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.
If you are ready to take your recruiting to the next level, click the Get Scouted button below to be evaluated by an NSR College Scout.
Get Scouted Scouting Careers
Want to be an on-the-ground area scout for National Scouting Report?
You might want to think twice because what we do for a living takes a special person with a lot on the ball (pun intended).
If I had a nickel for every time some sports fan, parent, coach or bystander said to me, “I wish I had your job,” I would have, well, a lot of nickels. But I have come to the conclusion that wanting to be a college scout and really being a successful one are two entirely different things. The former is a dream, while the latter is a stiff dose of reality.
It is like saying you want to be a movie critic columnist because you like to go to movies. Then, when you try to write a cogent, cinematic critique, you find that it is exceedingly harder, complex and testing than you anticipated.
The point? What we do is demanding and requires a specific set of skills to be successful.
Don’t get me wrong. As NSR scouts, we love what we do. What’s not to love?
We get up every day and go through our routine of reading educational info about recruiting and the NCAA or NAIA; check on our prospects via their website portals; call college coaches about our prospects and discuss the coaches’ recruiting needs; and finally schedule the rest of our day. That schedule will include everything from visiting a local sports facility to stopping in to say hello to a high school or college coach. It could also involve helping a parent to submit their athlete’s video, essay or updated GPA.
Then we scout.
We might go to a game, match or meet at a local school or maybe a tournament up the road a couple of hours. We just as well could roll up to a practice a club coach invited us to attend. Or we might conduct a recruiting seminar for athletes, parents and coaches for a team.
Busy, huh?
Then comes the real deal — personally interviewing potential prospects in their homes with their parents present. The interview is not hard to schedule because families have seen us around scouting other prospects. They have heard from other families that we are legit, work hard and are very effective and trustworthy.
Most importantly, they have gotten to know us, not just by reputation, but because we have taken the time to become acquainted with their family. We have established a relationship.
An NSR scout is not someone who shows up every now and then, glad hands with coaches and officials, and hangs out until about halfway through a contest. If that were the case, NSR scouts might as well sit in a call center and contact the athletes they found on a tournament roster until they reach their monthly quota.
We closely and expertly evaluate high school student-athletes to see if they have the potential to be college student-athletes. That assessment encompasses ability, attitude, character and grades. You can’t get that kind of info from a phone call or sitting in the press box handing out doughnuts.
At NSR, we leave no stone unturned because when we refer a prospect to a college coach, our reputation as professionals is on the line.
But that is where the simplicity ends for us. What we do is a specialized profession that takes a person with a very strong work ethic, a keen eye for talent, the affability to get along with a wide range of people, and the daily consistency to not just get things done, but to get them done so well that your street credibility is something you proudly can stand on.
You might want to do what we do, but you should know that a commitment to our families and our recruiting organization is crucial. So is an off-the-chart work ethic.
We may sit on a set of bleachers in the blazing sun all day. Hang out in sweltering gyms for three consecutive days. Deal with parents who think they know the difference between an official and unofficial visit, a contact or dead period, or when their athlete can first be contacted by a college coach. Or drive 90 minutes one way to interview a prospect only to discover his dad will not be home that evening.
Then one night we get a call from a kid who had little chance of being recruited. He could have been injured as a junior. She could have struggled with a club coach and sat the bench most of one season.
You can hear it in his voice, sense it in her emotions. He just got an offer from a college he loves. She received a call from a coach who is interested in her.
It is during that moment when you know that all the hard work, hurdles, calls and consultations are not what you do for a living. No, NSR scouts change lives.
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.