Recruiting from the Family Perspective

Prospects and parents are ill-prepared for the realities of college recruiting.

They enter excited about all the attention they will get from coaches. They can’t wait to see their athlete’s website go live. They are itching to tell their friends that they are being represented by NSR, the number one scouting organization in the world.

But once they get involved it doesn’t take long to learn that life in the recruiting process is something they had not expected. In short, they may be shocked. They are shocked in a positive way due to the number of college coaches that begin communicating with their child. The other response comes when the skill level of their athlete isn’t quite at the level they once believed.

Four unexpected things happen to families when they get involved in what we call Reality Recruiting.

1. They discover their place. Many families are taken aback when they learn that their athlete is getting fewer than expected responses from NCAA D-I programs. While it shouldn’t be all that surprising, a lot of families think their kid is as good as the very best in the land. When it appears they aren’t, a cold shower ensues. It’s the families that recover and adjust quickest that move on to accept more realistic opportunities which come their way.
2. Their favorite school has other plans. Recruiting is where a lot of dreams go to die. Kids who thought their favorite school would drop everything and offer them a scholarship find out sooner than later that the coaches have already filled their rosters with other athletes they have been on for up to three years. That knowledge can be a tough blow, but options await if the athlete can dust off the disappointment and head in a different direction.
3. They do have to work at it. Recruiting is not for the lazy or people accustomed to having others do everything for them. It is a serious game and to win a prospect has to work hard to get the optimum opportunities which are out there.
4. They should have started much earlier. Families that confidently waited to get involved in recruiting finally get it when they pull back the curtain to find that the athletes they are competing with are way ahead of them. Trying to play catch-up is no fun, but they have no choice but to scratch and claw to get what’s left.

As parents of aspiring college prospects, if your kid is a good athlete with good grades and attitude, there is a very good chance that he or she will be recruited when you are getting sound, qualified guidance. But doing nothing results in nothing at all happening.

Listen carefully. The clock is ticking.

Give your kid a shot at his or her dreams. No one is going to walk up and hand it to them. Act now.

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