Veteran College Coach Debunks 3 Common Assumptions
FULL-RIDE ATHLETIC SCHOLARSHIP! As little Johnny or Suzie first steps on to the field or court and makes their first “great” play as a pee-wee athlete, many parents start having visions of paying for college with an athletic scholarship. They start to invest in private training, club teams, and travel all across the country for tournaments. Why not encourage them in the sport they have so much passion for, so they can get a quality college education on a full ride athletic scholarship?
After all, my athlete is talented so they will definitely be offered a scholarship, right? And every college athlete has full tuition, housing, and fees completely covered right?
Wrong. Wrong.
Directly from the www.NCAA.org, “NCAA Divisions I and II schools provide more that $2.9 billion in athletics scholarships annually to more than 150,000 student-athletes. Division III schools do not offer athletics scholarships. Only about two-percent of high school athletes are awarded athletics scholarships to compete in college.” It’s a staggeringly small percentage, right? Well, I’m here to help. I am a recruiting educator after being a college coach for 14 years and an NCAA Compliance Director.
I served as a college head coach at the NCAA Division I, II, and NAIA levels. I have offered athletic scholarships to hundreds of kids. I have offered walk-on positions to dozens. I have also turned down many prospective high school student-athletes, as they were not the right fit athletically, academically, or in their character for my teams.
And regretfully, I have missed out on a few top recruits over my tenure as they chose another college or we simply did not know about them! Yes, you read that right! My assistants and I were very good recruiters, but sometimes we did not know about a talented athlete who would be a good fit for our school!
Now, I am a recruiting educator. I am here to help kids not fall through the cracks with individual consulting, seminars in high schools and clubs, podcasts, and radio programs. (Click here to see Coach Renee featured on ESPN Radio). I help to educate coaches, families, school counselors, and administrators on the college recruiting process with statistics like those above from the NCAA.
I also have 40 recruiting blogs and run nine different Facebook groups (Links to join at the bottom of this page!). I run all of these blogs and Facebook completely FREE to help parents and student-athletes truly understand how the process goes, away from what you often see in Sports Illustrated. (All I ask in return is that you share these with other parents, coaches, athletic directors, school counselors, and student-athletes who need to hear this information!)
For 2.5 years, I interviewed 65 college coaches and athletic directors for my book, Looking For A FULL RIDE?: An Insider’s Recruiting Guide. So many of these interviews offer similar answers to questions about what a high school student-athlete should and should not do in the recruiting process. Many of the athletic directors especially, state that there are so many assumptions families just because they have seen a story in the media. I want to debunk 3 misconceptions I hear from student-athletes, parents, and coaches quite often in my recruiting education seminars:
1) “I’m the Best Athlete on My Team. College Coaches will be ‘Knocking Down My Door’!”
After watching the recruiting process unfold in various movies and other media, many think every good athlete is going to be chased down by various college coaches just because they have above average talent. In all reality, only a few are really chased like the process seen in the movie, The Blind Side.
Instead, an athlete needs to be marketing themselves to college coaches! They should start sending college coaches emails during their freshman and sophomore years to let them know about their interest in their college. This includes sending your GPA, intended major, position, a 3-5 minutes video-link of game film (How Do I Make a Video for a College Coach?), future game schedules, and your coach’s contact information. The student-athlete should also fill out the recruiting questionnaire on the college’s athletic website to be placed into their databases. Here’s a FREE Special Report on “Strategies to Emailing A College Coach”.
2) “I REALLY Want My Child to Play at This College. I’ll Contact the Coach to Let Them Know About My Child’s Interest.”
Parents, I’m going to say this as kindly as I can…Please do not do this! This is the number 1 mistake that can be made. The college coach wants to hear from the prospective student-athlete, NOT the parents. With college coaches receiving 100s of emails a month from recruits, many use parents contacting them as an easy way of filtering through the list. Student-athletes should be contacting coaches as they are the ones who are going to play for that coach, not the parent.
Parents can help their children with the process by proofreading emails, keeping spreadsheets of information from various colleges interactions, and helping to do research to narrow down the search of what might be a good fit academically, athletically, and socially.
So why shouldn’t the parent contact the college coach for their child? It shows coaches that:
- the parent is more interested in the student playing at the next level than the child,
- the student-athlete is likely lazy and not wanting to take charge of their future, and
- These parents are likely going to be “helicopter” parents if this child plays in their program.
Want to know more about what a parent’s role should be in the college recruiting process ? Read this blog that had over 1000 shares on Facebook: “My High School Student-Athlete is Sooooooo Busy….I’ll Contact the College Coach For Them!”
3) “I Have Been Invited to Their Summer/ID Camp, so They Must Want Me as a Recruit!”
Since the NCAA restricts some of the types of communication that college coaches can have with prospects, one should not believe a camp invite equals a coach’s interest in you as a recruit. Having worked hundreds of camps as a college coach for my own program and being on camp staffs with schools in the ACC, SEC, Atlantic 10, Colonial Athletic Association, and many more, I want to tell you one simple fact that most college coaches probably don’t want to get out: Most college coaches use camps as a way to make money for their programs, their assistants, and themselves.
Therefore, the more kids that attend a camp, the more money they make. Those camp invites often go out to everyone in their database as the more invites going out, usually equates to more attending.
But Coach, are there some camps that are legitimately trying to use their camps to identify potential recruits for their programs? YES!
If you are very interested in a specific college, it is recommended that you attend one of their camps during the summer between your freshman/sophomore year and also during your sophomore/junior year. This will allow you to see the campus, interact with the coaches and current players, and understand more about that specific program.
It’s important to note that the NCAA does regulate some of the types of conversations a college coach can have with a camper while on campus. There has been some recent legislation released (on the NCAA website) regarding these interactions depending on the sport and student-athlete’s graduation year. Here’s a blog to help you decide which camps you should attend, “I’m Being Recruited by That College…They Invited Me to Their Camp.”
If you are looking to continuing to play your sport in college, do your research on the college to make sure it fits you academically, athletically, and socially. Make sure you let them know early in your high school career that you are interested by sending them a professional email so you won’t fall through the cracks of the college coach evaluating you!
Want some help with the recruiting process? Join some of our 9 Facebook Groups:
- Parents of High School Student Athletes Walking Through The Process (All Sports)
- Beyond Xs & Os 4 HS Athletes: Health, Recruiting, Team Building, Mental Training (All Sports)
- Athletic Recruiting Education for Principals, AD's, and Counselors (All Sports)
- Club/HS Coaches Learning College Recruiting Process (All Sports)
- Play College Soccer (Soccer Specifically)
- College Recruiting for GK's (Soccer Specifically)
- Positive Team Building for Pro, College, HS, and Youth Coaches (All Sports)
- Mindset & Leadership Lessons for Athletes, Coaches/Teachers, & Business Leaders (All Sports & Business Leaders)
- Christian Competitors (Coaches & Athletes Serving Christ @Field/Court/Gym) (Sports Ministry for All)
Would you like her to do individual consulting with your family to get an insider’s perspective?
Email info@lookingforafullride.com for more details.
Did you know Coach Renee Lopez can come to your school or sports organization?
Email info@lookingforafullride.com for more details.
Coach Renee Lopez
As a 17 year coaching veteran, Coach Renee Lopez is a recruiting expert for high school student-athletes. She uses her NCAA Division I, II, and NAIA Head Coaching experience to help families navigate the recruiting process to be identified by college coaches and help them find the right “fit” for playing at the next level. She has produced 3 All-Americans, over 30 All-Conference athletes and Her teams have been honored with awards for team academic accomplishments, sportsmanship, and sports ministry. In addition, Coach Renee Lopez has been named Coach of the Year by her peers.
She presents recruiting seminars across the country, has recently been featured in USA Weekly, with the National Alliance for Youth Sports, on SiriusXM Radio and ESPN Radio. She is the author of the book, Looking For A FULL RIDE?: An Insider’s Recruiting Guide where she has interviewed over 65 college recruiters across all sports and college levels. In addition, she runs 9 Facebook groups to help facilitate conversations on college recruiting education, coaching education, leadership development, and sports ministry. She is also a certified speaker, trainer and coach for the John Maxwell Team, Jon Gordon Company, 3Dimensional Coaching, and the Positive Coaching Alliance.
She also does private consulting for student-athletes and their families to help in understanding the often daunting process of recruiting. (See one family’s testimonial.) If you are looking for help in the college recruiting process, please email Coach Renee Lopez at info@lookingforafullride.com.
My daughter suffered a knee injury playing softball the summer before her junior year. As a result, she was unable to play her junior year. She went back to it her senior year, but was still in pain. Unsure if she’d be able to play comfortably again, she decided to not pursue it in college. My question is, if she decides she wants to play her first or second year of college, would they even consider her?
Thanks for reaching out. It would really depend on the college she is attending, where they are at in their recruiting classes, etc. If she is already enrolled at the college, I would have her send an email to the college coach and ask if they would consider her as a walk-on since she is coming back from injuries. They would likely want to see prior film, make sure she was eligible, and if an overall fit for their program. It also depends on what level she is looking to play for- smaller schools may be more open to this versus an SEC, ACC, Big East, etc 🙂
Hi Renee
my son is a sophomore, pitches for a D1 baseball team and has his tuition covered through athletic money and merit money at his school as well as about 50 percent of room and board covered through athletic money. The amount of athletic money he received is significantly less than what was awarded because he received so much merit money. His goal is to get through undergraduate without any loans and he would like to apply to outside scholarships but we are unsure how this could affect the money he already receives. My husband does not want us to rock the boat by having him apply to outside scholarships, but he is an excellent student and writer and has some unique interests that qualify him for many scholarship opportunities. I did contact the school and they said that only scholarships that would involve baseball would affect his athletic money, but I am concerned. Is there any guidance here you could offer?
Every college is different in terms of how much they will allow to be stacked of non-athletic scholarship money. Your best bet is to speak directly with the financial aid department. The answer is different for every school. Some will allow outside scholarships up to a certain amount before they “take away” athletic scholarships, while others do not any outside aid. You can also have him speak directly to the coach, just saying, I am applying for some outside scholarships, but I wanted to confirm these would “stack” with my other current scholarships that have already been awarded.
Our son, who is a senior in high school this year, has some aspirations of playing D2-D3 college basketball. He played approx 1/2 of the varsity basketball games as a junior. After his junior season he put a LOT of time in on his game and according to our head coach, our son was going to be heavily relied on this year for his team…he improved so much over the summer that he is a lot more confident and all around player than he showed during his junior season. However, our son suffered a torn meniscus and acl during his varsity football game in September and had reconstructive acl surgery in October. IF he still wants to play college basketball, what advice would you give us to help him achieve his goals of playing at the next level. We have no tapes of this past summer and now he will miss his entire senior season. We have tapes of his junior season, but he isn’t the same player as before…he got a lot better.
We appreciate your comments. He definitely needs to be emailing coaches, as it is very late in the college recruiting process for a senior. I am so sorry to hear of his injuries. I would encourage him to be honest in contacting coaches about his injury situation and see if a coach will take a chance. I would recommend seeing if another parent on the team has some film or maybe the coach to offer college coaches. I would encourage you to join our Facebook groups (link at the bottom of the blogs) where we discuss these topics regularly. We have ones for parents, coaches, and many others!
How is recruiting different for running XC or track? Since times are easily viewed and a single metric?
Thank you for reaching out. These sports are obviously very straight forward and most schools list their recruiting times on their websites. Your child should be looking at those schools times listed to see if they are close to their times.
Also, please see the links at the bottom of our blogs to join our FREE parents Facebook group! We address many of these type of questions in our 9 different Facebook groups!
Hello Renee,
My son recently joined a soccer academy and I was wondering if the process is the same for recruiting as it would be for high school. He is a going to be a sophomore but will not be playing for his school
He should be reaching out to coaches via email especially prior to major events. Please join our parents facebook group (links at the bottom of the blog) and we’ll reply to the questions much quicker inside of there!
What if the student athlete just wants to play and scholarships are helpful but not critical to choosing a school? I work for a college that will pay a large amount of my son’s tuition wherever he goes as a faculty benefit. Should he mention this in his emails to schools? Does it make him more recruitable because he will not hurt a program’s budget? He is also very strong academically, 97.4 GPA, rising sophomore soccer player.
Absolutely mention it in your child’s emails…helps coaches evaluate from a different perspective! Also, please join our parents FB group “Educating Parents of HS Student-Athletes on the College Recruiting Process.” We answer questions in there daily with our over 10,000 members. Links also at bottom of the blogs!
Hi! My son is a HS freshman that fences saber, so no showcases, this year no national tournaments etc but fencing does offer National ratings. How does he incorporate your guidelines (We just received your book) since many things do not apply to his sport? Thanks
Much of what you will find of marketing yourself to college coaches in lookingforafullride.com applies to all sports….Get some film and have him send out to college coaches…some rankings help but most people overkill with stats! Definitely make sure you and him both read the book and you will see how it helps you to understand best ways to promote yourself! Also, make sure you join our Parents Facebook Group for free below as we help families in this group daily!
I have a question about stacking scholarships (athletic/academic) at D2 schools. Can you stack athletic, academic as well as outside scholarship awards from various organizations? Does it vary by division? Is stacking allowed at a D1?
You need to always ask the college specifically how they stack. It varies by college and also can be different for equivalency vs. head count sports. No blanket answers 🙂
Please join our Facebook groups (links are above if you scroll up on this blog) as we answer questions daily in there!