Skip to main content

Designing Your Pathway to College Sports in 2020




Your journey to continue your academic and athletic career at the collegiate level lies with a vision.  In other words, what do you want your future to look like based on your goals and aspirations. However, your success lies within your college recruiting game plan.  

 Designing Your Pathway to College Sports is a a student-athletes road map to play college sports.  But it is more than just about recruiting, it is about creating a personal development plan that will be the foundation of your future.  It will allow high school student-athletes to do some serious self-reflection as they prepare for the next stage in their life.   It was designed to get high student-athletes to engage in their future. 

6 Steps to Develop Your College Recruiting Game Plan 

1. Create your Personal Development Plan - Your personal development plan is made up of a number of self-reflection activities.  You will discover your strengths and weakness both on and off the field, establish your goals, and develop a personal mission statement that will be the foundation of your college search and recruiting process.


2. Build Your Recruiting Team - Your college search and recruiting process requires a TEAM EFFORT.  There are key players that you need to navigate through the process successfully.  Think of your Recruiting team as a basketball Starting 5, who is on your team and what are their roles and responsibilities?
  • You -  Point Guard
  • Parents / Guardians -  2 Guard 
  • High School Coaches / Club Coaches - Center 
  • School Counselor - Forward / Wing
  • Performance / Strength Conditioning Coach
3. Understand College Athletics Landscape - If you want to play in college than it is important you understand what you are signing up for?  
  • What is it going to take to get there?    
  • What are the demands of being a college student-athlete? 
  • What are the different student-athlete experiences of DI, DII, and DIII student-athletes
  • Number of Schools / Programs at each level  
  • % of HS Student-Athletes playing in college
  • Scholarship Opportunities  
  • Recruiting Rules/Guidelines for your sport
4. Build Your Initial College List -  To get started you should build an initial list of at least 20-30 schools but I recommend 50 schools.  Your list should include a wide array of schools, from DI to DIII, different sizes, and different campus settings.
                           
                                Are you ready to build your initial list of schools?  Visit www.trekonward.com to start creating your list of schools using their college search filter.

5. Develop Your Marketing Portfolio - In order for college coaches to recruit you they need to know who you are.  You need to create marketing materials that will help you promote yourself to those programs.  Your marketing portfolio can include a number of different things but there are certain things that are MUST haves. 
  • Introduction Letter 
  • Student-Athlete Profile (Resume) or Digital Profile
  • Social Media Recruiting Presence
There are other things you can have that will be helpful in your recruiting process like a Recruiting Video,  Elevator Pitch, Recruiting Blog, etc

6. Create Your Exposure Strategy -  One of the biggest aspects of being recruited is being evaluated by a college coach. You have to create your college exposure strategy.  How, where, and when is a college coach going to see you perform.

Ways / Opportunities to Gain College Exposure
  • College Showcase / Tournament 
  • College ID Camp / Clinic / Combine
  • High School Competition
  • Recruiting Video
It's time to start your journey to play college sports.  Utilize the college recruiting road map found in the Designing Your Pathway to College Sports workbook and find the school that will provide you with the best college experience, academically, athletically, and personally. 

 Visit www.GuidingFutureStarsAcademy.com to learn more about GFS or to purchase your copy of Designing Your Pathway to College Sports workbook to start planning for your academic and athletic future.

 LEARN THE #GFSWAY

Christopher J. Stack is the founder and CEO of Guiding Future Stars, a student-athlete development company that is committed to educate prospective student-athletes, parents, and coaches about what it takes to play at the next level, how the college recruiting process works, and how to be a successful student-athlete who excels in the classroom, on the field, and in the community.

A former Division I soccer player and coach at Mount St. Mary's University, he holds a degree in Business Management with a concentration in Sports Management and an MBA in Marketing. He worked in intercollegiate athletics for over 12 years. He started his career in college administration in rec sports and eventually transitioned into student-athlete academic support. He has the unique experience of being a collegiate coach as well as working closely with student-athletes on the academic and personal development side.

Stack now enjoys using his higher education experience to help high school students achieve their dreams of playing college sports while also gaining a first rate education.


Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

DI vs. DII vs. DIII: The Differences

Do you want to continue your academic and athletic career at the NCAA level?  Before you go making any decisions you should know what is the difference between NCAA Division I, II, and III.  The myth is that the best players play Division I, the next best play Division II, and so forth.  That is not always the case.  There are DIII players that have the ability to play Division I but they chose DIII to focus on their academics or have a more balanced college experience.  The Student-Athlete experience is different for each level.    What makes a NCAA Division I School a Division I Member? Division I member institutions have to sponsor at least seven sports for men and seven for women (or six for men and eight for women) with two team sports for each gender. Each playing season has to be represented by each gender as well. There are contest and participant minimums for each sport, as well as scheduling criteria. Schools that have football ...
Post a Comment
Read more

7 Habits of Highly Recruitable Student-Athletes

Do you want to continue your academic and athletic career in college? Do you think you have what it takes to be a college student-athlete? Playing in college goes well beyond your athletic abilities. Do you rest on your talents or are you willing to put in the time, effort, and energy to be the best you possibly can? Would you consider yourself lazy? Do you prioritize your academics? What kind of character do you have? Being recruited is about being a well-rounded individual. Taking the words from Shaquille O’Neal who borrowed them from Aristotle,  “Excellence is not a singular act but a habit. You are what you repeatedly do.” Leaving athletic abilities and skills aside, what are the habits of a highly recruitable student-athlete? Stephen Covey, the world renown author developed the  7 Habits of Highly Effective People , I have created my own 7 Habits of Highly Recruitable Student-Athletes: Habit #1: Identify Goals We also call this habit “Discovering Your Why.” T...
Post a Comment
Read more

Attitude and Character Will Set You Apart

A recruits talent is obviously an important piece in a college coaches evaluation of any prospective student-athlete.  But the decision to actively recruit a student-athlete goes well beyond talent.   A prospective student-athlete's attitude and character may be the most important attribute to a college coach.   What Is Attitude? Attitude is how a student-athlete carries himself or herself on and off the field.  Regardless of a players' performance, their skill, tactical, and physical display, other factors heavily influence a coach's decision to recruit a given athlete.  Coaches will look at their mental and psychological make up, their mental ability to quickly and correctly read and assess situations, their motivational drive and will power, their self confidence, and emotional stability.   A big determining factor of a prospects attitude is their body language on the field.  A coach can get a good sense of who you are by how...
Post a Comment
Read more