With few exceptions, college coaches go to showcases with a game plan to evaluate current prospects, not find new ones. The coaches have already identified the top tier student-athletes that will be there, and they use the showcases as a means of evaluating those specific players.  If you are intent on going to showcase events, it is critical for that athlete to pinpoint schools they are interested in and find out which showcases those schools will be attending.  Just showing up to any random showcase and hoping to get discovered is not a good idea.  Also, realize many of these events main purpose is to generate revenue.

If you are one of the best athletes in the nation, then part of this statement is true.  However, grades are such an important factor in the recruiting process.  Grades are a huge part of financial aid, scholarship packaging, and athlete retention.  Most coaches won't invest their time and money recruiting an athlete who may not be admitted into their school, or is going to fail out or become academically ineligible.  If you don't have a 3.0 GPA or higher, over 50% of college programs won't be able to get you past the admissions office.  Grades are becoming the single most important factor in recruiting. Admissions and administration offices are putting more pressure on athletic departments to recruit athletes that succeed once they get into school.  Sure you may be ‘eligible’ to be recruited with poor grades, but many schools aren’t going to continue to recruit you after seeing your transcripts and test scores if they are poor.

Only about 50% of the colleges in each sport actually offer athletic scholarships.  NCAA Division I & II colleges can offer athletic scholarships (plus Junior Colleges and some NAIA schools). NCAA Division III Programs can only offer aid based on financial need and academics. Even schools that do offer athletic scholarships often times have very limited amounts of scholarship money to be divided up amongst a large number of athletes.

Some of the larger schools with top notch football and basketball programs do have large recruiting budgets but most do not. There are very few college coaches that have the ability to fly around the country to recruit players and have an endless coaching staff that they can send out to scout, especially when their team doesn’t generate any money for their school, which is just about every D1 team that doesn’t play football, basketball, or hockey. While Nick Saban probably has access to a private jet in Alabama to fly out to see recruits wherever they live, the women’s swimming coach at Alabama doesn’t quite have the same access.

Coaches send out thousands of letters to high school athletes they may or may not have heard of and there are probably 500 kids tearing open the same exact letter you received. Receiving a letter means a coach knows your name and knows you play the sport they coach. Respond to the letter and follow-up with the coach. Until the coach calls you, invites you to the school, and makes you a formal offer to join their program, these letters don’t mean too much.

Many NCAA DIII schools offer attractive financial aid programs and you should not overlook any school, even if they do not offer athletic scholarships. Many student-athletes go to DIII schools for minimal tuition because they are good students with family need and used leverage to get the best deal.  If you get a $10,000 athletic scholarship at a $45,000 DI or DII school you still have $35,000 a year to pay!  The amount of scholarship is not important.  The bottom line price you have to pay is. Therefore you must look at the full picture when making final decisions that include the complete financial package being offered regardless if its from a DI or a DIII school.

 

This is the most highly used phrase in sports and it’s the biggest myth out there! It’s old, outdated and flat out incorrect!  Every year everyone knows a few kids who were studs on their high school teams who do not end up going on to play at the next level. For most of these kids its not because they weren’t good enough, its because coaches didn’t know who they were.  The “If you are good enough coaches will find you” statement is only generally true for those special athletes who are top players in their region who have already received a great deal of accolades by sophomore year and most likely already have several scholarship offers in hand. This is simply not the case for most student-athletes outside of this special group. 

The only way coaches will know about you for sure is if you constantly send them your information, updates and athletic profile expressing your interest in them.  Recruiting is now a global process and despite your skills or success in high school, it is extremely easy to be overlooked by college coaches who have thousands of athletes to scout and hundreds of potential venue’s to scout them at. College coaches most likely don’t read your local town paper and they probably don’t attend your games.  Your performance on the field or court will go a long way toward determining whether or not you get a scholarship offer.  However, coaches are looking for more than just your ability.  They are looking to find prospects that are a good fit for their school.  This includes grades, character, work ethic, coach-ability, etc.  

There are strict rules as to when a coach can send you literature and how often they can contact you at the NCAA level. The good news is that you can contact college coaches at any time so long as you make the phone call, text, or send the email. Additionally, social media contact between high school athletes and coaches is not as defined. Private messages between athletes and Division I coaches are permissible, but public messages (such as wall posts on Facebook) are considered a secondary violation of NCAA recruiting rules. Please see the NCAA website for more specific rules information and search for the NCAA guide for the college bound student-athlete, which is a free download.

Some coaches are very good at helping their players get the opportunity to play sports in college and have a great feel for the recruiting process and how it works. However, there are a lot of coaches who don't feel like this is a large part of their job description and don't do as much as others in terms of contacting college coaches. Whether or not your high school coach excels in this area or not, you must realize that this is YOUR life and that you and your parents have to do everything in your power to make your dreams a reality. You must market yourself and play an active role in your recruitment.

In some cases yes, but in many cases no. Many NCAA Division III programs have very talented athletic programs that are better than many DII’s and even DI schools.  They are still talented and dedicated athletes who wanted to continue their athletic career in college. If you think you can just stroll onto a DIII program and it not be competitive for you to get on the field or court you are in for a surprise. Many DIII rosters consist of athletes who most certainly could have played at higher level schools. 

While walking onto the Duke basketball team may be difficult, many coaches rely on walk-on’s each year and will usually conduct tryouts to give as many players a chance as possible. It is better to find out what walk-on opportunities exist before you show up at tryouts. It certainly is not easy, but it is not impossible either.

Quite the opposite, coaches hope to hear from good athletes who are interested in their program. Some blue-chip athletes come to their attention naturally, but often there aren't enough for a coach to fill his or her roster.  Many high school athletes don't want to make contact with college coaches because they are afraid the coach doesn't want to hear from them. For smaller schools, even some minor Division I schools, they need and want to hear from potential players.  These schools don't have the budgets to fly around the country looking for qualified players.  These schools rely on word of mouth recruiting and they also rely on some potential athletes making contact with them.

While some of the more aggressive parts of the process do happen when you are a Senior, those who wait to START the process as Seniors are often disappointed.  It’s a common occurrence to have verbal offers out and accepted for a graduating class as early as 18 months before high school graduation.  In high profile sports, verbal offers are accepted as early as middle school!  Regardless of the level of play, recruiting starts behind the scenes far earlier than you think or know about.

While being recruited by a college coach can be an advantage over applicants that are not athletes, you need to be very close academically to what the school seeks out in any student. Coaches can submit a list of names to the admissions department, but you need to be committed to the coach and express a strong interest in attending that institution. At the end of the day admissions make admission decisions, not coaches, and many students that thought they were a shoe-in for admissions can easily get rejected.

Full scholarships are very rare and most coaches divide scholarship money up between several players. The only guaranteed full scholarships are for D1 basketball and D1 football. Each program is fully funded and offers the maximum amount of scholarships allowed by the NCAA, 13 for men’s hoops, 85 for football, and 15 for women’s hoops. Every other sport and team divides money up to many players and no other team or program is guaranteed to be fully funded. Please note: There are several sports called head-count sports in which money can only be allotted to a specific number of players. For example – In D1 women’s tennis, a coach is allowed a maximum of 8 scholarships per team, but since tennis isn’t a revenue generating sport, rarely will you find all D1 programs offering 8 tennis scholarships (aside of the top schools with lots of money). If a D1 tennis coach has 2 scholarships for the entire team, they can divide that money up to a maximum of 8 players, but no more than 8 players, and some teams consist of 11 or 12 players and those players will get no athletic aid (or no aid until a player receiving aid graduates). In a non head-count sport like softball, the coach could divide 3 scholarships between 20 players if they so chose as there are no restrictions.

College coaches recruit anyone they think can play at their program and recruit anyone who shows an interest in their program. Just because you are not the star of your team does not mean you cannot play in college. There are many players that do not start because there are other talented players at their position(s), but many of those players have the skills to play in college as well. I even get emails from new coaches who are at less well-known schools in less well-known places who are dying to find college recruits just to field a team.

While many coaches are, some are not and some have never played their sport in college. Their are many factors that determine if you can play in college and your high school coach may not know what your potential may be at the next level. If they have that knowledge, find out how they can help your recruiting process. If they do not, you need to find another source of information and/or someone else that can endorse your skills for the next level.

Playing college athletics is an unbelievable commitment in time and in dedication and will be nowhere close to your high school experience. In college you will play or practice for 3 seasons, in the fall, winter and in the spring, and be required to do lifting and running programs as well. You may also be practicing at 6AM or Midnight or twice a day depending what facilities are available at your school.

There are over 1,700 U.S. colleges and universities that sponsor collegiate athletics and are able to offer financial packages.  80% of those opportunities fall outside of the Division 1 level. Make sure your student-athletes have a clear understanding of all opportunities available to them at the D1, D1-A, DII, DIII, NAIA or NJCAA levels.(DIII programs do not offer "athletic scholarships" but are very creative with putting together very competitive overall financial packages for their student-athletes.