NCSA College Athletic Scholarships Blog

 A critical part of recruiting for college coaches is the evaluation process.  Simply put, if college coaches do not believe a student athlete possesses the ability to play for their school, they are not going to spend their recruiting resources pursuing that student athlete.  In most cases, college coaches have two choices when attempting to evaluate a student athlete.  They can either watch a student athlete compete in person or they can accomplish a similar evaluation by watching a highlight or skills tape.

Most college coaches would agree that in an ideal process, all their evaluations would take place in person to allow for the most thorough assessment. Unfortunately, college coaches are restrained by time and money when recruiting which is why a highlight or skills tape has quickly become the most efficient way for a college coach to initially evaluate talent.  Let’s compare the two ways that college coaches can evaluate a student athlete based on two key factors:

Time:  While recruiting is a significant portion of a college coach’s job responsibility, they are also in charge of actually coaching and managing their team.  It would be impossible for a coach to travel to high school competitions, showcases, tournaments, etc. to evaluate all of their prospects.  This much travel would never allow a coach the opportunity to evaluate prospects outside of their immediate geographic region.  Utilizing the skills or highlight tape allows a college coach to initially evaluate potentially hundreds of student athletes all across the nation in a matter of days, making the process far more efficient.

Money:  College coaches are always constrained to a specific recruiting budget.  On average, this budget is less than $1,500.  Aside from being time consuming, traveling to evaluate prospects in person is extremely costly.  However, athletes should never make the mistake of thinking this means that grant and scholarship money is unavailable.  Remember, scholarship and recruiting money come from two different pools. 

Between time and money, it becomes clear why the highlight or skills tape is far more effective and efficient for college coaches to evaluate prospects.  Of course, the college coach most likely will want to evaluate the student athlete in person at some point, but the initial evaluation is almost always done by watching film.

Now that we have established why the highlight and skills tape is more logical for college coaches, here are some crucial questions to ask when taking this mandatory step in the recruiting process.

What should I film?

The purpose of the highlight or skills tape is to allow the college coach to evaluate a student athlete’s ability.  Each sport will require a different set of skills to be filmed and it is vital you capture the necessary skills for a coach to make an informed decision.  NCSA has developed thorough, sport specific guidelines after surveying college coaches.  For information about those guidelines, click here. 

Also keep in mind that coaches are now using film to evaluate student athletes in all sports.   In the past, some families and student athletes felt as though, due to the nature of their sport, they did not need a highlight or skills tape.  For example, because sports such as track and swimming are “time” oriented and more objective, the misconception was that college coaches only need the hard numbers.  With increased competition for recruits, college coaches not only want the times and numbers, but they also want to watch technique to factor in the potential of a student athlete.

The bottom line is that every athlete in every sport needs a highlight or skills tape.  Each sport dictates a different set of skills be filmed, and if you do not know exactly what to film then the student athlete might not be receiving the proper evaluation from college coaches. 

How should I edit the film?

Once the footage has been taken, it is time to edit the film in order to best present the student athlete.  It is important to sequence the video in a way that will make a college coach want to watch more.  If the first few plays or skills are unimpressive then chances are the college coach will not spend his time watching the rest. 

Also, make sure the student athlete being evaluated can be easily identified.  In sports such as basketball, football, soccer, and many others, the amount of athletes on the field or court make it difficult for a college coach to distinguish the student athlete they are supposed to be watching.  That’s why NCSA employs a technique called “spot shadowing” to highlight the individual student athlete.  Check out the differences:

Enhanced

Unenhanced

Which student athlete is going to be evaluated accurately?

How should I send the highlight / skills tape?

Once you have gathered all the footage, sequenced the highlight or skills tape to accommodate a college coach’s evaluation, it is time to send the video out to the coaching community.  This crucial step will require college contacts and some sort of mechanism to distribute the information to a sufficient number of coaches.  Next week, we will discuss the fourth step in the recruiting process:  College Contacts.

This is not to say that it needs to be your friend all four or five years. Actually, it definitely shouldn’t be your friend for your entire college career. Let me explain.

A couple of weeks ago, I talked about my recent discovery of “divisiononeitis” — the intense desire most student-athletes have to play at a NCAA Div. I institution. Today, I want to focus on another syndrome: benchophobia.

Benchophobia means exactly what it sounds like – a fear of the bench, or more specifically, a fear of sitting on the bench.

Of course, this is understandable. Every student-athlete who wants to play college athletics actually wants to play. Your position is guard or tight end or libero or attackman or shortstop. Your position is not benchwarmer.

Here’s the thing, though – college athletics is a whole new ballgame. You’re now playing with players who could be three years older than you, but who also have the benefit of playing in college for three years longer than you. That means that you might not automatically get the chance to get on the field or the court right away.

But that’s not necessarily a bad thing. College sports are a lot different from high schools sports. You’ll have to adjust to different practices, plays, formations, signals and pressure. And often times, “different” translates to “more intense and more complex.”

So, practicing with a team but not getting a whole lot of playing time, or even possibly having to redshirt, shouldn’t be looked upon as the worst thing in the world. It gives you a year or so to make the adjustment from high school to college (and that includes school as well), so when you take over as a full-time starter or start to see significant playing time, you’re a lot more acclimated to the college game and the college curriculum.

Don’t fear the bench, but don’t get too comfortable either. They’re made out of wood or aluminum for a reason …

I just watched the video from Brian Davidson’s post below. If you haven’t seen it yet, read the post and watch the video here.

As funny and outlandish some of the things these coaches say are, there’s definitely some truth to take away. If you play the sports college recruiting “game” wisely, college coaches should be fighting over you and will go to great lengths to get you to come to their college.

But here’s the thing. Once you lace up those sneakers, put on the practice jersey and step out onto the field/court/etc., in most cases, you’ll quickly find out that you’re not the program’s savior afterall. An article about Blaine Gabbert, who was a five star recruit in high school, is a perfect example of this. From the University of Missouri’s student newspaper, The Maneater:

As a tall and sturdy 6-foot-5-inch, 225-pound freshman, Gabbert’s high school performance was nothing less than extraordinary.

His All-American status and five-star recruit ranking earned him a spot on the Missouri roster, but playing time is hard to come by on this team.

“He’s the most physically gifted quarterback to come out of high school that I’ve seen in six years as far as size, speed, arm strength and release,” said David Yost, quarterback coach and recruitment coordinator. “If you were to build a quarterback, you would build a guy like Blaine Gabbert.”

For this season, Gabbert waits behind senior quarterbacks Chase Daniel and Chase Patton. With the publicity of his high school football days gone, Gabbert must wait his turn on the bench. …

The same story holds true to Jimmy Clausen last year on Notre Dame. Clausen, who was considered by many as the No. 1 prospect for the class of 2007, wasn’t announced as the starter once the season began. And even when he took over that role, he struggled, only passing for 1,254 yards, with 7 touchdowns and 6 interceptions.

It’s a whole different game in college. You might have been a dominant high school player, but if you’re playing in college, chances are that your entire team is made up of former dominant high school players.

So when you step on to the playing surface for the first time, check your ego at the door, realize you have a lot of learning to do and eventually, you can become a dominant college player!

Anyone serious about college athletics knows the term “redshirt“. For those who aren’t familiar with the term, this is when a program allows you to enroll in the University and practice with the team, but sit out from actual competition for the academic year without losing a year of eligibility.

A less familiar term to many, both general sports fans and athletes going through the recruiting process, is “grayshirt“. What happens in this scenario is when an athlete delays enrollment into the university without losing a year of eligibility. In this case, the athlete isn’t allowed to practice or can’t receive their scholarship and is often put into effect when a coach has too many scholarship athletes.

Case in point, Tyler Bass. The University of Maryland, which had given Bass a scholarship, offered him the opportunity to grayshirt because they had more than the allotted 85 scholarships for Div. I-A football.

Unfortunately for both parties, Bass wanted to enroll in the fall, and Maryland released him from his scholarship.

Thus demonstrates the importance of asking questions when you talk to college coaches before signing a NLI! Find out if you’ll have to redshirt or grayshirt.

Or even if there is a possibility of greenshirting — enrolling in what would normally be your senior spring semester in high school to practice with the team. Obviously, you and your parents need to plan ahead for this situation to work, and this option usually is reserved for those student-athletes who are expected to play their freshman year.  

There are a lot of shirts out there. Make sure you’re wearing the color and style — if any – that looks best on you.