College Prospects Must Put It On The Line Every Day

National Scouting Report scouts are focused on finding college prospects.

We do this in various ways. We could spot an under-the-radar athlete at a high school game, match or meet. We might recognize one at a tournament, showcase or combine. Or parents, coaches or athletes themselves contact us for a free evaluation.

Regardless of where or how we find prospects, we want to see them at practices, warm-ups or games putting all their skills on the line every time they step on a diamond, court, track or field. There is no substitute for working hard to improve or compete.

What we do not want to see are athletes who turn it up a notch when we arrive to scout them. That tells us they just don’t get it.

When an athlete makes it to the college ranks, there are no days off. Coaches won’t tolerate it. They demand an athlete’s full-bore effort every time they put on the uniform.

College coaches have much more at stake than just recruiting good athletes. They have to win, too. Few survive more than a season or two of sub-par records. Of course, it is ultimately up to the school’s AD, but a coach who strings together losing seasons likely won’t keep his or her job.

A college coach’s livelihood hangs in the balance of what he or she can extract from a group of young athletes. College athletes must worry about school as well as a number of other personal responsibilities. So a coach must get his or her players to set aside all those ancillary distractions during practices and games to perform at or beyond their potential.

NSR scouts recommend to college coaches only those prospects who have trained themselves to consistently ignore outside influences and focus on athletics. Finding those prospects is neither simple nor easy, but it is what we do to serve college coaches.

Parents must remind their children that if they truly desire to be college athletes, they must be impervious to things that might pull them away, physically or mentally, from achieving their dreams. When they can do that, they will have a legitimate opportunity to catch the attention of NSR scouts and, ultimately, college coaches.