Today’s CTS More Beneficial for Coaches Than Legit Prospects

You May Be Out There, but So is Everybody Else

Anybody will tell you that club and travel sports are where recruiting happens these days.  But, that’s only a small part of the story because it’s only partly true.  There are truths about club/travel sports (CTS) that you should know but probably don’t.  Check out the following:

• CTS are where most college coaches evaluate live talent, but surprisingly they (CTS) have not increased the percentage of prospects recruited to play college sports.  Why?  There are more college teams to fill roster spots and more kids are in the right place to be seen, but all in all only about 1 in 15 high school seniors, on average, go on to play college sports today.  That’s the same percentage as in pre-CTS days.
• College coaches only attend about 10% of all CTS events.  Many coaches are faced with substantial budget cuts in the present economic downturn, so they are very picky about which tournaments they attend.  They usually select the events which have a history of attracting high-level talent.  If you or your team is signed up for what could be called second-tier tournaments, there is little likelihood that any college coaches will be there to evaluate talent.
• Coaches do not primarily attend CTS events to discover talent.  While they may find a kid or two that catches their interest, college coaches walk through the gates of every tournament with a list of prospects they already know about and have conducted initial evaluations on.  So, a coach’s primary goals at tournaments are to (A) verify in person what they have seen on video from a potential recruit, (B) evaluate a prospect who they have heard about from other college coaches, (C) let kids they are actively recruiting see them at their games to further enhance their relationship.  For coaches, discovering talent for the first time is a bonus, but they do not count on that happening.
• CTS do improve players’ abilities, but not specifically because of the competition they face.  Instead, improvement happens because of the additional coaching, repetitions and experience gained from more practice and games played. 
• Being a part of CTS gives you only a slightly better opportunity to be recruited to play college sports than if you only played high school ball, that is unless college coaches know ahead of time that you will be playing in an event and attend especially to evaluate your performance in person. 
• CTS are only beneficial to athletes in terms of recruiting if, and only if, college coaches have learned about you beforehand and have had the opportunity to evaluate you by analyzing your profile and video.  Otherwise, you are only serving to provide a competitive environment for the prospects coaches are there to really see.   

There are so many recruiting options for college coaches these days.  The enormous number of CTS tournaments has created excellent opportunities to evaluate more high school talent than ever before.  That’s all fine and good for the coaches, but where does it leave you, the kid who really has the desire to play collegiate sports.  You’d think the increase in tournaments has helped, but for the athletes wanting to attract attention, it is now actually more difficult.  How’s that, you ask?  Whereas a few years back nearly all the players in club or travel events had rosters full of legit prospects, the overflow of teams and players has added trees to the forest.  With the exception of the traditionally elite level tournaments, most CTS events are little more than traveling youth leagues.

Needless to say, that puts considerable pressure on serious prep athletes.  Since college coaches rarely, if ever, scout high school games, the better athletes are no longer able to stand out as prominently.  It’s not because of a lack of talent mind you, but because of the numbers involved which adds a new dimension, and problem, to the kids’ objective of being noticed, evaluated and recruited.  At most CTS events, there are hundreds of athletes playing, most of whom either do not want to play college sports or will never be evaluated by a college coach.  Why?  Coaches don’t attend the minor CTS events they are signed up for whether called a showcase or not.    

Here, then, is the bottom line:  you can no longer logically count on the CTS vehicle as an open pathway to a scholarship.  You have to take additional, assertive steps to get in the recruiting mix.  Otherwise, it is nearly impossible to be recruited. 

So, how do you get on the map?  How do you convince a college coach that you’re worthy of their time and attention? 

There are options, proven ones, but some have a higher degree of success than others.  The problem is which to choose?  Which effective opton do you commit to?

• Option 1:  Do it yourself.  Your success rate will be 10%.
• Option 2:  Ask a coach to promote you.  Your success rate will go up to 20%.
• Option 3:  Call NSR today.   You will have a 90% chance of receiving an offer.

What makes sense to you?  It’s your call.