The Student Athlete (part 3): Recruiting

One of the most common misunderstandings I see amongst high school athletes is in thinking that college sports teams and coaches will “just find them”. Rather, it is almost always the other way around - unless you are one of the top in your sport, you, the athlete, will need to be proactive and drive the recruiting process. This means reaching out to schools you are interested in and getting on their radar. It also means being persistent - coaches are busy and a lack of response may just mean that they're caught up in other work at the moment.

I’ve organised this post to give you a high-level understanding of the athletic recruiting process and to answer the most common questions:

When should you start the recruiting process? For most, this is in the second half / summer before your Junior year in high school.

What does recruiting actually look like? You may be picturing a coach visiting your high school and watching you compete. This does happen. But, actually, most recruiting activities are digital these days - lots of emails, DMs, etc… and exchanging of information about your sports achievements remotely.

How do you know that a program is really interested in you? Look for signs that coaches want to have a deeper understanding of your abilities. The best sign: a coach provides you with his cell number / starts texting. Many athletes report they've had the most success by contacting assistant coaches or recruiting coordinators vs trying to initiate contact directly with a head coach.

When should you start the athletics recruiting process?

The answer is highly dependent on your sport and talent level. As you might expect, the more talent you have, the more teams and coaches are likely to court you (vs the other way around). But, the majority of college-bound athletes need to be active in initiating relationships with coaches and programs they are interested in. This usually starts in the lead-up to your Junior year of high school.

Here’s a general guide to think about -

High School Year	Blue Chip Athletes	NCAA Division I & II Capable	Division III Capable
Freshman	Recruiting	-	-
Sophomore	Recruiting	Recruiting (usually beginning 2nd half of Sophomore year)	-
Junior	Recruiting	Recruiting	Recruiting
Senior	Recruiting	Recruiting	Recruiting

NCAA recruiting calendars set rules for when and how Division I and Division II student athletes and college athletic programs can be in contact with each other. What this means is that there are windows of time where athletes and schools can be in contact, and time periods where contact is much more restricted. The latter is known as “quiet periods” and “dead periods”. You want to ideally align your recruiting efforts with the NCAA recruiting calendar - so that you are contacting programs when they are in active recruiting mode.

The recruitment calendars vary by sport. See - https://www.ncaa.org/sports/2018/5/8/division-i-and-ii-recruiting-calendars.aspx. Note that Division III recruiting doesn’t follow this calendar and may start beginning January 1 of your junior high school year.

What does recruiting actually look like?

And the follow-on question… am I visiting the college?

The NCAA defines recruiting very broadly - basically if the program or coach is saying anything beyond “hello” to you, it is probably considered a recruiting activity. This could be in the form of connections via social media, email, phone, in-person visits, texts, etc…

Youth basketball photo — One of these athletes (not me! front row right with ball) went on to play college basketball at Duke

Visiting colleges is one of the most helpful steps you can take in your recruitment process. You are first and foremost in college to receive an education, so you want to better understand the school, its academic offerings, and whether or not the school would generally be a “fit” for what you’re looking for.

On the athletic front, there are a few ways you can engage with a school:

Digital. Zoom and Facetime, social media, messaging, etc… connections with the athletics department at a school you are interested in can give you a better sense of the program and the school environment.

Camps. Many schools offer summer athletic programs where, as a high school student, you can get time with the coaching staff and demonstrate your ability. Some are sleepover camps, which are especially nice (if you can afford to attend) as you can get a deeper understanding of what the school is really like.

Unofficial visits. These usually take the form of a campus tour + coach visit, with the key point being that trips are initiated and paid for by the student.

Official visits. Colleges and universities are paying for you to visit their schools. Per updated NCAA rules, you can now go on official visits beginning junior year in high school.

Once again, there are strict rules about what constitutes an unofficial visit vs an official visit, what compensation can be given to the student (tickets to events, hotels, meals, etc…), how many official visits you can take, and so on. See this guide for more information - http://fs.ncaa.org/Docs/eligibility_center/Student_Resources/CBSA.pdf.

Finally, how do you know that a program is really interested?

Recruiting is a two-way street: just as you, the student, are thinking about which colleges and programs might be a good fit for you, college athletics departments and coaches are doing the same. They may make statements about interest to you, but, candidly, keep in mind that these statements can also be sales and marketing tactics to keep you in their pipeline.

College coaches are also busy! While you are free to contact any of the coaching staff, many college athletes say they were most successful when reaching out to assistant coaches (vs the head coach). The reality is that the head coach probably doesn’t have the time to read all of the unsolicited recruitment emails they receive, especially at top programs. At some programs, there is dedicated recruiting staff - sometimes called recruiting coordinators. You can find contact information for coaches on the college team’s website.

The recruiting process can also last a long time. It can take months and months of back-and-forth with schools to feel like you're making progress.

To give you an idea of the sort of activities that demonstrate interest on the part of a coach or program:

You reach out to a program via emailing a coach and receive no response. You should probably follow-up to be sure they received it. Persistence is key!

You receive a “thank you” or a thumbs up or a pointer to their camps. This is usually a polite thanks but no thanks.

A coach gets back to you and wants to set up a Zoom or Facetime meeting to learn more. This is a positive sign.

A coach wants to coordinate a time to see you play (e.g. at a big tournament or while they are out on the road watching certain games). This is a positive sign.

You experience a progression. An example could be connecting with lower-level coaches to higher-level coaches, e.g. moving from an assistant coach to the head coach. This is a positive sign.