{"id":1858,"date":"2010-11-05T06:15:36","date_gmt":"2010-11-05T12:15:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.nsr-inc.com\/\/?p=1858"},"modified":"2010-11-05T06:15:36","modified_gmt":"2010-11-05T12:15:36","slug":"college-recruiting-goes-smoother-with-a-reality-check","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/college-recruiting-goes-smoother-with-a-reality-check\/","title":{"rendered":"College Recruiting Goes Smoother with a Reality Check"},"content":{"rendered":"

Overshooting Where Your Kid Fits is a Common but Tragic\u00a0Mistake<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/a>\"\"<\/a>Good or bad, right or wrong, in high school recruiting, every prospect fits into a box — its dimensions determined by college coaches based on what they know are the traits of the athletes who thrive in their sport at each position.\u00a0 According to their size, speed, strength, skill level, attitude, competitive drive and grades, prospects are assigned to a DI, DII, DIII, NAIA or\u00a0NJCAA box, without much wiggle room.\u00a0 But, convincing prospects of this most basic of recruiting facts, that is that they\u00a0belong in Box A, not Box B or C, is like telling a Chihuahua that he is not a German Shepherd.\u00a0 It’s a\u00a0viewpoint frequently adopted by prospects and their parents which is pervasive in recruiting at every level and in every sport.\u00a0<\/div>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Here’s a perfect example.\u00a0 Last year, in 2009, there was a terrific basketball player who played for a high school an hour or so from where I\u00a0live in Western North Carolina.\u00a0\u00a0This\u00a0girl\u00a0was\u00a0a dominant 5’8″ guard who could do almost everything well.\u00a0 She ran circles around the competition in these parts.\u00a0 Need a spot-up three in the clutch?\u00a0\u00a0Swish.\u00a0 Drive the lane and finish?\u00a0 Yep.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Pull-up jumper?\u00a0 No problem.\u00a0 Execute an assist in tight quarters?\u00a0 Done.\u00a0 Get out of a double-team jam by dribbling behind her back then between her legs\u00a0in the same move?\u00a0 Easy.\u00a0 She was as smooth a player as\u00a0there has been in the region for a decade.\u00a0 But, this kid was\u00a0not exceptionally quick or fast and she wasn’t an outstanding jumper.\u00a0 Moreover, perhaps her most telling Achilles heel was that she did not work hard on the defensive end of the floor.\u00a0 This was a kid like thousands of others across America — she was a very good high school offensive player\u00a0well suited for\u00a0DII, DIII\u00a0or the NAIA.\u00a0\u00a0But DI?\u00a0 Not a\u00a0chance.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Yet, having been told which box she fit into by a multitude of knowledgeable onlookers and college coaches, she was adament that if she did not receive an offer to play DI basketball that she would not play in college.\u00a0 She would give up the sport.\u00a0 And sadly, that is what happened.\u00a0 Rejecting a number of excellent DII offers, her pride got the best of her.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

There are exceptions to the “Box Rule,”\u00a0 to be sure, but they are very few.\u00a0 This coming week, a 5’1″ point guard prospect with whom I worked as a scout for National Scouting Report, will sign her National Letter of Intent with a Division I program.\u00a0 Over the past year when I talked to Division II schools about her, the consensus was the same — great ball handler, superb defensively, all-out hustle, but at the college level opponents would simply post up on her and that would be the end of that.\u00a0 Still,\u00a0one\u00a0DI coach saw something in her which she was willing to take a chance on.\u00a0 This kid’s work ethic, character, drive, determination and\u00a0family were collectively a fit for this coach and her program.\u00a0 So yes, Dorothy, you can reach the Emerald City if all the pieces fall into place.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

But everything considered, when it comes to recruiting, as rule you are what you are.\u00a0 Accepting this is so very difficult for so many\u00a0high school athletes.\u00a0 They grow up excelling\u00a0in\u00a0youth league, middle school then high school.\u00a0\u00a0They start on\u00a0every team they play on.\u00a0 Their will to compete and to win\u00a0often outweigh\u00a0any physical or skill deficiencies which they may have.\u00a0 They learned to compensate and they came away, and grew up, as stars in their\u00a0small world.\u00a0 This is downside to star power.\u00a0 It can shower a kid with misconceptions of where they truly belong on the college sports landscape.\u00a0 Our best advice to prospects and parents is to give the big schools a shot.\u00a0 As for an honest evaluation of your talent and accept their professional assessments.\u00a0 Yes, like the diminutive point guard I worked with, a miracle could happen, but in the meantime, don’t allow the opportunity, or opportunities, of a lifetime pass you by in the form of smaller college scholarship offers.\u00a0 You will have only one pass at this.\u00a0 Take full advantage of it or the chances are that you will someday see it as the biggest regret of your life.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Overshooting Where Your Kid Fits is a Common but Tragic\u00a0Mistake Good or bad, right or wrong, in high school recruiting, every prospect fits into a box — its dimensions determined by college coaches based on what they know are the traits of the athletes who thrive in their sport at each position.\u00a0 According to their … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1858"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/29"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1858"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1858\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1858"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1858"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1858"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}