Recruiting Realities - #2 "GETTING SEEN"

We've already determined that "every player can play"...somewhere. The task for each high school prospect athlete is to figure out where. To help the process of determining "where", there are two critical steps. First, you have to get "on the radar". College coaches have to know you exist and they want to know as much information about you to assess whether you "fit" into their program. Secondly, you have to get "evaluated". Every college coach in every sport looks for a specific set of criteria, and the most important is academics. Are you academically eligible to even be recruited? Making sure you know where you stand on the NCAA Sliding Scale is critical before many college coaches will put the wheels of recruiting in motion. Signing up for the NCAA Eligibility Center (formerly known as the Clearinghouse) is the first step and can be done by visiting www.ncaaclearinghouse.net. For the eligibility requirements of the NAIA visit www.naia.org and for NJCAA visit www.njcaa.org. Once academic status is determined, then the athletic evaluation process can begin. A hard lesson for many prospects is that "reputation", "hype", "stats", and "honors" do not count as much as you think. College coaches want to know your vitals (size, speed, stats), and they must see you play your sport. They can evaluate you live or they can evaluate you on video. Since the NCAA and other governing bodies limit the off-campus recruiting of college coaches, having good video is critical for the prospect. Having it is only part of the task—getting it to the college coach is a bigger task. Making the information available and easy to receive is critical in speeding up the recruiting process. The sooner a coach can make up his/her mind about a prospect, the sooner a recruiting decision can be made. Utilizing an online recruiting service like College Coaches Network (www.collegecoaches.net) can be a huge resource for an athlete to assure they are providing the academic and athletic information every coach needs. And, with 2.5 hours of video capability, any coach anywhere can easily and quickly click on their computer to learn about and to evaluate you as a potential player. The recruiting reality of today's world is technology that makes the recruiting process easier and quicker for the college coach, which means the athlete must get "on the radar" and get evaluated much quicker. For more information about College Coaches Network visit www.collegecoaches.net or call 866.426.3883.