Make a Recruiting Plan – An Overview
We like to break up the recruiting process into three distinct parts.
IDENTIFY your Target Schools: Researching schools, making a target list.
PURSUE your opportunities: Learning the rules of the game, making introductions, communicating with coaches, evaluating and re-evaluating your options, following up, showcasing your skills, negotiating scholarship.
PREPARE for college athletics: after you have decided on a collegiate sport opportunity, and signed a letter of intent don’t stop there! Know what to expect when you arrive on campus!
It’s ok to be confused and overwhelmed!
Below is a quote I received in an email from a parent, sound familiar? This is typical of many athletes and families just starting out. The confusion about where to start, the questions about how the process works and the lack of confidence in your ability to compete for a collegiate position:
Everything seems so confusing to us! I know you said this was a hard process, but we don’t even know which schools to start sending info to, and what are the chances of them coming all the way to Vancouver to even see us play? Also, what’s the deal with highlight videos, do we really need one of those? And how do we go about getting one?
This process is not for everyone. It IS very difficult, it is a lot of work but if you start out with a solid plan you can outline the steps necessary to reach your GOAL of a future college athletic career. As with any goal, you need have a plan of action, the motivation to achieve it, and a little help and encouragement along the way.
WHAT are your recruiting related goals?
There is no sense in forging ahead without identifying exactly what you are trying to get out of this recruiting journey. Before you can write your Recruiting Plan, it is important to figure out what exactly you hope to achieve through your recruiting journey, why you want to play sports in university, and what you would consider a successful outcome.
Proper goal setting, and action planning is an important part of Performance Lifestyle Management, check out more resources here.
PURSUE your opportunities’
[av_textblock size=” font_color=” color=”] Once you have identified a list of your target schools you need to take action to initiate recruiting with those teams and coaches. Before you start this make sure you have a good understanding of the general recruiting regulations, timelines, and eligibility requirements involved with being a prospective student athlete. Knowing these rules will make it much easier to understand the progression and pattern of communicating with your target coaches.Pursue your Opportunities – Part I
Initiate communication with your target coaches by sending an introduction letter that highlights your academic and athletic experience and ‘hook’ the coach. Your goal with this introduction letter is to makes the coach want to 1. find out more about you. 2. see you play 3. ask you some questions. Our FREE eBook has information relating to how to compose your introduction letter!
Over the course of subsequent emails and phone calls develop a trusting relationship with the coaches, in which you ask lots of questions, find out about their school and program, and get a sense for how you would fit in with their team. In your plan, outline how often you intend to communicate with coaches, and make yourself a schedule to help you keep up with this plan (you could set aside 1 hour per week for communication – either email or phone).
Some examples of communication planning could be:
- Contact each of your target coaches at least once per month to stay in touch and keep them updated on your current training, competition and academic achievements.
- Contact coaches prior to all major tournaments or competitions (with enough advanced notice to come see you play!)
- Contact coaches 2 weeks before major tournaments with schedule, team information, jersey colour and number
- Follow up with coaches 1 week after major tournaments and events to find out if they saw you play, and share your experience with them.
- Call coaches on the telephone for a personal conversation at least once per semester.
Pursue your Opportunities – Part II
An important part of pursuing your target schools is putting yourself in a position to be seen and evaluated by collage coaches. Try and be seen by coaches at least three times a year, these evaluation opportunities can include Showcase events or tournaments, highlight video, or summer camps. Include in your plan a list of ways you will try and be evaluated by coaches.
Tournaments and Showcases: Make sure coaches are aware of all your competition dates in advance, give them a chance to plan a trip up to see you if it’s possible. Attend as many showcases, or recruiting tournaments as possible (like our access-sport field hockey showcase!) These are events where Collegiate Coaches do extensive recruiting and you can be seen by many scouts in one weekend. Make sure when you attend these events that your TARGET SCHOOLS are well aware of where, and when you are playing!
Summer camps and prospect camps: Most teams run their own summer camps, this is a great opportunity to visit the campus, meet the coaches and players as well as have your skills evaluated. Coaches use these camps to identify their top recruits and compare skill levels between players. There are also often summer camps that are not affiliated with any specific university, where many different coaches will attend at the same time. Camps like this are a good way to be seen by a variety of schools at once. Prospect camps are run by coaches in their off season, this is where they will invite only their top recruits. This is a great time to show off your skills in a very competitive setting, and often for coaches to do final evaluations before distributing scholarships.
All coaches will request to see your highlight video in their first few communications with you. Highlight video is a collection of your very best on and off ball moments from recent competitions, as well as a focused look at your personal technical skills (could be passing, receiving, shooting or other specialty skills). Often families find it is cost prohibitive to travel regularly to recruiting events and tournaments. HIGHLIGHT VIDEO is perhaps the best and easiest way to demonstrate your skill to coaches, and it doesn’t have to be difficult to get! Here are some options:
- Access Sport Highlight Video services will film games and individual skill sessions, clip out your best moments, and edit it together with a short interview to produce a high impact 5-7 minute highlight film that will WOW coaches.
- Get Mom or Dad to film some of your games, or get video from your team if possible. Here are some general guidelines for filming your own games:
- Upload your video to your athlete profile and contact your target coaches to let them know it’s there!