Diego Pons, NCSA Student Athlete:
July 31st, 2008 - by-by Diego Pons 2009 Basketball Grad
The first camp my team went to was the West Virginia University Team Camp on June 
27 -29. This is the second time I attended this camp, but I was very excited because, at last, I was going to meet a college coach! I had sent an email telling him I was going to attend the camp and he agreed to meet with me. I was also excited because I knew we would have great competition; the good Triple A teams from my county were there, and the other teams I didn’t recognize were looking good and athletic.
We played games from Saturday through Sunday. I started the later games sore from playing aggressive and getting over screens while taking knees to the quad in the many previous games. However, I wasn’t the only one feeling sore. I also remember seeing other teams exhausted - well - I thought so because I was outrunning them and out hustling them on defense. We ended up winning all our games except two games, both again Morgantown.
I didn’t get to meet the coaches, which was unfortunate because one of the coaches agreed on meeting up at the camp (maybe there was a dead period or something) After so much work and preparation, your hope is to meet and talk with them. This summer, I have sent more than one hundred emails trying to contact coaches. Every day, I wake up around 9:00 am, and after I eat breakfast, I check my emails messages and then open my NCSA account.
I go to the college search map link, choose a state and start browsing universities academic and athletic websites, looking if they offer what I would like to study and looking for prospective student athlete questionnaires. If they have one, I fill it up and then send an email to all the coaches in the program introducing myself and telling them I have just submitted the questionnaire. If I don’t find one, I email the coaches, introduce myself and ask them for a questionnaire.
In the first three months I started doing that (April, May and June) most of them have responded, but now in July has been different. I guess they all are attending AAU events scouting prospectus. It is very exciting to receive a response from a coach. They have sent me emails, letters and brochures. Some admissions offices have also contacted me. Even though, I didn’t get to meet the coaches from West Virginia University, the camp was great. I have learned a lot about basketball and the recruiting process.
