Marketing by Dave Prossner

In my last article I said the most important part of the recruiting process was "early identification and recognition" by college coaches. If your son or daughter is not identified early (sophomore or junior year) as a legitimate college prospect, then they may never even have an opportunity to be recruited. Part of this recognition problem may be addressed by "marketing " your son or daughter. Marketing is defined as “the act or process of selling” and those functions involved in selling. Your goal is really to get your son or daughter looked at and recruited by college coaches, then admitted to a school in which they will be able to succeed academically and athletically.
Parents, someone has to take responsibility for this part of the process. Your son or daughter is a 16 or 17 year old high school student absorbed in all those things important to that age group. The high school coach is in charge or 20 to 30 plus similar students and trying to do the best they can with their individual program. That only leaves you to oversee the management of the recruiting effort for your student athlete. Finding scholarships and financial aid takes organization and work.
Let me assure you I don’t mean there isn’t any money out there to help good student athletes. There aren’t many pure athletic scholarships out there, but colleges, where the coaches have recruited your student athlete, do a better job of “finding financial aid” for good student athletes. Girls in particular should be aggressive in looking for scholarships, particularly in view of the Title IX emphasis on women’s sports. We will get into the various types of financial aid later. What you need to be aware of early on in this whole process is, that it is important to be realistic about your student athlete’s level of play. Not everyone is a Division I player, but there are programs and good colleges available for every player. We hope to help you find that “fit” for your student athlete.
One of the best ways to market your student begins with a "sports resume" or similar profile sheet. I have 3 examples of “sports resumes” in the appendix of my book. (www.recruitingguide.com). Also available to you are services which put your student athlete's resume on line for a fee. Check those out for # of hits and how long they have been in business. There are also more thorough services such as The National Scouting Report (www.nsr-inc.com) which offer thorough marketing expertise. Check out how they do resumes. They all differ a little and you can fashion your particular resume using the best features. Remember, a sports resume is a one page information snapshot of your student athlete. You should start putting one together immediately and use it whenever corresponding with college coaches. A small, informal picture should be attached to it, as well. Keep the resume to a single page and don’t try to overwhelm the coach with a ton of material on your athlete. People, coaches included, want information in small, quickly read packages.
Be sure to include this resume in your first request for information from the coach. Also, be sure to update it periodically as your SAT scores or seasons and experience change. Do not disclose any personal financial information on this resume. The coaches will ask if you’re going to need financial aid, as will the admissions office when you visit. At some later point you will have to come up with last year’s tax return so they can give you an indication of what financial aid may be available….but do not disclose any financial information on your resume.
The other important part of marketing involves the video high light tape. A five-minute video highlight tape can be a very effective marketing tool for a college coach. Coaches want to evaluate the student athlete' s abilities, but do not have enough time to do a lot of scouting. If there is some interest, they will take five minutes to look at a tape. You do not want to just send them out randomly. You can offer to send a coach a tape if there has been some interest expressed already.
Probably the best money I invested in marketing my sons was buying a good video camera with an image stabilizer and a tripod. I filmed every game their junior year, shared the tapes with the high school coach, and then edited highlight tapes for each of my sons. I start each tape with a videotaped label showing name, address, phone, position played and number worn, for about 15 seconds. I then followed it with about 45 seconds of introduction in which my son would take a shot, or make a save, and then jog up to the camera and introduce himself, talk about his sport experience, stress his grades and class rank and then introduce the highlights. (This gives the coach a chance to see how the student athlete handles themselves away from the sport and may give some indication of their "fit" with that coach's program.) I then followed with 4 to 5 minutes of game highlights. Make sure you show plays developing and not just repetitious shots or saves. End the film with the same label as in the beginning.
I also had the capability to do a “voice over” during which my son and I would discuss the action the coach was watching. This helps maintain continuity. Five minutes is plenty…you’re not making “Gone With The Wind” here! Trying to do this marketing yourself is a terribly time consuming process. I did it for my three oldest sons, but am using a service for my last son now. Some services actually include your video high light tape right on their web site making it very easy for college coaches to do their evaluations. Today, the professional organizations such as the National Scouting Report do an amazing job with their videos. Look at some of them on their web site.
I am available through my web page at www.recruitingguide.com should you have any questions. Dave Prossner