Most high school students who love sports, and are good at them, dream of playing at the college level. Their parents are usually more focused on the financial rewards of the scholarship that comes with college athletic recruiting. To increase your chances of being offered a full or partial athletic scholarship, you have to understand how the process works.
There is nothing more important than keeping your grades up. Coaches will be especially concerned about how well you are doing the closer you get to graduation. When you aren't studying, you should be researching colleges and universities to see which ones interest you the most. After you've decided on a few, you can arrange visits to tour the campuses. You should be able to meet with the coach, if you let him know in advance.
You need to remember that the coaches are picking you, not the other way around. You must be responsive to all inquiries from athletic departments. Coaches want to talk to you, not your trainers, parents, or best friends. Don't send mass emails to coaches. That alone can get you marked off their lists.
Don't bother sending unsolicited videos of training sessions or game highlights. Top coaches watch half a hundred videos each week, and those are the ones they requested. Unsolicited videos have very little chance of being seen by anybody. If you get an encouraging response from a text, you might email a link to a very short highlight video.
Parents play an important role in this process. It's important for them to know how to handle that role however. Not all good high school athletes want to play college ball. Trying to force the issue will backfire. Parents should never try to become a scout's best buddy. Scouts see this all the time, and it has no effect on them. Attending campus tours with kids, encouraging them, and then standing back as the athlete make the final decisions is the best plan.
Talented athletes need to know how coaches handle recruitment. They will send general school information like brochures and questionnaires to promising freshmen. If they get a response, they will keep the youngster on their list. If not, they will write him off. Material specific to recruitment can't go out until the athlete reaches his junior year.
Only a very small percentage of kids that are scouted get scholarship offers, and you will definitely know it you are one of the chosen. Getting a generic admission letter or an invitation to participate in a sports camp isn't the same as a scholarship offer. Don't get your hopes up just because a scout comes to one of your games. They go to lots of games.
An athletic scholarship is a great thing. It will give you all kinds of opportunities you might not have otherwise had. What you do with those opportunities is entirely up to you.
There is nothing more important than keeping your grades up. Coaches will be especially concerned about how well you are doing the closer you get to graduation. When you aren't studying, you should be researching colleges and universities to see which ones interest you the most. After you've decided on a few, you can arrange visits to tour the campuses. You should be able to meet with the coach, if you let him know in advance.
You need to remember that the coaches are picking you, not the other way around. You must be responsive to all inquiries from athletic departments. Coaches want to talk to you, not your trainers, parents, or best friends. Don't send mass emails to coaches. That alone can get you marked off their lists.
Don't bother sending unsolicited videos of training sessions or game highlights. Top coaches watch half a hundred videos each week, and those are the ones they requested. Unsolicited videos have very little chance of being seen by anybody. If you get an encouraging response from a text, you might email a link to a very short highlight video.
Parents play an important role in this process. It's important for them to know how to handle that role however. Not all good high school athletes want to play college ball. Trying to force the issue will backfire. Parents should never try to become a scout's best buddy. Scouts see this all the time, and it has no effect on them. Attending campus tours with kids, encouraging them, and then standing back as the athlete make the final decisions is the best plan.
Talented athletes need to know how coaches handle recruitment. They will send general school information like brochures and questionnaires to promising freshmen. If they get a response, they will keep the youngster on their list. If not, they will write him off. Material specific to recruitment can't go out until the athlete reaches his junior year.
Only a very small percentage of kids that are scouted get scholarship offers, and you will definitely know it you are one of the chosen. Getting a generic admission letter or an invitation to participate in a sports camp isn't the same as a scholarship offer. Don't get your hopes up just because a scout comes to one of your games. They go to lots of games.
An athletic scholarship is a great thing. It will give you all kinds of opportunities you might not have otherwise had. What you do with those opportunities is entirely up to you.
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