Brett Waldorf, Senior Recruiting Coordinator

Football and sports in general are a huge component of my life. Growing up as a kid, I played almost every sport in existence. For me personally, it goes deeper than simply a love for the sport, enjoying the activity and meeting the physical demands. My competitive drive and my love for winning is what made me develop my love with sports. As I entered my high school years, I competed in football, basketball, and track and field. I persevered in all three sports through every year of high school, nearly burning myself out at certain points. Through the motivation of my father, who has pushed me harder to reach my limits than anyone, I developed the burning drive to continue to play in college. Coming from a high school of only 500 students in a small-town area of Wisconsin, I had no idea what it would take to get recruited and compete at the college level. I simply assumed that if I played well enough, college coaches would find me–end of story. I got recruited by several schools (mostly local to the region), but was relatively disappointed in my lack of Division I and Division II contact. I earned a presidential academic scholarship to Concordia University Wisconsin to major in sports and entertainment business and was recruited to play football as well. I earned my way to be a three-year starter on the Concordia football team as a strong safety, and led the team in tackles for my last two seasons. Through my hard work and leadership abilities, I became captain of the team my senior season and earned the Iron-Man award, which recognizes toughness and leadership attributes. After my four years at Concordia, I went back to coach high school football at my alma mater (Kettle Moraine Lutheran High School). I was as assistant coach on the defensive side of the ball, working mostly with the linebacker and safety positions. This coaching experience in particular is what molded my desire to join NCSA. I saw the development of young student-athletes and watched their desire to compete in college grow, only to see two of 50 go on to play football in college. Being able to play football (or any sport) in college is not an easy task, but when the desire and the talent was there for most of these players, it degraded me to see so few actually have a successful recruiting process. The issue was not talent; it was a lack of exposure and a lack of guidance for these athletes to be proactive in the recruiting process. I joined NCSA as a recruiting coordinator to help educate families on the recruiting process and give guidance on how to find and target the best-fit schools both academically and athletically. In my first full year, I helped over 500 families, and this number continues to increase as I am in my second year as a coordinator. My favorite part about NCSA is how rewarding the feeling is to see a student-athlete commit to their favorite school with a scholarship and know that I helped facilitate that process for that student-athlete. I look forward to continuing this role and having an impact on many more student-athletes and their families.