NCSA College Athletic Scholarships Blog

I recently read that Samford University signed three 2010 softball recruits. 

Being reminded once again that student-athletes seem to be signing earlier and earlier these days, I was struck by something else worth mentioning again.  There is something very valuable about attending college sports camps.  

Besides the obvious benefit of learning from collegiate athletes and coaches, you are getting a chance to showcase your skills for them first-hand.  I believe there is extraordinary value in this.  

Most colleges offer camps for kids starting as early as 6th grade.  So, consider this scenario:

You sign up for a softball clinic during your holiday break at a university near your home that has a good coaching staff and a successful program.  You are 12 years old.  You learn some great things about fielding and bunting and pitching and hitting and you are excited to use what you’ve learned at your next practice and during your upcoming season.  You really enjoyed learning from older girls who love the sport and are playing it at the level you someday hope to as well. You see that they will be holding a week-long camp over the summer so you sign up again.  You participate in these camps/clinics each time they are offered for the next 5 years. You have now become a fan of that softball program and you go to watch their games and cheer them on.  You imagine yourself playing there someday.  It has been a great experience for you personally over the past 5 years.  

Now look at it from the perspective of the college coach and the softball program:

A 12 year-old girl signs up for your holiday clinic and makes an immediate impression.  She’s a hard worker and listens to instruction.  She is fun and has a good attitude.  You can see she loves the game and is working to make improvements in her game based on what you are teaching her.  She asks questions and is eager to learn.  She continues to come back to your camps and clinics and it is gratifying to you and your program to see a familiar face and to see how she has grown and matured over the years.   She comes to your games and cheers you on and even invites her friends and teammates to do the same.

By the time you (the student-athlete) are in high school and start to think seriously about your college recruiting process, you have already laid a foundation with this particular school and softball program.  The coaching staff KNOWS your name.  They know a lot about your character and about your skills as an athlete.  You know plenty about them too.  You have seen them play. You know the recent history of their program.   You know the coaching staff well.  You know their approach to the game and their coaching style.  You know the current players.  You even know some that could potentially be your future teammates if you continue to attend their camps through your senior year.  You also know a bit about the school itself.  You have been on the campus numerous times.  It is all familiar to you.

Here is what 2010 Samford University signee Jessica Jackson and coach Beanie Ketcham had to say:

“I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to meet a few of the softball players at Samford at a young age while attending clinics on campus,” Jackson said. “The question of where I wanted to play softball in college was determined by how amazing the coaches and players seemed to be and now I’ll be living out a four-year dream playing softball at Samford University.”

“Jessica has been on our radar for a long time, having attended our softball camps over the last several years,” Ketcham said. “We have been waiting on this day for a long time and are excited that she will finally become a Samford Bulldog. Jessica brings a level of toughness and commitment that will help us continue to improve as a program. Her “big game” experience while playing on the Vipers is also a positive. We expect her to make an impact in the line up with the potential to hit for power and drive in runs.”

There is tremendous value in attending a clinic/camp at a local college or university.  You may be laying the groundwork for a great future opportunity.  And if you attend a camp or clinic and have a negative experience, that too can be beneficial, as you will know which places you DON’T want to spend time contacting.  

In addition to camps at specific schools, there are a number of other sports camps, nationwide, that can offer you similar exposure.  These camps are often run by current college coaches from all over the country.  Another great way to get your name out there and to be seen by coaches who are ALWAYS looking for their next great discovery!  

So, get busy.  Start by checking the websites of some local schools and get signed up for upcoming camps and clinics.  Check out the NFCA site that offers a number of recruiting camps.    US Sports camps has teamed up with Nike.  FCA holds camps on various college campuses.   Kids camps is a great source for not only athletic camps but academic, arts, adventure, and many other camps. 

SI.com recently ran a story about senior Houston Cypress Ridge quarterback Russell Shepard (Takkle.com’s No. 1 ranked prospect) who is currently committed to LSU.  Shepard has spent the last few days in Florida, preparing for the Under Armour All America Game which will take place on Sunday with some of the best prospects in the country. 

The interesting aspect of this story lies in the fact that while participating in the All America Game events, Shepard has been working double duty.  Aside from showcasing his skills as at quarterback, Shepard has been trying to persuade some of the other uncommitted All Americans that LSU is the right school for them.  Shepard is not violating any NCAA rules since he is not a member of LSU’s coaching staff. 

While this type of recruiting certainly happens more often than is reported, it’s interesting to read about the different approaches that Shepard has taken with different recruits.  “Shepard said that in his nine-month stint as a recruiter, he has learned that different players require different pitches. Shepard said Debose, a burner who has drawn comparisons to Florida’s Percy Harvin, would be turned off by the hard sell. For his part, Debose seems to have responded well to Shepard’s softer pitch.”

In an ever changing recruiting environment, it’s certainly not surprising to read about a story like this.  It makes you wonder that with college coaches always looking for an advantage, will they begin to train their committed recruits on how to recruit other players?  Will the NCAA find a way to regulate this type of recruiting? 

Time will tell, but the one thing I am sure of is that until rules are put in place to somehow regulate player interaction like this, we will be reading more stories about committed high school athletes, like Russell Shepard, serving as recruiting coordinators for colleges. 

 Former Recruiting Coordinator at Notre Dame and University of Michigan and current NCSA Speaker, Bob Chmiel, recently presented a Recruiting 101 Seminar at Owensboro High School in Kentucky.  Senior Guidance Counselor from Owensboro, Jane Prince, played a key role in bringing Coach Chmiel to educate families and student athletes. 

Aside from her role as Senior Guidance Counselor and high school coach, Jane is the mother of a current collegiate athlete and wife of a former collegiate athlete.  The bottom line is that Jane has experienced recruiting from several perspectives.  NCSA caught up with Jane to discuss the importance of recruiting education.

NCSA: What motivated Owensboro to bring in an expert to educate families about the recruiting process?  Why NCSA and Coach Chmiel?

We will be working with NSCA this January to help my son achieve his goal of playing college football.  He is currently a sophomore in high school.  I’m also a Senior Guidance Counselor at Owensboro High School in Kentucky and coached high school tennis and swimming.  Over the years, I worked with many high school athletes.  My husband is the Head football coach at OHS and played college football at The University of Kentucky. My daughter plays college basketball at Georgetown College (NAIA).

Five years ago, another teacher and I formed a program at this high school to prepare high school athletes to become college athletes and I thought the NCSA presentation would be an excellent opportunity for parents to hear information about the college recruiting process from an outside source.  We were just lucky that our guest speaker was Coach Chmiel.  He is able to tell stories about his life experiences that get the attention of his audience and pull them in for the real message.

What was the most valuable information that Coach Chmiel passed along to families in your opinion? 

He had some excellent suggestions like:

• Don’t send film to a college without the specific name of the coach that you are sending it to…..unidentified film goes in the trash”
• Separate yourself from problems or problem people

He also talked about three important aspects of an athlete necessary to be successful: (1) Strong academics, (2) good character, and (3) always give 110 % on every play and in all preparations to play.

What are some of the most common misconceptions about the recruiting process that families have?

Most families wrongly believe several basic concepts:

(1) That most athletes are discovered like a Hollywood movie star for their scholarship

(2) DI level of play is the only one that provides financial assistance

(3) It is the high school coaches’ responsibility to get their athlete a scholarship

(4) Academics really are not that important if they are talented enough athletically

(5) Every scholarship, in every sport is a full-ride.

What type of advice would you give families who are going through the process for the first time as not only a guidance counselor, but also a mother and wife of collegiate student athletes?

• Start preparing your potential student/athlete in the 9^th grade by explaining the core GPA and the NCAA process. Register at the beginning of their junior year with the NCAA Eligibility Center. Keep constant tabs on their transcript and daily grades.

• Build a resume of sports accomplishments and awards as well as community service and inter-scholastic activities and honors. Save it in your computer and update it with everything they have accomplished each month. This resume should be sent to college coaches. This allows them to see the student/athlete as a person that is active and has good character.

• Choose a few good sports photos to have on hand to send with your resume and other sports related scholarships that they may apply for, such as state sportsmanship scholarships for example.

• Form good relationships with high school coaches; remember they will give the final recommendation.

• Learn how to speak to the media; you are representing your family, community, school and yourself. Complement your teammates and coaches in interviews; you didn’t get there on your own.

• Play other sports in high school, it’s good for you and makes you a more appealing athlete.

• Fill out all sports questionnaires, even to schools you may not attend. It’s a small world and coaches change jobs every day and may remember you.

• God gave you a certain body size and ability. You may be of size for the big time and you may not. Be thankful for whatever opportunities may come your way at any level whether it is DI, II, III, NAIA or Jr. College.

I really could go on and on…….there is so much for them to know……

Would you encourage other high schools to provide recruiting education similar to the seminar at Owensboro?  If so, why?

Yes, it was very helpful to hear Coach Chmiel.  He didn’t try to force the NCSA on his audience. He simply gave his educational message about the recruiting process and informed people about the NCSA at the end.  I think this made people more interested in the NCSA material. Parents are really misinformed about athletic scholarship and need a lot of help in the process.

 If you would like to learn more about potentially scheduling a Recruiting 101 Seminar, click here.

Last week we discussed the first step that every student athlete must take:  Receiving an objective evaluation.  Once you have taken that step and you have developed realistic expectations, it is time to convey your academic and athletic abilities to the college coaches through the second step:  Building an Athletic Resume Website

Years ago, families would send hundreds of paper resumes to college coaches through traditional mail distribution channels, thankfully those times are behind us.  With the improvements in technology, information is easily updated and sent through the internet which has changed the way college coaches recruit.  In today’s recruiting world, student athletes need to have some sort of athletic online resume.

Why an online resume?

Let’s start with the obvious.  Every student athlete needs an athletic and academic resume.  This will allow college coaches to examine all the important measurable information they need to make decisions.  With that in mind, families can either create a physical paper resume or build an online resume.  Let’s look at the advantages of having that information online compared to paper:

• Customization: As student athletes progress through the recruiting process, the majority of their athletic and academic information will change. In some cases this information will change frequently. The idea of updating a paper resume and printing out a new copy for every change seems rigid and difficult. However, most websites and online resumes can be changed within seconds making them much more logical to use for this type of resume. Advantage: Online Resume

•  Distribution:Let’s assume that a student athlete is qualified for 200 college programs. Each one of those programs has multiple coaches on the staff and each one should receive the information to ensure it will be reviewed. If each program has 4 coaches, that information now needs to be sent to 800 individuals. The thought of sending a paper resume through the mail to 800 people should make most families shudder. The evolution of the internet and email has now made traditional mail channels almost obsolete. Emailing the information to 800 coaches does not seem nearly as time consuming or expensive. Advantage: Online Resume

• Trackability: Once the information has been sent off to college coaches, the knowledge of whether or not it has been looked at will be critical in determining the next steps. When sending a paper resume through the mail, the only way a student athlete will be able to know that a college coach has seen their information will be waiting on a response or return letter which might never happen. Advances in technology provide student athletes the unique opportunity to place tracking capabilities in their online resumes. This means that if they email the college coach, they will know whether or not the college coach opened the information and provide them the understanding of how to follow up. Advantage: Online Resume

What should the resume contain?

To put it simply, the online resume should contain all the athletic and academic information a college coach might be interested in.  The information needed by the college coach will vary depending on the sport.  Every student athlete will not have all the information immediately.  It will be a process of gathering all the data needed throughout the recruiting experience.  However here is a list of some basic aspects that each resume should contain:

• Personal Info
• Statistical Info
• Scholastic Info 
• Athletic History
• References

Remember, the purpose of this online resume is to spark the interest of the college coach and convince them to allocate their time and money towards recruiting that student athlete.  Of course the quality of the athletic and academic information being evaluated will be the single most important determining factor.  However, the coach might only look at the information for a few seconds, so the more professional in appearance and the easier to navigate, the better the odds are that they will take the time to evaluate the entire resume.   

For an example of NCSA’s athletic resume website that we create for our student athletes, click here.

Next week I will discuss the third step in the process:  Highlight / Skills Video

In every sport an athlete must condition and strength train.  How you perform this activity is just as important.  If you are a baseball player, would you go for a long distant run?  Baseball consists of explosive movements that are short to moderate.  So why would you go on a three mile run?  Endurance can be established with long sprints.

Now that baseball players are in the off season it is important to establish a strong base for the upcoming season.  A player must “report to camp” in top physical condition in order to compete at the highest level.

A baseball workout must contain some key ingredients.  1) Work on your baseball skills such as hitting, fielding and throwing. 2) Strength train in the weight room.  3) Conditioning by running poles, base running and long sprints. 4) There must be a proper warm up and cool down routine.  5) There must be a proper core (your core is you’re your knees to chest) routine. 

How do you get the mental edge in your game?  How do you think and act like a champion?  Are you born a leader or is it developed over time?  Having the right thoughts during practice, competition and in your life is a critical part of “winning that college scholarship”.

 A credible source for learning “Championship Thinking” is Jim Meier.  He was an interval part of the Oregon State University Baseball Team who won back to back NCAA Championships in 2006 and 2007.  Jim’s weekly internet show has guests who are the “who’s who” of the baseball world.  Next weeks guest (Oct. 29) is none other then Paul Mainieri, head baseball coach at LSU.

“Developing…Mind, Heart, Spirit”

 Coming out of my freshmen season I knew I wanted to play College Football. So I started working twice as hard at school and football. I studied for hours and hours and it was worth it by the end of my freshmen years. With straight A’s the whole entire freshmen year I was ranked 15 out of 166 students, and my GPA ended up to be 3.75.

Through the year I played two other sports wrestling, and track and field, also in my spare time we went to our local gym where I would work out. I lifted, ran sprints, and did drills with my Dad.  The first combine that I attended in Pittsburgh, PA on April 28^th was Schuman’s National Underclassman combine. I think I did well for my first time but not my best. Doing well was not enough for me so that makes me work even harder for next year. I will make it one of my best!

(more…)

Among the many reasons to enter the college sports recruiting process earning an athletic scholarship to pay for college is always at the top of the list. Playing in college offsets the burden of paying for college. After all, who wants to be paying for college 10 years after they graduate because of student loans? In May 2007, testimony before US congress revealed that a quarter of all students graduate with too much debt to pay back on a starting teachers salary. That is way too high.

If that’s the case, shouldn’t you be knowledgeable in the ways of Financial Aid?

I earned my MBA from one of the top business schools in the country and traded sophisticated financial instruments for over 20 years. I thought I could figure this financial aid thing out. I couldn’t. I needed help. I’m very glad I invested in professional advice that helped maximize the grants and scholarships my daughter received. One of the great things about NCSA is that their advice on how to maximize scholarship dollars actually works. And it continues to work. Except for the less than 1% of college athletes who have “full rides” (tuition, books, room & board, fees, transportation), most families must negotiate their financial aid package on an annual basis. Paying for that expert advice helped – a lot! As she enters her junior year, my daughter has received over $135,000 in financial aid. Not one penny of that is a student loan. It’s all grants that don’t have to be paid back. Do you think I’m happy with the professional advice I received? My return on that investment was over 6700.00 per cent!

Do you think the college athletic recruiting process should provide you with the highest number of opportunities? Do you think understanding college athletics recruiting can reveal the perfect college fit for you? How do you go about increasing your opportunities? What system should you employ to make sure you are selecting the right opportunity for you?

College coaches begin by initially contacting 1,000 or 2,000 or even 10,000 (depending on the sport) student athletes by sending them camp brochures, emails, questionnaires, etc. Those same college coaches are clearly not recruiting all of those student-athletes. Why do they start with such a large pool? They are following the advice of Marketing 101: the more kids who they find out about, the better chance they’ll find the really quality student-athlete who will help their program. If that’s a good strategy for college coaches, shouldn’t a student-athlete use the same strategy? Doing so will increase your number of opportunities.

A savvy student-athlete will learn as early as freshman year that they need to develop trust-based relationships with college coaches. This can only happen through communication. Since the NCAA restricts the amount and timing of contacts initiated by college coaches, the student-athlete must be proactive. Unfortunately, the 14 or 15 year old student-athlete doesn’t have the life experiences or the maturity to begin building relationships with adults. The good news is they can be trained in that skill set. It’s like interviewing for a job. 

College recruiting boils down to trust-based relationships between college coaches and student-athletes. What college coach is going to make a significant investment in a student-athlete unless they know a lot more about that student-athlete than her/his performance on the playing field?

If you agree with playing the numbers game and building trust-based relationships with college coaches, have you thought about how you would do that? If you’re a student-athlete reading this, do you think your parents can do this for you? If so, you better forget about playing sports in college. Do you think your coach can do this for you? Again, if so, you better forget about finding the perfect college fit for you. You are the one that needs to take charge. You can only do that if you develop the skill set to do so. Who will teach you that?

Finally, if you do all of the above correctly, how do you determine the right fit? There are many different factors including: academic quality of the school, size of school, location of school, financial aid package, level of competition, opportunity to play early, getting along with the coaching staff and players, receiving tutoring help (if necessary), etc. There is a way to logically sort out all of those factors. If you need help, go here.

Are you a student-athlete who is on a mission to play college sports? Are you a student-athlete who has played your sport for years? Imagine your first sport season after high school and you’re not playing. What would that feel like?

Most student athletes and their families are unaware of how early college recruiting begins. Or the reasons it begins so early. The problem is that 93% of high school students who go on to college are applying through the academic door. They begin researching colleges late in their junior year or early in their senior year. They listen to the high school guidance counselor who advises them to apply to several schools. They place these schools into 3 categories: 1) Reach schools (if I’m lucky, I’ll get in.) 2) Stretch schools (I’m pretty sure I’d get accepted to half of these I apply to.) and 3) safe schools (I’ll get in no matter what.) Make sure you have all of your applications in before Christmas break.

Unfortunately, student-athletes and their families think that college athletic recruiting operates along the same time-line. It doesn’t!  If you wish to apply through the athletic door, you need to understand the different calendars and timelines.

Different sports have different recruiting calendars and time-lines. However, all sports have the following in common:

1. College coaches would love to find out about you early. In some sports that’s as early as 7^th and 8^th grade, other sports it’s by 10^th grade. Waiting until the beginning of junior year begins to reduce your opportunities.
2. A college student athlete has a certain athletic profile. For example, in baseball, a student athlete needs to have a certain 60-yard dash time, a certain overhand throwing velocity, a certain bat-speed, etc. For very competitive schools, those metrics need to be achieved by the end of junior year. If not, many college coaches will refuse to evaluate a student-athlete. It takes time to develop physically and student-athletes need to train to that level early to ensure they reach that level on time.
3. College coaches only give scholarship money to student-athletes they know, like, and trust. Those trust-based relationships take time to build. Because of the recruiting restrictions placed on college coaches, it’s important that a student-athlete begin to build those relationships as a freshman. Most don’t know how to go about that.

If you’re serious about being a college student-athlete, you need to implement that game plan that will get you there. Knowing what to do is as important as doing it. If you don’t know what to do, you should contact an expert for an evaluation. You can do that at NCSA.