Zach Cherocci – Hillsdale College
At the end of my junior year football season, I started receiving numerous letters from colleges interested in me playing football for their school. I thought this was quite impressive. Unknown to me, this was the first of many steps to come before the real deal happens. The number of student-athlete questionnaires quickly became overwhelming. I was advised to fill out every single one to keep a positive impression amongst schools.
Soon after the letters came the Junior Day invitations along with the Summer Camps applications and Senior Day Evaluation invitations. I used a calendar to mark all the different invites to see which ones worked or overlapped. Amidst this, I signed up for NCSA services. My first few calls with a NCSA consultant let me know that I needed to have a plan. I started an Excel spreadsheet on each college that wrote / contacted me to keep track of correspondence and have a file on certain information - coach’s names, phone numbers, emails, conference, division play, etc... At times this became bothersome. The NCSA correspondence logs were exciting at first but became overwhelming by the time my senior football season started due to the amount of interest I was receiving!
Visiting the colleges and starting to sum up my pros & cons list became more interesting as time went on. Each visit made me more aware of what to look for and ask. It helped me fine tune what was important to me, which was different than when I first started out. The overnight visits were very beneficial. I traveled to the East Coast without my parents to learn what it would be like being far away from home and the travel involved.
I learned that I should have had my highlight tape done MUCH sooner than I did. I suggest recruits get it done immediately after their junior season is over. In my senior year, I had a highlight being made after every game so that I had a mid-season highlight ready by November 1st and then finished up my senior highlight film by December 1st. This allowed me to have highlights ready anytime a recruiting coach stopped by the school or called for updates on my season.
In retrospect, research your colleges before they start calling you, which for a football player happens on April 15th. When they send you a student-athlete questionnaire, go on the website and learn some facts about the school to prepare for the phone conversation you might have with that coach. First impressions go a long way. Know that colleges are very fickle and are recruiting a lot of other student-athletes. Every college has a pecking order for recruits; try to figure out where you fall in their final picks. Apply for admissions to your top schools early in the fall. When you get accepted earlier than the average applicant, this gives you an advantage when talking with the recruiting coach. Enjoy the attention, but know it can be short-lived from college to college. Many times a new prospect enters late in the process and puts a twist on your plans. Listen to your gut and you will make a great decision. The bottom line is you are going to be playing football at the next level.
