NCSA College Athletic Scholarships Blog

July 1 is around the corner. For most rising seniors this date marks the first time DI and DII college coaches can call you on the phone.

Are you prepared?

Here are a few tips to ensure that you are calm and confident when you answer the phone and a college coach is on the other end of the line.

1) If you are going to be out of town leave an away message on your cell or home phone. Provide an alternate number if possible, but if you will not have access to a cell phone leave the date that you will return on the message.

2) If a coach leaves you a message ALWAYS call him or her back as quickly as possible.

3) Keep some notes near the phone so you are never caught off guard.

4) Take notes. If coaches may call your cell phone keep your notes, blank paper and a pen in your purse or bag.

5) Ask questions! Prepare a list of questions in advance.

Good luck!

 If you play or plan on playing at the college level for any sport you have to be competitive. It is the competition in the student athlete that stands them out from their peers and deems them capable of playing at the next level. Yeah size, speed, and agility is always a factor, but there are a lot of student athletes out there that are strong, fast, and “athletic”. The competition in the athlete is what pushes them even further; to be greater than the others.

Knowing that there are many student athletes out there who are strong, quick and agile and knowing that many of those kids are competitive and want to play at the next level, why do so many families believe that opportunities will come to them?

Think of it this way… Every coach before a big game always has the spotlight for a couple minutes to give their pump up speech. That coach uses that time to rile up their team and prepare the players for the competition they will soon have. Now what coach ever in their speech says, “Team, we have to wait for the wins to come to us! We are going to work our butts off day in, day out and if it is meant to be it will happen!”

Never! I have been on plenty of teams, heard my share of crazy speeches, but never have I ever had a coach say that to my team. Why?

No team is ever going to win games believing if they are lucky enough they will win. You have to take the win from the other team. Now when it comes to recruiting, so many families sit and wait for their big break. If you are indeed capable of playing at the next level, you are competitive, so why are you not using that to get recruited?

Use what you are already good at and be competitive when you are getting recruited. It is a game. You need to make sure you win because nothing is just going to happen!

You decided you want to play your sport in college. Good, you’ve taken the first step in the recruiting process. Now what?

There are two main qualms families have when they talk to me. First, how do they find a good school that’s right for their son or daughter? Second, how do they go about finding the college coach’s contact information?

For the question No. 1, naturally, you’ll probably start rambling off colleges and universities in your state. Stop!

It’s true in-state schools are great because they’re close to home and obviously, in-state tuition often is less expensive than out-of-state schools. But these schools might not be right for you — they might be too big or too small, too academia or too party-city.

Thus was the case when I was a junior in high school, looking for the right school. None of the public schools in Illinois appealed to me, so I decided to search elsewhere. But how?

Luckily, there are plenty of college search engines and so-called ”matchmakers” out there on the Internet. These searches allow you to find schools based on a number of different criteria, such as size, price, financial aid offered, student to faculty ratio, academic reputation, state and area of the country, locale, activities and athletic opportunities to name a few. Here are three of my favorites:

• Embark offers a fairly broad search, but everything is on one page, so there’s you don’t have to navigate through multiple pages.
• College Board describes the differences between the various options to choose from within each category, giving you a great understanding of what you’re selecting.
• The Princeton Review’s Counselor-O-Matic is definitely my favorite, and for sure the most in-depth of the three searches.

As for the second question, finding coaches’ contact information is often easier done than said. A lot of people think college coaches are these elusive, mysterious high-beings. Truth be told, they’re really not. They want to know about any potential talent that’s out there, and their information is usually easily found.

On Truman State’s athletics Web site, there’s a link on the left menu bar that says “Athletics Staff Directory.” Click the link, and it takes you to a page with the coaches’ name, e-mail and phone number.

But that’s Div. II, so there’s no way some one like Pete Carroll or Tim Floyd at USC have that information available, right?

Wrong. Scroll down to football and basketball, and you’ll see their information. I found this in literally 15 seconds, just by logging on to the athletics page and looking a little. It’s there, you might just have to put some effort into finding it.

Of course, while contacting coaches is a good first step, this isn’t to say that Pete Carroll or Tim Floyd is going to respond to you just because you sent him an e-mail or called him. He doesn’t know you or your parents, so the key is figuring out how you can get a relationship with a particular program. And that’s precisely why the NCSA is here.

 Tomorrow evening is one of my favorite sporting events of the year; the NBA Draft.  It combines my love for college hoops with my (absurd) belief that I would be a kick-butt NBA GM.  I usually spend the night yelling, blogging, texting, and calling my friends about my Milwaukee Bucks attempting to draft the exact opposite of whoever I thought they should draft (examples: Yi Jinalon vs. Joakim Noah, Andrew Bogut vs. Marvin Williams).

However, since I began working at NCSA, I always seem to see the draft from the perspective of how it will affect recruiting.  Last year the big story was the NBA age minimum and seeing how the “One and Dones,” would affect the way coaches recruit.  This year the big story is clearly Arizona bound Brandon Jennings considering bypassing college directly and taking a detour to Europe for a year of seasoning in their pro leagues.

Sportsline reports:

Arizona fans have Thursday marked on their calendars. That’s the day Brandon Jennings is scheduled to receive his final SAT score, and if the score is sufficient the McDonald’s All-American will be eligible to compete as a freshman for the Wildcats (pending clearance from the NCAA, of course) this season. It’s supposed to be a big development, one way or another. So I called Jennings’ advisor, Kelly Williams, on Sunday to see how things were going, how he was feeling and whether anything had changed.

What I learned is Thursday probably won’t end Arizona’s anxiety.

According to Williams, playing in Europe isn’t just a possible backup plan in case Jennings doesn’t get the proper score, as has been previously reported by multiple media outlets. It seems Europe will be a viable option even if Jennings’ SAT score is fine, and this can’t be the news Arizona fans want to hear.

“In all honesty, I think Brandon wants options,” Williams said by phone. “If he has the opportunity right now to make $800,000 from a team and get a shoe contract and make more than $1 million before he even goes into the draft, then why wouldn’t he do that?”

Of course reaction varies around the web.  Some feel he will potentially hurt his draft stock, while others feel he is a savior for challenging the NBA’s unfair system.

My perspective has nothing to do with Brandon Jennings and everything to do with college basketball.  Some may have preferred the star power that the Greg Odens, Kevin Durants, and Derick Roses brought to college basketball.  Label me old school in wanting college basketball to involve student athletes rather than pros in waiting.

Eliminating the very cream of the crop and taking only athletes serious about getting a degree will help re-invigorate college hoops and eliminate a lot of the recent scandals.

Lance commenting on 6.3 Billion to One!

My son will be running cross country and track at a D-3 school this fall. Based on what we’ve read and heard from friends about college sports, we never thought he would have been college running material. After talking with college coaches at the D-3 level and reading articles on sites like NCSAsports.org, we learned that he had the talent to go to the next level. Lesson we learned was to take the time to do the research and talk to a lot of different “experts”.

 Finding inspirational stories in the current 24 hour news cycle which is typically filled with scandals and negativity can be next to impossible.  However, once in a while there will be story that reminds us all that there are special people out there who are capable of touching everyone. 

After being surrounded with the recruiting process for the last few years at NCSA, success has always been defined by scholarship dollars and commitments for our student athletes.  While those can both be extremely rewarding, often times it can become easy to lose perspective that sports are far more important and meaningful than simply finding a place to play at the collegiate level. 

In the video below from ESPN, John Challis reminds us all that sports mean something different to everyone.  While most of the student athletes we work with are attempting to use sports as a vehicle for a college education, John is using sports as motivation to stay alive.  The video is equal parts touching and inspirational and will leave you with a different perspective about the role of sports in our lives. 

As a former professional baseball scout and current collegiate scout, I have attended many HS baseball games, tournaments, showcases, etc. In my 10 years of scouting, I have spoken to countless families that have spent hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars to attend events all around the country (sometimes for 1 week) because they were sold on the fact that if they attend certain events or play on certain teams, they’ll be recruited. Let’s make one thing very clear. There is absolutely NO guarantee that if your son plays on a travel team or attends a showcase, they will be recruited. Not to say that no kid is ever recruited because of a tournament or showcase, but there’s no guarantee. Hoping to get discovered, hoping to get recruited, is like playing the lottery. Keep in mind that all of these things are businesses. They are designed to make money. Of course there are reputable organizations that do care about helping kids, and they do a great job. But, they are not doing it for free.

Organizers are not only trying to get players to attend their showcases or tournaments, they try very hard to get college coaches to attend. Because, the more coaches that a family thinks will attend, the more they want their son to attend. And, coaches want to go where the better players will be, and a place that has a large number of kids to see at once. It’s a never ending cycle.

I’ll share something I have experienced, more than once, while attending showcases. As all of us scouts were sitting behind home plate, waiting for the activities to begin, the organizer of the event, walked over to us and said the following, “The guys that will be throwing on the mound right now are not the better guys. The ones throwing in the bullpen are the guys you want to see.” That’s interesting. Seems to me like he wasn’t as concerned with the players on the mound. Didn’t he care that they got as much of a look as the guys in the bullpen? Apparently not. He was more concerned that the coaches saw the better players so they would want to come back the next year and maybe spread the word to their friends in the coaching community, and he’d be able to advertise that on his website. Are you starting to see the cycle? More coaches & better programs = more players = more money. But what about those kids on the mound? Didn’t they pay as much money as the kids in the bullpen? Don’t they have the same dreams of playing at the next level? Didn’t their parents fly or drive them to the location to showcase their abilities? Absolutely.

Here’s a scenario to consider. Your son comes up to bat, in his only at bat of the day, and the scout gets a phone call he has to take, or they have to use the bathroom, or they are hungry and want to get something to eat. They get up from their chair, and walk away. Your son has a good at bat. He works the count, battles the pitcher, and then hit s a single up the middle on a slider. Guess what. That coach, the one that might be looking for your son’s position, the one that might coach at a school that your son feels is the best fit just missed his only at bat. But you don’t know that. You assume that everyone in the stands is looking at your son the entire day. Then you leave the showcase expecting to hear from tons of schools since they were all there, only to be disappointed when the letters don’t start pouring in.

Does gong to a showcase or playing in a tournament give you a chance to get recruited? Sure it does. It’s better than sitting in your house playing X-Box all day. We know for sure no scouts or coaches are going to show up there. But be smart about it. Don’t assume or hope you’ll be recruited. Be proactive. Take control. We’re talking about your son’s future, their college education. Are you going to leave that up to chance? The educated families don’t. Get educated on the recruiting process before it’s too late.

 SI’s Andy Staples wrote a piece that all incoming college athletes would be wise to read.  I picked out some of the highlights below:

You didn’t sign a four-year scholarship. You signed a one-year scholarship, renewable at the head coach’s discretion.  One-year. Renewable.

When you meet your new teammates, don’t be cocky. They’ll respect your humility as much as they would despise your pomposity. Also, don’t stick to one clique. Teams with too many cliques tend to lose. A lot.

Study. And pick a legitimate major, for goodness sakes. Only slackers major in general studies, recreational program delivery or journalism.

Throughout the recruiting process, the coaches sold you on the promise that you’d play early. So you may be wondering why you’re running with the scout team during preseason practice. Guess what? Almost all coaches say you’ll play early. Few actually mean it.

Scout team isn’t the end of the world. The quickest way to the first team is to prove you can dominate the starters on the other side of the ball.

Above all, have fun. College will go by fast, even if it feels like some of those weight-room sessions will never end.

Remember this isn’t just about the next 4 years, it is about the next 40!

NCSA would love to take a minute and congratulate Sean Bonesteele, the starting pitcher in last night’s Game 1 of the College World Series for the Fresno State Bulldogs.  Sean signed up with NCSA all the way back in 2003 when Arnold Schwarzenegger was just taking office in California.  Good luck with the rest of the series Sean!

Why do people play sports?

Some play for fun. Some play for glory. Some play for exercise. Some play for competition.

And some play so they can dream. This is one of those stories.

On the field of play, anything is possible. On the field of play, everyone is equal. On the field of play, anyone can win and anyone can lose.

Fresno State’s baseball team did a lot of that this year, losing that is. 27 times in 60 regular season games the Bulldogs came out on the wrong end of the final score. They were wildly inconsistent at the least, underachievers at best. In a word, they were average just like each of us. But that’s the thing about sports, even the most average of players, the most average of teams, can become something more. All it takes is some collective dreaming.

A month and a half later, the Bulldogs are still dreaming. With a record of 33-27 heading into the WAC tournament, they weren’t even under consideration for an at-large bid for the NCAA tournament. But my how things have changed.

Do or die in the WAC tournament? No problem. Four straight wins later and their prize was the #4 seed in the four-team Long Beach Regional, which featured three nationally ranked teams. Only one #4 seed had ever won a NCAA Regional. Strike that. Make that two. From there it was on to Tempe, AZ for a date with the Sun Devils of Arizona State, the nation’s #3 ranked team. After dropping the first game and facing elimination, they reeled off back to back wins and a berth in the College World Series. Once in Omaha, down went #6 Rice, #2 North Carolina, and last night #2 North Carolina again, in a winner-take-all bracket championship game.

So that brings us to tonight. The giant-killers from Fresno will take on the other Bulldogs, the ones from Georgia, in the first game of the Best-of-3 College World Series Final.

This team wasn’t supposed to be here. #4 seeds aren’t supposed to make it out of the regional. They aren’t supposed to win 8 NCAA tournament games, all against nationally ranked teams. They aren’t supposed to do all of these things without one of their stalwarts, senior SS Todd Sandell who was thrown off the team mid-season.

But they are, and they did.

The beauty of college sports is that it gives 18-22 year-olds in all corners of the country the opportunity to run with a dream like Fresno State has this month. Any opportunity to compete is an opportunity to dream.

Some play sports for the love of the game. Some play because it is what they are good at.  Some play sports in hopes that greatness is just one play away.

Dream on Fresno State. Dream on.