October 16, 2009
Recruiting Organization Tips for the Student Athlete
By Jake Chapman, Showcase U Co-founder
One of the most daunting tasks for high school student athletes and their families is the organization of the recruiting process. Letters, game film, questionnaires, phone calls, e-mails... It's easy to get overwhelmed with incoming and outgoing information. Also, unless you are blessed with a perfect mind, you may simply forget details of conversations you've had or e-mails you've sent to coaches over a long period of time. This could jeopardize the relationship you are trying to build with them and could lead to confusion and frustration on both sides.
We are blessed that the internet makes data so readily available and accessible, but unless we manage properly, it may cause us to lose focus and potentially miss opportunities staring us right in the face. Therefore, as you embark upon your personal recruiting campaign, I recommend you create a communication log.
Communication Log (sample below)
A communication log is a journal that documents all of the correspondence you've had with college coaches - coming and going.
A communication log should be in spreadsheet form, (Excel, Google Doc or a modified Word document). Spreadsheets are great for several reasons:- They are clean and simple
- It is easy to add, edit, delete and customize data
- You can sort data by any field
- You can even print them out if you prefer a hard copy
Your Communication Log may include the following fields:- Date/Time
- School Name
- Division
- State
- Coach Name
- Coach Title - (Head Coach, Assistant, Recruiting Coordinator, etc...)
- Type of correspondence (sent or received)
- Comments
- Links, Tasks, Tuition, Enrollment, Majors, Distance in miles from my house?...etc.
By keeping this log, you are clearly going to be more organized. It will also serve as an honest progress report of how much work you've actually done marketing yourself. You can share it with your coaches, advisors and mentors so they can assess and assist you along the way. It can even serve as a monitor as to whether you are wasting your time on a specific program or not. (It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that your 10 unanswered emails and 5 unreturned phone calls to Notre Dame might be a sign to move on.)
Lastly, this exercise in organization is something that you'll benefit from your whole life. Beside being a crash course in Spreadsheets 101, it may help with better note taking in college, budgeting, scheduling, and many other relevant real-life situations. Our goal, of course, is that it leads to an opportunity for you to attain a college degree and play intercollegiate athletics - perhaps even at a discount.
To get you started, here's a simple Communication Log courtesy of ShowcaseU. Feel free to customize it and make it your own.
Enjoy and good luck.