NCSA Blog

 Why do high school student athletes want to play collegiate athletics?  I speak with so many student athletes who express that commitment on a daily basis and often times I wonder if they truly realize the advantages of being a collegiate athlete. Outside of love for their sport which is the best reason to want to continue to play at the next level, I believe that if student athletes realized the ancillary benefits of partaking in collegiate athletics, their desire to maximize the recruiting process would increase significantly. 

I have often contemplated writing a list of all the rewards that accompany playing collegiate athletics to pass along to prospective student athletes, but quickly realized that it might take hours if not days.  Secondary advantages such as an immediate community of possible friends on a new college campus all the way to an instant alumni network for career opportunities after college fall into this extensive list that student athletes should think about.  I believe it will inherently create more value on the goal at hand and thus a greater attention to the steps required to achieve that goal.   

Student athletes should realize that a love for their sport should serve as their main motivation for working hard in the classroom, on the field, and throughout the recruiting process.  However, they should also understand the ramifications of taking part in collegiate athletics and how that might change their entire life.  Knowing what’s at stake, every student athletes should make sure to maximize this process.  What are some other advantages that college athletes receive?  I think that is a topic well worth a discussion…

I never thought I would be accepted to an Ivy League institution. As an overly cautious high school student insistent on finding a place to play college hockey, I applied to twenty colleges and universities throughout the Northeast and Midwest. I was a very good student, but not a great one. I worked hard in high school, but did not take AP classes. My SAT and ACT scores were above average, but I was not a merit scholar. I was a member of a few high school clubs, but most of my time was spent playing hockey.

Little did I know that my skates would bring me acceptance letters from several of the top colleges and universities in the country. If I were an average high school senior I would never have picked up a brochures for Princeton University, and I may never have even heard of Colby College. Yet my athletic abilities made me unique and I fielded calls from Ivy League and NESCAC coaches every week.

Each year, hundreds of student-athletes like my self use their athletic talent to gain acceptance to elite colleges and universities. NCSA’s Recruiting Coaches recently studied our last 285 students who went on to play their sport at a college or university deemed to be in the top twenty five according to the US News & World Report. We compared the average SAT and ACT test scores of the student-athletes to the average test scores reported by the institutions. Since 2004, NCSA student-athletes have been admitted to the most selective institutions with test scores considerably lower than their non athletic counterparts.

NCSA athletes who are accepted to elite institutions average a 28 on their SAT, while the schools report 31 as their average score. Most students who attend these colleges and universities score over 1400 on the math and reading portions of the SAT, yet the NCSA athletes average under 1300 on their math and reading scores. While a 28 ACT and 1250 SAT is not shabby, most high school students with these marks do not anticipate an Ivy League future.

Hockey opened up many doors for me that I could never have anticipated. My Yale diploma represents much more than essays, Spanish lessons and problem sets. I was able to combine my intelligence and work ethic with the sport I love, and use all of these factors to gain acceptance to a special university. I encourage all student athletes to take hold of their academic and athletic careers; opportunities will follow.

 Families often get nervous when they hear about any conference or divisions that don’t offer scholarships.  This blog has a ton of posts detailing the different ways they can actually find money for athletes, but, today I wanted to focus on another advantage of being an athlete interested in elite institutions. Being an athlete can help you get through admissions at some of the toughest schools in the country.

I know it’s a cynical world we live in so I pulled some information from one of NCSA’s top secret projects to share with you today.  We took the average ACT and SAT scores of newly admitted students to major institutions (From College Board.com) and compared them to our own NCSA Student Athlete scores who were admitted to those very same schools.  The results we saw were staggering.

Our Student-Athletes had an average ACT score of 28 compared to a school average of 31 while the SAT was 1288 to 1417 (writing was excluded).  The numbers speak for themselves, if a school wants you as an athlete they are going to try their best to get you through admissions.

Data based on students who were admitted to:  Princeton, Harvard, Yale, Stanford, Penn, California Tech, MIT, Duke, Columbia, University of Chicago, Dartmouth, Washington University in St. Louis, Cornell, Brown, Northwestern, Johns Hopkins, Rice, Emory, Vanderbilt, Notre Dame, Cal Berkeley, Carnegie Mellon, Virginia, Georgetown, UCLA, Michigan, Williams, Amherst, Swarthmore, Wellesley, Carleton, Middlebury, Pomona, Bowdoin, Davidson, Haverford, Claremont, McKenna, Wesleyan, Grinnell, Vassar, Harvey Mudd, Washington and Lee, Smith College, Hamilton college, Colgate, Bryn Mawr, Oberlin, Colby, the US Naval Academy, and West Point WestPoint.

Here is an article that addresses some intangibles that many college coaches, not just the service academies, look for in a student-athlete during the recruiting process.  Don’t underestimate the importance of being a dedicated and responsible student-athlete that demonstrates the ability to be a leader both on the playing field and in the classroom.

In the article, Air Force Head Football Coach Troy Calhoun states, “Finding prospects with the desirable balance of academics and athleticism is ‘the most testing job’.”

The college recruiting experience has many twists and turns.  There are many factors that play into recruiting for a student-athlete but one they have control over is doing the research.  Every student-athlete’s process is completely unique and different.  Doing research on the colleges and the process should be one of the top priorities!

Not only is the Stanford University one of the top academics schools in the country but it is also one of the best athletic programs (Stanford has won 14 consecutive Directors’ Cup).  The Stanford baseball program is a regulaly in the College World Series and is a two time National Champion. 

The Baseball Assistant Coach Dean Stotz at Stanford talks about the importance of research and choosing a college; “I have been doing this a long time, and if I may be so bold, I would like to help you simplify the process of selecting what college you will attend. First of all, please have respect for the magnitude of this college decision. You will live with this decision THE REST OF YOUR LIFE! This is not a “four year” decision, but a “FORTY YEAR DECISION”. There are no “mulligans”, no “do-overs”. Consider the task as if you are doing the most important research paper of your young life. The title of your research paper is: Where will I attend college? Now, how do you do well on a research paper?–RESEARCH!!!

There are three broad areas of risk in your college decision. You must decide what type of “academic challenge”, what type of “baseball challenge”, and what type of what I call “social challenge” you wish to take on.  In Coach Marquess’s and my 31 years we have not graduated 9 people who attended Stanford for four years.” What do you think?  Please post a comment on this topic!!

Every year on the center stage of collegiate sports, we hear the story, often told by television announcers, of the touching tale of the courageous walk on.  Visions of Rudy instantly come to the forefront as the journey of the underdog warrior starts to unfold.  “He was never recruited out of high school by any of the major programs . . .” says the announcer during his crescendo to the game breaking play.  “He has waited his whole life for this moment, battling disappointment after rejection.”  It is heartwarming.  Life is fair again. That could have been me.

There are few stories that compare in nature.  There are fewer that compare in occurrence.  The closest relative to Rudy would be the 71 year old retired truck driver who on his last few dollars cashed in on millions playing the random pick’m game at the local gas station.  The only difference is, that story happens more frequently!

For the serious competitor, walking on to a collegiate athletic team can be compared to earning a medical degree and then working as a custodian.  You both work in a hospital but unlike all of your classmates, you’re not actually doing what you trained so hard to do for so long.  Most collegiate athletes have played their sport since before they could remember, years and years, always starting, usually better and often in the spotlight.  To cash in a lifetime of hard work and natural talent for a dream that was forged from within a child’s perspective seems foolish.

Take football for example.  There are over 800 colleges that offer football as a varsity sport.  Most sports fans in this country can name up to fifty.  In baseball there are over 1000 colleges that offer the sport.  How many can you name?  There are numerous opportunities to explore if the desire to actually play exceeds common ignorance and childhood fantasies.

Walk-ons, just like custodians in hospitals, have vastly different experiences than the scholarship players.  First, the ceremonial National Letter of Intent signing day - that does not happen.  Next, the preferential class scheduling - no.  The second, third, or fourth pair of coaches’ eyes watching you to make sure that you’re taken care of - not so much.  You are a necessary tool to help the real players practice, rarely taken serious, rarely awarded a scholarship and sparingly shown respect.  Rudy was a great film but I hope it is not your story.  Below is a short video of how USC treats its potential walk ons.  There are a few questionable language choices in this clip so do not watch if you will be offended.  USC Walk On Clip

In summary, if you work your entire life to achieve the goal of becoming a college athlete, find a place where you are wanted.  Find a school where you will play and make an impact.  Go somewhere that will set you up to have a great experience while you earn your degree, an environment that will help provide you with teammates for life.  Step outside of your comfort zone and learn all you can of what is out there.  You just might find something that is priceless.

    The need for education about the recruiting process has never been more apparent.  Not a day goes by that I do not read about a high school providing some sort of recruiting education for the families of student athletes.  Only this morning, I came across a high school in Missouri that is providing this type of education for its families.  The other day, I learned about the University of Massachusetts Lowell providing a seminar about the ins and outs of college recruiting.  The fact that a University finds the need to educate people about this process should indicate the lack of knowledge about a process that will impact a student athlete’s entire life.

   Simply put, the more educated you are about the process, the better chance for success you have.  NCSA realizes this and that is the main reason why education is one of our primary missions.  We spent countless resources to build our speakers bureau and make sure they are providing education at the right events across the country.  Whether you are a high school administrator, parent, or student athlete, make sure you are receiving some sort of recruiting education or else you will not be maximizing the recruiting process.

I know, it might sound like an abstract topic. But work with me here.

Raise your hand if you’ve ever said this to your parents or heard this from your teenage son or daughter.

“Will you just leave me alone?!”

Now, keep those hands up if you’ve ever gone to your parents for guidance, advice or assistance.

Keep them up.

As teenagers, we start to develop a stronger sense of independence — we’re in high school, we’re going on dates, we can drive, and we’re starting to get taller and more adult-looking. “Mom and Dad” have transformed into, simply put, ”the ‘Rents.”

Yesterday, I noted the importance of a student-athlete’s maturity level when talking to college coaches. Today, it might seem as though I’m contradicting myself, but hang with me.

A couple of weeks back, I spoke with a parent whose daughter was trying to get an athletic scholarship. She was extremely talented in her sport, with the book smarts to match. But when I asked the parent about how her daughter’s recruiting was going, I was taken aback by the response I received.

“I honestly don’t know. She’s very mature for her age, so she’s taking care of it.”

Like I said, maturity is not a bad thing. What troubled me, however, was the fact that the parents were taking a complete hands-off approach. They didn’t know what coaches she was talking to, if she was filling out questionnaires or even what schools she was considering.

Now, I understand that not every parent has gone through the recruiting process when they were a student-athlete, and even then, it’s changed. So yeah, you might not know how to go about it and might be tempted to stay away. But in all likelihood, your son or daughter doesn’t know how to go about it either.

More important than the recruiting aspect is the fact that where they go to school and the decision to play a sport probably is the biggest decision they will ever make up until that point in their life. As a parent, chances are you’ve had to make some tough decisions in the past — where to go to school, what job to take, etc.

Here’s what you can do: offer them support, let them know your concerns when you made a big decision and stay involved with what’s going on. As recruiting expert Jack Renkens says on his Web site, “The most important person in our child’s life is you, the parent.”

Oh, I forgot …. You can put your hand down now. You’ve complete the oath.

by Chris Krause, NCSA Founder and President

Getting a call from a college coach:  That’s the goal for most college athletes, especially those of you who are finishing up your Junior year and looking at getting the attention of a college coach before time (and opportunities) run out.  I know that was my goal when I was in high school as an up-and-coming linebacker dreaming of playing at the next level.

Fortunately, I achieved my goal.  I had a great career playing football at Vanderbilt, and the advice I’m going to pass on to you is from a guy who has been through the recruiting battles that you and your family are going through right now.

I’m going to give it to you straight today, and tell you how to start getting phone calls from college coaches in the coming months.  Pick a few of these and try them (I strongly suggest our #1 secret, by the way) and start getting pro-active in your efforts to attract the attention of as many college coaches as possible:

#10  Fill Out a School’s Online Recruiting Form.  For many coaches, that is the way the recruiting process starts, along with getting information sent to them directly by NCSA.  Many times, coaches who get an athlete that submits a form online through the program’s website will call the athlete immediately, or at least send them information about the program.

#9  Return a Recruiting Questionnaire.  You know those recruiting questionnaires that often come along with a letter from a coach?  It’s critical that you fill it out and send it back.  Most coaches will not contact you if you don’t take that first step and return the questionnaire.

#8  Go to a Summer Camp.  Most college coaches hold summer training camps for prospective athletes.  Try to get to a couple of camps this summer (or at least one) and make a point of expressing your interest in going to the school with one of the coaches that works with you there.  Camps, which give you a personal face-to-face meeting opportunity with a coach, are a great way to spark conversations with a coach.

#7  Be Interested.  What should you do when a coach contacts you from a school you’ve never heard of before?  Be interested.  What should you do when you get something in the mail from a coach you’ve never talked to before?  Be interested.  Not replying to a coach is a great way never to play college sports.  Remember, the time to say no to a college is at the end of the process, not at the beginning.

#6  Ask Your Coach to Tell You Who They Know.  Your high school or club coach probably has names and contact numbers of college coaches that they’ve talked to before.  Ask him or her for those contacts, and give them a call to inquire about possibilities.

#5  E-mail a Coach.  Tell them you are interested, and ask them what the best way to go about getting recruiting to their school is.  E-mail, for many coaches, may be the best way to strike up a conversation with a college coach.  At NCSA, we’ve developed really good back-and-forth e-mail communication with thousands of college coaches, so we know it works.

#4  Look for Out-of-State Programs.  Sometimes, college coaches notice out of area athletes and reply to them right away.  For many schools, getting out of state players is rare so the fact that you are expressing interest in their program might spark their interest.

#3  Keep a Coach Updated.  Don’t just send one letter or e-mail.  Don’t just place one phone call to their office.  Keep in regular contact with coaches that you have an interest in.  Give them an ongoing reason to keep in touch with you and keep abreast of your progress.

#2  Show Them What You’ve Got!  Sending a highlight DVD, or posting your video online through a trusted recruited source, is something that can get a coach’s attention.  Give them a look at you right away.  Then, after you know they’ve had a chance to watch the video, send a follow-up e-mail and ask them if you would be a good fit for their program.

And the #1 way to get a call from a college coach is…

Register as a NCSA Student-Athlete.  For athletes that want to be proactive, there’s simply no better way to do it.  We actually do all of the things we just talked about on your behalf, saving you the time and potential mistakes in how you present yourself to college coaches.  I founded the NCSA organization years ago because I saw that athletes needed help going through the process…help that I wish I had received when I was in your shoes.

This summer, you can get a jump on your competition when it comes to getting noticed by college coaches.  Summer is a time when many coaches “reload” their recruiting files with new prospects.  Shouldn’t you make sure that you are one of the athletes that they find out about?