COLLEGE RECRUITING PART 1: From the cradle to the game

Opportunities in life come in all forms. For young athletes who aspire to go to college and receive an education, no better opportunity can come than that of an athletic scholarship.

While schooling is considered the best and most productive way to prepare a young person for the rigors of adult life, the cost of attending college can reach six figures.

For those who excel in sports—and in the classroom, the price tag for a college degree can decrease significantly if the student chooses to put in the hard work required to compete in their sport at a higher level.

In today’s ultra-competitive society, finding these types of opportunities can be difficult. That adds a third element to a young student athlete’s preparation during his or her prep years: getting themselves on the recruiting landscape.

But how does that happen? When and how will college coaches take notice of your child’s athletic skills? When does a top performer on the field and in school begin to think seriously about getting a college scholarship?

The answers vary depending on the sport and the region the student plays in. The days of a college coach showing up on the sidelines with a scholarship in hand are long gone—and only really ever existed in extreme circumstances, or in the movies. It is now up to the student athlete and their parents only, to get educated on the complicated processes involving recruiting for an athletic scholarship. So, if the goal to seek such an opportunity is determined early then the answer is right then and there.

Parents begin exposing their children to organized sports as early as four years old. It starts with local park and recreation activities and often moves into accelerated leagues that compete all across the nation. As the child grows, the time and money invested by the families goes into the tens of thousands of dollars.

There are team fees and high costs for the best equipment. There are personal instructors, trainers, nutritionists and often doctors or physical therapists. Travel ball expenses including fees, hotels, fuel and food quickly mount up. For something that begins merely for fun, it can quickly turn into a life-altering commitment.

This level of competition is not always just the child wanting to play either. Frequently, this involvement is driven by mom and dad.

Kids can be serious competitors, but they do it for fun. They love to play the sports they’ve been involved with since being very young and they enjoy being with their friends. Parents do it for control.

Sometimes it’s a case of the mother or father living vicariously through their child, attempting to create something that they may or may not have experienced during their own youth. Many times it’s as simple as the parents wanting their child to experience the camaraderie and safety of being involved in a positive group setting. The reasons are many and differ from family to family. One thing is for certain, however, expressed or not, the ultimate dream would be to receive a full athletic college scholarship once this road has been traveled.

What doting father, who has spent years coaching, taking time off from work, coming up with funds to travel weekend after weekend, would not fight back tears of pride if his son or daughter were to achieve such a pinnacle? Not many.

The disheartening part of all this hard work can be when it amounts to nothing beyond the fine memories. That might be good enough for some, but not for most.

Often there is a time of realization as a young athlete grows older and faces tougher competition that he or she is just not good enough to go on. That happens. It is the parent’s duty at that point to recognize the end may be near in their kid’s sports endeavors and simply enjoy the moments of watching them participate as they come to a close.

Then there are the ones who are good enough--the kids who are the best players on their teams. The ones who everyone talks about season after season and proudly says, “she’s going to play in college someday.” But will she? Will that opportunity ever come?

If that player or her parents have not taken any steps beyond just competing on the field as their way to get recruited, then the chances are no.

Just playing on a travel ball team and participating in top tournaments in your region, is not enough. That, simply stated, is just the beginning. It is necessary for development as a future college athlete, but it will not get a student recruited for an athletic scholarship. Next time you attend one of those types of tournament events in your child’s sport, take a look around. Behind every set-up of lawn chairs and coolers, is a parent, or parents, grinding their teeth and sweating bullets because their child is going to be a senior and has yet to receive a call from a college.

This is important to digest. Only such a call—or email, or even direct contact from a college coach who handles the recruiting for his or her team, is the indicator that your son or daughter is being recruited. Not the friendly and positive “coach-speak” most will hear at the close of a college camp that the parent paid for, for their child to attend.

The competition for athletic scholarships in college is intense. There is no shortage of worthy athletes. Depending on the sport, schools only have an allotted amount of scholarships to give with hundreds, and even thousands of qualified kids wanting those scholarships.

The larger Division 1 universities, such as the schools in the PAC 12, SEC, or powerful independents like BYU and Notre Dame, hold most of the cards when it comes to recruiting. Because of the high exposure of these schools, they are the most desirable for the serious student athlete. These institutions have the budget to use the most effective recruiting techniques, such as having full-time recruiting coordinators or the use of the latest software to weed through the thousands of prospects to locate the ones who fit their needs.

Many things come into play for these coaches, from the academic standing of the athlete, to the year they will be available, to the position they play on the court or field.

These types of requisites are often broken down by a staff of coaches to identify the top few who will get the chance to visit the school and perhaps offered a scholarship by the head coach.

The smaller schools don’t have these luxuries in some cases and must rely on outside sources such as scouting bureaus, or camps to find prospects they can actually have a shot at attaining.

Standing in the shoes of a smaller college coach, finding the best student athlete for their program--that they can afford, can be a daunting task. They often recruit the blue-chip athlete, but lose out to the bigger schools. Their recruiting boards, for this reason alone, must be much deeper.

A major misconception with the smaller schools, and these are the Division II, Division III or NAIA institutions, is that they do not have the academic or athletic standards of the DI schools. This is not true.

While the number of scholarships may be fewer, the product on the field can be as, if not better than, some DI competition. And let’s not overlook the main reason for going to college… the education. If a D3 or NAIA school is strong in a young person’s chosen field of study, and competes at a high level in their conference athletics, then how could one turn their nose up to such an opportunity? Especially since USC has yet to call.