Building Relationships is the Key to College Athletic Recruiting Success
Rex Grayner
August 02, 2006
The competitive battle for that golden spot on a college team can often times become lost despite the aggressive goals, athletic ability, and determination of student-athletes to achieve a long-anticipated dream. Even though the best intentions of a student athlete are to save their parents’ hard-earned dollars on looming college tuition and housing costs, the recruiting journey is often rushed, overlooked, and bypassed because the process was never understood or followed. When this happens, cherished childhood dreams are tucked away forever.
For the most part, this journey turns rapidly into a race during final high school years and months because only 100,000+ college freshmen roster spots are available to over 2 million high school senior athletes. So for the 5% who actually do end up competing in college, fulfilling their dream is not entirely dependent upon how high they jump or how fast they run. It’s also about building relationships with college coaches and becoming more proactive than the next athlete.
Each spring, high school seniors nationwide prepare to close the books on their prep days and move on to the college ranks. And for those aspiring to continue their athletic careers in college, most of the nation’s elite have signed National Letters of Intent by now, while tens of thousands more are still scrambling to land last-minute college roster spots.
The story of a young man named Brandt summarizes the last-minute sprint of his salvaged journey after he called me in desperation a few years ago with a rather sad yet all-too familiar story.
Like thousands of top preps around the country, this outstanding golfer received college recruiting letters during his junior year, enough to make him feel pretty comfortable about his collegiate future. In fact, nearly 20 major Division I universities with elite golf programs showed early interest in Brandt. Unfortunately, these letters were the last pieces of correspondence he would receive for the next 6 months.
Mysteriously, by the fall of Brandt’s senior year in high school, no more letters were arriving and no phone calls from coaches were being received. He began to question whether he was good enough to compete in college. “What did I do wrong?” he asked. “Is it my golf game? My grades?”
After all, should not a 2-handicapper with a 3.5 GPA be a candidate for even the smallest college scholarship? One would think so.
After telling me his story and begging me for help, I spent some time speaking to Brandt’s high school coaches and calling some Division I and II coaches on his behalf. Despite having assisted hundreds of student-athletes with the college recruiting process, I was quite puzzled as to how a young man with Brandt’s athletic and academic resume could simply fall through the cracks.
And then, my questions were answered: Brandt never responded to coaches after receiving their initial letters during his junior year, and all assumed he was not interested in their program.
I know it sounds ridiculous. You would think that receiving letters from big-time Division I schools would prompt an immediate response. But with the hustle and bustle of high school life, practice, games, homework, tests, proms, holidays, and so on, it’s not too absurd to imagine that today’s student-athlete might place questionnaires and calls to total strangers somewhere near the bottom of his priority list; which is essentially what happened. Brandt not only failed to reply to coaches; he really didn’t understand the importance of making himself stand out from the rest of the nation's aspiring college-level players.
Still, the oddest part of my preliminary investigation was that not a single coach I spoke to even knew of this 2-handicapper and All-State selection. Granted, failing to reply to a college coach is a quick way to warrant a black line through your name. But three of the coaches I telephoned were of the 20 that originally sent him recruiting letters six months earlier.
Needless to say, this story has both an inspirational and educational ending. In short, once the word got out and coaches learned of Brandt’s availability, the calls and letters flooded in. Not a day went by between September and early November that he didn’t receive contacts from both large and medium-sized colleges. The difference this time was that Brandt had some guidance and a game plan for managing his massive list of courting coaches.
Ultimately, he signed his National Letter of Intent during the November signing period with a Division I golf powerhouse. He was awarded an 80% scholarship his first year there, and according to his parents, his scholarship increased each year until he graduated. Now for the best part…
Way back in the fall of his junior year in high school, before, one of the coaches that contacted him was the coach from the school with which Brandt would later sign. Even though he didn’t make it a point to follow up with Brandt, the coach was persistent and decided to call him in July following the end of his junior year (when it was permissible by the NCAA). During the call, the two traded pleasantries and discussed Brandt’s golf future. Surprisingly, the coach offered Brandt an opportunity to “walk-on” (no scholarship) if nothing else panned out for him in his senior year.
This is the same coach that a year later offered to pick up 80% of his education.
So what changed? Had his golf game improved so dramatically in just a few months? Had other potential recruits committed elsewhere? Not in this case. Basically, the biggest before-and-after was Brandt’s national exposure. Instead of just 20 coaches knowing him, over 500 coaches were contacted on Brandt’s behalf, and once schools nationwide knew of him, “leverage” was born. On top of this, the key to Brandt’s recruiting turnaround was the way he managed his contacts and sustained relationships.
In my 12+ years of experience, recruiting is as much about personal relationships as anything else. College coaches are dealt the task of sifting through piles and stacks of prospect information each and every year. Recruiting, as professed by many, is the worst part of a coach’s job. There’s never enough time to evaluate and review the hoards of correspondence from thousands of hopeful prospects, so the ones coaches end up landing are the ones they truly know.
Brandt’s story is a great teaching tool for all college-bound athletes. First, even though he got a rather late jump on the process, he responded to every letter, every email, every phone call, no matter what part of the country or how large or prominent the university. He treated each coach with respect, he asked lots of questions, and most important, he didn’t wait for coaches to take the initiative. He was, in the purest sense of the term, proactive.
And obviously, the more he followed up, the more he learned that some schools simply didn’t match his own personal preferences. With these coaches, Brandt was completely honest. And he was afforded the luxury of being so open because he had choices – a powerful commodity for college prospects. Granted, many of those choices arose because so many schools were introduced to him. That’s the whole idea of getting exposure.
However, the truth behind Brandt’s overwhelming recruiting success came in the form of multiple contacts from the same college coaches. He completed every questionnaire in a timely manner. He returned every phone call and every email within 24 hours. He established a management system to ensure that all coaches received updates, friendly hellos and strategic follow-ups down the home stretch of his recruiting process. As a result, he stood himself apart from most other scholarship candidates, even while narrowing down his list to a small number of schools… until his “wish list” was set in stone.
In short, Brandt developed relationships with college coaches across the country, and when all was said and done, they raved about his maturity and candid spirit. This was a student-athlete that really wanted to compete in college. And he convinced college coaches everywhere that he was perfect for their program. In the end, when the same coach that once offered Brandt a walk-on spot turned around and made him his #1 prospect, Brandt sent a friendly email to over 80 college coaches, thanking them for their ongoing interest and a chance to get to know them – and kindly notified each that he found his dream school.
The morals of the lesson are plentiful. College recruiting is not an event; it is often a lengthy process. And finding the perfect college match is hard work and often involves developing relationships with 50+ coaches. But most important, becoming proactive leads to college recruiting success. Sitting back and waiting for the perfect offer is a recipe for disaster. Get exposure, get it early, and make yourself stand out from the rest.