How will a coach find me?
The traditional advice about how to get discovered by coaches was to attend the big tournaments, combines and showcases that coaches have attended in the past and hope you catch a someone’s attention. This is how the process worked for decades, but it doesn’t work very well. Thousands of qualified student athletes were not getting the opportunity to play college sports because the coaches who would like to recruit them, didn’t know who they were.
With the creation of online profiles and video, everything changed. Now, coaches are searching national databases like ours for academically and athletically qualified athletes. They make initial evaluations of your abilities online based on your recruiting profile, academic records and highlight video. After that, they have a list of recruits they want make further evaluations of and go to camps, combines and tournaments to watch those specific recruits.
The key to getting coaches to notice you is to get on those lists for further evaluations. Here is what you need to do to get coaches to put you on their lists.
- Proactively contact college coaches – you need to be reaching out to the coaches at the schools that are the right fit for you. Expecting them to find you if you are only attending camps and tournaments is not a winning strategy.
- Make it easy to make an initial evaluation – Coaches need to be able to quickly decide if you are the right fit for their program. Make sure you are emailing them the athletic and academic information they need. This includes your highlight video, stats, best times, tournament results, rankings or whatever is applicable to your sport.
- They need to know where they can watch you for further evaluation – this is the area where a lot of recruits drop the ball. Once a coach decides they want to watch you in person, make sure they know where you are going to be competing. This means your contact with them needs to include your schedule of games, camps, tournaments or matches.
- Online recruiting profiles allow coaches to find you – coaches are able to login to our profile system (or others) and search for athletes by the criteria that fit what they are looking for. For example, if they are looking for 6’0”+, Quarterbacks in California, our database can return your name if you fit. Additionally, they know the athletes profiles have all of the other information they need in order to easily evaluate and follow up with them.
If you have more questions please contact me on Google+ (my email is available there) or create a free recruiting profile and one of our NCAA certified national scouts can contact you.
Do I need a recruiting highlight video?
How to get recruited and get a scholarship
When can I contact college coaches?