NCSA Blog

 Any relationship/friendship if it is to be beneficial to both parties must be based upon trust and loyalty. This quality definitely applies to your relationship with the coach that is recruiting you. Even as a young person you need to “get a feel” for the coach who is attempting to attract you to his or her school. Basically this is an initial instinct as to how comfortable you are with this individual.

Recruiters are as diverse and different as all people are different from each other. Initially parents or guardians need to interact with the recruiting coach.  When they are comfortable with the recruiter and the young person is ready, they can turn the brunt of the relationship over to the recruit and watch from basically role as a moderator.

Being comfortable with the relationship, it can mean that the conversations with the recruiter are not just based upon a hard sell for their school, but are actual conversations concerning academics, friends, life goals and other topics. The constant hard sell can become annoying, and indicative of a recruiter who is inexperienced, or who is “not doing their homework.” The best recruiters that I had the pleasure of working with knew their respective recruits almost as life long friends. Again, “the best” recruiters I worked with. It really sent up a red flag for me when on our recruiting call evening I would go down the hall and hear one of our coaches begins the conversation with, “So how is it going big guy, who do you guys have this weekend,? Great, I will call you next week!” I could only think about what the young person on the other end of that call thought of such an impersonal call.

Permit me to digress a bit. When I say recruiting coach, I am referring to the coach who is the primary contact with the recruit. Initially it is usually a coach who is assigned to a geographical region of the prospective student athlete. The recruit may also hear from the coach of a particular position on the team assigned to that recruit, the recruiting coordinator or even the head coach as the process continues.

The coach assigned geographically to the area is usually the initial contact and usually the main conduit to the athletic program for the recruit and the family. This is usually the relationship that becomes the strongest and most lasting. And this is usually the coach that will “have the recruits back” as the young person moves from prospect to recruit to signee, to team member to college graduate. And in all candor, this is the coach who if he or she leave the school for another position at another school will have the biggest affect on the athlete.

And, if this individual should move on during the recruiting process it is critical for the family to immediately call the head coach to determine the status of the recruit in the process with the main contact in the program no longer in the picture. It is an honor to be recruited, it is indicative of hard work and dedication, but remember this is a two way street. It is also an honor to be called ‘coach.” And as you are moving through the process remember that you have a lot to bring to the table, and that as you are being evaluated, you are also evaluating the coaches and schools that are recruiting you. It is critical that once again you “get a feel” for these individuals.

Can you live with these people during the next four years of your life that will determine the next forty years of your life? And when I say “live with” it is just what I mean. A commitment to a school is huge undertaking. Hours, days, weeks, months, years of practice, being coached, competing, and every athletic moment along the way you will be in the charge of the coaches who have recruited you. It sounds like a long road and it is, but it can be just so rewarding, and the ride of a lifetime. Make sure that the coaches who will accompany you on that ride are people,” that you can live with.” Go for it! And always remember that you will be going through this process only once. At NCSA you will be dealing with people who have gone through it so many, many, times. And remember that we are here to assist you. No question is too unimportant; it is about you and about your future. Use us to make that future as bright and as profitable as possible.

Coach C.

Character matters in recruiting.  Virtually every college coach you talk to will tell you that he tries his best to do a thorough background check on every incoming recruit.  Athletes need to understand that the search doesn’t just end with talking to your parents, coaches, and teachers.  These days that search extends to the Internet on site likes Facebook and MySpace.  Want proof?  Both the University of Nebraska and Creighton University recently released Interent Ethics Codes.

Nebraska Athletic Director Tom Osborne told the press that the athletic department will be monitoring more than 500 Nebraska athletes this fall. 

Osborne bluntly stated, “We wont turn our heads if we see something inappropriate.”

Creighton athletic director Bruce Rasmussen echoed the statement. 

“If, in my opinion, I see anything that affects them, the team, the athletic department or the university in negative ways, I’ll handle it any way I see fit.”

College coaches have limited scholarships available and their jobs are on the line if they can’t produce results.  Losing players to suspension is a major blow to any program.  Coaches will continue to monitor their athletes with any tool possible.  Recruits need to realize that the same type of scrutiny will fall on them.  Don’t throw away a potential scholarship by posting a “funny” picture on the Internet that can come back to haunt you.

Among the many reasons to enter the college sports recruiting process earning an athletic scholarship to pay for college is always at the top of the list. Playing in college offsets the burden of paying for college. After all, who wants to be paying for college 10 years after they graduate because of student loans? In May 2007, testimony before US congress revealed that a quarter of all students graduate with too much debt to pay back on a starting teachers salary. That is way too high.

If that’s the case, shouldn’t you be knowledgeable in the ways of Financial Aid?

I earned my MBA from one of the top business schools in the country and traded sophisticated financial instruments for over 20 years. I thought I could figure this financial aid thing out. I couldn’t. I needed help. I’m very glad I invested in professional advice that helped maximize the grants and scholarships my daughter received. One of the great things about NCSA is that their advice on how to maximize scholarship dollars actually works. And it continues to work. Except for the less than 1% of college athletes who have “full rides” (tuition, books, room & board, fees, transportation), most families must negotiate their financial aid package on an annual basis. Paying for that expert advice helped - a lot! As she enters her junior year, my daughter has received over $135,000 in financial aid. Not one penny of that is a student loan. It’s all grants that don’t have to be paid back. Do you think I’m happy with the professional advice I received? My return on that investment was over 6700.00 per cent!

The Pac-10 Conference is called the “Conference of Champions” for a good reason.  In 2007-2008 the conference captured 13 NCAA Team Championships far more then its runner up, Big Ten (5).  These 13 championships is one shy of the record 14 set in 1996-1997.  The Pac-10 has lead the nation in NCAA Championships 41 of the last 47 years.  They also finished second five times in that span.

It is becoming more and more common to graduate a semester early to attend college. Student-athletes are not only getting a head start on school but on the playing field. You are starting to hear this in football but baseball? Trevor Bauer of Newhall High School in California has decided to forgo his final spring semester of high school to attend UCLA. This means he will not be playing baseball his senior season of high school but playing for a potential top 25 team (UCLA was 08 Pre-Season #1 by Baseball America).