So you think that you (or your son/daughter, grandson/daughter, nephew, niece, etc.) are pretty good at one or more sports and you would like to take your playing career beyond high school and on to the college level?
How do you get those sometimes elusive college coaches to even notice you?
First you need to be realistic about your playing ability.
According to high-schools.com, there are 2,167 high schools in New York State made up of 1,539 public schools and 628 private schools. Assuming 2,000 of those have say a baseball and softball team, that means there are 2,000 starting shortstops/ace pitchers/dynamite center fielders for each sport. That’s just from this state.
But assuming you have risen above your peers, how do you go about marketing yourself to those coaches?
We asked several Roberts Wesleyan and College at Brockport coaches for their insight into how best to proceed.
Do’s:
Brockport volleyball coach Steve Pike: “contact the coach directly with your interest and why that specific university and team interest you. Ask for a visit to campus and find out when is a good time so that you can meet with both the coach and athletes. Send video of you competing, you can upload game videos right to you-tube and make it private but share it with that coach. Proofread your e-mail to the coach for both grammatical errors and that it’s to the correct program.”
Roberts Wesleyan men’s soccer coach Scott Reber: “contact the coach early (i.e. junior year) and let him know of your interest more than once (we are swamped with emails indicating interest and can’t get to all of them), do well in school, attend ID Camps for that school, take SAT/ACT tests early, be respectful to everyone (referees, opponents, teachers, coaches, parents, siblings, etc. etc. – we look for that).”
Brockport ice hockey coach Brian Dickinson: “players should begin reaching out to college coaches during their junior year and should also fill out the team’s questionnaire on their websites.”
Roberts Wesleyan women’s volleyball coach Doug Porterfield: “one thing that players need to know is that they are responsible because they are the player. So they need to make contact if they are interested in a program. There is a time for parents to be involved but parents should not be the contact person. Please, please respond to phone calls and emails/text messages. Don’t be afraid to talk to coaches in the recruiting process. Video is important. Find a way to identify yourself so the coach can find you in a video. You have about four seconds to catch the interest of a coach. If you can get them past that you will have them for most of the video.”
Brockport men’s lacrosse coach Ben Wineburg: “visit as many colleges as you can! Meet with the coach and I like a parent or parents to be involved in our meeting. Send game film to me and let me know where I can see you play. Most importantly, bring copies of your high school transcript and College Board scores. If the psa (potential student-athlete) likes the initial visit and we like him as a player and student, we will have them back for an overnight visit.”
Brockport football coach Jason Mangone: “provide film. Without film we can’t evaluate. I’m not nearly concerned with all-star honors, we want film. Show interest and visit earlier than later.”
With the do’s, there are some definite things coaches would rather you (or your parents) not do during the process.
Don’ts:
Pike: “don’t send a generic e-mail out to a bunch of coaches at once in a mass mail. Don’t have your parents do the e-mail or contacting, you are going to be the one going to school and playing for that program. Don’t spend a lot of money on a fancy edited highlight video with music.”
Dickinson: “coaches prefer to hear from the student athlete and not the parents. This will show the coach that the student athlete is serious about the program and it’s just not the parents’ wishes as well as showing that the student athlete is responsible.”
Reber: “don’t ignore texts, emails, phone calls from coaches – we are contacted daily by many interested players and will move on if we don’t get a timely response.”
Wineburg: “Don’t base your college decision on the sport you want to play. Don’t go to a college that does not have at least three of your academic areas of interest.”
Porterfield: “too many recruiting sites have athletes that don’t complete the information or don’t have a video link. Don’t be that player. Don’t string a coach on. If you are interested let them know; if you are not let them know. It will save both parties time and effort.”
Mangone: “don’t ignore phone messages. If we don’t feel any interest, we will have to move on to the next prospect. Ask if they will start their freshman year. Ask if they can have a jersey number before they commit. Only want to text and not talk on the phone. Texting is good for some things but not to build a relationship off.”
You may think it’s just your playing ability that coaches care about, but they are watching many other things as well.
Pike said, “Talent, character and academic are three qualities we look for in their current behaviors on and off the court. How does the student athlete talk about current coach, team, program? What does their current report card say about challenging courses taken, comments from teachers, attendance? How do they behave in timeouts, before and after matches, when talking with parents? What do they practice/train like, lots of athletes play hard but ones that compete hard in every drill in practice are what separates them.”
Porterfield responded, “First they need to present their skills on the court. Then I look for communication skills. I am looking for demonstrated leadership and the athletically competitive. They must also fit the program and larger community of the institution.”
Dickinson added, “A student athlete’s commitment to academics is very important to me. We’re not putting players in the NHL as players from our program so we’re looking for student athletes who will be dedicated students and will work hard in both areas. A player that will help us be successful but will fail out after one or two years is not a situation we’re interested in.”
As for the most annoying thing potential student athletes or their parents have done during the recruiting process, the coaches were forthright, but with the promise of anonymity.
•“Not return phone calls, emails, texts in a timely or consistent manner? Show up to campus without contacting or not show up when they say they are going to. Not be honest about academic transcript.”
•“For me it is the player that is unresponsive in communications. Returning email or phone calls. Bad video!”
“The parent of this one student athlete that was on our “B” list emailed most of the coaches in our league and berated us on not recruiting his son hard enough. He felt that his son was better than we all felt and, in the end when we had a spot open up late, we no longer had interest in the player due to his father’s email.”
•“Being arrogant – everyone that is recruited is/was their team’s best player in high school or club. Get over yourself as you’re now part of something much larger than yourself.”
