Your Sports Profile

So we have established how important it is to get exposure, to get your name out to the college coaches. So how do you go about doing that. This is where the work starts. Some of the tools you will need are first a Sports Profile (Resume). Second a video and these will vary depending on the sport that you play. Generally a coach will want game film not just some highlight film, anyone can look good by just putting together a highlight film. We will talk about video in another blog. It is also good to get a letter of recommendation from one of your coaches. I also like the athletes that I help get a letter from someone outside of the sports arena, like a teacher or a religious leader, someone who will attest to the type of person you are. For this blog lets focus on the sports profile. Your sports profile should have some key information some of which can very depending on the sport and the position that you play but some of the general information you need is:

1. Your name and contact information which includes address, phone #, email address if you don't have one you check on a daily basis put down one of your parents.
2. Your coaches contact information the more you can get the better
3. Your school information, the name of your school, what year you are in at school.
4. Your personal info- like height, weight and this info can vary depending on your sport
5. Your academic info- G.P.A., test scores(ACT/SAT)
6. Your Athletic Statistics and again this can very depending on your sport for example if you are a Running Back you might put your rushing and receiving yards, your average rushing yards etc.
7. Any Athletic awards and Recognitions like All State teams, or even Team awards, Team accomplishments like winning region or state etc.
8. Any academic accomplishments like the honor roll, etc.
9. extracurricular activities that demonstrate the type of person you are like class officer (which shows great leadership), any volunteer work, etc.
10. If you can always put a nice quote from your coach letter in your profile.
11. Now there are other things you might want to put into your profile that are more specific to your sport and position but this gives you a good idea of some of the basic things to include. It is also good to have a picture of you on your profile. If you have any questions feel free to leave them in the comments with your email address and I will be happy to help.
    

Part 2 EXPOSURE

OK so we talked about your academics as the 1st key element in getting recruited, now lets talk about the second key element and that is EXPOSURE. I had a College baseball coach once tell me in the simplest of term how important exposure is he said "Troy it doesn't matter how good a player is, if I don't know who he is I can't recruit him". Duh! I guess that is pretty obvious, if a coach doesn't know who you are there is a zero percent chance of being recruited by him/her. There are over 7 million high school student athletes and unless you are one of the few "Blue Chip" players in your sport you can not afford to sit back and let the coaches find you. One of the biggest misconception I hear is "If I am good enough the coaches will find me" That is just not true. College coaches have limited recruiting budgets and time. There are a few hot beds around the country for recruiting but the majority of high school athletes will be overlooked. I live in Utah and I have helped athletes that had not even received as much as letter from a college coach when I first met with them. The reason they had not got any attention from college coaches was not because they were not good enough it was because college coaches did not know who they were. Many of these same athletes went on to find scholarships once they had some exposure to the right schools. And even if you are getting some intrest the more exposure you get the more intrest you will generate in yourself and in the end there will be more schools competing for you. Which means better scholarship offers. The bottom line is if you are serious about finding a scholarship you can not sit back and just let it happen, you need to be proactive and go out there and let the Coaches know who you are and what you can do. There are a lot of opportunities out there for those who put themselve out there and are willing to work at it. If you have any questions please feel free to comment.

The Two Most Important Important Things To Getting Recruited! Part 1 Academics

There are two big keys to getting recruited other than an athletes ability. They are ACADEMICS & EXPOSURE. So lets start with academics and by that I mean your GPA and your test scores(ACT and SAT). I can't stress enough how getting good grades can help you in your pursuit of a college scholarship. I know it is probably the last thing a student-athlete wants to hear after all they probably hear it all the time from there parents. And parents I know I am preaching to the choir, can I get an Amen? The facts are in order for a coach to recruit you, you have to meet the academic requirements of that school. So quite simply stated the more schools that you qualify for the more opportunities you will have. Understand that coaches only have so many scholarship to use every year. A coach can break up his scholarships how he chooses so he might give a athlete a full scholarship or he might give four athletes a quarter of a scholarship. When a coach is recruiting a athlete with good academics they know that there is a good chance that there is a chance of getting that athlete some academic scholarship money, meaning that coach does not have to use as much of his/her scholarship money to make that student athlete a great offer. I have helped student athletes that have received partial athletic scholarships, but also academic scholarship and have had the majority of there school paid for. Have you noticed how your called student/athletes and student is always the first word? Not to beat you over the head with it but your academics are important, so put in the time and effort needed to be the best you can be, just like you would do in your sport. Prepare for the ACT/SAT and plan on taking it more than once.

The Recruiting Game

I have been helping high school athletes for the last eight years, I have met with hundreds of athletes and there Parents. I know how overwhelmed the recruiting process can make you feel. Parents want the best for there kids and the athlete wants to keep playing a sport they love and they both want to find a scholarship to help pay for the high cost of a college education. So Parents and Student -Athlete take a deep breath. The purpose of this blog is to help provide some FREE help to those who need it.I will not ask you to buy anything, no e-books, dvd's, cd-rom etc. I believe that is what free was meant to mean. I don't claim to know it all but I have picked up on a lot of things over the last eight years. There are a lot of recruiting services out there, I have been the Regional Scouting Director for one of them and I have been paid by many families to help there athletes. I have helped find scholarships for kids all over the country in sports ranging from golf, swimming, football, baseball, basketball etc. (I will blog about recruiting services later). I hope this blog site can help Parents and Athletes get started on the road to being recruited and help them through the whole process and quite a process it is.