At the end of my son’s last high school summer baseball season, I was struck by the number of players who had graduated and didn’t know yet where they were going to attend college. I heard a lot of talk from parents about “maybe walking on” to various teams and see what happens. These were good players, the majority better than my son who did know where he was going.
Athletics
26 Helpful Athletic Resumes and Player Profile Templates
(In 2022, four resources have disappeared from the list. Given the number of resources already on the list, I decided to just replace those that have disappeared. If you don’t like any of the samples you see here, you can easily find others on the web.) There are plenty of samples of athletic resumes or player templates on the internet. After all, it seems just about every recruiting website has one posted. It’s just tedious going through all the search results to find something useful. Well, I’ve just saved you the trouble–you can thank me later.
297 NCAA D1 Softball Colleges
High school softball players looking to compete at the highest level in college will be targeting NCAA Division 1 colleges and universities. These schools offer the most scholarships and the most competitive level of play and is the second largest of the NCAA softball divisions. A list of all D1 softball colleges is at the end of the post.
Create a Recruiting Video with Your Phone in 5 Easy Steps Resource Center
(Updated 2021) If you’re an athlete trying to get recruited to play in college, then you KNOW you need to have video. You have several options for creating your video from doing-it-yourself to hiring someone who specializes in recruiting videos. I’m a big believer in starting with the cheapest option first. If nothing else, after you create a video with your phone, you will appreciate that much more the professional’s product that you eventually get. So I’ve collected a list of resources you can use to shoot video with your smart phone. (I may receive a small commission for some of the products.)
Best Way to Answer Coaches Asking What Other Schools Are Recruiting You
Once again honesty is the best policy. When coaches ask what other schools are recruiting you, just name the schools. There are actually two ways to be dishonest in answering the question. The first is to not tell which schools are recruiting you and the second is to lie about which ones are. Understanding why you shouldn’t do the former explains why some are tempted to do the latter.
Why Athletic Prospects need the Financial Aid Pre-Read
Athletes need to know about financial aid pre-reads since one third of colleges do not offer athletic scholarships. At institutions that do offer scholarships, most sports are equivalency sports meaning that athletes are likely to receive only partial scholarships, if any at all. This means that the availability of non-athletic financial aid is an important consideration for most college athletes.
How to Find Student-Athlete Graduation Rates
The NCAA has a public service announcement stating that most of their athletes go pro in something other than sports. They actually provide a table with the probability of competing beyond high school and the percentage who actually make it to the professional level. Given this information, any sensible athlete should pay serious attention to the student part of “student-athletes.”
One thing prospective student-athletes should take a look at is the graduation rate for the schools they’re interested in and compare the graduation rate for their sport. It’s not hard to do.
Want to be Recruited to Play in College? Draw Them a Map
It doesn’t matter how many scouts or coaches show up to a tournament–if they don’t know you’re there you won’t be recruited to play in college. I remember one summer “showcase” tournament sitting in the bleachers behind home plate, pretty much by myself because it was over 100 degrees and if people couldn’t find shade, they left. Why was I still there? Since I had a towel to sit on, enough sun screen on to create a peelable layer, and my beat-up sun umbrella, I wasn’t much worse off than had I been in one of the few pathetic shade spots near the dugout.
8 Ways Showcase Camps Can Be a Waste of Money
Remember when camps were something you did for a week or two in the summer or maybe over a weekend with a scouting troop? High schoolers didn’t go to camps, they worked at them to save up money for college. Not anymore. At least not for high school athletes interested in playing at the college level.
Showcase camps are a convenient, although increasingly expensive, way to get recruited. Given that most college athletes don’t receive scholarships, it can be hard to see the ROI on attending showcase camps. It’s not that showcase camps (or prospect camps) are automatically a waste of money. But they’re certain to be if you make the following mistakes.