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Families of high school athletes wanting to take their game to the college level are in a quandary. How do they make a dream materialize? It’s an unenviable position.
Once they make their problem public, however, all sorts of help pops up, mostly from sources which have no clue how recruiting works. That, of course, adds more angst to the already perplexing conundrum.
I have consistently found that when parents and prospects in concert make the commitment to pursue a college athletic scholarship, they can count on four forces which can potentially hold them back from making the dream a reality.
Force 1: First are the preconceived notions of how college recruiting actually happens. These notions are muddled, to say the least. There is little, if any, clarity — no real, dependable blueprint to follow. Picture being asked to walk out on a balcony that has no rails, with no hint of what’s out there, and wearing a blindfold. It would be an extremely scary proposition.
We asked National Scouting Report’s Gil Barkey, who scouts the Denver, Colo. area, what the main problem is working with parents of high school athletes. Without hesitation, he said: “It’s the presumptuousness (of parents) thinking they know the process.” He pointed out that he’s always surprised at the number of high school, travel and club coaches who hire him to connect their own children with colleges.
Ask any family that has gone through it with their child. Unless their first or second kid is a top-level prospect, which is rare, they will tell you that what they thought would happen and what really occurred were nowhere close to one another. They would say that in recruiting there is no certainty involved.
Result? No progress.
Force 2: There’s no other way to characterize it but to say bad advice. So, imagine your car breaks down and you call your accountant for advice. Does that make sense? No, of course not, but that is what people typically do when entering the recruiting landscape. They listen to people who are ill-prepared to give them spot-on counseling. Even if those same people are closely involved in youth, club, travel or high school athletics, their knowledge is tied to supposition, not facts.
College coaches don’t talk to high school coaches and they only give club and travel coaches the time of day out of courtesy. It’s true. Most every parent we’ve talked with says that, going into the process, they were astounded at the lack of communicating that happened between their athletes’ coaches and their peers a mere one step up.
What would a good high school sports scout say about this? Robby Wilson is a high school scout in Arkansas who works primarily in softball. We accepted his invitation to sit in on a conference call he was leading with a large group of other scouts from across America. At one point, he said, “No travel coach or parent comes close to having the network of college coach connections and depth of trust we do.”
Result? No progress.
Force 3: Time. How much can a family really do to affect their athlete’s recruitment in the time allowed? An hour a day? Five hours a week? A few hours a month perhaps? Finding out how to connect with a handful of coaches alone is daunting, much less the 50, 100, 500 or more their kid realistically needs to reach to find a few genuinely interested. Add to that the coach having to start the evaluation process, followed by developing relationships with the families, visiting various campuses and then securing multiple offers. There’s no wonder that so many good high school athletes never play college sports. They simply blow their chance.
Three years can seem like six months in recruiting for a family. Before they can take a deep breath, the time it takes to do all these necessary things has passed leaving their athlete out in the cold and without any offers.
Result? No progress.
Force 4: Overconfidence is the bane of most families. We often hear parents say, “We’re being recruited already,” when actually they aren’t. Not even close. And they think that because they have gotten a few recruiting letters or have a friend who has a friend who is a college coach that they are in the clear. Not so.
Nothing can be taken for granted in college recruiting. A missed phone call here. An overlooked text there. A discounted email. A new prospect jumps to the top of a coach’s recruiting board. Then there’s the unexpected injury or lower-than-anticipated ACT score. You name it and it can happen.
Being overconfident makes people near-sighted. They cannot see in the distance. Viable options are too often ignored. Legitimate interest by a coach is pushed aside. All these things can spell doom for a prospect.
Result? No progress.
Parents have the responsibility to put their child in the best possible position. Yet, they frequently do not because they are held back by the Four Forces. It doesn’t have to be that way.
National Scouting Report is dedicated to finding scholarship opportunities for athletes who possess the talent, desire, and motivation to compete at the collegiate level. We’ve helped connect thousands of athletes with their perfect college.