COLLEGE RECRUITING PART 2: Scoring on the field and in the classroom

The popularity of college athletics has existed nearly as long as the institutions themselves. Embedded in our nation’s history are some of the most infamous moments in sports that took place on the collegiate playing field.

Coast to coast, students, alumni, family, friends and neighbors of colleges at all levels wear their school’s colors with pride. Those who follow the sports teams of their schools are well aware of who it’s players are. They know when one is in their final year and they are aware of who the school has signed to join the team the next. If you follow college sports, this information is readily at hand.

NCAA is big business. It has placed itself in the forefront of going to college, which is, without argument, one of the most exciting things about college life itself.

Let’s not overlook the main purpose for going to college in the first place: to get an education. To perhaps earn a degree in an area of study that will gain employment to set a young person’s life on the right track for future success is the goal of the college institution. Not necessarily to hit a game-winning basket during March Madness.

When a student enters high school, his or her counselor will help devise a strategy for graduation. Which courses to take, when to take them, and at what level, are all things that go into consideration.

If that student is an athlete and participates on one of the high school’s teams, it is in the best interest of the teenager and their parents to make sure the courses they are taking keep them eligible to play in college should the opportunity arise.

It is often difficult to determine when a freshman will blossom on the field. Sometimes a student won’t even make a varsity squad and begin receiving ample playing time until their senior year. To wait and see if this will happen is a lack of planning. There is no harm in being prepared for what might transpire during the student’s athletic endeavors.

It is out of our hands as mere mortals to know when a skinny 5’10” freshman linebacker will blossom into a 6’2”, 225 lb all-region player as a senior. Why not be prepared for that?

Just as it is on the academic end—as far as planning a course of study for college, it is just as imperative to plan for the possibility of playing a sport in college. Not doing so could be eliminating possibilities unforeseen when getting a child going once they enter their prep years.

Receiving athletic scholarship consideration at a university is not an easy thing to acquire. If a female is already the top sprinter on her track team as a high school freshman and has tremendous potential, due to work ethic along with natural ability, then that track scholarship becomes a little more in focus early on.

In a team sport, such as track or wrestling, where individual performances decide the success of the team, college coaches can spot these talents easier than say that of a midfielder on the soccer team.

No matter the athletic situation, however, colleges rely on players being students. NCAA eligibility, accumulative grade point average, and ACT or SAT scores are generally among the first questions a student athlete will get when confronted by an interested college coach. Height, weight, graduation year and three-pointers scored in conference games are all statistics easily found by a college coach. A serious student athlete should be ready to rattle off some very good academic numbers to keep those initial conversations going.

Good students reflect well on a university, more so than a good athlete. Only a small percentage of the student body makes up its athletic teams. And only a small percentage of those participants make up the contributing players on those teams.

It is naïve to place the future of a young student in the hands of chance.

If playing football on the D1 level was an obvious destination for a high school player, then that would more times than not be determined before his junior year. Rarely does a school participating on a high level of athletics have athletic dollars remaining after a preps senior season.

If an opportunity such as that arises late in the game, that player must show records of being an excellent student if any scholarship assistance is to be offered.

Egos must be put to rest at this time. Academic scholarship money is the same as athletic scholarship money. It is green and it pays the astronomical college bills.