Displaying items by tag: Recruiting

College coaches create individual filtering systems to consolidate the high volume of inquiries they receive from prospective student-athletes into either “active" or "inactive” recruiting files. Developing an effective and streamlined recruiting highlight video that makes the job of skill evaluation by a college coach an easy one, is a great step in showcasing a prospect successfully.

The 2018 college recruiting class will likely be the most talented student-athletes ever. The clock is ticking and over the next two months the recruiting process will gain considerable steam as these girls and boys head down the homestretch with college recruiting.

Injury is an inherent part of any athletic endeavor and no one understands this better than college coaches. There are many prospects and families who hedge when bringing up the topic of injury as part of the college process, with fear that a coach will see this as a weakness and therefore diminish recruiting opportunities.

Ivy League and other select, non-athletic scholarship awarding institutions can, in many cases, offer significant assistance in Admissions and Financial Aid that can potentially lend strong support for prospective student-athletes. It is important that prospects, families and high school advisors clearly understand the role the college coach plays in this process and to make every effort to develop sincere and robust working relationships with coaches.

We're about to start the 2017 season, and it's time for us to release our annual Ranking of Recruiting Classes.  We wait until January to release this ranking because the recruiting calendar now extends year round, and we're seeing an increasing number of teams get mid-year additions.  And once again, we're seeing some of the negative unfortunate consequences of early recruiting:  gymnasts are not signing to their original classes, some choose not to matriculate or other life changes intrude (including, unfortunately, injury).  This year's ranking has seen all of that and more, as places shifted with each new late signing or in one case, a deferral caused in part due to injury.   

The college search for athletes has grown complicated and increasingly competitive, especially during the past 10 years. There are countless components that require keen attention in developing and executing a successful plan of action, and with the high stakes competition for athletic scholarships, the walk-on prospective student-athlete is opening up greater opportunity on the college recruiting front.

The college search for athletes has grown complicated and increasingly competitive, especially during the past 10 years. There are countless components that require attention in developing and executing a successful plan of action, along with several “key players” who make-up the team that “run the offense.”

The synergy between social media and college recruiting continues to grow in popularity and is evolving into the primary tool of communication between prospects and college coaches. Student-athletes can offer coaches with instantaneous updates about college recruitment, and if used prudently, these high tech platforms can help streamline evaluations significantly and help college coaches recruit better.

We're about to start the 2016 season, and we're  here once again to release our ranking of the Top Recruiting Classes.  We wait until the last possible moment to release this ranking, as the final picture never seems clear until January 1st.  Once again, this season, we're seeing some of the impacts of the acceleration in early recruiting.  In some cases, the gymnasts who originally committed at age 16 or younger did not end up matriculating at their original college choice.  And, with scholarships opening up due to transfers or retirement, we're seeing an increase in late recruiting, early college entries (early graduation), and mid-year starts. 

The college search for athletes is an individual and tactical quest that will play out differently across the board. If you happen to be that elite prospect that every college coach has his eye on, your biggest challenge will likely be which college to choose! But if you are among the majority of prospects that are lumped into the next level of recruits, your college journey will be a little more challenging.