{"id":2741,"date":"2011-01-19T13:37:19","date_gmt":"2011-01-19T19:37:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.nsr-inc.com\/\/?p=2741"},"modified":"2011-01-19T13:37:19","modified_gmt":"2011-01-19T19:37:19","slug":"the-parents-condensed-recruiting-guide-part-ii-the-letter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/the-parents-condensed-recruiting-guide-part-ii-the-letter\/","title":{"rendered":"The Parent&#8217;s Condensed Recruiting Guide, Part II:  The Recruiting Letter"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/blog.nsr-inc.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/Recruiting-letters.bmp\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-2746\" title=\"Recruiting letters\" src=\"\/\/blog.nsr-inc.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/Recruiting-letters.bmp\" alt=\"\" width=\"250\" height=\"205\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<div>Receiving a letter from a college coach does not\u00a0mean your kid is being recruited.\u00a0 Coaches send hundreds, if not thousands, of these letters to prospects every year.\u00a0 Why?\u00a0 Coaches want&#8230;\u00a0<\/div>\n<ul>\n<li>To see which kids respond and show reciprocal interest<\/li>\n<li>To get more detailed information such as stats, academic standing, email address, schedule, etc.<\/li>\n<li>To add to their file of available prospects for that particular high school graduating class<\/li>\n<li>To begin homing in on the prospects which might best fit their specific recruiting needs<\/li>\n<li>To start relationships with the prospects who might eventually be\u00a0on their final recruiting list<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>So, that known,\u00a0it&#8217;s fine to get\u00a0excited about\u00a0a letter from a coach, but put it in perspective, please.\u00a0 First, the letter means absolutely nothing if you don&#8217;t respond by filling out the questionnaire and returning it to the coach.\u00a0 I once ran into the mother of kid I was working with at the kid&#8217;s softball game.\u00a0 Here was our exchange:<\/p>\n<p>Me:\u00a0 &#8220;How are things going?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Her:\u00a0 &#8220;They couldn&#8217;t be better!&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Me:\u00a0 &#8220;Really, what&#8217;s happening?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Her:\u00a0 &#8220;I have a stack of questionnaires on my kitchen table for Courtney which must be three inches thick!&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Me:\u00a0 &#8220;That&#8217;s great, but there&#8217;s good news and bad news.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Her:\u00a0 &#8220;What do you mean?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Me:\u00a0 &#8220;The good news is Courtney&#8217;s heard from about 30 colleges.\u00a0 The bad news is the questionnaires are still sitting on your kitchen table.\u00a0 Until you fill them out and send them back to the coaches, they mean nothing.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/blog.nsr-inc.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/jamesbailey22.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-2767\" title=\"jamesbailey2\" src=\"\/\/blog.nsr-inc.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/jamesbailey22.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"215\" height=\"295\" \/><\/a>A recruiting letter is only the very first step in a very long process.\u00a0 It tells you that the coaching staff knows your kid exists as an athlete, but nothing else.\u00a0 Until you respond and the coaches begin evaluating your kid&#8217;s qualifications as an athlete and student, nothing more can be done.\u00a0 Without a questionnaire in hand to review, coaches will not,\u00a0cannot,\u00a0take that next critical step.<\/p>\n<p>Resist the temptation to tell friends and family that your kid is being recruited by the school.\u00a0 It&#8217;s simply not true.\u00a0 Sure, saying\u00a0your kid got a letter is exciting news which\u00a0deserves attention, but there is a long, long way to go before &#8220;being recruited&#8221; is a reality.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>This is especially true when it comes\u00a0to large university programs which recruit nationally, if not internationally.\u00a0 Keep in mind that when signing day comes, these schools will have poured over thousands of questionnaires and tapes and they will have seen hundreds of prospects play in person at the top tournaments in the country.\u00a0 There are only so many roster openings available and the chances of your child getting one of those spots are remote.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>That is not meant to discourage your kid or douse your hopes with cold water, but instead it is experience saying to you, consider the total picture before bouncing off walls in anticipation.\u00a0\u00a0 Keep it real.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Receiving a letter from a college coach does not\u00a0mean your kid is being recruited.\u00a0 Coaches send hundreds, if not thousands, of these letters to prospects every year.\u00a0 Why?\u00a0 Coaches want&#8230;\u00a0 To see which kids respond and show reciprocal interest To get more detailed information such as stats, academic standing, email address, schedule, etc. To add &#8230; <a class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/the-parents-condensed-recruiting-guide-part-ii-the-letter\/\">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":[10,32,222,94,105],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2741"}],"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=2741"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2741\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2741"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2741"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2741"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}