A couple of weeks ago, I had the privilege of listening to Coach Kerry Hassall, the recruitment coordinating coach at the University of Tulsa. The hour-long talk provided much food for thought about the collegiate recruiting process. As a result, I have summarized some of the main talking points below. I observed that some things have evolved since I last posted about this process, so I am passing along the following tips and hope they create some value for you.

1. Recruitment: Keep Your Options Open

It is always a good idea to keep your options open. Many athletes fall into the trap that it’s got to be Division 1 or bust… There are great programs at Division II, Division III, and club levels. If you want to row in college or play the sport of your choice, don’t limit yourself to Division I, as you may miss other opportunities. To be clear, If you want to compete at the D1 level, I’m certainly not discouraging you. However, it is important to remain flexible. In addition, choose a school where you feel like you’re going to thrive, not just a school your best friend is also going to.

2. Study Hard

 If you have a GPA of 3.7 or higher, you have a 67% greater chance of getting a college scholarship. Therefore, ensure you’re working just as hard on your studies as in the boat or the gym.

3. NCAA Clearinghouse

Ensure that you have completed your NCAA clearinghouse process as early as possible; don’t leave this to the last moment so that you are well prepared for college recruitment.

4. Plan Your Standardized Testing Schedule

Take the ACT and the SAT as early as possible. Please don’t leave it until your senior year. Ideally, you will need to take it a couple of times in the spring as a junior and make sure you’re aware of the deadlines for registration. College coaches generally like to see 1270 for an SAT, a GPA of 3.7, and an ACT of 27. For example, if you have a 26 on your ACT, it is well worth retaking it to get it up to a 27. This could be the point of inflection in terms of interest in you by a college coach.

5. Fill Out Online Recruitment Questionnaires

One of the first places to start your recruitment journey is to fill out the online recruitment questionnaire, which many programs have. You should also follow this up with an email and ensure you are responsive to any emails you receive. At this stage, Instagram and other social media platforms are popular, but email is an important medium for getting your message out and strengthening your recruitment application. Therefore, if you email the coach (which you should), ensure you check your email daily. Finally, as the potentially recruited athlete, you should write the email, not your parent.

6. Beware Of The Canned Email!

This point is helpful in relation to point #5. It is not a good idea to send a canned email to coaches. You need to be careful when you cut and paste when you are composing your emails to recruitment coaches. If you must have a canned email to save time, take a moment to review how that team is doing and use that to preface your email before you get into the main selling points of why you should be a member of that program. 

The real danger of cut and paste is that you forget to change the name of the school or coach and then hit send. For example, if you email the University of Tulsa and forget to change the team name from SMU to Tulsa, that looks bad and immediately puts you on the list of not-very-desirable athletes. You don’t want that. Additionally, try to include why you want to be at that school in your email. What interests you about that school both academically and athletically? You want a way to differentiate yourself, so do your homework and put in the time, and that can only help to strengthen your application.

7. Leverage Your Social Media Presence

 Leverage your social media footprint to your advantage. Nowadays, there are multiple ways to get yourself on the radar by using the various available platforms. For example, post footage of yourself performing well, follow coaches on Twitter or Instagram and try to get them to follow you. 

In addition, if you are particularly interested in a particular program or team, spend some time engaging with their social media. Recruiting coaches will generally pay more attention to those athletes who seem engaged with what their program is doing and achieving. This strengthens your application and shows the coaching staff that you are serious about joining their program or at least very interested in their team’s progress.

8. Build Relationships And Communicate Your Progress

During the recruitment process, maintain regular communication with the recruiting coach you’re working with. A suitable interval between communications could be every two weeks. Send them your current times, and also tell them the goals that you’re aiming for over the next four to six weeks. When you hit those goals, send a quick email to update them on your progress. College coaches are looking for the improvements you make over time and not just one score at one moment in time.

9. Maintain Good Relationships With Your Coaches and Teachers

Maintain a good relationship with your present coach. Also, do your best to maintain good relationships with your teachers. Remember, if you are involved in the recruitment process, a coach will most likely talk or correspond with your coach. It does not matter whether or not you like your coach or not. Remember that these people will be giving you a reference. In conclusion, I wish you the best with your college recruitment journey. If you think there is a point I missed, I would love to hear your feedback, so drop me a line at neil@coachbergenroth.com or connect with me on Twitter at @CoachBergenroth.