COLLEGE RECRUITING PART 3: The time is now!

Graduating from high school and moving on to attend college is one of those rare moments in life when a young student athlete and his or her parents feel a definite shift in their destinies.

Behind them now are all the wonderful years of recreation league ball. The bragging rights that come along with competing in accelerated travel tournaments are all in the past.

Making the high school team, being named a captain, receiving a varsity letter and ultimately getting that diploma, are all now moments set in stone.

Ready or not, the future is now.

If your new graduate is all set for a summer of relaxation and fun, perhaps even a rewarding vacation in the plans, and has already been given a time to meet with his or her college academic counselor and a date to report to their new coach, then you as a parent, and your student athlete have done the necessary work.

If you are still wondering how to get your son or daughter on a college team at this time, then you may have underestimated the need to take the very important steps needed in the recruiting game.

Chances are, at this point, that only a junior college, and an out-of-state one, at that, is the only option ahead. And even then, in the state of Utah, where there are only three junior college institutions, that can be a tall order.

The NJCAA is an excellent organization, however. Not all students are ready, athletically or academically, to compete at a D1 or D2 university. Junior colleges are well worth their weight in gold in these circumstances.

The only crime in this scenario is if the student athlete has the ability to play at a higher collegiate level right away, or worse yet, carries a high GPA with outstanding ACT scores, and will now have to spend perhaps an extra year of college seeking a degree just to compete on a college field.

And if the junior college is not picking up the tab, or at least half of it, then mom and dad are forced to pay these first year college expenses. This can be avoided.

High school coaches and counselors, along with the excellent administrations that employ such wonderful people, can only do so much when it comes to helping a student athlete advance to play in college.

Their position in a young person’s prep life is to guide them through the high school years. To educate them, to coach them, to nurture them, to help them grow into fine young citizens prepared for the difficulties that college life will no doubt throw in their direction. They are not wholly responsible for finding a student athlete a college scholarship, just as a university is not responsible for finding its graduates a career position once they graduate.

It is up to the student and their parents to educate themselves on how scholarships in college are obtained.

Getting college scholarship assistance is not some big secret—at least it shouldn’t be treated as such. Information is readily available through the counseling departments at the high schools to help students find scholarship opportunities. These, however, are academic scholarships and come in small bunches that the awarded student can apply to his or her college bill. Receiving one or more of these, along with high ACT scores, can alleviate a significant amount of financial pressure.

The only scholarship you won’t find posted on the school bulletin board is the athletic one. It is one of the toughest to get and without knowing how to gain the proper exposure to the athlete’s abilities on the field, and to project to a college coach what they could possibly offer their program, then they are nearly impossible to get offered.

The search for an athletic scholarship can be overwhelming to both the student and the parent, especially without any direction on how to look. A short list of email addresses and cell phone numbers of college coaches given to you by a friend of a friend who once was a neighbor of that coach when they were kids may be a place to start but not near worthy of your student’s college future.

Banking on that, or camp invitations that resulted in a few positive words from a college coach, can be playing with fire. Openings can close and closed doors can unexpectedly open when it comes to athletic scholarships. The best thing to be is prepared from the beginning for anything that could arise.

There is a notion that preparing a student in their freshman or sophomore year for an athletic scholarship is too early. This is exactly when the preparation should begin. Especially if the student is showing signs of being able to play on a D1 level and handle the schoolwork at the same time.

D1 and D2 schools that compete at a high level in athletics are recruiting kids as early as the eighth grade. And while there can be an uncomfortable feeling as a parent, putting your kid out there to college coaches while they are barely into their teens, it is often necessary if getting into a D1 program is the goal.

Coaches often like players they cannot get because they learn about them too late.  Their scholarship money has already been spent for that student’s first eligible season. They will often offer a walk-on situation, which, while excites the athlete and their parents, it could be a dead end to the scholarship journey. Once a talented athlete commits to playing on a team on their own dime, it is easier for a college team to hold off on offering any money in subsequent years, banking on that student’s loyalty.

This isn’t to say that a scholarship is never offered in a second or third year after a walk-on year, it just reduces the chances. Coaches do recognize when they can keep an athlete for free.

Their job is to get the most top-tier players they can to be competitive on the amount of money they are allowed to spend. There is a new crop each and every season. The competition for these scholarships never ends. A player who is third or fourth on the depth chart at their position and competing only as a back-up on the team for a percentage of tuition only, may never receive a penny more because a blue-chip recruit will be earning a full-ride in the class behind them.

The most productive way to avoid having a student athlete end up in this situation is to get them exposed to multiple institutions and as early as possible. This puts the choice in the hands of the athlete. If the student is receiving multiple contacts from colleges in their underclass years, then those will most assuredly turn into solid offers once the athlete is of age to commit.