Connect with College Coaches and find your best college match.
To help our athletes navigate the complicating recruiting process, we’ve partnered with NCSA College Recruiting. Over the past 20 years, NCSA has refined the tools that student-athletes need during the college recruiting process to find their college match. Using hands-on guidance, college matching tools and network of 35,000+ college coaches, more than 200,000 student-athletes have made commitments to their college choice. Every day, the 750+ former college coaches and athletes at NCSA are helping high school athletes:
• Gain exposure and get discovered by college coaches
• Ensure they are on track to become NCAA and NAIA eligible
• Effectively contact and communicate with college coaches
• Find the best schools based on athletic and academic goals
The following information will help athletes and their families better understand what the recruiting process is and how to put together an effective recruiting game plan.
The Three Most Common Recruiting Pitfalls
1. Assuming someone else is handling their recruiting. While your high school or club coach and parents will play a big role in your recruiting, you will have to put in the time and effort to find the right program for you and connect with college coaches.
2. Not putting enough emphasis on academics. Talent and athletic ability will catch a college coach’s attention, but below average academics will seriously limit your recruiting options.
3. Not exploring all opportunities. It pays to seriously explore all of your options. Many athletes start with just one or two target schools in mind, only to find a college they love that wasn’t even on their radar.
Tools for Getting Recruited
NCSA Recruiting Profile -
College coaches begin their recruiting process online, so the first step to connecting with college coaches in creating a recruiting profile. Every recruit’s profile should be completed with the following information:
• Name, high school, grad year, position
• Physical stats (i.e. height, weight)
• A key sport measurable (i.e. 40-yard dash time)
• Your high school transcript with GPA and ACT or SAT scores
• Highlight video (if applicable)
NCSA provides a free recruiting profile to all of our members. More than 35,000 college coaches actively search NCSA profiles every year looking for athletes to fill their open roster spots.
Highlight Video -
Highlight video is a valuable recruiting tool for college coaches, especially for those who are unable to easily watch recruits compete in person. A strong highlight video is between 3–5 minutes long, includes 20–30 clips from game footage and includes the athlete’s contact information at the start and end of the video. To make sure highlight video is easily accessible for coaches, upload your video to your NCSA Recruiting Profile and YouTube.
What to do next?
Premier National Sports and NCSA are here to help the college recruiting process and student-athletes get recruited. Having this knowledge now will help get your recruiting effort off to a great start. If you have any more questions or would like more information about getting your recruiting plan in place, you can contact NCSA at 1-866-495-5172.