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Introduction to College Recruiting by
Dave Prossner
About the Author: Dave Prossner has been
involved with lacrosse as a player, coach, referee,
fund raiser, and parent of lacrosse players for
over 30 years. He learned the game at Deerfield
Academy in Massachusetts his sophmore year in high
school. He went on to play at the University of
Pennsylvania where he was a starter as a defenseman.
He got involved again when his family relocated
to Maryland in 1986 and he became a youth lacrosse
coach and began coaching his three oldest boys.
Asked to be an assistant at the local high school,
he again volunteered his services. Realizing that
for lacrosse to grow in his area, he and two others
founded the Talbot Lacrosse Association to raise
money for the growth of youth lacrosse for boys
and girls in his area. Elected as the first President
of the organization, they continue to grow and last
year raised over $20,000 for the local program.
He retired from coaching in 1995. Wanting to be
free to watch his three oldest sons play Division
I college lacrosse on weekends, but free also to
watch his youngest son's weekday games, he also
found time to become a certified referee and refereed
high school, youth, and men's league games for the
past two seasons.
Having gone through the recruiting process three
times for his own sons, he realized early on a need
to get his sons looked at since they weren't coming
out of a known lacrosse hot bed. His system has
been used many times for both boys and girls in
lacrosse, field hockey, football, ice hockey, volleyball
and other sports as well. It is particularly useful
for parents and student athletes who are facing
the college selection process for the first time.
He is a full time real estate agent for Century
21 and resides with his wife Candace and their four
sons in Trappe, MD. He is also available as a guest
speaker on "Recruiting and the High School
Athlete." |
Today we are going to begin to explore the "recruiting
process" as it pertains to high school boys and
girls who want to go on and play sports in college.
While the process itself can be confusing, particularly
for parents and students going through it for the first
time, you can be assured that with proper planning and
some marketing of the student, there is a place in college
for whomever wants to play. Parents and the student
athlete should both be looking for the right "fit,"
both academically and athletically.Through this series
of articles, we hope to help you find your way to the
right college and the right college program.
There are several thousand college varsity programs
for men and women in the country today. About 50% of
them offer scholarships above and beyond financial aid.
Girls in particular should be aggressive in looking
for scholarships.
The recruiting process today can be broken down into
4 different steps. The first of these is Early Identification
and Recognition of the student athlete as a legitimate
college prospect. This is by far the most important
part of the recruiting process. Colleges want to identify
all potential prospects as soon as possible, usually
by their sophomore or certainly by their junior year.
If you haven't been identified, then you can forget
about the other 3 steps. It is important that a prospect
be identified by as many colleges as possible, even
those they may think they are not interested in. This
is called "total exposure". Without it, your
chances of getting a college scholarship are slim. Besides,
it may open opportunities to you that you had not considered,
so it's important to see what's out there.
The second step in the recruiting process is Prospect
Evaluation. You should be aware that college coaches
all run their recruiting programs differently, but they
all share some similar characteristics. Basically, they
are going to start looking at a large pool of "identified"
prospects and then start a weeding out process. If you
haven't been identified or only identified to a small
number of schools, you could be weeded out of them and
your chances of being recruited could be over and you
may not even know it. This weeding out process may be
based on grades, athleticism or lack thereof, not a
good fit for the school, or they don't need your position
this year. If a college is interested in you, they will
generally send you a questionnaire beginning your junior
year. This does not mean you are being recruited. It
means that the college knows you are alive and wants
to know more details about you. It is very important
to answer every questionnaire promptly; otherwise the
coach may assume that you just aren't interested in
their school. If you are a good prospect, you may receive
a large number of questionnaires. Colleges will also
evaluate you by keeping up with your athletic and academic
progress, watching a personal video tape, and sometimes
visiting one of your games either your senior year or
at a sports camp.
After the initial weeding out phase colleges will begin
the third step which is actual "Recruiting".
You are not considered a recruited student-athlete unless
a college calls you at least 2 times, or you are invited
for an "official" visit (the Division I or
II school is paying your expenses) or you have been
contacted by a college recruiter in person. None of
these contacts may take place until after July 1st after
the completion of your junior year. (The service academies
may contact you sooner because of their lengthy admissions
process.)
To give you some idea of the numbers involved you may
assume that the original pool of athletes may number
500 or more, 40 to 50 of which may be invited for an
"official visit" for the 9 or 10 spots that
the coach is looking for. It begins to look very difficult,
particularly for the top schools. That's why it's important
to look at a lot of schools and be realistic about your
playing capabilities!
The final step in the recruiting process consists of
"the Offer" either with a National Letter
of Intent or pressure for an early decision. Recruiting
has changed a lot in the last few years and there is
tremendous pressure for student athletes to commit early.
The coaches want to know early who really wants to play
for their school and expect a student athlete to make
up their mind. I counsel student athletes to make this
decision a "family" decision and not commit
while sitting in a coach's office by themselves. I also
counsel them that if they have made up their mind and
have been accepted by their Number 1 choice, let the
other coaches know as soon as possible so they may spend
their time and money on other qualified candidates.
We will be exploring these and other related aspects
of the recruiting process in future articles.
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