<p>Quite often I hear the advice that "if you are good enough they will find you" in college athletic recruiting. Is there any worse advice? I've been hearing this alot lately, and I don't know why. I retch when I hear that advice because :</p>
<p>1) it sets a false expectation for the recruited athlete
2) reality....overall college athletic recruiting is a low supply/high demand proposition
3) nothing can be further from the truth in my son's sport and our experience
4) this advice applies to such a small group of people (Heisman winners/elite D1 athletes) that it is not practical for everyone
5) It devalues the necessary hard work that must go into a successful exposure recruiting effort
6) Coaches can't be everywhere searching for you, you must go to them
7) Let's face it....most athletes and their parents think they are better than they are. It only matters what the coach thinks. No matter how much we want to believe the contrary, the coach is doing the recruiting and he holds all the cards.</p>
<p>Is there any worse advice? If so, please share.</p>
<p>I agree with you, fenway. Another bit of bad advice, in my opinion, is “you need our (expensive) service if you want to connect with college coaches”.</p>
<p>Some of these recruiting businesses descend on high school athletes like vultures and prey on the fears of naive parents. There is nothing a service can do that you can’t do better on your own with a little bit of research.</p>
<ol>
<li> If you are good enough they will find you.</li>
<li> You need our (expensive) service if you want to connect with college coaches.</li>
<li> You can trust your high school or club coach to get you recruited.</li>
<li> If you get recruited you’ll get a full ride.</li>
</ol>
<ol>
<li>You’er not as good as your parents and private coach say you are.</li>
<li>For D3 and walk-on hopefuls at D1, positive pre-reads should not be taken as admission guarantees.</li>
</ol>
<p>Since coaches are transitory, don’t worry about whether or not you like the coach. (While you should be aware that the coach that recruited you may leave and may even be gone before you arrive on campus, you should also be aware that the wrong coach can ruin your athletic career.)</p>
<ol>
<li><p>You’re a recruited athlete so your application isn’t important. </p></li>
<li><p>The optional essay is optional. </p></li>
</ol>
<p>I don’t know if this qualifies as a piece of advice so I won’t number it, but when you’re told that an applicant didn’t get accepted by a school he/she had his/ her heart set on, please don’t say “you’ll be fine.”</p>
<p>Not a piece of advice, but deserve to be on a list of worst comments, I have seen people on THIS forum say that if you have to contact coaches you are not really a recruit, that if you are any good, you will already be on the coach’s radar and that if you have to “sell yourself”, you probably aren’t good enough. I’m not going to call anybody out, but those are ridiculous remarks that every potential recruit should ignore!</p>
<ol>
<li>Admissions says you look good</li>
<li>" I can pretty much pick my athletes"
and other vague assurances of a spot/slot/“support”</li>
<li>Be totally honest with the coaches(why when they aren’t being totally honest with you?)</li>
</ol>
<ol>
<li>If you are good enough they will find you.</li>
<li>You need our (expensive) service if you want to connect with college coaches.</li>
<li>You can trust your high school or club coach to get you recruited.</li>
<li>If you get recruited you’ll get a full ride. </li>
<li>You’er not as good as your parents and private coach say you are.
<ol>
<li>For D3 and walk-on hopefuls at D1, positive pre-reads should not be taken as admission guarantees. </li>
</ol></li>
<li>Grades are not that important for athletes. </li>
<li>You don’t need to contact coaches until the summer before senior year.</li>
<li>SATs dont matter that much</li>
<li>Official visits are not important. </li>
<li>Unofficial visits are not important.</li>
<li>Worst advice from any coach: “It’s really important for you to come to our school’s camp so that our coaches can work with you.”</li>
<li>You’re a recruited athlete so your application isn’t important. </li>
<li>The optional essay is optional.</li>
</ol>
<p>I beleive that people are answering different questions here somewhat but all I did was compile it into 1 post</p>
<p>Just remember that coaches are–have to be-- like used car salesmen-- that doesn’t mean there aren’t honest ones (thank God my D is with one who is as honest as they come) but there are also those that will sell the unsuspecting a bill of goods (there is one about whom I have written in the past, for example…) and many more who try to play it straight but conceal that they know less about their car (admissions process) than they let on. </p>
<p>Both you and the coach/salesman want to maximize the gain (think of it in game theory) – so be aware of the agendas.</p>
<ol>
<li> You aren’t good enough to be recruited.<br></li>
</ol>
<p>D didn’t have the best scores in her sport in high school but they were steadily improving. Because of that, she wasn’t on the radar and had to contact coaches on her own. Some were honestly not interested and some were. By communicating with different coaches, she was able to get a realistic picture of where she would be a good fit. She had great grades so her scores were good enough to land her in a small lower tiered D1 where she chose a full merit award over the athletic scholarship. She couldn’t be happier.</p>