College assistant coaches offer prospects opportunities extending beyond logo shirts and clipboards. Prospects, parents and even high high school and club coaches are generally unaware that recruiting begins in earnest at the assistant coach level. Assistant coaches are the gatekeepers. National Scouting Report scouts know that assistant coaches are the ones who first evaluate prospects and approve or reject them. Approval … Read more
At National Scouting Report, our scouts and office staff have worked with thousands of high school athletes and their parents during our 36-year history. Rarely, however, do we see families that truly understand how recruiting actually works, its complexities and nuances. Most families think recruiting is two-dimensional. In truth, it is three-dimensional. If you have … Read more
Seldom does a day go by that someone does not ask a National Scouting Report scout what it takes to be an NCAA Division I prospect. The next time somebody poses that question to me, I will simply say: Go watch Lexie Dorminy, who recently committed to play volleyball for Clemson University. Over the years … Read more
While listening to ESPN, I was entranced by an interview with former NFL No. 1 draft pick Ryan Leaf, whose travails have been well documented since his fall from grace with the San Diego Chargers nearly two decades ago. A recovering Vicodin addict, Leaf, 38, talked about how he started to spiral out of control … Read more
The story is both familiar and unique: a lifetime of involvement with athletics turns into a passion fulfilled through helping youngsters realize their dreams of becoming college student-athletes. Joe Pound is the Northeast Florida area director for National Scouting Report. A former college baseball player at the University of North Florida, Pound played for legendary coach … Read more
Tanner Long faces a dilemma most high school athletes would love to have. Long, a 2018 National Scouting Report football prospect, must decide which sport — football or lacrosse — to play in college. Yes, he’s that talented – make that multi-talented. A 6-foot-2, 210-pound sophomore at Germantown Academy, a member of the prestigious Inter-Ac … Read more
It takes a special athlete to impress National Scouting Report scouts. Like college coaches, they must weed out lots of pretenders and wannabe prospects to find the ones who really have all the tools to be legitimate college recruits. Jason Marcum is an NSR scout who works throughout Missouri. He has more than a few softball … Read more
How many freshmen do you know who start on high school varsity softball teams? Not many. How many start on one of their state’s premier teams? Even fewer. Well, meet Maura Grace Dickens. Mike Ewing is not your run-of-the-mill softball scout. Before being named national baseball director for National Scouting Report, Ewing cut his teeth as … Read more
What do the best of the best — Tom Brady, Alex Morgan, Steph Curry, Serena Williams, Breanna Stewart, Mike Trout et al — have in common? All of them love to practice. These athletes learned early on that the only way they could become the best in their sport was to put in the time, … Read more
A sport can be so ingrained in some people during their formative years that they are drawn back to it as adults. Such is the case with National Scouting Report scout Rebecca Wood Bosma. Volleyball was her irresistible pull. Bosma was reminded how much she loved volleyball when she read the Facebook posts of NSR scouts across the … Read more
