College Recruiting Tips For You and Your Student Athlete

Booth shares top recruiting tips learned from her son's journey to college baseball! She discusses how to find the right schools, get in touch with college coaches, attend the best summer camps, and more. Whatever sport your child is interested in pursuing, these tips are for you. Don't miss these insights to help your athlete succeed!

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• (00:00) - College Recruiting Tips For You and Your Student Athlete
• (00:15) - Intro
• (02:38) - These tips aren't just for "super stars"
• (03:29) - Registering with the NCAA and NCSA
• (04:55) - Finding the right college
• (07:06) - Create a target list of schools
• (08:15) - Start emailing coaches
• (10:39) - Attend summer sports camps
• (11:45) - How much do the camps cost?
• (12:20) - How important are grades?
• (14:43) - A rigorous course load is important
• (15:21) - The portal is changing everything
• (17:45) - Final thoughts

This podcast is produced by Rooster High Productions.

Creators & Guests

Host

Booth Parker, CPA

Financial guru by day; domestic diva by night and sharing it all in between.

What is MOM-enomics with Booth Parker, CPA?

Real moms. Real mom financial issues. Real moms in business. Real stories. I am Booth Parker. A CPA, wife, and mom that loves all things home and family. In this podcast, I talk all things money for moms, families, and small business. From tips to ideas to info you just need to know, I break it down so moms can apply it to their own families and businesses!

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[00:00:00]

Intro
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Booth Parker: Today on MOM-enomics, I am going to talk about my recruiting tips. So a couple months ago, I wrote a blog on what I had learned in the year that my son was doing the recruiting process to play college baseball. And this kind of flows for every sport because I've talked to moms of other kids that play, you know, lacrosse or things like that.

And the process is pretty similar, but we went into the process very blind and I learned a lot and I don't like to gatekeep. I like to help each other out. And so today I'm going to kind of go through what I covered in that blog. It was I think the most read [00:01:00] blog I've ever written. So obviously, you mamas were enjoying that information.

So I'm going to run through all of that here today on the podcast. So I am by no means an expert on this. I'm not trying to sell services to help people do this, anything of that nature, but I just want to share what I learned throughout the process. And some tips that could help make your life easier if your child is looking to play college sports and go into the recruiting process. And I will kind of side note that if your child is one of those athletes that's nationally recognized and all the top 10 schools in the country are fighting for them to come play at their school, these tips and this process is probably not relevant to you. However, the truth is the majority of high school athletes looking to play at the college level are [00:02:00] not in that position.

And there's a lot more schools out there than just the ones that are the top 10 ranked schools and things of that nature. So these tips and this process is more geared towards that. Because the truth is a lot of great players can get missed if they don't get seen and in front of the right coach that's going to be the right fit for them. So it's really important not to just sit back and wait for them to come to you, but for you to advocate for your child and get the child in front of coaches that are going to be a good fit for college.

These tips aren't just for "super stars"
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Booth Parker: So like I said just a second ago, my son plays baseball and one thing I put in the blog, and it's not completely pertinent or relevant, but he did not play travel ball. And I know travel ball is a huge thing these days. He didn't start playing until later in middle school. He didn't play Little League or T-ball or any of that.

And I [00:03:00] just say that so that people know, even if your child hasn't been playing for a super long time, but they have talent, and they're really coming along quickly, that this is still an option for them. Don't rule it out just because they haven't been playing travel ball for the last six years. And I know travel ball gets a lot of kids really good experience and helps their game, but I just want to clarify that he did not play travel ball and he was still able to go about this process.

Registering with the NCAA and NCSA
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Booth Parker: So during spring of his 10th grade year was when he kind of decided he wanted to maybe try to play college ball. He had been at a small private school that only played a handful of games, so it wasn't super competitive, but he was really, really falling in love with the game. So it was at that point that we went ahead and we did get him registered with the NCAA because they have to be eligible, and we made the decision to let him transfer to a public high school starting his junior year.

So that he would be [00:04:00] exposed to more competitive athletics. And then in addition to the NCAA registration, we opted to join a platform called NCSA. Now that is not necessary, but we got a lot of good out of it. I think it's one of those things... You got to put a lot of good information in to get good information out of it. But it's a platform where your child can build a profile and it has their, their grades, videos, all of that kind of stuff on it for coaches who are looking

for players. It also keeps updates on schools your child might be interested in, roster openings, it has access to email addresses, all of those kind of things. So it is an option if you want to have a platform of that type to build a profile and things like that on. But again, it's not 100 percent necessary.

Finding the right college
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Booth Parker: So the one thing I wish we had known from that very beginning, in the sophomore [00:05:00] year, going into that summer of rising junior year, was how to target the schools. Well, NCSA, you had email addresses and things like that. And NCSA also allowed you to kind of match your child and it would give you college suggestions.

So that was good, but then how do you go about really, really targeting those schools? Because one thing that was really important for us and my son was to find a school that was the right fit. He didn't want to go to a school that he didn't want to be at, just because it was the only one that wanted him to come play.

So it was very important to find a school that he would love without sports and that he would be proud to have a degree from because the truth of the matter is the majority of these kids are not going to play sports professionally. So having a good degree from a very reputable school at the end of this process is important as well.

So finding that perfect alignment where the kid loves the school, [00:06:00] it's a great school, a great fit, the coach loves them, that is not easy and that is where you really have to have a plan for going about this process. So that summer when he was a rising junior, we attended two camps. One was a standalone camp at a school. It was very small, less than 30 kids. And then the other one was a bigger camp. I think there was maybe 10 schools represented there, probably 100 kids. And that was what's called a high academic camp, which I'll get into more in just a minute.

So, the bigger camps, you know, they have more kids there, they have more coaches, but the one on one interaction is limited.

And then when we got around to spring of his junior year when he was playing, and he now had stats and all these things, then we started making a target list for that summer of camps we were going to attend. And also that spring, in May, he got a little [00:07:00] more aggressive with emailing coaches. And emailing coaches is key here.

Create a target list of schools
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Booth Parker: So here is my tip number one: do your homework on schools that are desired for your child to attend. And create a target list. And I don't mean 5. I mean like 15, 20, 25. Create a really big list. Let your reach maybe go geographically a little bigger than you think you want because it's a lot easier to dwindle down that list than it is to recreate it.

And that is where we went wrong to start with is we were very guarded on the geographic piece and didn't look far enough. And then when he started to get contacted by coaches that were farther away, but they weren't exactly where he wanted to be geographically, , weather wise more than anything. But we, we expanded our search and it gave us a lot more [00:08:00] options that were great fits.

So as much as us mamas love to have our babies close to home, go ahead and expand that, search to a bigger geographical footprint so that you can find a lot of options that are good fits.

Start emailing coaches
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Booth Parker: And then once you create this target list, that is when you start doing your emails. And NCSA is helpful because it has the coaches listed there, their emails, and you can email them directly through there. They're also available on most schools' websites, so you can do it without the NCSA platform. The thing I liked about the NCSA platform is you could see which coaches had opened the emails.

And then, I mean, these coaches are getting a lot of emails, right? So, you don't always get a response. You may get a response with an invite to their standalone camp. That was kind of a standard thing we saw with a lot of them. One thing I found that worked well with the emails was keep them short and sweet.

You do not need to write an autobiography. Your child does not need to do that. [00:09:00] And keep it short and sweet, but pertinent. And speak of the school so that it doesn't look like a super canned email. And then add some videos. So you can go on YouTube and upload a private video, put the setting to private so that the whole world can't see it.

And then you just include the link in your email. And then those coaches can see these specialized videos. Maybe do a compilation of all sorts of different plays and things of that nature. So my second tip is: create a Google Doc or something similar to use during this email process. So, write an email that you can copy and paste and easily change out coach's name, maybe a little pertinent thing about the school that you were adding in, and then, you don't have to rewrite it multiple, multiple times.

And then also create some kind of log to track your emails because you are going to be sending a lot of emails. [00:10:00] Multiple coaches, every school on that target list. And you're going to do it more than once. It's kind of like the branding thing or the marketing where you've got to get something in front of people seven times before it registers.

You kind of have to do the same with these emails. You have to be "the squeaky wheel." So you want to be able to track really well when you send an email to whom. Did they open it? Did they reply? What was the reply? Was it personalized? Was it standard? Did they watch your video and make a comment about it?

All of that kind of stuff. So you want to be able to track your engagement with your emails and what schools are seen to be the most interested in you.

Attend summer sports camps
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Booth Parker: And then that takes us back to the camps. So there's a lot of prospect showcase camps out there. Some will have a hundred schools, thousands of kids. They're really, really big. If you're going to one of those, be sure to have dialogue going with a coach beforehand. You could be the best athlete there, but you still could get missed.

So we tried [00:11:00] to, attend the standalone camps at our very top schools, and then some group camps for schools lower on our list where they would all be. And we heard from a lot of coaches at these standalone camps that they do the bulk of their recruiting from these standalone camps, because once you've made the trip to their school, you have shown an actual interest in the school. When they're attending one of these large camps with, you know, 25 plus schools,

they don't know if you are actually interested in their school. So attending the standalones does show interest and the coaches like to recruit from those. So that's my tip number three. Make a list of your most desired schools and try to attend their standalone camps.

How much do the camps cost?
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Booth Parker: And you're probably asking, "What is the cost of these camps?" They get expensive. So, the big ones can be 1,000 dollars plus, and then you still have travel. The standalones tended to be $250 or under, but then you still have the travel.

So, [00:12:00] the bigger ones can be a little more bang for your buck, but the smaller ones get you more one on one interaction and more exposure. So I would suggest, that's tip number four, to make a schedule and a budget that works for your family and make sure it revolves around your most desired schools.

How important are grades?
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Booth Parker: Next up: grades. So yes, they matter. Coaches don't want to have to babysit, so to speak, someone academically because they don't know if they're going to make grades and be able to play for them. So proving yourself academically is important. And as I mentioned just a second ago, there's this thing called high academic recruiting.

And so these are typically camps and things of that nature where kids that have certain GPAs, test scores, stuff like that, will attend those. And the coaches already know that the kid is most likely qualified to get admitted to their higher academic school. So not all [00:13:00] schools, you know, fall into this high academic classification, but if your kid is wanting to attend a high academic school and they do really well in school, then it is its own kind of entity where you have opportunities that kids that haven't made the grade

don't get a seat at the table, so to speak, to go to those events and get exposure to those coaches. So, D1, they can do athletic scholarships. D2 can as well, not to the extent as D1. But D3 schools cannot do athletic scholarships. They can do academic, merit-based type scholarships. And a lot of your high academic smaller schools are D3. So if your kid has made good grades, then that gives them an opportunity there to get these merit or academic scholarships and still be able to play sports in college.

So keep that in mind with the way the scholarships work. [00:14:00] While not all colleges do what's called a pre-read, the higher academic ones tend to do what's called a pre-read. So if a coach is interested in you and it's an academically competitive school to get into, they will have you send over transcript, test scores, things of that nature, and they will do kind of a pre-read so that the admissions office can tell the coach, "Yes, this kid has a really good chance of getting in here."

Or, "You're going to have to pass on this kid. There's no way we can fight for them and get them in here." So, pre-reads can be important and getting them done gives you a little more information as to if you're going to get into the school or not, if you're doing one of these higher academic type situations.

A rigorous course load is important
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Booth Parker: So tip number five: kids with good grades, good test scores, and a rigorous course load have an advantage. They have opportunities that kids with bad grades may not have, and the rigorous course load is important. We heard that from a lot of coaches at these one on [00:15:00] one camps, is just because you have a 4.0, if you're taking all basic level classes, they aren't quite as impressed as if you have mostly A's and a few B's, and you're taking AP Environmental Science and Calculus. So the course load matters as well. It's not just easy A's that they want to see.

The portal is changing everything
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Booth Parker: And lastly, the portal. Everyone's heard about the portal, NIL, all this stuff. College sports have really changed, and just in the one year we were doing the process, we saw a lot of change. And so it's important to keep up with this as you're doing the process, because I personally think there's going to be a lot of change the next few years, and a lot of things to figure out for both high school kids

and college coaches as this whole portal and NIL thing evolves. So, the summer when my son was a rising senior, we attended some camps, and even at standalone camps, [00:16:00] there were 20-plus year old kids there that were in the portal trying to transfer. So, here you have high school kids competing with kids two, three, sometimes four years older than them for a roster spot.

So that was a really big game changer. We didn't see any of that his rising junior year, but his rising senior year, we did do that. And so it really changed the landscape of the recruiting process.

Even if your kid is a standout athlete, and wants to play D1, is qualified to play D1,

don't rule out D2 or D3 and miss an opportunity for a roster spot in college just because you're focused on D1. That transfer portal could work to your advantage in a year or two if you go the D2 or D3 route, get really good playing time, prove yourself, then those D1 coaches are going to see you in the portal and grab you.

So don't rule out D2 [00:17:00] or D3 just because you think you are destined for D1 because the portal is really changing how that works. So tip number six is: know how active your target desired schools are pulling from the portal to fill roster spots versus actually recruiting from high school. This could really be a game changer.

Your number one school may be pulling everyone from the portal almost and doing very little high school recruiting. So you don't want to ruin your own opportunities just by not knowing how your desired schools are doing their recruiting process. So do a little homework, look at what they've done the last year, the last two years, and then kind of go from there.

Final thoughts
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Booth Parker: And it's never too early to get started. I felt like we were late to the table starting this end of sophomore year I mean, in the process, it was kind of a roller coaster because we were learning a lot and we just tried to stay [00:18:00] consistent and persistent and just rode the ups and downs as they came. But truly, focus on finding the right school where your child will thrive and be happy and also get to play their favorite sport. And remember, your child is their best advocate. You can advocate for them all you want to. Their coaches can advocate for them all they want to. But your child needs to be coachable. He needs to be respectful. He needs to be a great teammate. He needs to exhibit great character And of course, exhibiting self control and losing gracefully, because you don't know how well connected the opposing coach at a game may be with the coach at your desired school.

And so you don't want to ruin any opportunities you may havefrom not being a good teammate, or just a good person in general to be around and getting good references from coaches. So, if you are [00:19:00] starting the recruiting process or you're in it with your child, I hope these tips help you out. I wish I had known them at the start of our process.