<p>Hi all - I'm starting my push to get recruited, just in the early days of talking to coaches and all that. </p>
<p>What technology/website should I use to show myself off with a profile to potential coaches and other athletes? Is it even important, or does nobody really look at it?</p>
<p>my guess is that it depends on the sport but from my experience, most coaches want a YouTube link if they want to see you in a match or play situation</p>
<p>We used BeRecruited with good results. It allows you to upload video as well.</p>
<p>Lioness4’s guess that it depends on the sport is correct. If your sport is tennis, the website of choice is TennisRecruiting.Net. The website posts its own player rankings as well as Tennis RPI rankings and provides information about college tennis programs. Sportswannabe–you could probably obtain more targeted information here by telling us your sport and the division in which you wish to play.</p>
<p>I use BeRecruited.Com and I have made some valuable connections with coaches.
I met/started talking to a college coach for the college Im most likely going to be committing to.</p>
<p>^ Retro, the recruiting process takes time. If you are a sophmore (16), please understand there are limits according to NCAA regs to the process. AND untill you have a written commitment from admissions, you have nothing. Cast a wide net. Your GPA, SAT scores AND athletic stats should all be stellar. Good luck.</p>
<p>Sportswannbe…BeRecruited was a helpful tool for our athlete–though competing at a national level…was a big draw. Sending a targeted mailing with a Short intro letter, a resume etc early Jr yr started the ball rolling. Unoffical visits etc are helpful. Be familiar with NCAA regs so you don’t put the coach in an awkward position nor make a pest of yourself. By Jan and again the end of Jr yr the coaches asked for unofficial transcripts, SAT scores/subject tests, etc. </p>
<p>There are several posters here with good experience/advice. So if you can give us sport/gender and what level of play–you will get more help.</p>
<p>Here is a site that outlines the basic process you will go through and what to look to while being recruited.
[College</a> Recruiting Guide for Swimmers](<a href=“http://collegerecruitingforswimmers.blogspot.com/]College”>http://collegerecruitingforswimmers.blogspot.com/)</p>
<p>My daughter used NCSA recruiting to help her in the recruiting process. I must say they were invaluable! She had many top academically elite schools interested in her. NCSA made the process very easy. She has been accepted at Williams College and will participate on the track team. The website for NCSA is [College</a> Sports Recruiting - College Recruiting & Scholarships | NCSA](<a href=“http://www.ncsasports.org%5DCollege”>http://www.ncsasports.org)</p>
<p>I hope you check it out if you are serious about being recruited. They do charge a fee so your parents will have to get involved in the process. The fee covers an edited video, profile page, access to coaches at every school and a recruiting coach. Coaches use NCSA and trust this source for recruiting. Every email I sent out from NCSA coaches responded directly to my daughter.</p>
<p>Hope this helps.</p>
<p>For those that have used BeRecruited, did you pay for the enhanced version where you could see everyone that was looking at your child’s profile, etc.?</p>
<p>Absolutely get the enhanced version. When a coach views or bookmarks your athlete profile, you can follow up with a personal email. </p>
<p>Without the enhanced version, you have no knowledge and no ability to make contact. Coaches want to HEAR FROM YOU! Even if you’re a sophomore, just send an email to the coach. They WILL get the email and they ARE interested…they just can’t respond until Sept 1 of Junior Year.</p>
<p>Have you made connections with coaches through the enhanced version though? Were they serious connections? Could it be a hinderance in the search process, meaning some coaches won’t look at athletes with the enhanced version? Our DD is a junior so she has emailed coaches at schools she is visiting and has met with some of them. She is in a spring sport so they can’t initiate contact until June…which is an issue. Without the enhanced version we can see that “A coach from XXX state has view your profile”.</p>
<p>NCSA is a lot of $. You can do a lot of the work yourself. Would you pay $800 + to get recruited to a D3 school? If you are D1 level then your high school coach should be able to get your name out there. NCSA does a heavy sales pitch. They make the athlete and the parents all get on the phone for the first “meeting.” Not saying they aren’t helpful, but if you can make a decent video and upload it that’s half the battle. The video is important so you might have to pay somebody if you can’t do it. Microsoft movie Maker might be on your windows computer and isn’t hard to figure out.</p>
<p>What sport you are playing and your ability level make a difference. </p>
<p>Try this site to educate yourself. [url=<a href=“http://recruiting-101.com/]Recruiting”>http://recruiting-101.com/]Recruiting</a> 101 Football Recruiting and Basketball Recruiting Help for Parents, Athletes, and Coaches in their guide to a Scholarship Offer.<a href=“scroll%20to%20bottom%20left%20for%20sports%20listings”>/url</a></p>
<p>berecruited.com is not expensive and will offer some tips and let you post film. Not all schools are members, but we did get some contact off of it. We also learned of new schools that looked worth sending email and letters to.</p>
<p>We used berecruited.com we paid the 60$ for the deluxe edition. All the schools that recruited our son came via berecruited.com. A very valuable tool.</p>
<p>One of the final four schools that my son was deciding from came from a contact through BeRecruited’s enhanced version.</p>
<p>Maybe the website has changed since the 2009-10 recruiting season, but DD had a free berecruited account and she knew every coach who bookmarked her. It was also pretty simple to deduce which coaches had looked at her profile, given her times and the schools in the states lists on the “feed”. DD was contacted by over 100 coaches through her free profile. </p>
<p>I paid her club coach $100 to make 4 videos (2 above water, 2 underwater) and I added video filmed by myself and other parents on her club team at important meets. I researched college conferences, top 16 times (to find conferences/team where DD could make an immediate impact), and where the holes were going to be on each team (top 2 strokers are seniors or the team has a weakness in your event). Conversely, I also tried to be aware of teams that were underclassmen heavy - you’ll get less money or “hook” if you will be coming in as the #4-5-6 stroker rather than #1-2-3, especially if those faster than you are current freshmen or sophomores.</p>
<p>You will stand out to coaches if your letters are personal - unlike the canned letters they get from athletes who copy the form letter of these sites. Once you start researching, you can initiate contacts with coaches based on your research rather than on some algorithim.</p>
<p>Our family made the investment of time rather than money - our feeling was it shouldn’t cost us big $ to get DD recruited. There would be plenty of tuition/room/board bills over the next 4 years to throw money at.</p>
<p>Every sport has their own good recruiting sites (like Rich Kerns for volleyball) and there are generic sites like berecruited. For almost no money, D & I created her own personal website - kept it updated with all her current academic records, athletic accomplishments, tournament schedules and all her video links (videos were all on youtube). This worked extremely well. She got exactly the offer she wanted - but it was based on a lot of hard work by us. I completely agree that you do not need to pay a service - college coaches confirmed this - but unless you are one of the top recruits in your class, you need to do a lot of work! Research a list of schools, fill out the questionnaires, send lots and lots of emails and then begin to make phone calls! Become comfortable with making those calls -it’s MUCH easier than you think it will be. Coaches are used to taking those calls and they make it comfortable. Line up unofficial visits - as many as you can.</p>
<p>And when you start depends on your sport. Fogfog said early junior year. NOT the case in D’s sport (volleyball). Many kids have verbally committed by then and many coaches are already working on 2014. We started the process the summer after 9th grade and D verbally committed late summer before Junior year.</p>
<p>Any recommendations for cross country/track? My D (a junior) has emailed coaches at the school’s she interested in. All are D1. Her coach has also reached out to these coaches as well. One coach emailed my D back and seemed pretty interested. Others asked for updates of her indoor times. This was her first year running and proved to be quite successful for a new runner.</p>
<p>editor—what times did she send, track or cross country? Also, define “successful”. Is she posting times in the 14 range over 4000 meters, for example. For cross country, for girls, typically you see one of two things happen, young girls, 7th 8th grade have standout careers, until their bodies change in 10th, 11th grade and their times fall off. Then you have the other girls who, like your DD, see their times pick up as they get older…those are the girls coaches want in college more often than not. Keep in mind that if she is running cross country, that in high school the races might be shorter in high school than they are in college and that can make a HUGE difference. Make sure she gets into some road races over the summer for good times in competition at the longer distances.</p>
<p>mncollegemom: she sent her XC times (made it to states in NY) and her indoor track times. This is her first year running. The coaches we heard back from seemed to be pretty impressed with her times for a first time runner.</p>
<p>Any advice for baseball? Son is high school class of 2014. NCSC contacted us last year but we thought it was too early. We weren’t planning on having him contact schools until September. Too late?</p>