Open Enrollment Scouting Services Fail to Really Help Prospects

Who Do You Trust, a real scout or a telemarketer? 

What is an Open Enrollment (OE) scouting service? These are in essence nothing more than telemarketing companies fronting as scouting services. Their intent is to sign as many unsuspecting prospects as possible, duping them into thinking that their methods will effectively get them college athletic scholarship offers. This is not true.

College coaches are drawn into perusing these sites, but coaches are smart enough to know a legitimate college prospect when they see one. While an OE company does lure some genuine prospects, because they have also captured a large number of unqualified types, coaches soon discover that they are spending an enormous amount of time looking at kids who want to play in college but who simply do not have the athletic or academic qualifications to become college recruits. Seeing this pattern, college coaches turn their attention to more reliable scouting organizations, like National Scouting Report, which actually scouts prospects and only enrolls and then presents prospects to college coaches which have been properly vetted for ability, desire, grades and character. 

OE companies are ineffective for another key reason, too. Spending most of their money and efforts on marketing and multiple Web sites which act in concert like a giant whirlpool sucking kids and parents into a central site, their services are watered down to the point of being incapable of getting meaningful results for their prospects. Shortly upon having signed up with what we call “cubicle counselors” which are people the kids and parents have never actually seen but only have spoken to over the telephone, reality sets in and it bites. 

NSR is not an Open Enrollment scouting company. We actually scout, meet, interview and closely examine each prospect we enroll. An NSR prospect must possess those qualifications we know college coaches require: the ability and desire to play at the next level; solid academic history; glowing, personal recommendations; supportive family. When a potential NSR prospect fails to meet any one of these stipulations, our OTG (on-the-ground) scouts do their best to impress on the youngster the importance of digging in and working hard to turn the corner in that specific area. If we are convinced, that is, if our scouts can see a high degree of commitment from the prospect to make the necessary changes to meet our standards, only then will our scouts commit to that prospect.  

It is impossible to get this sort of commitment over the telephone. It is a personal thing. And, further, we see that most prospects respond positively and work their butts off to improve their skills, their attitude, their grades, their character and their relationship with their parents. We are in the life changing business at NSR. OE’s are in the check cashing business. Whether an OE kid gets off track does not matter to them. Why should it? They don’t really know the kid, or parents. They got their money from a distance and that’s where OE’s stay — at a distance. 

Short and sweet, here it is:  OE’s are interested in meeting their signing quotas.  That’s it.  Nothing more.  Their people are paid to make calls from roster lists and sign prospects that they have never scouted, met in person, or have any idea who they really are as athletes and individuals.  They do not have a clue what these kids look like in pre-game drills, at practices or how they interact with their teammates, coaches and parents.  Why don’t they know these things?  Because to Open Enrollment scouting services, none of that really matters to them.