So you’re a high school senior and you feel like you’ve been overlooked for a football scholarship? You can promote yourself to colleges without paying thousands of dollars to recruiting services. With that in mind, here are four easy steps to put yourself in the best position to be considered for an athletic scholarship:
It always has been about — and always will be about —- the film. Nothing, including glorified letters, personalized Web sites or phone calls from family friends or boosters, means as much as film. Film gives scouts the best opportunity to evaluate.
Computer programs with basic editing software cost less than $25, and a lot of people are skilled at editing.
Quick tip: Make sure to put the best plays at the front of the tape. Scouts go through hundreds of tapes a day, and time is short.
2. PREPARING THE PACKAGE
After preparing the tape, the next step is completing the rest of the package, which should include unofficial copies of high school transcripts and SAT/ACT scores, which are available from the school’s guidance counselor.
Also include a simple page of “quick facts, ” which shows contact information, such as your mailing address, cellphone, and e-mail address. It also can highlight football-related items, including height and weight, 40-yard dash times, positions played, individual statistics, and athletic and academic honors. Jersey number and position should be taped to the DVD in large block letters.
Quick tip: When mailing packages to colleges, save 50 percent in postage costs by requesting the “book rate.”
3. PICKING THE COLLEGES
This is the part of the marketing process where most mistakes are made. Unknown prospects sometimes mail tapes directly to schools like USC, Georgia or Notre Dame. You should at least have a few offers from smaller colleges (Div. II, I-AA) before targeting the “big boys.”
While there is nothing wrong with big dreams, there is a method to the recruiting madness: Start off with the smaller schools and build leverage from there.
For each 10 tapes you send out, five should go to schools you think you are too good to play for; three should go to schools you think you could play for, and two should go to schools you dream of playing for. If you get an offer from Shorter College, then West Georgia or Morehouse may be willing to look at your film, and then Georgia Southern and Georgia State, and so forth.
Quick tip: Target colleges from surrounding states (North Carolina, Tennessee, South Carolina and Kentucky) that traditionally recruit the state very hard. Florida colleges may be a waste of time because they tend to stay in-state with recruiting due to the tremendous amount of local prospects. If you are from the south, make sure you send your package to schools in the midwest.
*IF YOUR GRADES AND ACT/SAT ARE NOT GOOD..YOU SHOULD SEND YOUR PACKAGE TO SEVERAL JUNIOR COLLEGES!!!!!!!!!!!
You can play semi-pro football while you attend your local junior college without affecting your eligibility as long as no one on the team is being paid! If you take this route, do not enroll full time. Enrolling full-time starts your eligibility clock. You have 5 years to play !
4. CLOSING THE DEAL
While the most important thing is the highlight tape, No. 2 is following up with colleges about 10-14 days after mailing the packages. College coaches have hundreds of DVDs on their desks, with many more waiting to be opened. So think of it like applying for a job: To get noticed, you need to be persistent but polite with phone calls or e-mails.
Quick tip: When you get to particular school’s Web Site, search under “Athletics” and not “Football”, looking for a “Staff Directory” or “Administration.”
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