Play Sports in College

The skyrocketing cost of a college education is enough to send you and your parents into a panic.

But if you have athletic ability and good grades, you might be able to pay for all or part of your college education with college sports scholarships.

College sports scholarships are available in 34 sports at the college level. Those sports include not only football and basketball, but also archery, badminton, crew, cross-country, lacrosse and volleyball.

If you are a better-than-average athlete and are in the top third of your class, you could be eligible for any of the more than 180,000 athletic college sports scholarships awarded each year by colleges throughout the country.

Don’t sit back and wait
Many high school athletes think that college coaches will automatically hear about them if they are good enough. But the truth is, coaches will probably never hear about you unless you bring yourself to their attention. If you sit back and wait, you will probably be overlooked.

Start the recruiting process yourself
Begin contacting coaches at colleges that interest you sophomore or junior year. College coaches begin looking at athletes early so they can keep an eye on them for a season or two before their senior year. Getting your name out there puts you on the “must watch” list.

Make a list
To start your list of coaches to contact, first do some research on colleges overall. Consider the entire college scene, not just whether the school offers your sport.

Make a list of the coaches in your sport at the schools that seem best for you. Think of this as an ongoing project. As you find other schools with programs that might fit, add that coach to your list.

Contact a coach
Write an initial contact letter or e-mail to coaches to indicate your interest. Be brief (no longer than one page) and include a few basic facts about yourself, scholastically and sports-wise. Indicate why you are interested in the school. Many coaches are turned off by student-athletes just looking for scholarships and recruits who mass mail hundreds of schools.

Don’t be a pest, but be persistent
If you don’t hear back from the coach, don’t assume he or she isn’t interested. Call the coach and ask if they’ve received your letter. If not, introduce yourself. If so, ask if they’d like more information about you.

Get recruited
Rules govern the maximum amount of scholarships and money that can be awarded. But individual colleges decide how much they can afford and how to distribute the scholarship money. Many coaches divide the scholarships among players.

Todd Caven, co-author of How To Win A Sports Scholarship, was awarded a 50 percent soccer scholarship to Stanford University (stanford.edu). He also received an academic scholarship, state and federal grants, a work-study award and a loan.

High school student-athletes who show they can excel in the classroom as well as the playing field get recruited. It’s not enough to be a skilled athlete. Your chances multiply dramatically as your GPA and SAT or ACT scores increase.

Penny Hastings is co-author of How To Win A Sports Scholarship. Contact her at penny@winasportsscholarship.com.

College coaches are looking for players to help their team win the next national championship. High school players are looking for coaches and teams that will enable them to contribute and have a rewarding experience. How far ahead should you plan to play college sports?

No time like the present
When should you start looking for college sports scholarship opportunities? Now. No matter your age, now is the best time to plan if you hope to have a college sports scholarship in your future.

Getting a college sports scholarship for any athlete is a challenging accomplishment. You must have that mix of talent, character, decent grades and test scores to be worthy of a college coach’s time to recruit you.

Know your options
The NCAA (ncaa.org) reports that there are nearly 400,000 college athletes. Add to that the many NAIA schools (naia.org) that offer some scholarships and some of America’s community colleges. Check out the National Junior College Athletic Association (njcaa.org). Some community colleges with programs aren’t listed under the NJCAA, so search by state. In some states, community colleges do offer athletically based financial aid.

Earning a sports scholarship usually begins when someone is young, shows talent and becomes dedicated to a sport. It is something that happens on a court, in a pool or on a field and must be coupled with classroom accomplishment.

In general, top athletes who get the Division I scholarships are noticed as early as eighth grade. Verbal commitments are a possibility at any age, and scholarship offers go out to high schoolers. Final letters of intent are signed senior year.

Your next steps

Visit college Web sites, or search for schools at nextSTEPmag.com/Match. Make a list of 25 or more colleges you’d consider.

Keep an open mind about America’s many colleges. Look into the not-so-obvious choices, such as small colleges and out-of-state colleges.

Visit ncaa.org. Click on “about us,” then “membership” to find the list of schools sorted by sport. This will allow you to do a search by sport and division.

Markisha Lea, former USC full scholarship women’s basketball player, says: “I was recruited by many colleges but I still had a chance to consider where I really wanted to go—I didn’t just react to the coaches who called me. Make the recruiting process your own.”

Reach out to the college coaches at the schools you’re interested in to learn about their summer camps and scholarship opportunities. Assume that 98 percent of college coaches in America haven’t heard of you. Change that!

Chris Hayes, former linebacker of the Green Bay Packers and a former Washington State University scholarship football player, says, “Being a college athlete is a mindset that begins before you ever step onto a college campus. You must be willing to work hard and outwork the people around you to stand out. Skill, plus being in the right place at the right time because you put yourself there, will get you to the next level.”

Create a profile on a free site like prepchamps.com or trupreps.com. Then let college coaches know where they can find your profile.

When you have some varsity-level footage of yourself in action—or have competitive times for swimming, track or field events—let the coach know about your performances. As a general rule, highlight tapes aren’t absolutely necessary. You could send several quarters of different football games where you played well. Putting two of your best basketball or soccer halves together works, too.

Once you get a solid video together, you can post clips online. But coaches are going to want more than just a couple highlights to get a solid sense of your talent level.

Year-by-year summary

Freshmen: Explore colleges and work hard to contribute to your team. Learn academic requirements and get a solid start on your grades.

Sophomores: Begin reaching out now. Seek summer college camp opportunities. Contact a few coaches.

Juniors: Make direct contact with several coaches and follow up with them often. Video footage must go out this year. Register for the NCAA Eligibility Center at ncaaclearinghouse.net.

Seniors: Cultivate relationships you’ve started with college coaches. Promptly send new and compelling video footage of your moves to earn new scholarship opportunities.

Laura Mitchell is CEO of Sports Dreammakers (athleticinspiration.com) and the author of the Map of Your Future and the Map of Your Future Workbook, Making the Squad, and the Smart and Savvy Parents’ Guide to Helping Your Teen Reach Their Athletic Dreams. Mitchell is a college sports counselor at several high schools in the Los Angeles area.

 

College coaches want student-athletes who will help create a winning team. Their jobs usually depend on this. How can you be the recruited athlete? Start by being what we call a holistic student-athlete.

You don’t have to be Division I-bound to be a holistic student-athlete. Here’s what the coaches really crave.

Strong mind
College coaches’ end-of-year evaluations are often based on their student-athletes’ classroom performance.

Do you think a coach wants to recruit an athlete who struggles through high school courses? Shouldn’t your grades reflect that you are motivated as a student and not just as an athlete?

Most coaches don’t expect a 3.5 or higher GPA (though some require it), but demonstrating an ability to do what it takes to succeed in many different situations (social, academic, athletic) will let a college coach know that you’re ready for the next level.

No headaches
If you barely get by in high school, coaches will know you’ll be a big headache for them later. Be sure to know what college admissions offices require.

NCAA eligibility
Did you know that the NCAA Clearinghouse requires 16 core courses for Division I student-athletes and 14 core courses for Division II? The courses include English, math, science, history and other topics. For a printout of the exact courses you must complete, visit athleticinspiration.com.

Body
Talent, skill and athleticism are all important characteristics of the physical requirements to be recruited to play college sports. Improve your skills through repetition and solid mechanics. You can improve your agility, strength and other physical attributes through exercises and training techniques.

Spirit
The word “spirit” is an umbrella term for the word “character.” It’s how you carry yourself in school, public and during sports events. Before a college offers you any big scholarship money, the coaching staff will discuss your reputation with your teachers, counselors and administrators.

Determination
Coaches get paid to win. Do you have determination to carry yourself and/or your team through the hard moments? Have you ever been truly tested by a trainer?

Carefully chosen words
How much better will you be in your sport and in school when you lose the words “I’m too tired” or “I can’t” from your vocabulary? (Of course, be safe in all of your training techniques.)

What college coaches want isn’t complicated. They want a holistic student-athlete who has a strong mind, body and spirit to be recruited.

Laura Mitchell is the CEO of Sports Dreammakers (athleticinspiration.com) and the author of The Map of Your Future and The Map of Your Future Workbook, Making the Squad, and The Smart and Savvy Parents’ Guide to Helping Your Teen Reach Their Athletic Dreams. E-mail her at dreams@sportsdreammakers.com.

Sure, practices will be long, games will be tough, and the training in the off-season is nothing others will envy. But managing a good GPA and a social life as a college athlete (hoprfully with a sports scholarship!) is easier than you think.

Many students entering college as athletes wonder how they are going to manage keeping up their grades and social lives while playing sports. Here’s what to expect as a student-athlete, from my own experiences of being a Division I athlete at Arizona State University.

Expect to make friends
When you go on that first recruiting trip hoping to win a sports scholarship, you will meet the team you will probably play with for the next few years. When you go to your first practice, you will meet your 25 new best friends.

These are the people who you will room with in the residence halls and when you move out of the dorms. You will sit next to them on the bench and in lecture halls. You will run with them during a game and to your next class. They will tell you what to improve on both in a practice and on an English paper. They will push you to do your best on the field and in the classroom.

Expect to focus on your grades
Student-athletes have to remember that they are students first. You’ll have to keep up your grades (especially if you have a scholarship) in order to continue to be an athlete at your college. The NCAA requires athletes to maintain a minimum 2.3 GPA.

To help you accomplish your academic goals, some teams require athletes to spend a certain amount of hours studying each week. Your coaches will advise you to use the athletic facilities for more than just weight training. Use the computers and the tutors the athletic department provides. Your hours may be recorded for your coach to monitor.

Your coach might even ask for midterm evaluations from your professors to make sure you are on track with your grades. You may find that sometimes, you’ll have to skip a practice in favor of an academic event. Go to class. If you skip, you might be benched the next game, no matter how good of a player you are.

At Arizona State University, each team usually has a grade competition with each other just for the sake of more competition. For the past seven years, the ASU women’s soccer team has had the highest team GPA.

There is no doubt that you should get your homework done before an away game. Usually, an athletic adviser will travel with the team to keep players on track. This can be a pain, but what better thing to do than homework on a three-hour flight to Seattle?

Expect to have fun
The athletic department might set up athlete dances throughout the year, which are somewhat like a high school formal dance. They are a blast! It gives you the chance to meet the other athletes representing your college, break out of your shell and have your fellow athletes see what you look like outside of your sweat and jersey.

Support your fellow athletes, too, by attending their games as a team. Or arrange game nights or potluck dinners once a week with your team. Anything you can do to bond with your team will help you on and off the field.

Remember, whether you are playing a game, attending class or going out, you represent yourself, your team and your school.

1. Register for the NCAA Clearinghouse now The clearinghouse will determine your eligibility for your first year at an NCAA Division I or Division II college or university.

Students who qualified for an SAT or ACT waiver may qualify for a clearinghouse waiver, too. See your high school counselor for details. But first, go to ncaaclearinghouse.net to register and see what courses at your school have been approved by the NCAA Clearinghouse.

Take this important step even if you are unsure if you are a Division I or II athlete. Consider the true stories of the football player who ended up being able to walk onto the college football team he didn’t think he’d make; the high school volleyball player that the college crew coach recruited once she arrived on campus; and the basketball player who made the team after the first and second string point guards were injured.

These are true stories about Division I athletes. The football player was not registered with the clearinghouse, and had to sit out a year at his Division I university. The other two had registered just in case and were able to take advantage of their opportunities in college sports.

2. Keep an open mind
The NCAA has more than 320 Division I schools, just over 280 Division II schools and more than 400 Division III schools (where no athletic scholarships are available, but other scholarships usually are).

That means that a high percentage of college sports opportunities are at America’s NCAA Division III colleges. In addition, if you keep an open mind to the NAIA and the numerous junior and community colleges across the country, you will increase your chances of finding a place to compete in college if you are persistent. Search ncaa.org, naia.org and njcaa.org.

3. Market yourself
Market yourself as if you’re a new product!

• Starting today, think of yourself as Me, Inc., for example, “Dakota Thompson, Inc.” Take pride in your business and start positioning yourself in the market of college sports. If you invented a new product, you’d tell everyone, wouldn’t you? Your company is no different.

• Reach out to college coaches. Write e-mails and make phone calls to college coaches. Go to the athletic Web sites of 10 to 25 colleges and fill out their online recruiting questionnaires. This is true if you are a blue chip athlete (top 2 percent in the country) or an average varsity player at your high school. Choose the colleges you like, not just the ones who may be already contacting you.

• A word of caution: using a recruiting service is not the most effective way to market yourself. They can be expensive, and many college coaches throw away the materials they receive from recruiting services. Make your contact with a college coach a personal one. Send your own letter!

4. Respect the recruiting process In my conversations with college coaches, I hear one thing over and over again: “Coach Mitchell, please let high school athletes know that many college coaches are friends with each other. When athletes don’t return our phone calls, or mislead us about their intentions, it just makes them look disrespectful and deceitful. Why would I recruit an athlete like that?”

In other words, be truthful and respectful to college coaches. Remember, this is their career, too! Coaching talented athletes is the way they feed their families. It is OK to say, “I don’t know if I am interested in your school. I like X University better right now.”

5. Be persistent
After you send out all of those great letters and e-mails to college coaches, take the next step and make follow-up phone calls and e-mails. Even the average varsity athlete can make a college squad at a campus in America if they take the right steps and keep trying.

6. Tape it
Make plans to have your performance recorded several times to have footage for a college coach.
 
They will look for and evaluate potential, athleticism, skills, the ability to win and compete. They will also be checking out character, how coachable you are, your attitude and enthusiasm.

7. Sign up for summer camp and a summer club team
Attend a college camp this summer. It will help you get noticed by the coach at the school you choose.

Go to summer sports camp at a college that you are likely to be able to attend and where you can compete. In addition, playing your sport this summer will help you stay at the top of your game, and help you be competitive among your peers.

8. Work with your high school coach
If you don’t have a great relationship with your high school coach, get one. If you have attitude problems, can you straighten them out? Only the top 1 percent of athletes in the country get away with bad attitudes—and that usually catches up to even them.

Smile on the field! Help up opponents, and be the type of special player that a college coach won’t mind risking their career on. What will your high school coach say when a college coach calls to ask about the type of player you are?

Coach Laura Mitchell is CEO and founder of Sports Dreammakers Inc. and a former college head basketball coach and outreach counselor for the University of California. For more information, tips on writing to college coaches, and to order the booklet The Map of Your Future for student-athletes, go to athleticinspiration.com.

Scholarships by gender and sport
The chart at the bottom of this article shows the actual number of athletic scholarships for college the NCAA says a school may offer. It does not mean that all schools actually do offer the stated number of scholarships.

Using field hockey as an example, you see that division I teams can offer the financial equivalent of 12 athletic scholarships for college each year, whereas division II field hockey teams can offer the equivalent of 6.3. If a school from each level both had a cost of attendance of $20,000 and they fully funded their programs, the division I coach has $240,000 to distribute across her roster and the division II coach has $126,000 to disperse across hers. Both teams will carry rosters much larger than 12 or 6.3, so there is not enough money to give all players full athletic scholarships. In fact, less than half of all NCAA division I or II players receive any athletic scholarships for college money. How this money is split depends on the coach and the positional needs of the program each year. There is no set formula. In general though, those who can score, or are good at keeping others from scoring, get most of the money.

What kinds of scholarships are available?
A full athletic scholarship is when all of your tuition, room and board is paid for. The NCAA mandates that three division I sports must provide full scholarships for a specific number of roster spots in order to maintain their D-I classification: football (85), men’s basketball (12) and women’s basketball (15). No other sports have such requirements.

Scholarships are renewed each year. It is very rare to not have a scholarship renewed unless you have broken school rules and are suspended or you fail out of college. However, it is not unprecedented to lose your scholarship, or some of it, because the coach is giving it to another player, a top recruit, or you just did not play well enough to keep it.

Most sports offer athletes partial scholarships. This is where the coach awards you money that pays for part of your college costs. This amount can increase or decrease from year to year, at times depending on your performance.

Things to think about regarding athletic scholarships:
* Will a partial athletic scholarship be better than a financial aid package at a non-scholarship school? Not always.

·          Because many college students take longer than four years to graduate, will you still be awarded athletic scholarship money after your athletic eligibility runs out?

·          If you are injured playing in college, will your scholarship be honored all four years? Most times, yes.

·          Is the amount you're offered as a freshman at least the amount you receive all four or five years? Typically this is the case, but not always.

National Letter of Intent
Any offer of a scholarship is not final until you have been sent and signed the National Letter of Intent. Until that NLI is signed, there are no guarantees of anything. All NCAA schools use the National Letter of Intent. It is a legally binding contract that says the school will give you a certain athletic aid award in exchange for one year of attendance and participation at their school. If you sign an NLI with one school, but enroll at another school that is also part of the NLI system (all NCAA schools are), you’ll face a stiff penalty and won’t be able to play right away.

Final thoughts
Being awarded an athletic scholarship comes with a certain expectation and responsibility. You cannot take the money and run; you must participate in your sport to get the money. Very few people are awarded any athletic aid, let alone full scholarships. There is more money available for being an above-average student.

By Dave Galehouse, varsityedge.com and Ray Lauenstein, athletesadvisor.com, authors of The Making of a Student Athlete: Succeeding in the College and Recruiting Process.

The college athletic recruiting process is often paved with mistakes made by parents, students and high school coaches. Here is a list of common mistakes that can put you at a disadvantage in your athletic recruiting process.


Don't let your ego take over
Student-athletes often overestimate their abilities and believe they are better than they actually are. Overestimating your talent can leave you in the cold for a college career if you only target schools that are above your talent level. Though many kids make this mistake and end up transferring, a lot just get cut and never play their sport again. And that's a shame.

You may assume that you will be recruited while you wait for your mailbox to fill up with scholarship offers or wait for phone calls from coaches. This is the number-one mistake. You have to be proactive in contacting coaches; your parents should not be the ones to do it. Coaches want to hear from you.

Don't underestimate yourself
Student-athletes can also underestimate their abilities. They think they would not be capable of getting a scholarship, so they don't even try.

You don't have to be the best player in your league or even on your team to get some scholarship money, but you have to be a pretty good athlete and skilled at your sport. Most of all, you have to try. And in many cases, you have to ask for a scholarship.

Scholarship talent is usually noticed, but not always. Don't be shy about your ability or about calling attention to it and your aspirations.

Don't compare yourself
Don't watch other athletes get recruited and assume the same thing will happen to you since you're "better" or "just as good" as they are.

Few people realize how college and professional scouts evaluate players. A .440 hitter in high school who has reached his talent ceiling will scratch his head when a .250 hitter, who has barely scratched the surface of his ability, is offered a scholarship or is drafted. Stats don't always tell the story.

Don't miss your other options
Some student-athletes feel that anything less than an athletic scholarship to a Division I program is unacceptable. As the emergence of camps, showcases and private instruction takes on a new and more important role, many student-athletes feel that they need a scholarship to justify the time and expense they have already put into athletics.

Understand that scholarships are rare, and full scholarships even more so. Aside from Division I football and basketball powerhouses, most scholarships issued to players are partial scholarships. And a lot of times, a grant and aid package from a non-scholarship school is more lucrative than one with athletic aid.

Don't put too much stock in the mail
Student-athletes get a letter in the mail from a coach and think they are being recruited and think they are now a top college prospect.

But colleges send thousands of direct mail pieces to students on lists they purchase. Be glad you got a letter, return any enclosed paper work, research the school, wait for the coach to contact you (call them if you don't hear), and then the actual athletic recruiting process might begin.

Don't assume talent is everything
Student-athletes assume that if they are talented enough on the athletic field, their grades do not matter much because a coach will get them into the school. Wrong! The first thing a college coach needs to know about a student-athlete is if they are eligible to even get accepted into their school.

Don't be afraid to get help
Parents and students often receive help and encouragement from people who know very little about the recruiting process and little about college athletics. Listen to the right people and do your own homework.

Don't wait
Families start the process too late and end up making a rushed decision. Start researching schools as early as possible, and make first contact with college coaches at the start of your junior year, possibly even the end of your sophomore year. Just get your name in their pipeline by submitting a player profile questionnaire found online at any college sports Web site.

Dave Galehouse, varsityedge.com, and Ray Lauenstein, athletesadvisor.com, are the authors of The Making of a Student Athlete: Succeeding in the College Selection and Recruiting Process.

Myth: If you are good enough, coaches will find you.
Reality: There are too many players and too few coaches for every player to get exposure. Plus, many coaches have small recruiting budgets, which can make it difficult to see many players in person.

Myth: Division I programs have big recruiting budgets.
Reality: Some of the larger schools with top-notch football and basketball programs do have large recruiting budgets, but most schools do not. There are very few coaches who have the ability to fly around the country to recruit players.

Myth: Division III schools are weaker athletically.
Reality: In some cases yes, but in many cases no. Often, players at Division III schools are there to get an education first and play athletics second. But they are still talented, dedicated athletes who want to continue their athletic careers in college. If you think you can just stroll into a DIII program, you are in for a surprise.

Myth: All colleges offer athletic scholarships.
Reality: Only Division I and II colleges can offer athletic scholarships. Division III programs cannot offer athletes athletic scholarship money, and many DI and DII teams have little athletic scholarship money to offer.

Myth: Most athletes get a full scholarship or no scholarship.
Reality: Full athletic scholarships are very rare. Most coaches divide up scholarship money between several players.

Myth: Division I programs do not offer walk-on tryouts.
Reality: Though walking onto the Kentucky basketball team will be pretty difficult, many coaches rely on walk-ons and will usually conduct tryouts to give as many athletes a chance as possible.
 
Myth: All Division I and II programs have scholarships available.
Reality: Though the NCAA mandates how many scholarships a school can offer for a particular sport, it is up to the school whether or not they want to and can offer the number of scholarships allotted to them.

Myth: If you receive a letter from a coach, you are being recruited.
Reality: Coaches send out thousands of letters to players they may or may not have heard of. There are probably 500 other people tearing open the same exact letter you are. Receiving a letter means a coach knows your name. Respond to the letter and follow up with the coach. Until the coach calls you and tells you he is interested in you or invites you to the school, the letters mean very little.

Myth: Recruiting companies give me a better shot at being recruited.
Reality: Some recruiting companies offer families the guidance and assistance they need to make better decisions. Other companies simply take your money and e-mail and fax out résumés to thousands of schools in hopes that you get recruited. If a recruiting company does not help you identify your talent and help you focus on programs that would be a good fit, they will not help you succeed in the recruiting process. If you do not have the grades and talent to play in college, using a recruiting company will not really benefit you.

Myth: College coaches only recruit top players.
Reality: College coaches recruit anyone they think can play at their program and who shows an interest in their program. Just because you are not the star of your team does not mean you cannot play in college.

Myth: Playing sports in college isn’t much different than high school.
Reality: Playing college athletics is an unbelievable commitment in time and dedication. It will be nowhere close to your high school experience. In college, you will play or practice for three seasons—fall, winter and spring—and be required to do lifting and running programs as well. You may also be practicing at 6 a.m. or midnight or even twice a day.

Dave Galehouse (varsityedge.com) and Ray Lauenstein are authors of The Making of a Student Athlete: Succeeding in the College Selection and Recruiting Process.

College sports recruiting can be a very complex process, and at times anxiety producing, but with the right information and a little patience, your child will have a successful experience. 

1. Grades are very important.  The better they are, the more options you (the player) has. Good grades means that more schools  can recruit you and possibly offer more money  in the form of merit scholarships.  Grades can keep you from being recruited in some instances. 
    
2. The word "prospective" in the term Prospective Student-Athlete is important.  Regardless of how many letters you get from college coaches, until someone decides that you are the right fit in terms of athletic ability, grades, position and personal character, you are simply a prospect being evaluated.
    
3. College coaches mail out thousands of letters each year as part of their initial college sports recruiting effort. Mostly from that batch, the small recruiting classes enrolled each year are formed.  Sometimes an athlete not in that mailing list find their way to the coaches radar screen and is recruited. The point is, there are a lot of people out there and the right ones are hard to find.
    
4. College coaches will not “find” you because you are a good player. If you don’t hear from a college coach, assuming they are not interested in you because they have not contacted you is false. There is one coach and thousands of athletes, do the math. Learn the meaning of the word "proactive."  
    
5. It is OK for a student athlete to call, write or e-mail a college coach. In fact, coaches prefer to hear from the student, not the parent. Overzealous parents can ruin their child’s recruiting chances.
    
6. Treat your college search like a job search. Visit college Web sites, study the background of the coaches and the team’s recent history.  Send thank-you notes. Create a professional player profile with your athletic and academic history. Craft a custom cover letter for each coach you mail information to. Good letters of reference from your coaches are very valuable.  Find out if you have the right skills for the position.  Six-foot-three forwards are common at Division III, but rare to nonexistent at Division I. Know your target as well as you can.
   
    
7. Not every college offers athletic scholarships. Most scholarships are only partial, usually less than half the cost of attending. NCAA Division I and II schools, NAIA schools, and some Junior Colleges can offer athletic scholarship aid.     
   
    
8. Parents tend to freak out the first time a college sports team mails their child a form letter.  Keep it in perspective, mail back the questionnaire and then go research the school.  If you do not hear back from the coach, it is likely because they looked at your information and made a decision to not pursue you.  It could have been for a lot of reasons, some of them surprisingly arbitrary, but if you feel you are a legitimate fit and want to attend the school, call the coach and find out if they are interested.  If they say no, ask why, and offer to send game film.
   
    
9. A college sports recruiting video should be clearly marked with the student’s name, phone number, jersey color and number, and school or club team name.  Put about two to four minutes of highlights and then a couple of running half/quarters for extended play viewing.  A tape is meant to spark enough interest to continue in the recruiting process, to get a coach to call your references, request more tape, try to see you play in person, etc.
   
    
10. While it might seem, after watching BCS football and March Madness television and Internet hype, that college sports is all big business. The fact is, most college athletes toil in relative anonymity, playing hard, earning a degree, and learning a lot about what it takes to succeed in life. The spotlight shines on only a select few.

We’ll stop at 10. We could have gone to 100! Arm yourself with facts, ask lots of questions and focus on the fit. Where does your child fit socially, academically and athletically? Don't forget to enjoy the ride. 

By Dave Galehouse, varsityedge.com and Ray Lauenstein, athletesadvisor.com, authors of The Making of a Student Athlete: Succeeding in the College Selection and Recruiting Process.

At some point, you realize college athletics is a realistic goal. Being a professional athlete might have been your dream since the first time you played T-ball, scored a goal or laced up your skates. Most players understand that the odds of being a pro are slim, yet we hold onto that dream in some fashion as long as we are playing.

Eventually, the dream of professional athlete is delayed when we think of going to college and playing your sport while you get an education (then we can go to the pros)! Surprisingly, few high school players see themselves going to college for athletics. You never know what triggers the mind to think it is a realistic goal. For one player, Greg Robins of Westford, Mass., it was a summer camp at UCLA, attended out of convenience to a family vacation, where he was first told, “You can play somewhere in college if you continue to work hard at it.” Today he is preparing for his freshman baseball season at Kenyon College in Ohio.

When you have the goal, the natural inclination is to work toward achieving it. Hence the process begins to take more shape.

Determine your talent level—where can you play?
At the NCAA, NAIA and junior college level, there are almost 2,000 colleges in the United States alone that offer college athletics. The quality of play at these schools varies dramatically and covers all classification levels, so there is a good chance that you will fit in somewhere. The question is, which level are you most suited for? Where do you stand the best chance of competing for playing time? Where can you play and also find the right academic environment? 

How do you determine your talent level? A few suggestions: Compare yourself to former teammates and opponents who are now playing in college.   Where are they, how are they doing and were you competitive with them?

Ask your coach to evaluate you during the summer and during school. Ask an opposing coach what he thinks.

Ask a professional scout for an opinion on your level for college sports recruitment.

Go to a college summer camp and ask for an evaluation.

If you have a private instructor, use their experience with other players to give you a comparative idea.

Attend showcases or tournaments with players from other areas to see how you match up. Ask these players what colleges they are considering.

Look for a match with your playing ability and academic level
There will be schools where you can play baseball, but the academic fit is not right. Or you might be a good academic fit, but the baseball is not right. The trick is to find the best combination. When you do find a school that seems right, find out what conference its teams play in, and add those other schools to your list.

For example you might be a match for Knox College in Illinois, but the other schools in the Midwest Conference—Beloit (WI), Lawrence University (WI), Carroll College (IA), Grinnell College (IA), Illinois College, Monmouth College (IL), Ripon College (WI) and St. Norbert College (WI) have potential. Schools in the same conference are often very similar in makeup, profile and location.

Open a dialog with the coaches
A coach can’t recruit you if he does not know about you. And if you don’t express interest in a program, coaches will look elsewhere quickly for college sports recruitment.

In The Making of a Student Athlete, we cover contacting coaches in more detail. The basics are to pick up the phone, write a letter, send an e-mail, stop by their office and attend a practice. Do something to get your name and eventually your abilities in front of the coach.

Play in front of as many coaches as possible
Few coaches will recruit you without seeing you play in person, or at the very least on film with one of two strong recommendations from trusted sources. Go ahead and call coaches and ask them what showcases they or a staff member plan on attending for college sports recruitment. If you find a common event, attend it for maximum exposure.

A few other ways to play in front of a coach are at camps, summer travel teams, state summer olympic games and showcase tournaments. The higher-level showcase and travel teams expose you to higher-level people; specifically, NCAA division I and II programs and the better division III schools.

Evaluate every school that comes into the picture
Inevitably, your quest to showcase your skills will catch the attention of coaches from schools that weren’t on your initial radar. This is a good thing. It gives you more options to choose from. Take the time to review each option, even if you are not familiar with the school. You never know what it might bring you.

Visit the schools that seem like the best match
Visits play a big part in your decision and the coach’s decision to recruit you and possibly offer you a scholarship. Visits are classified as official and unofficial. Official visits, which are rare in baseball and limited by NCAA rules, are when the school pays for your trip. Unofficial visits are paid by you, and there are no limits how many times you visit a campus. “Junior day” visits, while an official and organized event on campus, are not official visits. They are unofficial as long as you pay your way, even if you are formally invited.

Apply and commit
Eventually you will have your top choices selected, and you will need to let a coach know that they are your top choice and that you will attend if offered or admitted. If you are lucky and good enough to be offered a scholarship, it will often be during the early signing period in November of your senior year. This is where you sign a National Letter of Intent, a legal document binding you to the school for at least one full year. It also binds the school to you for one year of athletic aid.

The whole commitment process is not an exact science and it is often the most gut-wrenching time of the recruiting process. This is where you might hear an ultimatum from a coach. Something like, “We need to know now! Otherwise, we have to move on to the others on our list.”

Play ball and stay eligible!
Once you are admitted, the fun begins. The key will be adjusting to life away from home, the rigors of college academics and the increased demand that your sport places on you. Will you be able to handle it all? Hopefully, yes. The summer after high school graduation should be a time to follow the team's off-season conditioning program and play your sport as much as possible in preparation for your college debut.

By Dave Galehouse, varsityedge.com and Ray Lauenstein, athletesadvisor.com, authors of The Making of a Student Athlete: Succeeding in the College and Recruiting Process.