NCSA College Athletic Scholarships Blog

 Former Recruiting Coordinator at Notre Dame and University of Michigan and current NCSA Speaker, Bob Chmiel, recently presented a Recruiting 101 Seminar at Owensboro High School in Kentucky.  Senior Guidance Counselor from Owensboro, Jane Prince, played a key role in bringing Coach Chmiel to educate families and student athletes. 

Aside from her role as Senior Guidance Counselor and high school coach, Jane is the mother of a current collegiate athlete and wife of a former collegiate athlete.  The bottom line is that Jane has experienced recruiting from several perspectives.  NCSA caught up with Jane to discuss the importance of recruiting education.

NCSA: What motivated Owensboro to bring in an expert to educate families about the recruiting process?  Why NCSA and Coach Chmiel?

We will be working with NSCA this January to help my son achieve his goal of playing college football.  He is currently a sophomore in high school.  I’m also a Senior Guidance Counselor at Owensboro High School in Kentucky and coached high school tennis and swimming.  Over the years, I worked with many high school athletes.  My husband is the Head football coach at OHS and played college football at The University of Kentucky. My daughter plays college basketball at Georgetown College (NAIA).

Five years ago, another teacher and I formed a program at this high school to prepare high school athletes to become college athletes and I thought the NCSA presentation would be an excellent opportunity for parents to hear information about the college recruiting process from an outside source.  We were just lucky that our guest speaker was Coach Chmiel.  He is able to tell stories about his life experiences that get the attention of his audience and pull them in for the real message.

What was the most valuable information that Coach Chmiel passed along to families in your opinion? 

He had some excellent suggestions like:

• Don’t send film to a college without the specific name of the coach that you are sending it to…..unidentified film goes in the trash”
• Separate yourself from problems or problem people

He also talked about three important aspects of an athlete necessary to be successful: (1) Strong academics, (2) good character, and (3) always give 110 % on every play and in all preparations to play.

What are some of the most common misconceptions about the recruiting process that families have?

Most families wrongly believe several basic concepts:

(1) That most athletes are discovered like a Hollywood movie star for their scholarship

(2) DI level of play is the only one that provides financial assistance

(3) It is the high school coaches’ responsibility to get their athlete a scholarship

(4) Academics really are not that important if they are talented enough athletically

(5) Every scholarship, in every sport is a full-ride.

What type of advice would you give families who are going through the process for the first time as not only a guidance counselor, but also a mother and wife of collegiate student athletes?

• Start preparing your potential student/athlete in the 9^th grade by explaining the core GPA and the NCAA process. Register at the beginning of their junior year with the NCAA Eligibility Center. Keep constant tabs on their transcript and daily grades.

• Build a resume of sports accomplishments and awards as well as community service and inter-scholastic activities and honors. Save it in your computer and update it with everything they have accomplished each month. This resume should be sent to college coaches. This allows them to see the student/athlete as a person that is active and has good character.

• Choose a few good sports photos to have on hand to send with your resume and other sports related scholarships that they may apply for, such as state sportsmanship scholarships for example.

• Form good relationships with high school coaches; remember they will give the final recommendation.

• Learn how to speak to the media; you are representing your family, community, school and yourself. Complement your teammates and coaches in interviews; you didn’t get there on your own.

• Play other sports in high school, it’s good for you and makes you a more appealing athlete.

• Fill out all sports questionnaires, even to schools you may not attend. It’s a small world and coaches change jobs every day and may remember you.

• God gave you a certain body size and ability. You may be of size for the big time and you may not. Be thankful for whatever opportunities may come your way at any level whether it is DI, II, III, NAIA or Jr. College.

I really could go on and on…….there is so much for them to know……

Would you encourage other high schools to provide recruiting education similar to the seminar at Owensboro?  If so, why?

Yes, it was very helpful to hear Coach Chmiel.  He didn’t try to force the NCSA on his audience. He simply gave his educational message about the recruiting process and informed people about the NCSA at the end.  I think this made people more interested in the NCSA material. Parents are really misinformed about athletic scholarship and need a lot of help in the process.

 If you would like to learn more about potentially scheduling a Recruiting 101 Seminar, click here.

In an article in Dec. 4th’s Wall Street Journal, Harvard’s endowment has been hit by losses of 22% in the 4 months between July 1st and October 31st.  That’s 8 Billion dollars!  More than the total endowments of all but 6 universities.  Income from Harvard’s endowment funds 35% of its budget.  That includes athletics.  As mentioned in the article, all other college endowments have suffered a similar fate.  State schools, who don’t have large endowments, must cut back because of reduced tax receipts. 

So what does that mean to student athletes and their parents?  First, recruiting budgets for college coaches are going to be reduced.  That means less travel for coaches.  They will be relying more on video than ever before to evaluate talent.  Second, college coaches are going to be more careful in their selections.  So those high school students they’ve known the longest (starting freshman year) will be more likely to score the scholarship.  Third, colleges will be reducing the financial aid awarded for academics.  A smaller percentage of elite students will receive the top awards.  A student athlete who wants to compete will need better grades and test scores than ever.  She/he better be working on that starting freshman year!  Fourth, large state institutions will be cutting costs.  That means larger class sizes for required courses.   If your student-athlete doesn’t do well in class sizes of 300 or more, then they need to find a better fit.  Finally, student-athletes will be competing harder than ever for the existing scholarship dollars.  That competition will be in the work out room, in the class room, in preparing for college entrance exams, and finally in knowing the rules of the recruiting game.   How can you gain a significant competitive advantage over others and win the recruiting game?  Start here.

Last week we discussed the first step that every student athlete must take:  Receiving an objective evaluation.  Once you have taken that step and you have developed realistic expectations, it is time to convey your academic and athletic abilities to the college coaches through the second step:  Building an Athletic Resume Website

Years ago, families would send hundreds of paper resumes to college coaches through traditional mail distribution channels, thankfully those times are behind us.  With the improvements in technology, information is easily updated and sent through the internet which has changed the way college coaches recruit.  In today’s recruiting world, student athletes need to have some sort of athletic online resume.

Why an online resume?

Let’s start with the obvious.  Every student athlete needs an athletic and academic resume.  This will allow college coaches to examine all the important measurable information they need to make decisions.  With that in mind, families can either create a physical paper resume or build an online resume.  Let’s look at the advantages of having that information online compared to paper:

• Customization: As student athletes progress through the recruiting process, the majority of their athletic and academic information will change. In some cases this information will change frequently. The idea of updating a paper resume and printing out a new copy for every change seems rigid and difficult. However, most websites and online resumes can be changed within seconds making them much more logical to use for this type of resume. Advantage: Online Resume

•  Distribution:Let’s assume that a student athlete is qualified for 200 college programs. Each one of those programs has multiple coaches on the staff and each one should receive the information to ensure it will be reviewed. If each program has 4 coaches, that information now needs to be sent to 800 individuals. The thought of sending a paper resume through the mail to 800 people should make most families shudder. The evolution of the internet and email has now made traditional mail channels almost obsolete. Emailing the information to 800 coaches does not seem nearly as time consuming or expensive. Advantage: Online Resume

• Trackability: Once the information has been sent off to college coaches, the knowledge of whether or not it has been looked at will be critical in determining the next steps. When sending a paper resume through the mail, the only way a student athlete will be able to know that a college coach has seen their information will be waiting on a response or return letter which might never happen. Advances in technology provide student athletes the unique opportunity to place tracking capabilities in their online resumes. This means that if they email the college coach, they will know whether or not the college coach opened the information and provide them the understanding of how to follow up. Advantage: Online Resume

What should the resume contain?

To put it simply, the online resume should contain all the athletic and academic information a college coach might be interested in.  The information needed by the college coach will vary depending on the sport.  Every student athlete will not have all the information immediately.  It will be a process of gathering all the data needed throughout the recruiting experience.  However here is a list of some basic aspects that each resume should contain:

• Personal Info
• Statistical Info
• Scholastic Info 
• Athletic History
• References

Remember, the purpose of this online resume is to spark the interest of the college coach and convince them to allocate their time and money towards recruiting that student athlete.  Of course the quality of the athletic and academic information being evaluated will be the single most important determining factor.  However, the coach might only look at the information for a few seconds, so the more professional in appearance and the easier to navigate, the better the odds are that they will take the time to evaluate the entire resume.   

For an example of NCSA’s athletic resume website that we create for our student athletes, click here.

Next week I will discuss the third step in the process:  Highlight / Skills Video

One of the most common questions we receive from parents who are guiding their son or daughter through the recruiting process is this:

“What can I do to help my child get recruited by college coaches?”

While the answer is not always simple and usually requires far more work than any parent ever expects, every family needs to understand what they need to do.

After working with thousands of student athletes and college coaches, NCSA has been able to answer that question through a list of Five Recruiting Requirements that every student athlete and family must posses in order to be successfully recruited.

Here are the Five Recruiting Requirements:

1. Evaluation
2. Verified Website
3. Highlight / Skills Video
4. College Contacts
5. Guidance

Over the next five issues of our newsletter, we will focus on one of the steps in this process beginning with the first thing that must happen:  Evaluation.

An objective third party evaluation of a student athletes’ athletic and academic ability about what colleges and universities they might qualify for must be the first step every family takes.  Without that knowledge, the recruiting process will lack the direction needed to find the right fit. 

Often parents and student athletes are unsure of what level of play their abilities might make them a good candidate for.  Unfortunately, many families tend to overstate their abilities which can lead to unrealistic expectations of DI scholarships offers. 

85% of the opportunities to play collegiate athletics fall outside of the DI scope which means that the vast majority of collegiate athletes are playing at the DII, DIII, NAIA, and NJCAA level.  These schools offer not only wonderful academic experiences, but also attractive financial packages for serious student athletes.  Many families discount DIII opportunities simply because they do not offer “athletic” scholarships.  A study done about NCSA’s graduating class of 2008 revealed that our DIII athletes received an average of over $21,000 in financial assistance.  If you understand how DIII recruiting operates, you will quickly realize there are other avenues for financial assistance that can make these schools more affordable than the in-state alternatives.  If you are only pursuing DI colleges and universities, you are hurting your odds of playing at the next level.  Here are three simple steps to follow:

• Listen to an expert - Speak with a trusted source who has knowledge of what college coaches at each level are looking for athletically and academically and listen.  You can find sport specific recruiting guidelines from NCSA that will help you begin that process. 
• Be realistic - If the trusted source indicates that you are a DII or DIII athlete at that point, then it is time make sure your expectations are aligned with your athletic and academic ability.
• Research - Once you have received an honest and accurate assessment of your ability and have acknowledged the proper level of competition that fits that evaluation, you should begin to research those schools.  This will focus your search and save you a great deal of frustration.

Sending athletic information to a DI college coach when your academic and athletic qualifications dictate you might only be a DII athlete is a no win situation.  The college coach will not spend his limited resources recruiting that student athlete and the families will waste time, effort, and money pursuing the wrong opportunities.

Next week I will discuss the second Recruiting Requirement:  Verified Website.

 You may have seen Oaks Christian High School on SportsCenter this week.  If you missed the feature, it is dubbed “Celebrity High” due to the many famous names on the roster.  Joe Montana’s son is the starting Quarterback on the Varsity and the sons of Will Smith and Wayne Gretzky are currently on the JV team.

The piece on ESPN focused on the famous names, but beneath the headlines a controversy is brewing.  Oaks Christian has been dominating its league opponents so thoroughly that they would like to switch leagues to the more competitive nearby Marmonte League.

However, the Marmonte League wants nothing to do with Christian Oaks.  The hold up centers around the fact Oaks Christian is a private school while every school in the Marmonte League is public.  Deepening the disagreement is the fact that Oaks hands out scholarship money to an estimated 25% of athletes.

“We’ve got no plan or desire to change things right now,” Agoura (Calif.) High athletic director Jason Rosenthal said. “We can’t deal with (Oaks Christian). They recruit; they get to hand out money for scholarships.

“First, they take the best kids from our area, and now they want to play against us with them.”

Marmonte officials suggest that Oaks look into joining some of the private leagues 1-2 hours away in Orange County.  Oaks officials think this idea is preposterous.  What do you think?

Student Athletes and parents often face the difficult question, “Should I specialize in one sport to increase my chances of receiving a scholarship?”  There is no 100% correct answer, but consider the opinion from former NFL QB Jake Plummer, who credits handball and other sports as a major factor in his athletic development.

“I guarantee it helped my career by rounding out my ability: hand-eye coordination, endurance and mental toughness,” Jake says.  “My ultimate goal is to get coaches to stop specializing their athletes, telling them they can’t play other sports because it’ll hurt their football. I played all three sports and handball whenever I could. That’s why I made it in the NFL — that rounded me out as an athlete.”

Jake has always been a somewhat unorthodox player, but his point is very valid.  I hope that athletes deciding whether to take the specialization leap consider every possible benefit from playing multiple sports.

Many fans of high school football remember Coach Rush Propst, who was featured on MTV’s hit reality show “Two-a-Days: Hoover High.”  The show portrayed him as a loud mouthed, win at all costs type of coach.  The portrayal ended up becoming prophecy as the coach who led Hoover High School to five Alabama State Chamionships ultimately resigned under duress when ethics and rule violations came to light.  A 68 page report commissioned by the school board concluded that Coach Propst may have helped engineer the altering of grades and encouraged teachers to give preferential treatment to athletes. 

Despite his past, Coach Propst was hired this season to take over the football program at Colquit County High in Georgia.  Principal Bob Jones summarizes the hiring with, ” This community is about second chances.”  However, the community remains divided over the hiring.  The school board was split 4-2 on choosing to hire the coach.  The core of the issue was, is hiring a $95,000 coach with baggage putting too much emphasis on high school sports? 

Coach Propst certainly doesn’t think so.  “Is high school football out of whack?” he asked. “Is it too important? No.”

It is that time of year when every student-athlete, that is a senior, is deciding where to apply and more importantly when. There are so many options: Early Decision, Early Action and Regular Admissions. First and foremost before you apply to any school, you will always want to make sure you have done some research first. You should look up schools on-line and have made some unofficial visits-at the very least. The more you put into learning about your options, the better decision you will make and ultimately you will pick the right school.

Once you have done your research and made some visits, you should compile your top schools and rank them, whether it is two, five, or ten different colleges and universities. Remember everyone’s preferences are different. Next you will want to introduce yourself to the coaches and build a relationship with each. This will also help you rank each school on your list.

You then will want to know where you stand on the coaches list of recruits before you apply to a school. When you know there is mutual interest between you, the coach and the school this is when you should apply. Remember, you should always ask the coach if you should apply before you send in an application! You will want to ask the coach how to turn in your application and what the process is. The coaches may tell you to fill out an application and send it into admissions or they may ask you to give it to them to take to admissions themselves. Some coaches flag the application to let admission know that they are recruiting you and some coaches may work in admission as well. If you apply without talking to a coach, and you don’t get in–the coach can’t do anything thereafter.

Another thing to think about - if you are interested in a school and the coach is asking you to submit your application; you may want to consider asking the coach is they will waive the application fee. He/She may not be able to do this, however it’s worth asking, because college applications are expensive and the costs add up fast!

Now there is a very distinct difference between Early Action and Early Decision. Early Action is non-binding (key word here!) and allows you to submit your application earlier than waiting to apply Regular Decision in the spring. This way the college/university will let you know earlier (January or so, instead of March or April) if you have been accepted. This will give you more time to weigh your options or to make your decision early and have the chance to enjoy the rest of your senior year. On the other hand Early Decision IS binding, and is meant for students who know that the school is their top choice and if accepted, you will go there no matter what.

Make sure to follow these key steps: research the school, visit the school, reach out to the coach, ask questions, apply, get in and then make a decision! Make sure to do this with multiple schools. If you have followed these steps with numerous schools early, you should have the opportunity to apply in the fall. If you need to do these steps with more schools first, you can always apply in the spring. Good luck.

In every sport an athlete must condition and strength train.  How you perform this activity is just as important.  If you are a baseball player, would you go for a long distant run?  Baseball consists of explosive movements that are short to moderate.  So why would you go on a three mile run?  Endurance can be established with long sprints.

Now that baseball players are in the off season it is important to establish a strong base for the upcoming season.  A player must “report to camp” in top physical condition in order to compete at the highest level.

A baseball workout must contain some key ingredients.  1) Work on your baseball skills such as hitting, fielding and throwing. 2) Strength train in the weight room.  3) Conditioning by running poles, base running and long sprints. 4) There must be a proper warm up and cool down routine.  5) There must be a proper core (your core is you’re your knees to chest) routine. 

How do you get the mental edge in your game?  How do you think and act like a champion?  Are you born a leader or is it developed over time?  Having the right thoughts during practice, competition and in your life is a critical part of “winning that college scholarship”.

 A credible source for learning “Championship Thinking” is Jim Meier.  He was an interval part of the Oregon State University Baseball Team who won back to back NCAA Championships in 2006 and 2007.  Jim’s weekly internet show has guests who are the “who’s who” of the baseball world.  Next weeks guest (Oct. 29) is none other then Paul Mainieri, head baseball coach at LSU.

“Developing…Mind, Heart, Spirit”