NCSA College Athletic Scholarships Blog

“This could totally affect the way College Coaches recruit.”

That’s the professional viewpoint of NCSA’s Amanda Rawson, who is an expert on NCAA Rules and Academic Reform Change.  I was with several of our NCSA Speakers at a roundtable discussion with Amanda at the NCSA offices in Chicago. Amanda played Junior College Basketball and at St. John’s in the Big East Conference. She has been with NCSA for many years.

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(Editor’s Note: Tim Tebow’s winning ways as a NFL starter created a great deal of interest in the highly competitive athlete. Tebow recently shared how he went through the recruiting process. Speaker Charlie Adams reviewed his popular book and wrote this article on how Tebow had success in finding the right College fit for him)

I speak on NCSA’s mission of Athleadership to athletes from around the world at locations such as the world class IMG Academies in Bradenton, Florida. NCSA Athletic Recruiting Network is the recruiting education partner of IMG, where the likes of Kobe Bryant, Venus and Serena Williams, Drew Brees, Eli Manning and Nomar Garciaparra have trained.

IMG Academies Campers Learn About Recruiting from NCSA

While traveling to Florida, I read with great interest the book of University of Florida great Tim Tebow. Tebow was the first sophomore in NCAA History to win the Heisman Trophy. He helped Florida win two BCS National Championships.

In all of my years of studying peak performer athletes and the recruiting process, I have always felt the number one quality of success is having ‘the fire within’ and being able to keep it stoked. Stoke the fire within!.

Tim Tebow’s fire is always stoked. The way he is winning as Broncos quarterback has a lot of people talking.

His book, “Through My Eyes” (Harper Collins Publishers) is a powerful read and filled with tools and insights that would help any athlete and coach. He explains his inner fire and how he keeps it stoked.

Tim Tebow's new book includes a chapter on his recruiting

Tebow includes an entire chapter on his recruiting process as a Quarterback in Jacksonville, FL. Though it seemed everyone ahead of him in his family went to the University of Florida and that he would have been a lock to go there, he states that he was open minded in the process. Alabama actually started out as the leader. Their fans used to come to his games as a tenth grader holding up signs trying to get him to come to Tuscaloosa.

Tebow and his family started making Unofficial Visits in his tenth grade year. Start the process early, folks. That’s what he did. Unofficial Visits are where it is on your dime, but they are a great way to develop relationships, get a feel for schools, meet Coaches and athletes, and more. The Tebow’s took them to Alabama a bunch of times, LSU, Florida State, Miami, Ohio State, Michigan, Southern Cal, Florida, Clemson, Notre Dame and others. He says South Bend was too cold (ironically the NFL team that drafted him was the Broncos in snowy and cold Denver) and Southern Cal was too far away from Florida.

One of the things I tell audiences is go where they really want you. Tebow could tell Alabama stood out there, as did Florida. A deep faith young man, Tebow said ‘Bama really did their research on him. It’s a given that when football recruits visit the bigtime schools, they line up the pretty girls as hosts, but at ‘Bama they were sincere Christian young ladies. ‘Bama knew how important his faith was to him. Other schools tried to throw girls at him, which was a turnoff because they had not learned enough about him to know he was serious about his faith.

Many of you will experience rejection by some schools in recruiting or have your dream school spurn you. The amazing Tim Tebow, who would go on and become a six foot three inch and two hundred and forty pound QB, was rejected as well. He says once Georgia got a commitment from quarterback Matthew Stafford (now with the Detroit Lions) they quit recruiting him, and were up front with him about it. He says on a visit to Tennessee his eleventh grade year they hardly paid attention to him. Just one assistant coach spoke to him. They were fawning over another quarterback prospect.

It is imperative young people know that their actions are being monitored all the time. Tebow says during his junior year Florida Coach Urban Meyer was allowed to get out and evaluate during the Spring and watched him play a baseball game. Coach Meyer told him later he was really impressed with Tebow’s leadership and that he had never seen a right fielder impact a team the way he did. College Coaches are always looking for those kinds of things. They really love the kids that are leaders in different sports. They also are big on speaking to all kinds of people in the building to get various takes on character. If you are a weasel, they will find out, scratch you off their recruiting list, and go to the next athlete. They often get candid insights from the cafeteria lady, the janitor or someone else off the beaten path. Always do the right thing. Scholarships are on the line.

In recruiting it is important to know when Coaches can call or email you in your sport so you have a feeling of where you stand in recruiting. Tebow writes that Sept. 1 of his senior year was when they could start calling, and at 12:01 AM that day he got a call from Louisville. The calls kept coming!

You can take five Official Visits as a senior and Tebow picked Alabama, Florida, LSU, Michigan and Southern Cal for his Visits. At Alabama one sign in the stands of a home game read: STABLER, NAMATH, TEBOW. That gets the attention of a kid!

Tebow writes that relationships with the Coach would be very important to him. Tebow is one of the most competitive athletes in history, so he felt close to Urban Meyer, who Tebow describes in his book as having “a work ethic and drive that were unparalleled.”

It is obvious in reading the book that Tebow was having a real hard time between Florida and Alabama. He had huge respect for ‘Bama Head Coach Mike Shula, a man of faith.

After many Talks I give, parents will come up to me and say, “Charlie, my child is good at two sports and she just can’t decide which one to play in College and focus on being recruiting in that sport.” Tebow was very good in baseball and football and probably could have gone pro in baseball one day. Here is how he puts it as far as how he decided which to pursue: “I did love baseball. Turning and connecting on an inside fastball is a great feeling. But football was my passion….”

What is your passion as a sport? I remember talking with the parents of former Mishawaka High standout offensive lineman Nick Banke. He was good enough in football to earn D1 offers and appeared headed that way, but one day he realized that his passion was taking his shot and discus across the street to the local park and working on that sport. It was his passion. He ended up signing with the University of Akron as a Thrower on the Track and Field team.

One of the factors in picking a school is the chance to play early. Tebow knew if he went to Florida they had an established senior at QB in Chris Leake, and that he probably wouldn’t start until sophomore year. At ‘Bama, he had a chance to start as a freshman. That was a factor to him but not a major one.

As I touched on earlier, Tebow made it clear the relationship with his Head Coach and other Coaches would be very important. I believe if you have the potential to be a professional athlete, then the Head Coach is critical in the recruiting process. However in 95% of the other cases in recruiting, the athlete is going pro in something other than their sport, as the NCAA says. In my view, the Coach is very important but having your Major, ranking of the school academically, and other things are more important. In Tebow’s case, though, he states it this way: “The identity of the coach was critical in making my decision.”

Although in football Signing Date isn’t until the first Wednesday in February, Tebow had decided to announce in December partly so he could help recruit other good players to wherever he was going. When it came time to announce, he still didn’t know when he woke up. He did call LSU, Michigan and Southern Cal and tell them he was not going there, but as far as Florida and Alabama, he was still torn.

“It was down to the final two. I had been praying about it regularly, and my family was praying as well. I had no doubt that the Lord was leading throughout this whole process, but what was unclear was determining where He was leading. People often seem to think that when you’re following the Lord and trying to do His will, your path will always be clear, the decisions smooth and easy, and life will be lived happily ever after and all that. Sometimes that may be true, but I’ve found that more often, it’s not. The muddled decisions still seem muddled, bad things still happen to believers, and great things can happen to non believers. When it comes to making our decisions, the key that God is concerned with is that we are trusting and seeking Him. God’s desire is for us to align our lives with His Word and His will.”

Tebow writes those feelings in his book but he would have appreciated if God had just yelled down from the heavens where to sign. That didn’t happen (what a Press Conference it would have been if that had happened!). Thirty minutes before his Press Conference, he still did not know. Florida? Alabama? He had such high respect for both head coaches that it was eating him up.

Twenty minutes before, he decided on Florida. He called ‘Bama Coach Mike Shula, who was very gracious. “Tim,” he began, “I love you as a person and a player. When I told you that you were going to have a great career and life of meaning, I meant it. I wanted it to be here, but it’s still true. I still love you, and you’re still going to do great things, even if it’s not at Alabama.”

Florida Coach Meyer had dealt with the anguish of waiting on Tebow’s decision by sitting on the forty-fifth row of Florida Field because forty five is his lucky number. In his book, Tebow cites Meyer’s passion as a major reason he announced for Florida. Both men are as passionate as they come. Tebow and Meyer would go on and become very close, having many talks about faith, competition and many other thing’s over the next four years.

Tebow signed with Florida, had a spectacular career, and has written an amazing book that reveals his inner fire. He shares his weightlifting and fitness routines, leadership insights, and much more. Athletes can learn how to stoke the fire within by reading about Tebow’s relentless fire.

At the start of each of his chapters, he has a Bible Verse. To lead off the chapter on his Recruiting experience, he shares Jeremiah 29:11 “I know the plans that I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope.”

Charlie Adams, NCSA Athletic Recruiting Network Senior Speaker

cadams@ncsasports.org

To bring Charlie Adams to speak at your School, Club or Event, contact Amanda Rawson at arawson@ncsasports.org

To see if you qualify to talk to a College Scout about Recruiting

For more information on Tim Tebow’s book “Through My Eyes”

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

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.

NCSA recently had a baseball student-athlete commit to Occidental College and Coach Hawkins let us know a little more about his program over the weekend:

1. How would you describe yourself as a coach?    I am a highly organized and motivated individual that works hard to get the most out of his guys every day.  Our practices are very structured and efficient.  They have to be because of the academic demands on our kids.  My belief has always been that my job is to squeeze every ounce out of every minute in practice so that I can squeeze every ounce of ability out of my guys.

2. What is unique about the experience at your school?   Our school is very isolated from Los Angeles which gives us a unique feel and setting.  We are 8 minutes from the heart of one of the greatest metropolitan centers of the world and yet, if you never left campus, you wouldn’t know that.  It is the best of both worlds:  small college intimacy with big city amenities.  Our school is also very academically demanding and balancing the demands of baseball and the classroom is often a struggle.  We are sensitive to that but also will never use it as an excuse.  We believe that there are few places in the country that can offer the pure academic and baseball experience–we feel we are one of them.

3. What do recruits need to know about you?   I come off as intimidating at times but I am very accessible to my guys.  I sit down with every guy on our squad a minimum of five times a year and probably the average is closer to 7-8.  In motivating athletes, I believe you have to foster relationships

4. What do you look for in recruits?   Character, playing ability and athleticism (in that order)

5. What is the one thing every recruit needs to do with the recruiting process?    Communicate!  For some of you, we’ll never get out to see you play in person

6. What sort of questions do you really like to hear from recruits?   All time favorite:  How long do you think it will take you to win a national championship here?  Let’s face it; we all compete to be playing on the last possible day of the season.  We haven’t done that yet, but that’s what my staff and I get up and work toward every day and have been since we got here in the fall of 2008.

7. What turns you off when you are recruiting a student athlete?   Too much emphasis on playing time guarantees.  We don’t give them to anyone anyway, but I want the guy who wants to come here because of who we are, who wants to be a part of what we do.  I want a team guy that thinks the direction for the program is a great fit for him.

8. What do you think your program is the most successful at?   Holding our players accountable for very high expectations on a daily basis.  Working on the mental side of the game.

9. Why should a recruit consider your program?   We are one of the top liberal arts schools in the country and don’t take my word for it–look at rankings.  We are located in one of the greatest places to live in the world and our baseball program is getting back on the map.  We are going to be a fixture in the post-season in a very short time period.

10. If a recruit is interested in your program, how should they reach out to you?   E-mail is the best way to start.

We want to thank Coach Hawkins for his time and we hope to have many more recruits commit to Occidental College.

Coach Burdette from Kenyon College found time for NCSA to let recruits know a little more about their baseball program and recruiting. Here is what he had to say:

 1. How would you describe yourself as a coach?

I would describe myself as a player’s coach because I have walked a mile in their shoes. I went to a selective academic Division III institution, much like Kenyon, and competed at a high level on the baseball field. I understand the trials and tribulations they are going to go through on a day to day basis and throughout the four years.

2. What is unique about the experience at your school?
I truly believe that Kenyon is unique in the fact that it is a national campus, very selective academically and has been a tremendous baseball program. Not many places are able to offer all of that in one package.

3. What do recruits need to know about you?
Recruits need to know that I will ask them to be first-class in the classroom, on the field and in the community. In that same fashion, the baseball program will be run in a first class manner – from the way we run practice, to the schedule, equipment, uniforms and attitude we bring to the park every day.

4. What do you look for in recruits?
Recruiting at Kenyon encompasses the three major pieces that I’m sure all colleges have: academics, finances and ability to play baseball. However, my focus has to begin with the academic side because of the selectivity, and then it’s about how passionate and talented the student-athlete is playing the game.

5. What is the one thing every recruit needs to do with the recruiting process?
Market yourself. I can’t possibly see or know about all the talented student-athletes that are out there but I will track down any lead that comes my way. (Call, Email, Video, On-Line Questionnaire).

6. What sort of questions do you really like to hear from recruits?
I like recruits that are fearless – guys that are not worried about depth charts or the rigors of the academics. So questions that pertain to how successful they can be and not worried about how difficult the challenge might be.

7. What turns you off when you are recruiting a student athlete?
One turn-off is when a student-athlete remarks how he doesn’t like his coach or that his coach doesn’t know what he’s doing. Another big one is when the student-athlete is disrespectful to his parents.

8. What do you think your program is the most successful at?
Our program is about 100% graduation rates, scoring runs and winning big games. We have had some tremendous victories over some big-time programs and we want to continue our ascent to elite status.

9. Why should a recruit consider your program?
A recruit should consider Kenyon because we care about the entire student-athlete. It’s not all about wins and losses, although we want to win all the games, but more about developing a great player, great student and great person.

10. If a recruit is interested in your program, how should they reach out to you?
Contact me via e-mail (burdettem@kenyon.edu), phone (740-427-5810 – office), mail (Baseball Office, Kenyon College, Gambier, Ohio 43022) and fill out our on-line questionnaire (http://www.kenyon.edu/). Also send video if you have it and a summer showcase/game schedule.

We appreciate Coach Burdette’s time and effort in putting this information together. Feel free to reach out to him to learn more about his program by using the information above.

I was in New Orleans to speak at theNCSA/AVCA Spring Girls’ Talent Showcase, which was in conjunction with the Allstate Sugar Bowl JVA World Volleyball Challenge. There, I met a mother who had recruiting insights that can benefit all families, coaches and athletes, regardless of sport.

Beth Anderson was watching her 11th grade daughter Emma soar to the skies as a 6 foot outside hitter for Illini Elite. As Emma played, I asked Beth what they had been doing in the recruiting process.

“We have been taking unofficial visits since early Fall of this, her junior year,” she said. “We like to call it ‘Shopping!’”

She laughed.

“Emma has been to East Tennessee State, Southern Illinois, Morehead State and Ball State,” she said.

One of my observations was that Emma had spent a lot of work on the Evaluation Process, which is one of my main points when I deliver College Recruiting Simplified. She was on a top team with four players who had committed to Purdue, Indiana, Illinois and Northwestern. Those are Big Ten schools at the high level of D1. Some kids can get all caught up in that and be bull headed to reach that level, but Emma was looking more at mid level D1 programs.

“She wants a chance to play as a freshman,” her mother added. I liked the way that was put – a ‘chance’ to play as a freshmen. Some kids feel ‘entitled’ to play as freshmen.

“She wants a smaller atmosphere,” said her mother. “Emma doesn’t want to go to college in a big city. She wants to be a Spanish teacher one day, so it has to have Education programs.”

On her recent unofficial visit to East Tennessee State, she had spent the night with players in the dorm. She also spent significant time with the coaches. “Since it was an Unofficial Visit we had paid to get there and everything,” said Beth, “but they were still strict on things like no riding with the girls or coaches while there.”

Emma really liked her unofficial visit to East Tennessee State, which is in Johnson City, TN. Of the four she has visited, it is ten hours from her home in Illinois. The other schools are closer, but at this point ETSU seems like the right fit. She is very open geographically.

She could very well get an offer from them via email sometime this month (they wouldn’t be able to call her until July 1). ETSU is also looking at another recruit at her position, so they may offer her instead. Emma has been smart to look at a lot of schools, so she will have more options as the process plays out.

I asked Beth if her daughter ever burns out. “She can’t burn out,” she said. “She loves the sport so much. She takes a month off in July but other than that is playing.”

Parents often struggle with finding the correct role to play in the recruiting process. How much should they do? Emma has an absolute passion for her sport and playing it in college, so Mom made sure they started the recruiting process early and that they have been proactive.

“She calls me her ‘Recruiting Stalker,’” jokes Beth, laughing out loud. “Seriously, we have a great relationship in all of this. Emma wants it. We have grown closer. It has been very positive.”

Emma’s Mom says if there has been one negative it has been that Emma doesn’t follow up with schools as much as she would like her to. “I encourage her to be assertive,” says Beth. “She says, ‘Mom, if they really want me, they will come after me.’ I tell her it’s not always that way. They need to know you are interested in them too.”

So there you have the story of a talented young lady who is solid academically (3.5 GPA) who has a realistic evaluation of her abilities, knows the kind of school she wants to attend, and has been proactive in recruiting.

UPDATE: Beth ended up signing a full athletic scholarship at Southern Illinois at Edwardsville.

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I deliver College Recruiting Simplified at Twin Lakes High School. Their outstanding athletic director and boys basketball coach Kent Adams did a great job in making sure the event went really well.

I talked to Kent before the program and he shared a few insights.

“Charlie, we don’t get near as many college coaches asking us about what kind of players that we have here. I have been here 14 years, and we used to get more letters, but not as much these days. They are using different ways to find prospective athletes. Families have to reach out more.”

“One thing that I have noticed, Charlie, is that not all kids that could play at some level of college necessarily want to play college. Some of them just want to go to college and have the traditional college experience.”

(I agree. That is why it is so critical that athletes express to coaches how badly they want to play college. Just because a kid was 2nd team all conference in a sport doesn’t mean he or she is dead set on playing college. College coaches want to know how badly you want to play the sport, are you realistically capable of playing at their level, and are you sincerely interested in their school).

Kent Adams is not only A.D. and head boys basketball coach at Twin Lakes. He has been through the recruiting process as a Dad. His daughter Betsy is a sophomore at Valparaiso University on a full athletic scholarship. After scoring 1802 points in High School, she played a decent amount as a freshman and a lot more as a sophomore at Valpo. “Having a child earn a scholarship is a special thing,” said Adams.

He chuckled when he told me about the financial relief it offers to folks in today’s world. “We were with her when she was buying books her freshman year,” he said. “She got to the register and it was $780 just for books. She pulled out this yellow card the athletes were given and the lady at the checkout said “Thank you” and that was that! That’s a big relief to a parent!”

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In New Orleans, I talked with a young lady who had recently finished her NCAA college athletics experience. Rachel Lindelow had played at the D1 level for Tulane University. She had terrific insights on what it is like to be a college athlete.

“Halfway through my freshman year I was like ‘Get me out of here,’” she told me. “I found out you live and breathe sports at the D1 level. So much is mapped out. You wake up, you have class for four hours, you eat, you have sometimes 3 hours of practice. You lift a few times a week. You study until you fall asleep. At first, it was tough, but then I became crazy about it. Sure, it was demanding, but I loved it. I finished my senior season a few months ago and I miss it so much. Now I am crazy without it! I learned so many positive things. I am so good with time management now. You have to be as a college athlete. I didn’t understand time management until I played college sports. Now I write Lists all the time. It all came from the structure of being a college athlete. I am going to stay to get my MBA. When I go out into the working world I am going to be so prepared. College athletes have to work under pressure. I truly learned teamwork.”

This young lady had an absolute glow as she raved about 4 years of being a college athlete.

You get one shot at it. Go for it!

For an Evaluation of where YOU stand in the recruiting process

Charlie Adams

NCSA Athletic Network Speaker

cadams@ncsasports.org

Read this entire article from Saturday’s Wall Street Journal about a doctor who incurred $250,000 in student loans and now owes $555,000.  Some of the “money” quotes are:

“Maybe half of it was my fault because I didn’t look at the fine print,”

“Unlike other kinds of debt, student loans can be particularly hard to wriggle out of. Homeowners who can’t make their mortgage payments can hand over the keys to their house to their lender. Credit-card and even gambling debts can be discharged in bankruptcy. But ditching a student loan is virtually impossible, especially once a collection agency gets involved. Although lenders may trim payments, getting fees or principals waived seldom happens.”

If you’re a decent HS athlete with great grades, you can avoid student-loans and play your sport in college.  You can also get a good portion of your school funded, reducing those burdensome student loans which can hang over you for decades.  If you’re a parent, plan for college expenses now.  Even if your oldest child is in 7th or 8th grade – start taking action now!  To find out more about how you can do that, go here.

Over 99% of all college student athletes go pro in something other than their sport.  So what will your profession be?  After having phone conversations with over 5,000 student-athletes, I’ve found that less than 10% have a real clear picture of what career field to pursue.  I’ve also learned that the vast majority of college students will change their major at least once while in college.  All of this is NORMAL.  So when I hear parents tell me that they’re going to wait until their kid decides what they want to do before looking at colleges, I cringe.  Waiting on researching colleges for any reason limits a child’s opportunities.

Part of deciding on career fields will be finding out what career opportunities are available in those majors.  Thanks to my colleague, Byron, here’s a link to help you research this topic.  Read the PayScale College Salary Report to gain insights on what you (your child) should major in.  Also, don’t forget that NCSA is with our student athletes until they graduate from college.  The life skills a child learns by navigating the recruiting process are transferable to the job search.