Is a recruiting service necessary?

Athletic Recruits
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<p>I’m a D2/D3 athlete for track and field. While I did look into recruiting websites, programs, books, and etc, I learned quickly that the way to get the $$$ is by being a human. If you use these, a broader spectrum of coaches may initially notice you. They may also promise money, or actually give you money, but that’s not a guarantee. </p>

<p>On the flip side, I did emails and questionnaires to schools I was interested. I would submit the questionnaire, then email the coach giving a brief summary about myself, along with my phone #, email, and that I also submitted a questionnaire. The coaches will interact a little more on a personal level with you, and it won’t just be about times (or whatever sport it is)</p>

<p>I feel like that by making a dialogue outside of the sport with the coach, when financial aid season comes along, that coach will go out of their way to ensure you get the money you need to attend this school, especially if you’re passionate about being there. Other coaches who just see the stats for your sport may give you an arbitrary amount of money, regardless of your financial situation, your character, your hard work or that “X Factor” which makes you a fine addition to the team.</p>

<p>Good luck with recruiting, I hope this helps.</p>

22

<p>Hey guys i am currently 15 years old and i plan to play D1 soccer. I am a sophmore whis is studying a year up and has taken 1 A.P. course. I currently hold a 3.4 and a 3.7 weighted. I play for one of the best teams in the country (Ranked top 100) out of 3,500 teams in my country. We have played teams within the top ten and beaten them. We play in college showcases and many premier elite tournaments. We are currently playin the Region 1 North East leauge and National Premier Leauge. We will probobaly play Region 1 Premier leauge next year. For high school i dominated the JV game. I will play varsity my junior and senior years. But i will be 15 and most kids are sophmores at that age. The reason why i didnt play varsity when i was 14 was becasue my team is the best team in New york state who won back to back state titles. Very competitve soccer school whos varsity coach played in the MLS for an abandoned team before. I know 2 years varsity soccer will look very bad but i will be 15 so i hope that d1 schools take that into consideration. I am currently looking at Stony Brook, University of Kentucky, Rutgers, Michigan State (unlikey to play soccer here), and Penn State (Unlikey to play soccer here. What do you think?</p>

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<p>abhi19 - i’d suggest you start your own thread so others can comment about your situation. your post is an exact duplicate of another thread (“student athlete advice”) that you “hijacked”. i realize you are probably new to the site, so no harm no foul. But i think you will get the (soccer) feedback you seek if you start a new thread.</p>

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<p>sorry about that fenway u r right i am new to the site and i dont know how to make a new post.</p>

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<p>My son went to a clinic and was awarded free recruiting by one of these companies. I will say this, if you are new to the process it can be helpful. The company had classes about recruiting and my son learned a lot from them. However, I don’t think I would have paid for the service because it was about a thousand dollar package.</p>

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<p>The advice we have been given in general across the board (for the most part) is if your son or daughter is good enough, the coaches will find them. And with the internet and accessibility, its much easier to reach out and do it yourself. My friend spend over 7,000 dollars on her son to get recruited for baseball…bottom line hes going to college but not for baseball! Go figure. IF you do that I would advise that you know exactly what you are getting.</p>

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<p>Can someone comment on the fine line between showing interest (while marketing yourself) and overkill? For example, is it o.k. to check in with coaches and include a link to a newspaper article highlighting you and your’s team’s success? What are the things that tend to get the coaches’ attention?</p>

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<p>^ Personally, I’d err on the side of too much contact rather than not enough. PR’s, tournament wins, accolades and awards are all fine to send to the coach.
If he stops responding, that might be a sign you’ve crossed over into the PITA zone. ;)</p>

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<p>I would also go with more than less. I had to laugh when one coach my son was contacting made a comment along the lines of " so you’re the one who has hi-jacked my email account" when he met my son in person, in reference to the number of emails he had received. On the plus side he knew my son by sight and met him at a game he came to watch. </p>

<p>In response to one comment above about if you are good enough, coaches will find you. I don’t think that is necessarily true anymore as many schools have had budget cuts that limit travel. At least for soccer, we have found that a lot if coaches are relying on the athlete to find them. That being said we have also become very discriminating about attending ID camps. They can be very expensive and some coaches use them to help fund their programs rather than to recruit from them. We started asking a lot of questions about camps and always talking to the coach before deciding which ones to attend.</p>

30

<p>The self help path can be challenging, but extremely rewarding. With my son, it was all a learning experience. I put my sales and marketing experience to work and we had some great success, but it was a ton of work. My only advice is that if you go down that path, read everything you can, and use all the resources, including many of the books out there. Some tips:</p>

<ol>
<li> Don’t sit back and wait for coaches to contact you. I have seen many an outstanding athlete with phenomenal grades sitting with 1 or 2 poor options and wondering what happened. Make your target list, set your goals and contact the coaches.</li>
<li> Get as much exposure through Internet sites that time allows. Fill out recruiting quest., create profiles and share. Use all the internet resources to see and be seen. The more the better.</li>
<li> Unofficial visits give you a head start. If you can get to the campuses, meet the coaches and teams, you are a step ahead of most. Building a relationship cannot be done just through email. Make every attempt to meet your target school staff early, and stand out.</li>
<li> Be consistent in your contact approach. Send weekly updates during the season, not only on athletic achievements, but also academic, service and other aspects of life. Use multiple methods of contact: email, phone, and even good ol’ mail ;).</li>
</ol>

<p>Just a few tips. Contact me if you have any questions during your quest.</p>

31

<p>We have used a few cheap recruiting services - places to put up your child’s stats and some videos, that can be searched by coaches. We are looking into a more expensive one now, but one of their main selling points is putting together “professional videos”. I’ve got hours and hours of decent video of my son, with highlights separated out. If you can buy a camera and get footage yourself (more difficult for basketball than some other sports), that’s half the battle.</p>

32

<p>Ok, I am new to the site, but thought I would add my bit… Initially, I thought we would try to do things ourselves - or rather, DS himself, but then I panicked. Yes, they should be able to make their own decisions themselves, but where they end up for 4 years is a v big deal for me. DS had made contact with various coaches after doing some research, and a lot of them had responded positively, and invited him to keep in touch, and that they would be able to interact more after 1 Sept (of DS’s Junior year). I however, decided I wanted a recruitment company involved. It could be a waste of thousands (sigh) of dollars, but so far, so very good.</p>

<p>My reason is that we’ve got one shot at this (for us anyway), and I want to be certain that we have left no stone unturned. Also, we are relying on our consultant to give us ‘low downs’ on coaches as DS is more likely to thrive in certain environments than others, and it is therefore very important to me that we eliminate the most risky options before it is too late.</p>

<p>One of the responses my son got before I employed the consultant was “… I have no doubt you will be an amazing prospect for us when the time comes.” Another was “… [School] Could be an incredible fit for you.” Yet another was “we are always very excited to receive interest from young student athletes of your caliber.” Lastly, another was “. You look like a strong xxx and definitely someone who I’d love to help join our squad here at yyyy.”. Others were just as complimentary and encouraging. A few did not reply at all. In this mix of responses are replies from Ivies and top LACs.</p>

<p>Despite this encouraging trend, I signed up to use the service I have. I could barely afford it, in fact I couldn’t, but pushed myself. My son told his contacts that I had done this and to expect to hear from our consultant. Some of the replies he got made me really believe I had done the right thing. </p>

<p>One reply was " no worries. Xx and yy and I have a long successful history. We remain interested in you and we will do all that we can to help you…" Other top D1 programmes that my son hadn’t made contact with emailed our consultant to personally thank him for sending them my son’s details.</p>

<p>Bottom line, I think and hope DS will get recruited. My concern was that no matter what we read on the Internet, we might not have enough info to choose the right programme (the ones I hope my son will go for are all much of a muchness - very highly ranked academically and v good at his sport), hence my wanting an ‘expert’ on board to help us narrow down the choices I hope he will have.</p>

<p>Will this ‘expert’ get my son into a school that would not have recruited him had the E not been involved? Maybe, but Probably not as DS pretty much knows what he wants, but I will have the satisfaction that all of DS’s option were explored. For me, it is all about not having regrets.</p>

<p>Our consultant has extensive connections and our contract ties him to us for 6 years. If DS decides he is unhappy in college, the consultant will find him a transfer. Also, they give you tips on how to sit the tests and our guy is just great.</p>

<p>Ok, I still cringe at how much I have paid, but what is the price of peace of mind? BTW, DS has a very high GPA and for now, is doing very well at his sport.</p>

33

<p>Necessary? No. Helpful and could potentially open doors you hadn’t thought of? Yes. (Disclaimer; I’m a consultant so take this as a view from the other side) </p>

<p>When you hire a consultant you are paying to leverage their expertise and connections. Kind of like hiring a travel agent to plan your vacation, or an attorney. Rates can vary and some do charge a pretty penny. </p>

<p>Research them and ask for recommendations before you settle on one. Find one that specializes in athletic recruiting. See if they have a free consultation where you can meet with them and learn more about them. Good luck!</p>

34

<p>We are going about this in the opposite way. DD (rising junior so not lots of contact with coaches until September when she is a junior) put together a rather extensive list of schools she’d be interested in attending (DI-DIII), strictly based on academics and where she thinks she may want to spend 4 years. If she trips, falls & blows out the ACL day 1 on campus, these are the campuses she’d be willing to hooble around on crutches and graduate from without playing her sport. The advice provided here on CC was to cast a wide net - this net is pretty wide! </p>

<p>DD plays 2 sports (field hockey & softball), so this process has been repeated 2x in the past few months as it was “deja vous all over again” for the second sport; which is now in full-blown recruiting season mode. I’ve helped DD write and email coaches the past week for this sport as she’s in Finals week at school (grades are key to her level of recruiting success) - this task will fall back to her once school is done the end of this week. </p>

<p>I edited down game tape for sport #1 to 3 very modest clips and have it posted on YouTube for permitted access only. The editing took some time as I’d never done it before. I had someone who does editing look at it and the clips convey what they need to.</p>

<p>We’ve visited 10-12 campuses (large, small, suburban - need to do the larger urban ones & rural campuses next) so she can see & feel the differences. It’s her choice to play a sport, if she doesn’t want to, its not like we’re depending on a scholarship to sent her. the hope is the sport may make a difference at some of the more academically competitve places and that she’s a good enough student to earn some merit aid, but if not, we just write the check.</p>