The thought of starting the recruiting process as a student-athlete can feel overwhelming. However, starting earlier can actually make the entire process less stressful on you and your family! Every college program and college coach has their own unique timeline. However, the recruiting process is happening earlier for student-athletes than ever before. Here is what you should be doing as soon as possible in high-school in order to minimize stress during your Junior and Senior year.
Create your Athletic Resume
When you decide that you want to pursue college athletics, you should first create an athletic and academic resume of yourself (the easiest way to do this is by building a SportsRecruits profile!). Be sure to include all of the necessary information that college coaches need to know about you. This includes your contact information, the team (or teams) that you currently play for, and anything that separates you from your peers as an athlete, such as awards that you have won, recent statistics, or a strong academic transcript! Understand that you will need to consistently update this information as you go through the recruiting process.
Having an online presence will make it easier for college coaches to find you and evaluate you from the comfort of their own home.
Build a List of Target Schools
You may not know what division or conference will be a good fit for you as an 8th or 9th grade student-athlete, but it is a great time to start identifying some schools you may be interested in attending. It is not about perfecting a list of favorites at this time, but more about pointing out some schools you may want to research further down the road.
Try to identify a few things that you’d like to get out of the college experience. Maybe it’s a particular major that you know you want to study, or starting to think how close or far you’d like to be from home during your college years. If you change your mind, that is totally fine! Keep in mind this list is fluid and it will change as you learn more and grow as a student-athlete.
Also, be sure to notify your club or high school coaches that you are interested in playing at the next level. These individuals are great to get feedback on what schools/levels to pursue and may even be willing to reach out to a coach on your behalf. We've outlined step-by-step what you need to do to identify your best-fit schools by walking you through the factors to consider.
Gather Video
Video has become so important and is now a need in the recruiting process. It is necessary to start watching video of yourself and get comfortable with the ability to identify what plays college coaches want to see. It also will serve as good practice for when you are expected to review video at the college level as well.
A highlight reel is something that has become very common in the recruiting space today, so be sure to keep track of all the great plays you have made throughout your season so you can compile them together into one highlight reel! Depending on your sport, you may need to create a skills video, which is when you record yourself during drills so coaches can look at your technique (pitching, skating, dribbling, etc.).
Contact College Coaches
It will be up to you to determine when the best time to start contacting college coaches will be. Keep in mind that the Division I level will typically start the recruiting process earlier if that is the goal you are setting for yourself. Also, there will be limitations in how a majority of college coaches can respond to you when you are early on in the recruiting process, so temper your expectations.
Finding the right school for you starts with research and ends with frequent and proactive communication. It will be important to contact college coaches throughout your recruiting process with any academic or athletic updates. Reach out to share things like a new highlight video on your profile, an uptick in your GPA for the quarter, or an accolade you received from your high school season.
The more times you actively reach out, the better chance you have to discover who is interested (i.e. multiple profile and/or video views, coming to watch you play live or reaching out to your club/high school coach). Check your email consistently to make sure you are responding in an appropriate time frame to college coaches.
By starting your recruiting process early, you will feel less stressed later on. Try to do a little bit of work at a time so you won’t feel as overwhelmed down the road!