{"id":8037,"date":"2015-09-30T17:16:58","date_gmt":"2015-09-30T22:16:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/?p=8037"},"modified":"2015-10-01T17:06:54","modified_gmt":"2015-10-01T22:06:54","slug":"what-role-should-parents-play-in-college-recruiting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/what-role-should-parents-play-in-college-recruiting\/","title":{"rendered":"What role should parents play in college recruiting?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Your child tells you he\/she wants to play college athletics. Your eyes light up and a huge smile crosses your face. You are so proud of him\/her.<\/p>\n<p>You desperately want to help your child get recruited and perhaps receive a scholarship. You tell him\/her you will do everything possible to help. In fact, you offer to lead the charge.<\/p>\n<p>But, before you get carried away, here are two words of advice: Back off!<\/p>\n<p>The last thing a college coach wants is an over-involved parent of a prospect. Make sure you aren\u2019t perceived as one. If you are, you may do more harm than good. You may even steer a coach in another direction.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf a parent drives a high school coach crazy, I usually hear about it first from the high school coach,\u201d said Gerry Matthews, longtime men\u2019s basketball coach at NCAA Division III Stockton University in Southern New Jersey. \u201cI have on occasion avoided some prospects whose parents were too tough to handle.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Rather than take charge of the recruiting process, parents should take a team approach. Tell your child you would like to be his\/her partner or personal assistant. Let your child lead the way. Recruiting is his\/her journey, not yours. It\u2019s important that your child take ownership of the process and, ultimately, the final decision.<\/p>\n<p>What can parents do to help?<\/p>\n<p>Here\u2019s a to-do and not-to-do list for parents of college prospects:<\/p>\n<p><strong>TO-DO LIST<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Organize personal files: high school transcript, standardized test scores, statistics, honors and achievements, extra-curricular activities, community service, etc.<\/li>\n<li>Help your child develop his\/her academic-athletic resume.<\/li>\n<li>Videotape or hire someone to video your child\u2019s games.<\/li>\n<li>Help him\/her finalize a cover letter or personal message to college coaches. Don\u2019t write it. Edit it.<\/li>\n<li>Assist your child in selecting at least 50 colleges that meet his\/her athletic and academic criteria.<\/li>\n<li>Help him\/her fill out and submit college questionnaires.<\/li>\n<li>Prompt your child to answer all emails and letters from college coaches, establishing relationships with them.<\/li>\n<li>Assist your child in planning college visits and accompany him\/her to college campuses.<\/li>\n<li>Help him\/her compile a list of questions to ask coaches during visits.<\/li>\n<li>Ask important questions during visits, but don\u2019t dominate the conversation.<\/li>\n<li>Research scholarship and financial aid opportunities and submit applications in a timely manner.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>NOT-TO-DO-LIST<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Don\u2019t tell your child which colleges he\/she should pursue. Review his\/her list and make possible suggestions.<\/li>\n<li>Avoid responding to emails and letters from college coaches, but remind your child to respond.<\/li>\n<li>Don\u2019t stay on the telephone when coaches call your child; coaches want to talk to your child, not you.<\/li>\n<li>Avoid responding to telephone messages from college coaches, but remind your child to respond.<\/li>\n<li>Don\u2019t email or call college coaches on your own. Your child, not you, needs to develop relationships with coaches.<\/li>\n<li>Avoid answering questions for your child when meeting with coaches.<\/li>\n<li>Don\u2019t exaggerate your child\u2019s athletic and academic ability to coaches.<\/li>\n<li>Avoid being perceived by coaches as too involved. If they think you\u2019re too involved during the recruiting process, image what they might think if they had to deal with you for four or five years?<\/li>\n<li>Don\u2019t make the final college decision for your child. Discuss his\/her final choices \u2013 athletically, academically and financially \u2013 but let him\/her make the ultimate choice.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>\u201cIn the end, it\u2019s up to the students,\u201d said Bill Saar, veteran softball coach at Division III Neumann University outside Philadelphia. \u201cThey need to be happy with their final decision. They\u2019re the ones who need to decide if the school, the program and the coach are right for them.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Your child tells you he\/she wants to play college athletics. Your eyes light up and a huge smile crosses your face. You are so proud of him\/her. You desperately want to help your child get recruited and perhaps receive a scholarship. You tell him\/her you will do everything possible to help. In fact, you offer &#8230; <a class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/what-role-should-parents-play-in-college-recruiting\/\">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":[172,243,31,32,244,56,222,79,81],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8037"}],"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=8037"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8037\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14773,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8037\/revisions\/14773"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8037"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8037"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8037"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}