NCSA Blog

 High school athletes used to focus on one thing; making their varsity team.  However, in toady’s uber-competitive sports environment playing on your high school aint like it used to be.  In many instances playing on a high school team can actually hinder an athlete’s development and likelihood of receiving an athletic scholarship.  Doug Chickering, the executive director of the Wisconsin Athletic Association recently acknowledged to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that his organization is scrambling to keep up with the changing times.

Chickering has identified the enemy, and he says it is the burgeoning number of elite teams and programs - some local, but a growing number of them national - that want to “siphon off” the very best high school athletes, removing them from high school athletics (and oftentimes from high school altogether), instead immersing them in a specialized, single-sport, year-round environment.

During his speech, Chickering ran down a list of organizations, from the U.S. Soccer Academy to USA Football to a joint venture between the NCAA and the NBA currently in the planning stages, that are running or planning specialized programs for cream-of-the-crop prep athletes.

Before long, parents might become so intent on having their children qualify for an elite program that they pass on the high school sports experience entirely, focusing on their own year-round club training. That’s fine for a few, Chickering said, but its effect on high school athletics - and their true purpose, to serve as an educational tool for students - could be devastating.

“If people want to siphon off the elite . . . we’re going to have to find some ways to counter that,” Chickering said. “If we don’t, eventually we won’t have to worry about public schools vs. private schools and drug testing and fair competition and facilities and charter schools and any of that. We won’t have anything to worry about, because we’ll be out of business.

Are high school programs really under attack?  Does it really matter if an athlete is playing for a club team instead of their high school?  It’s my opinion that elite programs will continue to draw more and more students, but also force high schools to improve the quality of facilities and coaching.  Perhaps this will enable the athletes not competing in outside organizations to develop more rapidly.

The effects of this movement are sure to be felt across the nation, but what will they be?  We want to here from you, comment away!

 The college football world continues to buzz about the so called “Saban Rule” banning college head coaches from visiting high schools during the spring evaluation period, which runs from April 15 to May 31.  Last week I wrote about critics like Nick Saban and Pete Carroll but there are some head coaches that are emerging in the opposite camp.

Vanderbilt coach Bobby Johnson discussed the circus like atmosphere that surrounds a head coach when he steps foot in a high school.  The commotion often put coaches in the awkward position of bumping into potential recruits, which is illegal. 

“Especially when some of the high-profile coaches go out to a high school, it’s just like an event,” Johnson said. “Everyone’s waiting for him. Everyone comes by. It’s just a hard rule to enforce. (The new rule), I think, is the only way to do it.”

Texas’ Mack Brown echoes those same sentiments and revealed that he hasn’t visited a high school in 10 years.

“The problem in the state of Texas and (for) some other coaches across the country is if I go into the school - being the head coach at the University of Texas - a lot of the kids will come up and talk to you and put you in a very difficult situation because it’s illegal to talk to the kids in the spring,” Brown said.

However, in a bizarre twist the so called founder of the rule has already found a new way around the rule.  The Birmingham News is reporting that Nick Saban is now using web cams to communicate with recruits face to face.

According to the NCAA, “All electronically transmitted human voice exchange (including video conferencing and videophones) shall be considered telephone calls.”  However, the NCAA says that coaches can call recruits only once, but recruits can make contact with the head coach as often as they wish. 

Alabama assistant coach Curt Cignetti visited Athens High, which has a Distance Learning Lab that allows Athens students to take online classes by using a live webcam.

Cignetti left behind a web address that Ming used to log on later that day and spend 15-20 minutes talking, through the webcam, with Saban, who was in his office in Tuscaloosa.

Athens High Coach Allen Creasy, who witnessed the conversation, called it “a first from a recruiting standpoint” for his school.

“You could see (Saban’s) facial expressions and hand gestures just as if you were sitting across the desk from him,” Creasy said. “It’s the next-best thing to being there in person.”

Creasy captured why it matters to prospects when college coaches take the time to look them in the eye, in person or online.

The coaches “could be talking to a lot of people,” Creasy said. “It’s an honor for the recruit.”

Even for an honor student like Ming. Creasy said his star player, who has yet to commit to a college, “was very impressed” with the video conference. Creasy was impressed with Saban’s creativity.

“This is opening another door for him,” Creasy said. “If you’re not looking for innovative ways to push the envelope, somebody else is. That’s what keeps the top guys on top.”

With high school players committing earlier and earlier, college coaches have to look them in the eye sooner.

Even if they have to use an electronic eye.

This article shows how relentless coaches will continue to innovate around (break?) rules to make contact with athletes.  Recruits need to learn that they have to be just as relentless in trying to contact college coaches.  Also, as the article stated they need to be contacting them sooner and sooner.

The road to a college hockey career is not an easy one, and some frustrated youth lose sight of their dreams. Commissioners from the six NCAA Division I men’s ice hockey conferences are taking measures to make sure that players do not give up hope for lack of information. 

Aimed primarily at young hockey players contemplating their playing options, “playcollegehockey.com” will provide a wealth of valuable information for players and families wishing to pursue the dream of playing college hockey.

“There is a ‘one stop shopping’ element to the site,” said Joe Bertagna, Commissioner of the Hockey East Association. “A young player who wishes to play college hockey can log on and learn everything from our game’s history, to who are member schools are, to how to apply, as well as following the in-season results of current teams and players.”

NCAA men’s ice hockey is a different animal than nearly any other college sport. This is partly due to the fact that there are less than 200 teams, compared to over 1,000 teams for men’s basketball. With the recent emphasis on juniors experience, even top high school players have a long road before entertaining an offer from a Division I coach. Even Division III coaches tell NCSA that they prefer a year or two of Junior A or B experience before they will actively recruit most prospects.

This new forum for information exchange will help youth hockey players understand the college hockey landscape in their future.

 On Friday The Wall Street Journal wrote a profile about the premier High School Football All-Star Game, the US ARMY All-American Bowl.  The article described how founder Douglas Berman and Richard McGuiness founded the company SportsLink that runs the bowl game.  NCSA is a proud partner and a recruiting education provider with SportsLink.  Two of our athletes, Sean Cwynar and Aaron Williams were lucky enough to be among those selected.

The article also described how difficult it is to identify the top-level talent for which the game is known (like Reggie Bush, right).  Their scouting operation is imperative to ensuring the game live up to its reputation as the first college-level game of an athlete’s career. 

The All-American Bowl is the last station in an assembly line that aims to turn young football players into college standouts and, ideally, pros. SportsLink oversees a scouting operation that funnels players as young as 12 into invitation-only football camps. It runs a three-day scouting event to select high-school juniors for the next year’s bowl.

SportsLink’s scouting begins long before the game. Tom Lemming, who publishes a magazine on high-school football and also advises SportsLink, spends five months a year evaluating high-schoolers. He says he logs nearly 60,000 miles each year, driving through 49 states to watch 17,000 kids play (NCSA is the sponsor of his tour). He refers the best to SportsLink.

Of course this process is easier said than done.  Unlike a sport like basketball, football players don’t develop the physical requirements necessary to compete at the highest level until well into their high school career.

“Sometimes you can tell at 15 and 16 who will dominate, but it’s very tough before that,” says Mr. Lemming. “A kid can dominate, and then they stop growing.”

Mr. Berman says the elite athletes begin to stand out toward the end of high school. For seventh- or eighth-graders, “we are looking for kids who are serious and have some athletic ability,” he says. “For an 11th-grader, it’s different.”

Like most high school sports and recruiting these days, finances definitely play an issue.

This year, about 2,200 kids will pay $500 apiece to attend the three-day Football University sessions with former NFL players.

Last season, Bret Cooper, an assistant high-school coach who is SportsLink’s regional director for the Philadelphia area, traveled to nearby Norristown High School. There, he saw a speedy, 6-foot-2 junior wide receiver named Je’Ron Stokes from visiting Northeast High catch a hitch pass against Norristown. Je’Ron juked several defenders, turning what should have been a five-yard completion into a 25-yard gain.

Mr. Cooper helped get Je’Ron one of 400 invitations to SportsLink’s combine in San Antonio, a three-day event where juniors do 40-yard dashes and vertical jumps for the college scouts and other evaluators who pick the next all-star team. Je’Ron, who had three scholarship offers before the combine, was voted a top receiver. By the spring, he had 20 offers. He plans to play for the University of Tennessee in 2009.

Je’Ron’s father, Ron Stokes, says he will spend $1,000 to send Je’Ron and his brother, Malik, a 15-year-old quarterback, to a SportsLink camp in June.

“It takes a lot to get these kids noticed,” says their father, who has paid for personal trainers for his kids and sent them to football camps at colleges in Florida, New Jersey, Ohio and Tennessee. “I’m giving them the things they need to have an edge.”

The reality is that it does take a lot to get noticed.  It takes a lot at every level.  Athletes need to continue to find ways to invest in their future.  But, they also need to carefully consider how their resources are spent.  For many athletes spending thousands of dollars on camps never pays off and they are left scrambling at the last minute.

NCSA helps thousands of student athletes across the country to gain the right kind of exposure, so they aren’t the ones left out when their high school career ends.  The only question is: “Do You Qualify?”

 I wanted to share a couple of great videos that really show how a college coach approaches the recruiting process.  Scott Ruggles was assistant defensive line coach for Harvard University in 2006, when the team defense ranked first in the Ivy League and led the nation in sacks. He has also been offensive line and tight ends coach for University of Missouri-Rolla and quarterbacks coach for Central Connecticut State University. A lot of the themes he hits on are staples of what NCSA stands for: Great character, the importance of academics, the importance of an in-person meeting, and the persistence required to be successful.  Recruits need to do everything they can to make sure they display these qualities to a coach.

At this time of the year it is extremely common for me to hear from a student athlete that is considering walking-on or taking a grey shirt option with a Division I program, and spurning multiple offers from schools in other divisions.  This is one of the most difficult positions a recruit can be put in.  After all, everyone has the vivid image of Rudy burned into the back of their head and has heard Brett Musburger tell them over and over about Johnny Walk-on who earned a scholarship and is now the pride of the entire state.

But athletes in this situation need to take their time and examine the situation very closely.  They are making a decision that will not just affect the next 4 years of their lives.  It will affect the next 40!

I recommend that the athlete first consider the academic impact of their decision.  Just because a school is in a higher division does not mean it is any better academically.  Plus most Division II and III teams sport higher overall graduation rates.  The NCSA Power Rankings do a great job illustrating the strength of Division II and III schools. Just because you recognize a name doesn’t make the school any better.

Athletes then need to consider how this will affect their athletic future.  Not every team runs their walk-on program the same way. Recruits need to ask coaches as many questions as necessary to determine the exact opportunities available to a walk-on.  Walk-ons are denied many of the benefits that scholarship players are afforded.

Regardless of how good an athlete thinks he is, the odds are stacked immeasurably against him.  Making the team is never assured.  Actually playing in a game will be tough.  Starting a game is a huge long shot.  Most walk-ons never make it past being a practice player.  And practice may not always be so fun…

Also, with the spiraling costs of tuition athletes need to consider the economic impact of their decision.  Spurning thousands of dollars from a Division III school can seem very foolish if you don’t even make a team as a walk-on.

For some athletes just making the team is worth it in the long run, but they should take a long look in the mirror before making such an important decision.  No one can tell you what the best opportunity is but, NCSA specializes in helping athletes identify as many real opportunities as possible.  We then do our best to guide the family through all of their options.  The athletes that find the right fit have options.  Carefully considering an option like walking-on can mean the difference between a great college career and dropping out.

by Chris Krause, NCSA Founder and President 

The following is an actual e-mail that I recently received, and it brings up a common question – and in many cases, a common misconception – among high school athletes and their parents:

Dear Chris, 

My name is Trevor and I am a 17-year old Junior in high school. I am really dedicated to the sport of basketball and I play it at least four hours a day, rain or shine. My town in Pennsylvania isn’t known very well and I am worried about a Division 1 or 2 college scholarship. How do I make myself known? I would love to play for a college like North Carolina or N.C. State, but what are the odds of them finding me? Everyone tells me if you’re good enough any college will find you.   Is that true?  Do you think it is possible for me to become known to colleges? If so, how?

Maybe you have the same question as Trevor:  If you’re good at your sport, will college scouts find you?  That depends upon several important factors.

·         Are you hearing from college scouts right now?  That’s an especially important question if you are a senior, and even a junior in certain sports.  If college coaches we’re going to find out about you because of your natural talent, you would have heard from them by now in most cases.  If you aren’t hearing from a college coach – no matter what your age or year in school – you aren’t being recruited.  Period.  Here’s an interesting take on the subject of getting discovered by college coaches.

·         Have you attended any high profile camps or tournaments?  Sometimes, coaches will search for athletes at large tournaments – they can see more players in one setting than going to individual schools.  If you haven’t participated in any camps or tournaments, colleges might not know about you.  By the way, summer is a great time to get out and get seen by college coaches.  Most college coaches, in most sports, have some type of summer camp.  Seek out a camp at a school you might be interested in so that you can get an up-close-and-personal look at the school and the coach, while giving them the same opportunity to get to know you.

·         Have you had any newspaper or television coverage of you or your team?  Again, colleges need to find out about you somehow.  Sometimes, a college will hear about an athlete through various media exposure.

·         Have you heard about any college coaches coming to your games or to your practice?  Have they talked to your coach?  Does your school have a record of sending athletes on to the college level?  If college coaches haven’t had contact with your school or your coach, chances are you will be overlooked.

I think you see where I’m going with this.  It is becoming more and more rare that an athlete gets attention from colleges if they haven’t been exposed to college coaches who would be looking for qualified athletes.  Exposure – in whatever form it takes – is a key element in getting the attention, and scholarship offers, from college coaches.  If they don’t know you exist, they won’t be able to recruit you.

This past school year, NCSA interviewed and accepted more student-athletes into our database of pre-qualified prospects than ever before.  Likewise, more college coaches than ever before registered and accessed our searchable database looking for prospects.  The athletes that qualify for our program have an enormous advantage over those that are not being pro-active and just “hoping” that they get discovered by a college coach.

Being a “good athlete” is no longer good enough.  You need to make sure as many college coaches as possible know that you are a good athlete who deserves a shot at being considered for their program!  If you want to see how NCSA helps make that happen, click here.

Spring time in college football means one thing for die hard fans: Spring Practice.  Schools with a rich football tradition have been filling the stands in record numbers lately for Spring Games.  80,149 at Nebraska, 78,000 at Alabama, 76,000 at Ohio State and 73,000 at Penn St. are just a few of the larger crowds.

Coaches are increasingly using these crowds to showcase a school’s rich tradition to recruits.  Alabama’s Nick Saban has long believed that these spring games have helped him haul in top recruits at Michigan St., LSU, and now Alabama.  Alabama set the unofficial spring game record attracting 92,183 fans.  One of his recruits spoke to Sports Illustrated about his experience.

Brentwood (Tenn.) Academy offensive lineman Alex Bullard visited Notre Dame and Alabama on each school’s spring game weekend, and he also said the crowds, while impressive, likely wouldn’t factor into his decision. Bullard, who took the ACT on April 12, didn’t arrive in Tuscaloosa until the spring game had just concluded, but he said a Saturday night spent hanging out with Tide players and signees helped give him a better picture of the program. He said an earlier trip to Tennessee for a regular practice proved equally informative.

A recruiting advantage also helped Florida’s Urban Meyer overcome his initial misgivings about allowing ESPN to televise the Gators’ spring game on April 12. While Florida had several dozen recruits packing the south end zone bleachers, Meyer also wanted to reach the recruits who couldn’t make the trip to Gainesville.

“At first I didn’t want to [televise the game], but recruiting is such a major player,” Meyer said. “It’s the bloodline of our program, and if they’re not here, they are going to be somewhere else, and we want people to see this great campus.”

Look for other schools to follow suit, and look for schools to continue to try to break spring-game attendance records in the name of recruiting. This year, Ohio State officials tried to get more than 100,000 to pack the Horseshoe, but rain scuttled the plan. The forecast wouldn’t have mattered at Nebraska, where scalpers charged some fans $95 a ticket to see the Cornhuskers practice. Nebraska coaches hope those who did pay made an impression on the few dozen high-schoolers who attended as guests of the program. One such guest, Frisco, Texas, quarterback Ryan Mossakowski, came away impressed.

“When we got there, some of us recruits got to go down on the field,” Mossakowski told Rivals.com. “It was crazy. They had [more than 80,000] people in the stands. People who I didn’t even know were coming up to us saying ‘hi’ and making conversation. It was awesome, getting to experience what the players do every Saturday.”

The importance that coaches place on these events as a recruiting tool should show recruits the importance of attending them.  Visiting a school unofficially is one of the best ways to get a feel for a program and let a coach know of your interest.

This isn’t just true of BCS football programs.  Attending practices, games and scrimmages as well as taking unofficial visits can give a recruit real insight to the way a program operates.  Learning all you can about a school can help you find the right fit.

USA Today’s Jim Halley recently sat down with a round table of top basketball recruits to discuss a variety of topics.  Obviously recruiting was one of the major subjects. 

Each of the players got his first recruiting letters in his first two years of high school. Though the NCAA outlawed the use of text messaging by coaches to recruit players this season, the practice was still out of hand enough that players would turn off their phones.

“Some of the coaches were ridiculous,” Gordon said. “Some would text you to say, ‘How was breakfast?’ ” Another player added that the assistant coaches were the worst offenders of texting, perhaps because they had more time on their hands than the head coaches.
One recruiting rule the players would keep would be the early signing period.

“It lets you focus on school, so it’s not all about basketball,” Gordon said.

The players also discussed their individual development and gave a lot of credit to the AAU circuit while acknowledging the strength of their high school programs.

“AAU,” Walker said. “Because in AAU, you play everybody.”

“You can’t really hide (in AAU),” Jennings said. “People will show you up a bit in the summer.”

“It seems like there’s more freedom in AAU,” Davis said. “In high school, it is more structured.”

High school does have advantages though.

“You get to rest in high school,” Davis said. “Sometimes in AAU, you have to play like 12 games in one day.”

“My high school coach really worked with me on the fundamentals,” Gordon said. “He did a lot of repetition on my post moves.”

They were unanimous in their disregard of their rankings with scouting services.

“You just play for the love of the game. You don’t really look at anything else. You just play for yourself, basically,” Jennings said, the rest nodding in agreement.

What can other recruits learn from this discussion?  If you aren’t hearing from coaches constantly you need to get more realistic about your options.  You also need to be supplement high school play with AAU ball.  Most importantly, you can’t get hung up on rankings or stars.  Recruits need to focus on getting better and staying pro-active, not worrying about a website.

A new rule change in football recruiting is making waves in the coaching world.  The Orlando Sentinel examined the so called Saban Rule, prohibiting head coaches from recruiting off campus from April 15th until May 31st.  The article speaks to the importance coach’s place in evaluating a player’s character.

The rule revolves around the SEC — league representatives proposed it, and many around the country feel it targets the conference’s most zealous recruiters. In some circles, the legislation has acquired a catchy nickname — “The Saban Rule.” And its namesake isn’t real pleased about losing his time on the road.

In a teleconference Thursday, Alabama Coach Nick Saban called the new rule “ridiculous.” He said he always tries to judge an incoming player’s character himself, knowing his bosses and fan base will hold him responsible if a player fails off the field. Now he’s lost half his time each year to get close to his future players.

“We will be held accountable in the long term,” he said on the call, “relative to decisions we make on character and all those factors.”

The change comes from concern over coaches violating an established rule that prohibits them from speaking with recruits on spring visits. Players from all grades figure to seek out major college coaches when they roll through, even to say hello or receive a handshake.

Saban said he also benefited from chatting with teachers and guidance counselors; Florida’s Urban Meyer has said he tries to find a female faculty member who can discuss how a potential Gator treats women.

But those springtime opportunities are gone, delegated now to assistants, who remain on the road.

No doubt, though, the relationships between big-time prospects and big-time coaches will be much weaker. And that hurts everybody involved.

The importance of character in recruiting has always been a mainstay of NCSA’s recruiting education.  Recruits need to display great character in their communites and do the right things to seperate themselves from the rest of the field.