play sports in college receive in employment after college.  You should read the entire article, but here’s the money quote:

“Athletes can bring something extra that’s necessary for success in finance, Werner said.

“In a business where it tends to knock you down a lot, they tend to get back up,” he said. “That drive, that level of discipline, the rigor they have in their own personal lives and their willingness to take on hard challenges; a lot of that gets taught to you on an athletic field.”

NCSA is THE Athletic Recruiting Network.  We empower our student-athletes in their chosen careers through our network of employers who hire student athletes.  You can find out more about that here.

When we sent out our newsletter promoting everyone to share their sports story with us, we had the privilege of getting in contact with a student athlete’s mother, who wanted to share her son Luke’s very inspirational story with us.

His story is an inspirational journey through adversity, set in a football environment. Like many of student athletes in high school who have also shared their stories with us, Luke was a high school football player anxious to finally play on Friday nights with the varsity team his junior year at Edison High School in California.

The week before two-a-days, July 2008, Luke developed a nosebleed that lasted over 2 hours. After going to the hospital, the Gane’s were told that Luke had a rare blood disorder called Severe Aplastic Anemia, which is known to be fatal. The bone marrow in your body, when you have this disorder begins to rapidly malfunction and ceases to produce more new blood cells. The Gane family saw this nosebleed as a very important “blessing-in-disguise” because if it did not occur, one big hit during football practice would have caused internal hemorrhaging, killing him.

A month later, Luke under went chemotherapy, but it became evident that he was in need of a bone marrow transplant. Coming from a family of 5 boys, they tested the family and found that two of his brothers were a match. When Jim, Luke’s father, asked who wanted to volunteer to be Luke’s donor, both brother’s hands shot up, but it was 10 year old Jacob Gane’s hand that went up first. The surgery was a success! The Gane’s community was extremely supportive in anyway they could, setting up multiple fundraisers, when the Gane family had not asked for anything.

Luke fought back extremely well and made a full recovery! He was able to play every game, both ways, his senior year.  He helped lead his team to an undefeated regular season, losing only in the CIF championships to a rival team that supported Luke during his illness.  Luke Gane then found himself accepting an offer as a preferred walk-on at UCLA for football beginning this Fall!

We are very grateful to  for sharing her family’s story with us. If you have your own inspirational sports story that you would like to share with us and countless student athletes and their families across the nation, please submit yours today on our “What’s Your Story” Facebook page! We’d love to hear your story!

If you are interested in reading more about Luke Gane’s incredible journey, here are some places to find out more:

Luke Gane Video

Luke Gane’s Blog

Every parent should listen to what Jim Dunfee and his daughter Alex have to say about recruiting. Just because your child is very good at their sport, it does NOT mean college coaches will find them. Families have to be proactive in recruiting. Just ask the Dunfee family.

Jim’s daughter Alex was an All State catcher at one of the powerhouse programs in the state of Indiana, Penn High. She had the tools to be a legitimate Division One player, but because they did not understand recruiting, her dream of playing at that level never came true. To this day, her father still shakes his head about what happened.

“We took so many left turns in the recruiting process when we should have gone right,” he says now. “We didn’t know of NCSA back then. We didn’t know about guidance in the recruiting process.”

Jim, of Weichert Realtors and Jim Dunfee and Associates in the South Bend, IN area. Jim and his wife Mary watched as their daughter Alex shined as an athlete in Middle School. She stood apart from the rest. She reached varsity starting catcher status as a sophomore at Penn. She would go on to earn All Conference honors three times, All State honors twice, and she was an Indiana All Star. In one season she had 34 RBI in 30 games. Alex set numerous school records. She was also a very good basketball player. She worked countless hours to become as good as she could be athletically. Academically, she carried a 3.8 GPA. She had everything but the knowledge of how to get connected with college coaches. In my Talks I always tell audiences this whole thing is like a tripod. You have to have the athletic ability, the academics, and you must know how to play the recruiting game!

This is a young lady that should have played at the mid Division One level. The Dunfee’s were very realistic in what level she could play college. They weren’t overshooting for places like UCLA or Tennessee. They knew the mid D1 level was just right – schools like Central Michigan, Akron or Miami of Ohio. The problem was that those programs didn’t know her.

“We were too passive early,” Jim said. “We thought things would fall into place. If I had another stud athlete I would know it’s more about packaging and promoting. She would have had offers from schools in the Mid American Conference. But we waited until the end of the junior year and every program we talked to said ‘we have already made our offers to the catchers.’ No one had room! Now I tell Dads that these college programs start early. They start watching at the 8th grade level!”

“I have lived in the South Bend area all my life,” Jim added. “My perception about Notre Dame Football was that college coaches will see your clippings. We thought that’s how recruiting worked in all sports. Our daughter was good, so we assumed she would get chased and we would end up choosing the college. What we learned is you have to manufacture their desire.”

Charlie Adams speaks on the Recruiting Process around the World

Alex played Travel Softball and traveled to events in such locations as Florida, Colorado and St. Louis. “She hit a home run right in front of the stands filled with college coaches,” said Jim. “Eastern Illinois acted interested after the game but we never heard from them. What we learned is that the college coaches were at these showcases and club tournaments with lists of players they were actively recruiting. They wanted to be seen by those players they were courting. They were not looking to discover talent. At that time, we didn’t know you needed to have the means to get on their lists, and you didn’t feel right in telling them about your player at the Travel events. They came across in an elitist way where they did not want to be bothered. They had their list of players.”

“We got to the end of Alex’s junior year at Penn and no offers were coming our way. In a panic mode, we started visiting schools like Central Michigan. Their coaches said if they had known of her she would have been their catcher, but they had already made their offers for the class of ’08. Their scholarship money had been doled out. The other schools we started writing said that their catcher needs were filled.”

In a late scramble, they connected with the University of Southern Indiana, a Division Two program. They were surprised that Alex had not connected with a D1 program.

“What was frustrating,” Jim said, “was watching her play in games for Southern Indiana when they played against D1 programs. They had catchers that were not as talented as her. That’s when it hit me that it’s not always about talent but how you structure recruiting. What you have to do is start freshmen year with the way to contacting college coaches, develop a rapport, and stay on their radar by updating your schedule and accomplishments. You have to start early and stay in touch.”

After her sophomore year at USI Alex quit playing softball and transferred to Purdue, where she is focusing on being a student. I got word to Alex that I wanted to hear her insights on recruiting. After one of her classes at Purdue, she contacted me. She had taken the time to write down some notes of points she wanted to emphasize. She had some valuable observations for families out there:

“Charlie, I started too late. When you are 14 or 15 you have to start the process as far as being recruited. It got on it between my junior and senior years at Penn High. College coaches emailed me back and said their slots at catcher were filled.”

“I was very successful in High School. I thought my stats and reputation would get me noticed, but they didn’t. Looking back, I really liked playing High School softball more than Travel because I felt there was more camaraderie in High School. In Travel, it was more show up and play. But, what I learned is that Travel is more important when it comes to College exposure. However, you have to have a way to communicate with the College coaches so they know who you are in Travel ball. You need to contact College coaches and send them to links. A lot of the College Softball coaches want you to go to their Winter camps. I would suggest you establish a relationship with that College coach before going so they know your face. Otherwise there might be 100 players there and you don’t really stand out. I can’t speak for all the other sports, but Softball is one where you have to do a lot of work in recruiting. As you develop relationships, have a way to send them your schedule. Also, College coaches don’t want to hear from parents. They want to hear from you. As far as Travel ball, to me it was a lot of politics. College coaches followed the teams that had success in the past. That’s why you have to email them to know where to find you. Otherwise, you hope you get lucky and they catch you out of the corner of their eye as they go by to watch those teams they always follow.”

“Another thing I learned too late was how important video is in recruiting. In softball you need a Skills video.”

“Softball recruiting is changing so fast. My coaches at Southern Indiana were getting emails from good 14 year olds. Her roster is set for the next two years.”

“I got started too late. In the summer between my junior and senior year I got discouraged and started to settle on going on to be a regular student in College, but I knew I would have regrets later in life if I had not tried to play College softball. Two of my JV coaches had played at the University of Southern Indiana, so they got me connected there. Because I got started with recruiting so late, all I got was $600 for books. All of the other money had been slotted.”

“Another thing I would say is don’t be humble when it comes to recruiting. By nature, I am a humble person. I don’t like to talk about myself, but that hurt me. You have to let them know your accomplishments. Ask your High School and Travel coaches to call College coaches. They should want to help that way.”

“I believe it is really important athletes pick a College for the school first and then the sport. Because I got started late I was only able to connect with Southern Indiana. I went there strictly for softball. Although I met a lot of really good people there, that school was not a fit for me. I wasn’t happy. I transferred after two years and am now at Purdue as a regular student.”

“Through all of this I went from someone who loved Softball so much to a point where the love of the game just wasn’t the same. Now, I want to focus on being a person. Sports were everything to me growing up, and I didn’t develop in other areas like I wanted to.”

Alex is doing very well as a student at Purdue. Thank you, Alex, for such important observations.

Today, Jim Dunfee still shakes his head at the recruiting process. He wants other families to know that you have to understand the recruiting game and that you have to work it.

“I have told other parents and athletes at Penn and other schools that you can’t think that just because you are at a big school and you are ranked 4th in the state that coaches will come after you. Ashlee Zappia at South Bend St. Joseph’s is a player that was a year behind Alex. Her mother turned into a PR machine. Sure enough, she got to Miami of Ohio.”

My thanks to Jim Dunfee and his daughter Alex for sharing these hard hitting observations. Recruiting is a once-in-a-lifetime experience. You get one shot. If Jim had it to do over again, they would have worked the recruiting much harder.

Alex Dunfee was on the Indiana All Star team. She was All State, All Conference and one of the best athletes in school history. Her academics were outstanding. If a student-athlete of her stature went under the recruiting radar, what does that say about athletes with fewer accomplishments?

To talk in detail with a College Scout about the Recruiting Process, click here

Charlie Adams

Recruiting Expert, NCSA Athletic Recruiting Network

cadams@ncsasports.org

In this article about Ben Garland, it’s easy to see why he’s where he is.  He set goals from a very early age and that was his compass that directed him to where he is.  Here are two quotes from the article: 

As a little boy, Ben Garland clutched a poster of the Air Force Thunderbirds, the planes roaring into the sky, and he knew exactly what he wanted to be. He pinned that poster to his bedroom wall, beside the pictures of John Elway, and he told his mother, Syndee, he was going to the Air Force Academy someday.

”Can you imagine you had two dreams as a little kid?” he asks one day at Broncos training camp, where he is trying to make the team as a defensive end. ”One to be a pilot in the Air Force and one to play for the Broncos? Not just any team. The Broncos. And now you have both opportunities before you?”

If you’re a student-athlete reading this, you must set specific, measureable, attainable goals that are time-bound.  This will eliminate procrastination and put you in a position to be recruited to play the sport you love.  If you’re a parent reading this, teaching your children goal setting skills will empower them to achieve great things.  If either of you need help in setting S.M.A.R.T goals, NCSA teaches goal setting skills.  If you wish to play in college and don’t know how to begin, call 866-579-6272 or go here.

Read about Ave Maria University softball from head coach Tim Speakman as he offers some information to our coaches corner:

1. How would you describe yourself as a coach?

I see myself more as a Mentor than a Coach. I am here for greater reasons than coaching softball. I am here to mentor these young ladies at one of the most crucial stages of their lives. They are here to get an education and to improve their skills as young adults in order to be a productive and positive influence in our society. Softball is only a small piece of the puzzle but they can learn important life skills while being a part of a collegiate sport that requires discipline, hard work, and commitment.

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

Ave Maria University is a vibrant liberal arts university located in beautiful Southwest Florida. It is an academic institution that pledges faithfulness to the teachings of the Catholic Church and is committed to providing one of the be finest classical liberal arts curricula available.

3.What do recruits need to know about you?

I am here to help them to continue to grow as young adults and to provide them with experiences that will hopefully help them later in life. I will also be monitoring their educational progress to make sure that they are staying on track to reach their ultimate goal, and that is a great education.

4.What do you look for in recruits?

I look for young ladies that represent themselves and their families with a “positive image”. When you play a collegiate sport you are representing not only yourself, your family, but also an entire university, therefore I recruit student athletes with “high character”. I also look for student athletes that are not an academic risk. I want them to stay here at our university for 4 years and get their degree and that takes a great deal of self discipline and commitment to be able to juggle their academics and a collegiate sport.

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

Be honest with yourself and the coaches that are recruiting you. Research the university in every way possible before you make a commitment to make sure that it provides your needs for the education that you desire and the atmosphere for which you will be exposed to.

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

What can your university provide me for the education that I desire? This tells me that their education is important to them. Where do you see me fitting into your softball program? This gives them an idea as to where they will fit in to the program and if this is where they want to be for the next 4 years.

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

Long e-mails with a life background!!!! Keep e-mails short and to the point and include important information such as ACT/SAT , GPA, and game schedules. Coaches want to see grades, scores, and ability by personal evaluation.

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

Providing one of the best liberal arts educations in the world and being able to play collegiate softball in one of the most competitive states (Florida) for women’s fast pitch softball .

9.Why should a recruit consider your program?

We will provide them with one of the best educations they could possibly receive in one of the most beautiful areas in the United States. On the softball side of things we are committed to building a program that will compete for conference as well as national championships.

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

Send me a brief e-mail with important information such as: ACT/SAT scores, desired path for their future education, and how and when I would be able to evaluate them as an athlete.

Have you seen the new NCSA video site?  In an effort to further promote our student-athletes we have launched the NCSA College Recruiting Videos Site.  http://www.ncsasports.org/college-recruiting-videos
To celebrate its launch we are giving away an iPad to the video with the most Facebook “Likes.”  How can you win?  It’s simple, just search for and send out your video to your family and friends.  Ask them to hit the “Like” button.

• You can email it
• You can Post it on Facebook, Twitter, and MySpace
• You can tell your friends to look you up

You can spread your video in any way you think up!  The contest will run through July 26th at 12 p.m.

NCSA recently asked Coach Stupek from Shasta College – a few recruiting questions, and here’s what he wrote:

1. How would you describe yourself as a coach? I am tough and fair and mostly fun…….we have a great time here and love doing what we do.

2. What is unique about the experience at Shasta College? Northern California, beautiful Lakes/Rivers and warm weather and a veteran coaching staff (2 coaches over 20 yrs here and 2 more that played baseball here in the 1960’s!!)

3. What do recruits need to know about you? Cal-JC’s are non-scholarship by nature but we do offer Financial aid and work study and it is very affordable to come here.

4. What do you look for in recruits? Positive attitudes-good work ethic that is reflected by their grades and coaches recommendations.

5. What is the one thing every recruit needs to do with the recruiting process? It’s a process, filled with paperwork and  potholes. One “No” answer is just an opportunity to find a better fit. Be diligent, ask questions, be positive!

6. What sort of questions do you really like to hear from recruits? Grades-classes-moving on questions. I look positively at a player who looks at the big picture……wants to move on and do better, BIG THINKERS!

7. What turns you off when you are recruiting a student athlete? Negative talk about former players/coaches/schools….let the buyer beware that you are probably next in line.

8. What do you think your program is the most successful at? We have been very successful (1,000 games-700 wins) but we have more many on to quality institutions after their time here is done. We are continually in the top 10 in State Team GPA (83 schools) and have won the top award 3 times!

9. Why should a recruit consider your program? Winning on the field-veteran leadership-beautiful location-big picture mentality-plus we have a lot of fun doing it

10. If a recruit is interested in your program, how should they reach out to you? Sonny Stupek sstupek@shastacollege.edu 530-209-6358 cell1