<p>We are working on fine tuning my daughter's athletic resume before leaving on her unofficial visits. I have had conflicting advice on what to include on her resume. I would assume that in most cases, just accomplishments in high school would be listed. But in my daughter's case, because this is a new sport for her, I have been advised to include significant accomplishments as far back as 2003. I am talking about things like junior olympic champion, state series champion, regional champion. These are not in the sport she is being recruited for, but paint the picture so to speak of her natural athletic abilities. I am not sure what to do. It's not like she would have nothing on her resume if we only listed high school stuff, but these other accomplishments do say a lot about her dedication and ability. What are your thoughts on this?</p>
<p>In my daughter’s we included, briefly, her opposite-season high school sport that was not her recruited sport. Her alternate sport team was second in the state, which is still a significant reflection of commitment, teamwork and sports-ability. </p>
<p>The top of the document is an action photo. </p>
<p>Our format in order listed: name, contact info, registration numbers (for the national association), SAT/ACT, high school, GPA etc. </p>
<p>Then: recruited sport with national tournaments, club, and high school team information. Followed by camps and showcases. Last info was other high school sport, extra curriculars, and academic awards. </p>
<p>We used the bottom footer (and Word’s yellow highlighter) to indicate her schedule for the upcoming month or so). </p>
<p>Also, we always made it a PDF so it could be emailed and printed on any printer without loss of formatting. DH and I also had it accessible on our Blackberry email systems so we could send it in a flash if needed.</p>
<p>fishymom,</p>
<p>If you think this will help her get recruited, by all means include it. Some NCAA sports lend themselves to more athletic requirements (track comes to mind), and other sports are more skill (golf comes to mind). These are two extremes in my mind. If you can paint that picture to say my daughter excels in both athletic and skill sports, I think that is of value. I would not overplay the non-recruited sport, but I think it is worth mentioning as part of her athletic resume.</p>
<p>I think it also speaks to her level of committment and ability to manage her time while keeping up her grades. Whether or not a college coach thinks along those same lines remains to be seen. Best of luck.</p>
<p>fenwaysouth</p>
<p>Just don’t make it too long- I think keeping the second sport’s most important accomplishments is fine, but don’t create something that looks like a shopping list. Make sure the important things stand out, and don’t get buried in clutter. If you’re listing chronologically, maybe bold the outstanding performances from each year.</p>
<p>You should include contact info for her current and past coaches- phone and email.</p>
<p>If she’s a member of other school clubs/orgranizations, this should be summarized in very few words. If she has a leadership position, this should be noted. I know most student/athletes don’t have time to be president of anything, but some do and should point it out.</p>
<p>An Ivy coach’s first comment about my daughter’s brag sheet from a couple of years ago was: “I see you got this in the right order.” Academic accomplishments on the top half of the page.</p>
<p>Keep in mind that college coaches can spot TALENT… it is not always about what you have done, more what can you DO that is of interest to them. So, if there is a way to phrase her commitment to excellence by citing some of her prior accomplishments, then do so. But, overall, college coaches want someone who will add to the success of their team. Ability to learn, try new things, leadership skills are all wonderful things to highlight if true. Agree completely with riverrunner… keep it short and sweet… what are the most important things you want the coach to remember about your athlete? Somehow feature those accomplishments that make your child a welcome addition to a team.</p>
<p>what’s an athletic resume?</p>
<p>it seems to me if you have to show a coach what you’ve done then they are not recruiting you, you are selling to them. I would think to fit under the definition of “recruiting” the coach would already know your athletic abilities, but he will want to see your academic resume/test scores</p>
<p>Thank you all for your advice. Pacheight, I am surprised you have never heard of an athletic resume. Some call them brag sheets or highlight sheets. An athletic resume is a highlight sheet with a list of student’s academic record, test scores, leadership positions and athletic accomplishments. These have been requested by several coaches who have contacted my daughter. These coaches certainly already know my daughter’s athletic abilities or they would not have contacted her. The athletic resume is just another way to have all important information at a coach’s fingertip. </p>
<p>And the recruiting processs all about selling, on both sides! The coach is trying to sell recruits on their school and program. And athletes are trying to sell the coach on their ability to impact their team over the course of their college career. Somewhere in their, the student-athlete has to find the right fit</p>
<p>coaches do not have the time to research athlete’s complete histories. The kids who make it easy for them have a leg up.</p>
<p>I can see where pacheight is coming from. We did an unofficial yesterday and the coach had “researched” my son and already knew all about him. We didn’t have to provide anything. It was a fairly local school, though, and perhaps that is why.</p>
<p>At the biggest tournament of the year for my sport, they have a “College Coaches Showcase” before it begins. I brought a resume with most of the aforementioned stuff to it, and was apparently the only kid there who did so. Really simplified things for the coaches and helped me emphasize things that I wanted to. A friend at the girl’s tourney did the same thing and had the same result - the only one there who had one. </p>
<p>I think it’s simple, helpful, and very advantageous overall. Be sure to include a photo, key results, rankings, test scores, GPA (maybe even an unofficial transcript), class rank (if available), upcoming schedule (including match times if at a tournament), and all contact info. Probably a good idea to put your coach’s contact info on there too.</p>
<p>Keylyme and pacheight, while I agree that the coaches should and probably will know about your child before they meet, I think it’s helpful for them to have all this pertinent stuff about the kid on one clean sheet. Plus, it’s a document you’re in control of, so you can emphasize whatever you want, and point out things the coach might’ve missed. Plus, I think it’s helpful if you’re looking at “reachy” athletic schools, where you might’ve flown under the coaches radar but could still be a good fit.</p>
<p>Including your high school coach’s contact information might be a good idea, but personally we’d never have done it in a million years! We have friends in other sports at the school who say the same! It all depends on the level of confidence you have in that individual as someone who can INTELLIGENTLY and KNOWLEDGEABLY present the athlete, himself, and the high school program in a positive light. Of course D would always fill out coach information if it was requested on a recruiting questionnaire, and some college coaches met her high school coaches at meets. However, D never would have encouraged this interaction herself. She had nothing to hide, but among other things, her coaches have been completely out of touch with her academic aspirations and did not value them.</p>
<p>OK, i get it. so this seems like it might fit under an earlier forum discussion about “levels” of recruiting. The higher profile the athlete the less need for resumes/brag sheets and vice a versa. I would think in big sports like soccer college coaches may need to see resumes to understand your level of accomplishment.</p>
<p>I do think, no matter how good you are, you do need to sell yourself and present yourself very well. </p>
<p>OK…it’s coming back to me now:), I do remember parents with resume issues such as does my d take it with her to the visit, etc. Ok, so now that I get it, my advice is no to athletic resumes and yes to coaching the kid on presenting herself well and get her junior coach to give her a good reference, by calling the college coach personally. When that coach is in his office making up his recruiting list, he’ll remember the kid that presented herself well and the kid’s coach who called with the glowing reference!</p>
<p>for non timed sports, if you don’t have a supportive coach I think it’s a much tougher job to get noticed correctly.</p>
<p>College coaches will generally contact the high school/club coach to confirm what’s on the resume, and to ask about “coachability”, how the player interacts with the rest of the team, and to get any other information they can, like where the student REALLY wants to go, and so on. This must vary a lot, though, based on TheGFG and others’ experiences. </p>
<p>Our high school coach gets called all the time about athletes, but he also officiates at college meets throughout the year, and is well-known by college coaches, so they tend to trust his judgement about athletes. If you put your high school coach’s contact info on the sheet, be sure and ask his permission to do so, keep him informed about which colleges you are most interested in so he will respond with appropriate warmth or coolness, and give him a copy of the sheet so he knows what you’ve been saying about yourself, and can offer the same set of facts.</p>
<p>Another thought about the brag sheet: for kids from small-population states who rarely attend national/showcase events, and who might be very far from the schools they wish to attend, these are very important. Unless you tell these coaches about yourself, they may never see you play, and/or may assume you are unwilling to cross the country for college.</p>
<p>Sort of with pacheights and keylyme on this one. Although these resumes may be really helpful for some sports, and some athletes, they never really crossed our mind. In unofficials, the coaches have researched my child already. Plus, my child has been emailing for a few months now with the coaches whose programs she is interested in pursuing - these coaches all need what they need to know in the guise of “conversation” via emails. Maybe more of a dance, less direct, but all the information comes across, both academic and athletic. Maybe it depends on how big the school is that you are interested in too? No doubt these resumes are very helpful, but we don’t believe they are always necessary.</p>
<p>Perhaps this thread is intersecting with the one about money allocation at the different schools that Fenway posted for us all. Some sports, some schools, some programs have much bigger recruiting budgets and recruiting staffs. Getting successful visibility, ie in a game where one plays well, pitches well, scores or prevents scoring etc etc is important. </p>
<p>In my mind, this resume or one page summary sheet serves the purpose of crystalizing the kid for future reference, to make it easy for the coaches to “sell” their admissions office on their selections. You can tell which coaches want/appreciate/value these summaries. I continue to believe that kids should listen to their gut and reach out to schools/coaches that interest them to see if the interest is returned. For better or worse, you have nothing to lose by raising your hand. Hopefully, your local coaches can guide you so as to not waste anyone’s time. But, if you don’t ask for their interest, you might not get it. </p>
<p>Preparing these summaries can be a wonderful growth experience for the kid… they may dread doing it, but once done, they may feel empowered.</p>
<p>unofficial and official visits are like job interviews. You get the job “recruiting offer” because of your ability to present yourself well in the interview. the athletes stats or “work experience” should have preceeded the interview…it should be what got you the interview. </p>
<p>but once you’re on site for your visit i don’t think you should communicate with paper</p>
<p>Some of this depends on the sport and in the end, how the student and coach initally meet/connect (student sends info or coach “finds” student) is less important than the result.
In our kiddo’s sport–the coaches are not flying around scouting.
Sure they see stats at Nat’l level competitions and regional events via on-line stats etc.
and also there are kids who start in one sport and cross over to another…based on being strong athletes. Many of the schools have those on-line recruiting contact sheets and also once a student has made an initial contact, the emailing can begin.
Anyhow–our student sent inital intro letters with resume/stats and probably most of the coaches kiddo is regularly emailing with now came from that introduction.
Offically recruiting doesn’t begin until after July 1.<br>
Kiddo got a package with great info from one coach/school about the process this week.</p>
<p>Well, when trying to sell someone your product over a competitor’s, it’s often useful to leave some sort of eye candy for later reminder of why you were so awesome</p>
<p>Thrill, I agree with you 100%! Anything to help you stand out in the crowd.</p>
<p>Judging by the athletes we know, the resume and online profile concept seems to go hand in hand with participation in club sports. Assistance with that type of marketing, along with attending college showcase tournaments, is one product the better clubs sell to parents of athletes. So I wonder if the resume is important–less as a source of information, and more as a signaling device: ie. it tells college coaches that this athlete is playing on a high level with a serious club? Don’t know, just wondering. Seems to me that the safe plan would be to use a resume if that’s the what the better athletes in your sport do. Having said that, though, my friends in the soccer world have been told that no college soccer coach is going to take a kid based on what’s on a resume. And that goes back to what was discussed in another thread about the unreliability of all the athletic awards and honors as a true indicator of talent.</p>