Softball Sisters = Recruiting Dreams

Recruiting.  One of the scariest words I ever heard as a softball player wanting to play at the next level.  I had no idea where or even how to start and neither did my parents or my coaches.  High school coaches always said, “If they are good enough, people will come.”  As a high school senior entering my last season with no offers, it hit me a few times maybe I wasn’t good enough.  But then, I got lucky.  After countless homemade videos sent and contacting schools I was interested in, a local junior college in Tennessee saw me play and offered me.  It felt like a dream come true.  Getting to that dream was extremely hard and heartbreaking at times.  Not knowing how to get recruited myself or even get myself in front of those colleges discouraged me but I pushed forward and ended up playing at a top academic school due to sheer luck and being blessed.  Fast-forward 5 years and now my sister is facing the same problems.  No idea where to start or what to do.  She went to camps after camps and exposure tournaments and nothing from any college coaches.  I wasn’t much help because I wasn’t even sure how people got recruited from a small school.  It seemed like only girls from huge schools were even considered.  Then a door opened at a Jerrad Hardin camp.  My sister was introduced to Robby Wilson and shown that recruiting can be easy and simple.  Within in weeks, my sister had emails, texts and phone calls flooding her daily from coaches wanting her and wanting to talk to her.  Seeing that in my sister, people and schools wanting her, did a lot for me as a big sister.  My heart instantly swelled with pride and just being proud of all the work and time she dedicated to playing the game she loved as a kid finally getting her to her dream.  The look in her eye changed.  She became more confident, and let’s face it as a pitcher you have to be confident and cocky to be successful.  Even now, she talks about how she cant believe it was that easy to find the school she was meant for without much trouble.  She went through a trying time having to have surgery right after her recruiting process began but through the help of NSR and Robby, she was still able to find the school that matched her and a coach and team who will challenge and push her to be her best.
My entire life, I knew I wanted a career where I could give back and help others.  God blessed me with so much talent and a caring heart; I wanted to use it to make a difference in the world.  For a long time, my heart was set on becoming a physical therapist.  Then life happens and school seemed meaningless and time consuming when all I wanted to do was get started with my career.  I understood there were sacrifices that needed to be made but coming up on my 6th year of school I was tired and burnt out.  About this time is when my sister got involved with NSR.  I did a lot of research on my own about it and even sat with my sister when she emailed coaches and met them.  It hit me that my dream of helping people and making a difference in the world was right in front of me.  I never wanted to be a coach for softball, it just never interested me but assessing it and scouting it was something that I did my entire life.  After reading the testimonials and talking to Robby and Larry Perrin, I was more than pumped.  My dream was coming true, I am helping kids like my sister and myself see all their hard work and social lives given up finally make sense and get them to their dream we all had as a kid.
Being an athlete, NSR is something that I wished I was involved with when I was younger.  Now that I have had my experiences and experienced it with my sister, not only am I making a difference, I AM the difference.  My career as an NSR scout pushes me to be creative and also show parents, coaches, and kids it is possible to recruit and it be easy.  Seeing relief and happiness rush over their faces is what fuels my fire.  NSR has given me my career life and goals. My goal everyday is to make a difference in someone’s life.  Working with the sport I grew up loving and meeting coaches all over the nation, I couldn’t have asked for a better job.  But, helping a kid finally reach that goal of playing at the next level and making their dreams come true, that is a career path I will be able to look back on and be proud of.  NSR gave my life purpose and a chance to give back.

My name is Amanda McCauley and I am 23 years old. I graduated from Lyon College with a BA in Biology and a minor in Psychology. I have played softball since I was 10 years old and played 4 years at the collegiate level at Dyersburg Community College and Lyon College. I am currently living in Arkansas.  If you have aspirations of playing in college, go to www.nsr-inc.com/athletes.