Getting a College Football Scholarship - Part 2 This is part two of a, more then likely, four part series on college recruiting and scholarship acquisition. This is a topic that is widely misunderstood and complicated. Every year, I know of several players who could have received money for college though football but could not because they were not educated in the recruiting process. “My son wants a College Football Scholarship, now what?” A common thought for parents of players who want to help pay for their education by playing football. Don’t worry, you are not the only one who has thought this, unless you have been though the process before, you don’t know the answer. So, the first thing you need to do is, get educated in the process. To accomplish something, you have to know where you are and where you want to be. Obviously, you know where you are, you are the parent of a high school football player who wants to earn money for college. And, you want to be the parent of a college football player who has earned money, though football, to pay for his education. Now, the only question is, how do I get there? You have to learn as much about the recruiting process as possible so you can better advise your son about what to do. "My son is not getting mail from colleges, why?" There are regulations that restrict what college football programs can do. Starting a player’s sophomore year, programs can send players information about their camps and they can send players questionnaires. They can’t send much else. Go to some of these camps. Go to as many as you can. The colleges do have to charge for them. Many people say, “if they want you bad enough, they should let you come free”. Again, there are regulations the colleges have to follow. These camps normally give the participants a T-shirt and many times supply lunch. The college can not give the players anything to entice them to come to their school, so they have to charge a small fee, normally enough to cover the cost of a T-shirt and meal. The college camps are normally very reasonably priced. The questionnaires are very important. If a college sends your player a questionnaire, fill it out and send it back, without question. If a player gets a questionnaire, they are on that college’s radar, and if you don’t send the questionnaire back, you are taken off the radar. After sending the questionnaire back, the college places the player’s name in their database and they will receive further mail and consideration. Fill out every questionnaire you get and return it quickly. They are repetitious, but a necessary evil. This is a “your foot in the door” type situation. After September 1st of a player’s Junior year, the colleges can start sending players recruiting information - basically they can send any mail they want. Getting mail from colleges is very exciting, to the players and the parents. It’s always nice to be wanted and getting mail from colleges means they at least know the player’s name and that they may just want that player at their school. "How do the colleges learn about my son?" The number one source of player information for colleges are High School Football Coaches. College Coaches will send mailers out to High School Coaches asking them to name players who they think may be able to play College Football. That is why it is important for players to let their High School Coach know they are interested in playing College Football - they need their name on that list. High School Coaches are not the only way colleges learn about a player. There is this new thing out there - the Internet. The internet has changed college recruiting dramatically. There are recruiting sites that list players, don’t kid yourself, college coaches do look at them. Getting your son on as many of these sites will help. Short of the High School Coach, and the Internet, a player can get his name on the college’s radar by making contact, sending an email letting the coach know who he is, what high school he attends and some other information. Now, don’t be disappointed when the college coach doesn’t respond to this email, because he probably will not. Again, some regulations on when the college coach can contact a player. But, don’t worry, he got it, and he put that player in his database. That player is now in the system and will probably start getting some mail from the college’s Office of Admissions. "My son is a sophomore and college coaches have not met him, why?" The first Thursday in February of a player’s Junior year is when recruiting really starts. The first Wednesday of February is National Signing Day, meaning colleges finalize what player they are getting this year. The next day, colleges start looking at their next recruiting class. That is when your Junior son’s class moves up the priority list. This is called the “Spring Evaluation Period”. During this period, college coach still can not schedule meeting with or call a player. But, they can schedule a meeting with the High School Coach to get film or to talk to them about possible recruits. While they are at the High School meeting the High School Coach, they may, and can, accidentally “Bump” into players. Players need to know that College Coaches may be in their school and they could potentially “bump” into them. The players need to be ready for those encounters. Now, don’t be disappointed if those meeting don’t take place because most colleges don’t have the budgets or resources to travel to every high school that has players they may want to recruit. If a player’s high school is close to a college campus, or the College Coach is making a trip to the area, it could happen. "My son has not received any phone calls from College Coaches, why?" The NCAA regulates when and how often a College Coach can call a potential player. According to these regulations, a College Coach may call a recruit one time in May of the player’s Junior year of school. And, then they may not call that player again until September of the players Senior year of school. Starting in September of the players Senior year, the College Coach may only call one time per week. All those regulations only limit the College Coaches from calling. A high school football player may call college coaches as much as they like. In other words, if you are not getting calls from coaches, you may call the coach. Now, if you reach the coach he will, more then likely, talk to you. But, if you get his voicemail, or leave a message with an office assistant, he will not be allowed to call you back. Don’t take it personally when he doesn’t return your phone call, he did not because he is not allowed by NCAA regulations. Just call him back until you are able to speak with him. Some other options: email and text. The NCAA regulations are pretty strict on phone calls and meeting players off of the college campus, but given the relatively newness of email and texting, there are very few NCAA regulations on those types of communications. Plus, most college coaches prefer email to phone calls. They will email you back and fourth all day. One big advantage to email communication is, you don’t have to worry as much about saying the wrong thing, you can type your email and edit it and change it until you get it just right. Another advantage, you can add attachments of documents that the coach will want (we will get into those documents in the next segment). Some college coaches love to text, they may ask for a player’s cell number so they can text him. The good news, the players love to text as well, so it comes natural to them. A good idea with texting coaches: Don’t use shorthand and abbreviations. One, the coach may misunderstand what is being said, two it could be seen as a sign of laziness on the part of the player. College coaches, especially the ones at “High academic standard colleges” want players who are intelligent, well spoken, and posses a certain degree of knowledge of the English language, so tell the players to save the shorthand texting for their girlfriends and buddies. "So, let me get this straight, you tell me the recruiting process starts the Freshman year, but the college coaches can’t contact my son until September of their Senior year?" Yep, that is how it works. You are probably wondering what to do in those first three years of high school when the college coaches can’t contact players. First, I didn’t say the college coaches “can’t have contact”, I said they, “can’t schedule meetings or call”. Let’s clarify a few things. Almost all those regulations restricting contact my college coaches are limited to “off the college campus”. So, if a player goes to the college campus, the college coach can meet with you and talk to you all day. Wait for it...... wait for it....... that is why the college camps are so important and that is why the colleges have those camps. The college coaches can host a camp, and a bunch of players come to their campus and they can watch them, talk to them, and see them perform in person. That is a great tool for the college coaches, plus, it gives the high school players a chance to meet the coaches, see the college and decide if they want to go to college there and is doesn’t violate any recruiting regulations. There’s your in. Of course, it’s not possible to go to every college camp, so choosing some takes some thought. How can you get in contact with the other colleges? Even though they can not contact the players, you can contact them. The best way? Email. Email the college coaches and send them the information they want (again, we will get into those documents in the next segment). How do you get the coach’s email addresses? Almost every college program’s website, has a tab that says, “coaches” or “Athletic Directory”. Find that and it will list all the coaches by name and email address. All of them? Which coach do you email? First, most college coaches are assigned an area to recruit. If they list which coach has which area, send an email to the coach that is responsible for your area. Also, it is a good idea to email the position coach for the position that a player plays. When in doubt as to which coach to email, email the position coach. "My son is a Senior, why hasn’t any college coaches come to watch one of his games?" Well, to start with, are you sure the college coaches haven’t been to one of your son’s games? The college coaches don’t announce themselves when they come to a high school game. They come, watch, and leave. You may not have known they were there. Secondly, most colleges don’t have the budgets or resources to go to every high school game and watch every potential player. That is why film (we will get into that in the next segment) and attending the college camps are so important. Lastly, the big problem college coaches have with attending high school games is, the high school football season coincides with the college football season, so the college coaches are preparing their team for their next big game and don’t always have time to travel to a high school to see players play. Again, summer camps are important. That concludes Part 2 of this four part series. Next week, we will get into what you have to do and what you need to send to the college coaches. Keep a look out for the next segment. bluegrasspreps/ky-football-high/getting-college-football-261779.html
Posted on: Mon, 23 Sep 2013 22:22:19 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015