NCSA College Athletic Scholarships Blog

1. What do you look for in recruits?

I look for recruits who can be competitive at the NCAA D2 level, who are also good students and good people.

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

Start with the NCAA Eligibility Center Application as early as possible.

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

I like to hear that recruits have looked into the school and feel that it would be a good academic fit.

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

There are two main things that every year will stop me from recruiting a student athlete: one, a student-athlete who does not have positive recommendations from his/her coaches and two, a student-athlete who does not have decent grades.

5. Why should a recruit consider your program?

We are striving for team success without compromising individual achievement. We are such a young program, an athlete can come in and have a good opportunity to make an impact on the team and put their name in the record books. I take my athletes to the highest quality meets possible and really give them a great experience to race against the best.

1. How would you describe yourself as a coach?

I am very much an athlete-oriented coach. I do my best to help in the development of my athletes for their sport, but also work to provide good leadership and role-modeling to help them develop at students and people. It isn’t just about running, it also includes lessons in life.

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

We are very much a team-oriented program. We set team goals first, then move on to individual goals. The college is also a small school atmosphere. Class sizes are small. All classes are taught by the professors, NOT T.A.s.

3. What do recruits need to know about you?

As competitive as I am, I do believe in the big picture. I am not a win at all costs kind of coach and work to have our team feel like a family.

4. What do you look for in recruits?

Good attitude, potential. Commitment to the team concept.

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

Be sure that the school is a good fit for you. Don’t look at the DIs and plan on going their just because it is a DI school. Be sure it is a good fit and that you have the opportunity to be successful in all areas.

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

How would they fit in. What is the team atmosphere like…

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

If the first question is about scholarship, tends to make me think they are competing for the wrong reasons.

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

Developing students into well rounded people that are going to be successful in all areas of their life, not just athletics.

9. Why should a recruit consider your program?

Eleven consecutive years to nationals and a program that has fun doing it.

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

Email or phone.

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.

1. How would you describe yourself as a coach?

As a coach I am very interested in feedback from my athletes. I am constantly asking for their opinions on how they feel.  I have the long to short approach as a sprint coach. Meaning early in the year we will be doing lots of over distance work, hills, hitting the weight room hard, and extensive core work. As we move into November we will begin interval work on the track. As we move through the season we do fewer reps, but do them faster and at a higher intensity. This is done to promote speed development after the athlete has a good cardiovascular base in place. I have had great success will athletes steadily improving every race throughout the season. As an example, we had a female 400 runner last year who came in with a 58.9 outdoor PR. Here are her 400 times as she progressed through our program.

Indoor 59.76, 58.12, 58.10, 57.48, 57.11* Indoor All American

Outdoor: 58.25, 56.4, 56.28, 56.25, 55.70, 55.32, 55.18, 55.17 *7^th place at nationals

As you can see she improved nearly every meet!

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

Indiana Tech provides several things other smaller Universities can’t provide. First as a school of 3,000 students, our average class size is 15-19 students. However, where we differ from other small schools is that we are Located in Fort Wayne, Indiana (population of nearly 300,000 people). This not only allows for great interaction with professors in the classroom, but great internship opportunities throughout the city. We look to get our students into their field right away as a freshman, meeting future references and making sure it is the right fit for their career. Our professors are required to have 18 office hours free every week and we offer free tutoring in every major. I feel our academic and city experience make us a very unique school. As an added bonus, Indiana Tech does not charge for books!
3. What do recruits need to know about you?

Wow, lot of things I could put here. However, the biggest thing is that I am a coach about self improvement. At the end of the day track and field is about bettering yourself. I tailor every athlete’s workouts to make them the best athlete they can be. You may not always like me Monday through Thursday at practice, but after the race on Friday or Saturday you will love the results. I am very passionate about the sport and my athlete’s development, but I do still like to joke and make the sport fun.
4. What do you look for in recruits?

Obviously in track some talent is needed to be great at the sport. However, what I look for are people who are willing to put in the work. Our program is not easy and if you have bad work ethic chances are you will not make it. If you follow the program I have in place, you will get better. You don’t have to be the best when you come to our program, if you have the desire I will make you good! We also look for people that will get along with others, have strong leadership abilities, and know that going to class is very important. I am willing to work with anyone regardless of talent level if I can tell they are always giving me their best. Whether it’s a girl trying to go 11.5 or 13.0 if you do the work I enjoy making you better. Two examples from our program.

Adella King: High school PR’s of 12.67, 26.88. and 63.5. She put in the work, did everything we asked of her and has improved by leaps and bounds. She made it to indoor nationals in 3 events; the 60 (6.80), 200 (25.31), and 4 x 400 (57.2). All Lifetime best!

At the other end of the spectrum I had a male athlete come to me who had never run track in his life before college. He works hard, gives his all in practice, but is just not as physically gifted as some of our other athletes. Our goal for him was to break 60 for the 400. He started off with a 65 and as the season progressed he eventually ran a 59.4. That was just a rewarding as a coach as anything Adella did for the program.

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

Ask Questions! As a coach I can talk all day about our program, but the more questions you ask the more interested I think you are. If you just answer coach’s questions and barely talk it makes it hard for the coach to gauge your interest level. If someone is interested in our program I will give them a very high level of interest. You don’t have to brag or put down your high school program, but tell us about your training, what you want from a school, and please ask questions!

The other thing I would say is don’t bring in any biases or preconceived notions about a school or program into the process. Just because a school is division 1 does not mean they have a great program and just because they are D-2, D-3, or NAIA does not mean they don’t. Look at the academics, the coaching staff, and the program, not the name on the front of the jersey. Also, make sure you take academics seriously in high school. If you don’t have the grades you can’t get an athletic scholarship as a freshman. This will also increase your chances for more academic money to be awarded.

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

When can I sign my letter of intent?

But seriously, there are a lot of things I like to hear from recruits through phone calls and emails. I love being asked about our training program. I am so confident in the results and want the athlete to know what to expect when they join our program. I also like to hear them ask about how our current members are doing. Our team has had great success in two years and sharing what our athletes accomplished on the track is very rewarding. There are very few bad questions in the recruiting process. I would recommend making a list of things you want in your college/athletic program and that way you will always have something to ask any coach that calls.

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

Can I get a full ride? Some variation of this question comes up weekly. I can tell you from personal experience both as an athlete who went through the process and as a coach, very few track athletes graduate having paid nothing for their education. I understand that money will play a huge factor in many athletes decision, but the idea that you won’t pay a penny is often a false hope. Most of our athletes between academic money, athletic money, government grants (free money), and Work study have between 70-90 percent of their tuition paid for. At every level track and field rarely has athletes who have a “full ride.”

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

As a program I feel our biggest success has been in not only developing our athletes to their potential, but also keeping them injury free in the process. In my two years at Indiana Tech I have had 1 athlete miss a total of 1 meet. Now this in part to the way I coach, but we have a great training staff, and a secret weapon! We utilize a local running store in town that we take all our athletes to. The store puts all new athletes on a treadmill and films them running for about a minute. After that they review the tape, they bring out shoes based on the way the athlete runs. (IE a pair of Brooks, Nike, and Mazuno that fit your style and needs). They let you run around the store and make sure you like the feel of the shoe. This has helped us keep our athletes in the right shoes. With us footing the bill for the shoes it is never a problem making sure our athletes have the best match possible

9. Why should a recruit consider your program?

If you come to Indiana Tech and have a desire to be the best runner you can be, I will make you great. I have the utmost confidence in the system we have in place and those that buy in have seen the results. We have an athlete names Tiffany Aikin in our program. She had a career best of 9.27 in the 60 hurdles coming into this year. She really bought into the program myself and coach Cammack our hurdle technique coach had put in place. She did the miles, she lifted, she did her hurdle drills, and wow did it pay off. She dropped her time down to 8.81 and finished 5^th at nationals! I was so proud of her for all the work she put in to achieve that.

The other thing I really feel helps our program is caliber of meets we attend. We are not afraid to race anyone in any division. We are more concerned with running as fast as we can during the season then going to meets with less competition and winning events. Our meet schedule this year includes:

Indiana University, Purdue University, Grand Valley State University, Hillsdale College, Wake Forrest, Penn Relays, and Louisville University among others.

Every meet we attend has NCAA divisions 1-3, junior college, NAIA, and most have professional runners. Track unlike any other college sport allows you to race anyone you want. Last year at the Hillsdale Gina Relays our freshman Renyae Owsley finished 2^nd in the 400, the lady who beat her was Katie Waits (The U.S. Indoor champion at 800 meters), that same meet also saw our women’s 4 x 400 relay beat the University of Michigan head to head!

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.

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.

Nobody enjoys writing about saddening events, especially when these events occur in the world of sports. Sport, at its very core, is merely a game played by people of all ages. Regardless of the ability or the age, anyone involved in a sport is there for their passion and love of the game. To mix sports with tragedy is seldom necessary, but when it occurs, it should be discussed to learn valuable lessons. I feel compelled to write about a recent piece of news that has shocked the sporting world across the country and it occurred on the campus of the University of Connecticut. UConn junior cornerback Jasper Howard was killed over the weekend, on campus, after a school event had let out. Apparently, Howard and a few of his teammates were involved in an altercation and he was stabbed to death. Howard was only 20 years old.

Again, this is a sad and tragic story that has left an entire football team, an entire campus and an entire nation in mourning. Perhaps Howard wasn’t the most known player in the NCAA and maybe he wouldn’t have gone on to play professionally, but he was a student-athlete just the same as any other kid playing at the collegiate level. However, there are lessons to be learned from this horrible event and these lessons can be applied not just to sports, but to everyday life.

Everyday, we here at the National Collegiate Scouting Association help high school student-athletes fulfill their dreams of playing their sports at the collegiate level. Remembering back to my youth, I was ecstatic to be playing the sport I love at the next level. I can only hope that today’s student-athletes share the same passion and fervor that I had when it came to playing sports. With that being said, student-athletes need to realize the importance of maximizing every opportunity they are given, whether it’s on the playing field or in the classroom. If a coach gives you the opportunity to perform, play like there is no tomorrow and make the most of it. If a teacher gives you an extra credit opportunity, take full advantage of it and boost your grade in the class. If your parents are willing to give you opportunities like playing a sport or attending a certain school, embrace that opportunity with open arms.

I feel I can say this having played my last collegiate baseball game, but there will come a time in every athlete’s life when they are no longer playing the game they grew up with. I had been playing baseball since the age of 5 so when I played my last collegiate baseball game at age 22, I felt a huge emptiness afterwards. After I graduated I took a summer off of baseball for the first time in 17 years and concentrated on my professional endeavors. This turned out to be more difficult and painful than I had ever imagined as I yearned for the game more than ever. What the time away from the game showed me was that I was so glad that I had no regrets when it came to maximizing every opportunity I was given from family, teachers, coaches and friends. From my parents introducing me to the game to getting an early opportunity to fill in for a struggling upperclassmen my freshman year at college, I took full advantage of every opportunity to play the game I love.

It is truly unfortunate that it usually takes something drastic and eye opening to bring us back to reality and realize how grateful we should be for everything that we have. In this case, it happened to be the death of an NCAA athlete that makes us realize how lucky we all should be. For all student-athletes out there, take advantage of the opportunities you have been given and don’t ever take anything for granted. Always carry yourself with respect and humbleness because there will be a time in your life when you no longer have the sport you play to fall back on. Someday your priorities will shift drastically and you will want the confidence and knowledge that you have no regrets about the way you went about it.

I would like to personally send my condolences to the family of Jasper Howard, the UConn football team and the rest of the UConn student body. They may never read this article or receive these condolences, but the message of Jasper’s untimely death is clear; make the most of your opportunities and abilities, be humble and respectful and be appreciative of the time you are able to spend playing the sport you love because there will be a time when you no longer have that sport to play. Make the most of it!