41 Make the most of official visits. Walk around campus, get a feel for the atmosphere. Do the students seem friendly? Can you imagine yourself living here for four years? Meet the team, sit in on a class, watch a practice. Pick a school you’d want to attend even if you weren’t playing sports there.
42 Ask yourself these two questions when considering specific camps:
- Has a coach from the school called me and specifically invited me to the camp?
- Have I had any face-to-face contact with any of the coaches holding the camp?
If the answer to both of these questions is no, the only reason to attend the camp is to build skills or gain experience.
43 When you talk to a coach, always ask these two questions:
- What can I do to have a chance to be recruited for your program and earn a scholarship?
- What is the next step I should take with you personally?
44 Research colleges and get a feel for the different types of campuses. Evaluate a wide range of schools, and understand that bigger is not always better. Division I schools do not always offer better playing time, opportunities, or education than Division III or NAIA schools.
45 Request to ask the coach a few questions, but remember that they’re busy. If the coach doesn’t have time, ask when you can call the coach back. If you call a Division I or II coach before July 1 or June 15 of junior year (depending on sport), they’re not allowed to return your call. If the coach is unavailable, ask the person you speak to when you can reach the coach.
46 You only get one opportunity in your life to go through the recruiting process. Both student-athletes and their families have to be completely committed. High school is about 720 days long, and after that, the recruiting process is over. How will you make the most of this small window of opportunity?
47 What you do off the field is just as important as what you do on it. Excellence in the classroom tells a coach a lot about you, and determines how likely they are to recruit you. Coaches know that good students are more likely to make the most of their abilities, and stay out of trouble.
48 Let your child take the lead in talking to coaches – don’t be a “helicopter parent.” College coaches don’t want to deal with players’ parents, and prying too much into the interactions between the coach and your son or daughter can hurt their chances of being recruited.
49 College coaches usually begin the recruiting process by sending letters and questionnaires to the freshman student-athletes on their lists. Yon can develop relationships by calling, writing, and taking unofficial visits with the coaches. Waiting to connect with a coach might be the biggest mistake you can make! Coaches from DIII and NAIA schools can call you at any time.
50 Only about 6.7% of high school athletes go on to play in college, and only 1.68% will receive an athletic scholarship to an NCAA school. Only 0.98% play on a Division I team. But there are countless non-DI colleges where you can get a world-class education: MIT, NYU, UChicago, and Williams, to name a few. Only about 15% of collegiate athletic opportunities are at the Division I Level. The rest are at the DII, DIII, NAIA, and JUCO.