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| An example of the Recruiting Funnel in Football |
The goal of many youth and high school
athletes is to earn that full-ride college scholarship to play college sports,
but according to NCAA.org, of the nearly 8 million students currently participating
in high school athletics in the United States, only 480,000 of them will
compete at NCAA schools. There are more opportunities to
play in college outside of the NCAA, including playing for other 4 year
institutions including NAIA and NCCAA,
and including 2 year junior college institutions (NJCAA),
but in reality, only a small percentage of high school athletes will earn a
full scholarship. But, it is possible to play in college with talent
and through hard-work and determination, the right exposure, and a little
luck.
I played college basketball at Seminole State
College, an NJCAA junior college program in Oklahoma and I finished
my college career at Harding University, a NCAA division 2 program
in Arkansas. I also coached for a few years at the junior college level
where I coached 2 All-Americans and 3 players who are now playing professionally.
My experience of going through the recruiting process twice as a player
and a few years as a coach has helped me gain valuable insight and experience
in the recruiting process.
The Levels of Recruitment
1 – Exposure
- A coach will need to see you play in a competitive environment so that they can effectively evaluate you and see if you have the potential to play in their program.
- The best ways to get exposure is to play in front of college coaches. NCAA coaches have certain ‘live periods’ where they are allowed to be out and personally evaluate talent in Spring and Summer tournaments. Make sure that you are playing in the best tournaments that you can that will still allow you to have success. You don’t want to play completely over your head and not have success because the talent overwhelms you. Conversely, you don’t want to dominate tournaments that are beneath you because coaches won’t be able to get an accurate evaluation of you, and the coaches at the level that you want to play at might not be at the lower tournaments.
- Going to college elite or advance camps are a really good way to play in front of coaches as well. Make a list of different schools that you think that you can play at and sign up for their elite camp. They are usually only a day or two long and most of the staff members will be present helping run the camp and evaluating talent.
- A coach will need to see you play in a competitive environment so that they can effectively evaluate you and see if you have the potential to play in their program.
- The best ways to get exposure is to play in front of college coaches. NCAA coaches have certain ‘live periods’ where they are allowed to be out and personally evaluate talent in Spring and Summer tournaments. Make sure that you are playing in the best tournaments that you can that will still allow you to have success. You don’t want to play completely over your head and not have success because the talent overwhelms you. Conversely, you don’t want to dominate tournaments that are beneath you because coaches won’t be able to get an accurate evaluation of you, and the coaches at the level that you want to play at might not be at the lower tournaments.
- Going to college elite or advance camps are a really good way to play in front of coaches as well. Make a list of different schools that you think that you can play at and sign up for their elite camp. They are usually only a day or two long and most of the staff members will be present helping run the camp and evaluating talent.
2 – Interest
- If they seem some potential in you, they will seek more information about you. They will do this by watching you play more and talking to your coaches.
- You can help spark interest in a school by emailing them directly as well. An NCAA coach cannot contact you until the fall of your junior year, but you can contact them whenever you would like. Be proactive in opening up those lines of communication.
- If they seem some potential in you, they will seek more information about you. They will do this by watching you play more and talking to your coaches.
- You can help spark interest in a school by emailing them directly as well. An NCAA coach cannot contact you until the fall of your junior year, but you can contact them whenever you would like. Be proactive in opening up those lines of communication.
3 – Letters
- This is usually the first step towards a college showing interest in you as a potential recruit.
- They will put you on a mailing list, and you might start receiving monthly or even weekly letters from school. While exciting to start getting letters, don’t get too excited. They often put 1,000’s of high school athletes on these mailing lists.
- Initially, the letters are generic forms that a member of the staff puts together. When teams start picking up more interest, you might start seeing handwritten, more personalized letters from coaches.
- This is usually the first step towards a college showing interest in you as a potential recruit.
- They will put you on a mailing list, and you might start receiving monthly or even weekly letters from school. While exciting to start getting letters, don’t get too excited. They often put 1,000’s of high school athletes on these mailing lists.
- Initially, the letters are generic forms that a member of the staff puts together. When teams start picking up more interest, you might start seeing handwritten, more personalized letters from coaches.
4 – Personal Contact
- Coach can start directly contacting you through calls texts messages, twitter, etc. during the fall of your junior season. One way to know if a coach is really interested in you is on that first day, which coaches reach out to you in one of these forms, personally.
- All coaches have a list of athletes that they have been following, and they all have them ranked by priority. If the first few weeks have gone by and you have not yet been contacted, don’t worry too much. It means you need to work harder on your game and your skills. Don’t hesitate to reach out to coaches at this point as well to get more exposure. Here is a great story from NBA superstar Russell Westbrook regarding his experience of the recruiting process.
- Always remember, just because a coach is calling you, nothing is official or final. Coaches usually have a list of several kids at your position who they might be recruiting along with you. You have made it on the radar, but you need to keep working hard and getting better!
- Coach can start directly contacting you through calls texts messages, twitter, etc. during the fall of your junior season. One way to know if a coach is really interested in you is on that first day, which coaches reach out to you in one of these forms, personally.
- All coaches have a list of athletes that they have been following, and they all have them ranked by priority. If the first few weeks have gone by and you have not yet been contacted, don’t worry too much. It means you need to work harder on your game and your skills. Don’t hesitate to reach out to coaches at this point as well to get more exposure. Here is a great story from NBA superstar Russell Westbrook regarding his experience of the recruiting process.
- Always remember, just because a coach is calling you, nothing is official or final. Coaches usually have a list of several kids at your position who they might be recruiting along with you. You have made it on the radar, but you need to keep working hard and getting better!
5 – Campus Visits
- When coaches come visit your campus to watch you work out or talk to you personally, they are showing that you are worth their time, energy, money and effort. But they are also looking deeper into you and your work ethic and character as a player and person.
- When a coach comes to your campus, just be you and do what you always do. Don’t try to be something that you are not and risk struggling because of it.
- Also, don’t worry if you have a bad practice with a coach in the gym. College coaches are by trade really good at evaluating talent. There evaluation of you is so much more than your shooting percentage. Your shot might be off, but they can tell by your form and the flow of the game how good of a shooter you really are.
- The best way to get noticed is to be the hardest working player on the court and the loudest player on the court. Make sure you are doing all of the little things because every program needs a player like that!
- When coaches come visit your campus to watch you work out or talk to you personally, they are showing that you are worth their time, energy, money and effort. But they are also looking deeper into you and your work ethic and character as a player and person.
- When a coach comes to your campus, just be you and do what you always do. Don’t try to be something that you are not and risk struggling because of it.
- Also, don’t worry if you have a bad practice with a coach in the gym. College coaches are by trade really good at evaluating talent. There evaluation of you is so much more than your shooting percentage. Your shot might be off, but they can tell by your form and the flow of the game how good of a shooter you really are.
- The best way to get noticed is to be the hardest working player on the court and the loudest player on the court. Make sure you are doing all of the little things because every program needs a player like that!
6 – Unofficial Visits
- You and your family can take what is called an ‘unofficial visit’ to a campus at any time. On an unofficial visit, you can contact the coaches and request a meeting or tour of the campus. If coaches have an interest in you, this shows that you are interested as well, and this can be a great tool to jumpstart the recruiting process before college coaches are able to really push forward with personal contact.
- You and your family can take what is called an ‘unofficial visit’ to a campus at any time. On an unofficial visit, you can contact the coaches and request a meeting or tour of the campus. If coaches have an interest in you, this shows that you are interested as well, and this can be a great tool to jumpstart the recruiting process before college coaches are able to really push forward with personal contact.
- This is also a good way to gauge potential interest that a school might have in you.
7 – Official Visits
- Each athlete has 5 official visits that they are allowed by the NCAA. This means that a college can pay for them to fly or drive to their campus, house them overnight, pay for food and meals, and host them in effort to try to get them to sign a scholarship to be a part of their program.
- When a college offers to bring you on an official visit, this means that they think highly enough of you to spend time, money, and energy to get you on their campus and finalize whether they want to sign you, whether or not they want to stop pursuing you.
- Remember, just because you are on an official visit does not mean that you have a full scholarship. Do the right thing while on campus. Asks good questions, get to know your future prospective teammates, find out what the campus and the town has to offer, and make sure that this is a place that you can see yourself spending the next 4 or 5 years of your life.
- Each athlete has 5 official visits that they are allowed by the NCAA. This means that a college can pay for them to fly or drive to their campus, house them overnight, pay for food and meals, and host them in effort to try to get them to sign a scholarship to be a part of their program.
- When a college offers to bring you on an official visit, this means that they think highly enough of you to spend time, money, and energy to get you on their campus and finalize whether they want to sign you, whether or not they want to stop pursuing you.
- Remember, just because you are on an official visit does not mean that you have a full scholarship. Do the right thing while on campus. Asks good questions, get to know your future prospective teammates, find out what the campus and the town has to offer, and make sure that this is a place that you can see yourself spending the next 4 or 5 years of your life.
8 – Scholarship Offer
- With each step, its important to trust the process: work hard, be coach-able, play with energy and enthusiasm, and be the best version of yourself. It is important to work hard in practice every day, for your high school coach and your summer league coach. College coaches, once they figure out how much talent you have, will start to look into your character and your work ethic. There are always kids out there as talented as you, and if your character and work ethic aren’t exactly what a college coach wants, they will pursue the other players. Things like body language, energy, how you interact with teammates, and how you react to criticism from coaches are all visible things that coaches will use to measure your character and whether or not they think that you can be a valuable member of their program.
- With each step, its important to trust the process: work hard, be coach-able, play with energy and enthusiasm, and be the best version of yourself. It is important to work hard in practice every day, for your high school coach and your summer league coach. College coaches, once they figure out how much talent you have, will start to look into your character and your work ethic. There are always kids out there as talented as you, and if your character and work ethic aren’t exactly what a college coach wants, they will pursue the other players. Things like body language, energy, how you interact with teammates, and how you react to criticism from coaches are all visible things that coaches will use to measure your character and whether or not they think that you can be a valuable member of their program.
9 - Finally, Be Realistic.
- Use camps and tournaments
to measure yourself up against other potential recruits. Be honest about
where you are in comparison to your competition. If you want to be a
division 1 basketball player, make sure you find a way to play against other division
1 players and see how you stack up. A college coach once told me, “You
have to be the best option in the world for us to offer you a
scholarship.”
Resources
- The Probability of Competing Beyond High School. NCAA.org. Retrieved on 5/7/17.
- Play NAIA. NAIA.org Retrieved on 5/7/17.
- NJCAA. NJCAA.org. Retrieved on 5//7/17.
- The Probability of Competing Beyond High School. NCAA.org. Retrieved on 5/7/17.
- Play NAIA. NAIA.org Retrieved on 5/7/17.
- NJCAA. NJCAA.org. Retrieved on 5//7/17.
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