{"id":7440,"date":"2014-02-25T15:49:18","date_gmt":"2014-02-25T21:49:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nsr-inc.com\/blog\/?p=7440"},"modified":"2014-02-25T15:49:18","modified_gmt":"2014-02-25T21:49:18","slug":"high-school-athletes-wanting-to-play-college-sports-need-planning-and-preparation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/high-school-athletes-wanting-to-play-college-sports-need-planning-and-preparation\/","title":{"rendered":"High school athletes wanting to play college sports need planning and preparation"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Planning<\/a>
For high school athletes wanting to advance to college, it is critical for them to work with their parents on planning and then to prepare themselves for the rigors\u00a0which come with playing college sports.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We hear it everywhere we go: “I want to play college sports.”\u00a0 That’s a worthwhile goal to be sure, but high school athletes and their parents must come to the realization that saying it does not make it happen.\u00a0 Competition for a\u00a0college roster spot is more than local, regional or even national.\u00a0 It is now international.\u00a0 To land a scholarship offer, planning and preparation are essential, requiring near full-time focus and effort.<\/p>\n

Gone is the day when prep athletes could rely on their reputation, a newspaper or online feature article or being selected\u00a0to an All-Conference, All-Region or All-State team.\u00a0 In today’s recruiting environment,\u00a0those things and honors are all but given prerequisites for any viable college prospect.\u00a0 Instead,\u00a0getting recruited has become a detailed process which dictates club or\u00a0travel participation coupled with an aggressive, wide-reaching, constant\u00a0marketing campaign.<\/p>\n

Planning is the first step.\u00a0 Parents and prospects should take\u00a0deliberate steps to enter and compete in what is rightly\u00a0described as\u00a0the recruiting war.\u00a0 College\u00a0coaches are inundated with info, but it is the info that\u00a0has a realistic chance to\u00a0reach them and their assistants that matters.\u00a0\u00a0Heart-felt letters aren’t enough.\u00a0 One-time mailings aren’t enough.\u00a0\u00a0Knowing\u00a0a single, program insider isn’t enough, either.\u00a0\u00a0No, to make this dream come true\u00a0a much deeper commitment to connecting with\u00a0as many college coaches as possible is the answer.\u00a0 Very few\u00a0travel and club organizations have\u00a0the wherewithal to make that happen.\u00a0 And fewer high school coaches can connect the dots.\u00a0\u00a0Moreover, parents that\u00a0are Internet savvy are more likely to hurt their athlete’s chances than help them.<\/p>\n

Instead, parents should explore\u00a0other\u00a0options that will more effectively and efficiently bridge the gap between their athlete and college\u00a0coaches.\u00a0\u00a0Those bridges are out there, but identifying them\u00a0is another thing.\u00a0 Some are little more than online page\u00a0hosts that do little or no marketing to coaches.\u00a0\u00a0An overwhelming majority of coaches do not recruit from\u00a0these\u00a0sites.\u00a0 Other sites\u00a0are mere telemarketing\u00a0entities whose\u00a0primary objective is to\u00a0create a revenue stream.\u00a0 Their Web sites\u00a0are attractive, but they consistently fail to market athletes to schools they really need to reach.\u00a0 That said, there are a select few\u00a0scouting and recruiting companies that do the athletes justice by promoting them aggressive both online and via\u00a0other targeted methods while providing them with personalized service through\u00a0legitimate\u00a0local scouts.\u00a0\u00a0Anything less than that is a scam by any other name.<\/p>\n

Preparation is the second step.\u00a0 Once aligned with a reputable scouting\/recruiting company, parents and prospects must prepare to snare any opportunities which come their way.\u00a0 Do accomplish this,\u00a0parents\u00a0should be ready to make multiple college\u00a0campus visits before the recruiting process formally starts.\u00a0\u00a0Giving their athlete\u00a0on-campus experiences and tours allows the athlete to cross off the things which fail to meet their\u00a0wants and needs.\u00a0 Online\u00a0campus tours cannot provide this experience.\u00a0 It has\u00a0to be done in person and without the influence of a coaching staff, at least at first.\u00a0 Seeing the campus, stepping into classrooms, eating in the dining hall, walking through the athletic facilities all create a feel for the environment which is invaluable to the athlete.\u00a0\u00a0Visiting small, medium and large sized\u00a0campuses, then, is an essential part of\u00a0the preparation process.<\/p>\n

On the athlete’s side, being in top condition year round is\u00a0crucial.\u00a0 Every college athlete will\u00a0confess to the surprising amount of conditioning they are required to engage in during their college careers.\u00a0 Early morning workouts, afternoon individual sessions, long practices and intense\u00a0games are all\u00a0integral parts of the college athletic\u00a0experience.\u00a0 The sooner a high school athlete\u00a0prepares for the physical and mental demands of being part of a college team the sooner they will get what\u00a0will be demanded of them and decide if\u00a0it is all worth the work they will have to do.\u00a0 Getting into a routine similar to the grueling college schedule is the very best way to prepare.\u00a0 And it gives college coaches the opportunity to see an athlete’s commitment level, competitive drive and work\u00a0ethic which are all traits which separate scholarship winners from those so often passed over and ignored.<\/p>\n

Being a college student-athlete carries a lot of responsibilities.\u00a0 Representing a college, its students and every alumnus\u00a0that has ever received a\u00a0degree from that institution is\u00a0indeed a big deal.\u00a0\u00a0But to get to that vaulted point, there is much\u00a0work to be done.\u00a0\u00a0If parents plan well and athletes prepare\u00a0equally as well, it can become a reality.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We hear it everywhere we go: “I want to play college sports.”\u00a0 That’s a worthwhile goal to be sure, but high school athletes and their parents must come to the realization that saying it does not make it happen.\u00a0 Competition for a\u00a0college roster spot is more than local, regional or even national.\u00a0 It is now … 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":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7440"}],"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=7440"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7440\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7441,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7440\/revisions\/7441"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7440"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7440"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7440"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}