Recruiting Strategies to Kick-off the New Year
A New Year is upon us and opportunity lurks. That being said, those who organize best, execute well developed plans and beat the bushes will maximize their success in college recruiting. You have the chance to create change, new commitments, a clean slate and fresh opportunity to approach the recruiting process with renewed passion. This article attempts to outline general “class tips” that current prospective student-athletes can use in maximizing the college search in 2012.
Seniors
The early decision and signing periods are behind you and
if you were not picked up in admissions or offered an athletic
scholarship you now have new life in the regular decision and
regular signing periods.
Will the regular recruiting period be competitive? Yes. Will there be plentiful opportunities? No. Try not to focus on that, which was not accomplished during the early recruiting process, but re-group and control your playing field in the regular period. Cast a narrow net in selecting the colleges you will pursue and focus on the following:
- Meet all admissions application deadlines.
- Update your personal profile with any pertinent academic and athletic information.
- Edit your recruiting highlight video with footage.
- Connect regularly with the coaches and avoid incommunicado.
- Ask your club or high school coach to reach out on your behalf to speak directly with the college coaches.
- Take another road trip to your top schools and setup a meeting with the coaches.
Your strategy and operative should be vigorous. Provide the coaches with the unique resources to help them see you in a new and unique light that will convince them to recruit you more earnestly.
Juniors
An operative that juniors should reference regularly as
you build the recruiting effort it is momentum. As a
junior prospect, you want to remain highly visible on the college
coach’s radar and provide them with regular updates with your
academic and athletic progress.
If you are that blue chip kid that many of the college coaches are pursuing, you are not going to run into too many hurdles and there is a good chance a large percentage of these boys and girls have received verbal commitments. If, on the other hand you are the kid in the “B” file of prospects, you will need to go above and beyond to remain competitive with the other prospects in the file. I suggest you focus on the following:
- Update your YouTube video with new highlights that will get the attention of the coaches.
- Be sure you are on... [read more]
