The Day to Day Life of a College Scout

A typical day for a college scout starts early in the morning, with phone calls to coaches, prospects and prospects’ parents. One of the greatest things about being an NSR college scout, getting close to prospects and their families during their road through the recruiting process.

NSR scouts help their athletes any way they can, from preparing them for their official visits to advising athletes on how to handle calling a coach and everything in between. You see, being a college scout isn’t as easy as one might think. We work for the kids and their families, but we also work to please and deliver for our college coaches.

When a college coach calls us and tells us the needs he or she has for the upcoming recruiting classes, we have to find current prospects who match the coaches needs and can play at their level. A lot of times we can use our resources and networks to find the “diamond in the rough” via a high school coach, travel-ball coach, or instructor. Sometimes, it’s during a time when no showcases and or camps are going on, which gives scouts the opportunity to see athletes and evaluate them to find what we’re looking for to fill a college coach’s needs. These are just a few things that NSR scouts do.

What’s it like being a college scout?

Robby Wilson, Director of Softball Scouting for NSR, describes what it is like being a college scout: “Consider the months of December and January for myself alone: two college softball coaches conferences, three travel team organization workouts, three showcase camps, three facility meetings discussing how to help our NSR softball prospects. All while logging 3,658 miles in my truck and approximately 1,500 miles in the air.  

All of my travel doesn’t include the rest of the NSR softball scouts nationwide, who are out evaluating and scouting their athletes. In addition to scouting and evaluating, a significant portion of the job is educating kids, parents, and sometimes coaches on the truths of the softball recruiting process and dispelling 99% of the myths they’re reading online.

Another one of the best parts of being an NSR softball scout is not being behind a computer, and this Spring will be no different. We’ll be hitting the road in every corner of the U.S. There’s no shortage of college softball programs and coaches looking for kids in the upcoming classes, and therefore our need to find those athletes continues to rise. During the Spring, when college coaches are busy with their team and season, there are only a few ways they can recruit athletes that meet their needs or keep an eye on athletes already committed to their program.

If we don’t know about you, chances are, neither do college coaches. But if you’re 100% sure you want to play in college, we’ll create the opportunity to scout you if there isn’t one… get started in the process today.”

How do you get started? You fill out the request to be scouted. From there, you’ve got school ball, tournaments, lessons with your instructors, and even video for our scouts to be able to evaluate you.

Don’t have any of those? Once the Scout contacts you, he/she may be able to come work you out themselves and evaluate, or even better, get in touch with your coach and schedule a workout for your team. Regardless, if you’re out there and feel like you have the tools to play in college, it all starts here.