Sacred Heart University Athletics

Sacred Heart University Athletics

THE ABC’S OF COLLEGE RECRUITING

STEP A

Start figuring out a list of colleges based on your academic level/interests, your athletic ability, and your personal preferences about college.  Lots of people want a time line when you should start doing this.  The answer, whenever you have time and interest.  Soon enough you will run out of the free time.  I know many motivated 9^th graders researching (without stressing out) college.

·         Searching schools by academics.  This is easy to do if you can access College Board or Noviance through your guidance department.

·         Determining Your Athletic Talent:  Talk to your coaches, go to camps, go watch college games and soon enough you will know if you are DI, DII, or DIII.

·         Personal interests.  There are no wrong or right colleges.  The best way to figure out what you like and don’t like about schools is to visit as many as you can.  The more you go see, the more you will know what you like and what you don’t.

Take all of the above info and plus into the College Coaches CD-Rom Search Tool.  You can buy this unique search and recruiting tracking tool at by clicking this link. 

STEP B

With the list of 10-30 schools you have doing your homework in the previous step, you are now ready to move to the evaluation stage.  Notice I did not say recruiting stage, but evaluation.  The fact is most kids never get as far as a coach looking at them and saying no.  They just sit around and hope and wait to get found, which doesn’t happen unless you are elite.  So how do you get college coaches to know about you and evaluate you….

·         Send out your schedule for hs and summer teams and invite them to see you.

·         Sign up for camps where you know they will be going.  How do you know where they will be going?  How about calling or emailing them to ask?!

·         Make a video.

·         Get someone a college coach trusts (coach, alum, scout, etc) and have them make a call or email on your behalf.

That’s it.  Nothing else to do.  My example always is, if I tell you I play guitar and you need to hire a guitar player for a party you are throwing.  If you don’t know me, all the stuff I tell you (or my mom or dad) won’t convince you.  You either need to see me, watch me, or hear me play live or on video or someone you trust needs to refer me.  Same in recruiting.

Again, my books and videos have all of this in more detail.  Click here to view my books and videos.

STEP C

If you have made it this far, it means coaches are actively recruiting you!  Congratuations, you are in the small percentage of athletes who have a chance of playing in college.  There are however several things you need to do now to prepare yourself.

·         Learn and follow the rules of the NCAA Clearninghouse.  Click here for the NCAA Clearinghouse Website.

·         Ask questions of each coach, school, program so as to gain the information you need to make a final choice (academic support, cost, playing time, coaching staff, methods of travel, facilities, etc. etc.).

·         Admissions.  What do you need to do to get into these schools and can the coach be of assistance in this area.

·         Scholarships/Financial Aid:  Are you a scholarship player?  What other forms of financial aid can you get.

·         Making your final school selection.  Partly based on the academics, team, coach, cost of the school, but usually comes from your gut after an extended visit to campus.

Coach Wayne Mazzoni has been an NCAA College Coach since 1992.  He currently coaches at Sacred Heart University.  He has written several books on recruiting and is a frequent speaker at high schools in the tri-state area.  He has appeared on ABC, Fox, WFAN, News 12, and many other media outlets.  For more information visit www.WayneMazzoni.com. 

All About Camps

In the field of athletic recruiting it is harder to find a more hot button topic then that of the role of camps.  Here are some key points in regards to a college coaches view on camps:

Above all else, get an evaluation:  One of the biggest benefits you can get by going to a camp in any sport is for you as the athlete, or as the parent, to get a sense of how talented you are as it compares to the other players at camp.  So many athletes only judge themselves against a smaller recruiting pool and thus a camp provides an opportunity to be with a larger number of college bound players to see where you stand.  If you go to the Penn State volleyball camp and you feel as if you are the worst of all 400 players, guess what.  Unless you do a lot of work, you won’t have any college to play at.  Conversely if you are in the top of that group you are not only a college level player, but maybe even a Division I scholarship player.  In addition, many of the camps allow the college coaches to evaluate you and give you a written report on all facets of your game.

Camp selection is critical.  In the recruiting seminars I give, one question I am always asked is how do you determine which camp to choose.  Well, I can tell you one way not to pick it and that is by googling it.  Just because a camp comes up high on the list of searches does not mean it is a good camp or the right camp for you.  Ideally you start by determining which colleges make a good fit for you then finding out which of those schools run camps or which camps those coaches attend.  Sometimes a simple call or email to a college coach can give you the best word of mouth on which camps to attend.

Notify coaches before you go.  Camps are a great way for college coaches to find and evaluate players, but many of them are also hard to manage.  They are big, spread out, lots of kids, long days.  It will help to separate yourself from the pile of kids by sending a note to the coach before camp that you are interested in attending. 

At the camp.  Some camps don’t provide interaction with coaches while others do.  In an ideal world you do choose a camp where you get to meet and work with the coaches.  That personal connection can go a long way in recruiting.  It’s important to dress properly (on and off the field) and to have a good attitude.  That means no complaining, always hustling, and good body language.  Coaches get to pick their players, they want upbeat kids who are fun to be around.  They also want leaders.

Camps are great, but not the be all end all.  Camps come in all shapes and sizes from one day events to week long sleep aways, however, make sure not to put all your recruiting eggs in the camp basket.  If you don’t show well, get sick, your team makes the playoffs and you have to back out, or you don’t play well at camp, have an injury, or don’t wind up being seen by the right coaches, you still need to do other marketing things to get recruited.

Coach Wayne Mazzoni has been a college coach since 1992.  He is the author of The High School Athletes Guide to College Baseball.  www.collegebaseballcoachescamp.com.  

All About Camps

In the field of athletic recruiting it is harder to find a more hot button topic then that of the role of camps.  Here are some key points in regards to a college coaches view on camps:

Above all else, get an evaluation:  One of the biggest benefits you can get by going to a camp in any sport is for you as the athlete, or as the parent, to get a sense of how talented you are as it compares to the other players at camp.  So many athletes only judge themselves against a smaller recruiting pool and thus a camp provides an opportunity to be with a larger number of college bound players to see where you stand.  If you go to the Penn State volleyball camp and you feel as if you are the worst of all 400 players, guess what.  Unless you do a lot of work, you won’t have any college to play at.  Conversely if you are in the top of that group you are not only a college level player, but maybe even a Division I scholarship player.  In addition, many of the camps allow the college coaches to evaluate you and give you a written report on all facets of your game.

Camp selection is critical.  In the recruiting seminars I give, one question I am always asked is how do you determine which camp to choose.  Well, I can tell you one way not to pick it and that is by googling it.  Just because a camp comes up high on the list of searches does not mean it is a good camp or the right camp for you.  Ideally you start by determining which colleges make a good fit for you then finding out which of those schools run camps or which camps those coaches attend.  Sometimes a simple call or email to a college coach can give you the best word of mouth on which camps to attend.

Notify coaches before you go.  Camps are a great way for college coaches to find and evaluate players, but many of them are also hard to manage.  They are big, spread out, lots of kids, long days.  It will help to separate yourself from the pile of kids by sending a note to the coach before camp that you are interested in attending. 

At the camp.  Some camps don’t provide interaction with coaches while others do.  In an ideal world you do choose a camp where you get to meet and work with the coaches.  That personal connection can go a long way in recruiting.  It’s important to dress properly (on and off the field) and to have a good attitude.  That means no complaining, always hustling, and good body language.  Coaches get to pick their players, they want upbeat kids who are fun to be around.  They also want leaders.

Camps are great, but not the be all end all.  Camps come in all shapes and sizes from one day events to week long sleep aways, however, make sure not to put all your recruiting eggs in the camp basket.  If you don’t show well, get sick, your team makes the playoffs and you have to back out, or you don’t play well at camp, have an injury, or don’t wind up being seen by the right coaches, you still need to do other marketing things to get recruited.

Coach Wayne Mazzoni has been a college coach since 1992.  He is the author of Get Recruited:  The Definitive Guide to Playing College Sports.  His website is www.WayneMazzoni.com

Coach Mazzoni on Stack

For a 3 minute video on the recruiting process on Stack TV.  Click this link.