I went to a seminar on “Sending your child to college at little or no cost to you”. It was offered by the softball coach at our high school who runs a state ranked program and whom has also sent many girls to college – for “free”. He expressed that if your child has an ounce of athletic ability and is decent in their sport – you can find a school that is willing to extend “a financial package” so your child can play. It is helpful to have good grades, community involvement, play at least 2 sports, and be involved in activities run by the school. College coaches are looking for student-athletes that can handle a diverse load of responsibilities – well. What is most important and what he emphasized – college coaches do not want to hear from parents! Somewhere along the way, some parent messed it up for the rest of us and told a college coach how wonderful, great, hard-working, incredibly amazing their child was and their child turned out to be a dud, ruining the credibility for the rest of us parents!
The things you can control: Her behavior, your behavior, AAU Tournaments, Showcases and Exposure camps, Emails, and online profiles. These are all marketing tools that in some cases are free or very low cost. I will give an overview of how to use each tool and then go into deeper detail later.
Her behavior:
I tell my daughter all the time – “You never know who is watching”. It is so important – especially at showcase events, camps and AAU tournaments that she conduct herself in a respectable manner. She should not be looking at you during the game, coming over to you during breaks and half-time (unless there is an extenuating circumstance – like an injury), talking to the crowd, cutting looks at the ref and arguing calls, arguing with the coach or her teammates. These are big RED FLAGS to college scouts. Along with her skill level, they are watching how she interacts with her teammates, how she responds to directives from the coach, if she knocks a girl down due to a foul – does she help the girl up. Coaches are looking for competitors – not angry girls with attitudes. Your daughter has to appear coach-able. If a coach has 2 girls: Girl A has incredible talent, but argues with the refs and kicks the chair when she gets subbed; Girl B has a little less talent, listens to the coach and cheers for her team when she is not in the game… They are going with Girl B. The pool is too deep to tolerate poor behavior and attitude.
Your behavior:
I will go into more detail with this – as it deserves its own chapter, but as far as marketing your daughter – you are being recruited too. Not only are the college coaches watching your daughter’s skills and behavior – they are trying to match the loud unruly parent that has something to say about every call and yelling “shoot the ball”, to the kid on the court. Don’t sabotage your daughter’s recruitment because you can not contain your competitive spirit and missed your calling to play in the pros. You are there for support! If you must yell – yell encouragement, “nice pass”, “good shot”, “great defense”. Do not clap because the other team made a mistake – you want to be a good sport and although your team may be struggling, it’s not always the ref’s fault.
AAU Tournaments:
AAU tournaments are a great recruiting tool. The NCAA has strict regulations as to how many days the different “D’s” can view and when they can recruit your daughter. I hear parents of 8th graders saying “my daughter is being recruited by XYZ College” – the truth is - they are not being recruited. Unless your daughter is 6’7” and dunking the basketball (in the 8th grade), colleges may be showing interest – but they are also interested in 150 other girls in your daughter’s age group. It’s flattering and exciting when the letters start coming and is a good gauge for you to know where you should be pointing your marketing strategy, but if you get a letter from Penn State and they say they saw your daughter play at ABC Tournament and think she has the potential to cut down nets with them – it is up to you to keep your daughter in their vision. They can’t talk to her until September 1st of her Junior Year. Don’t wait until August 31st to update them with your daughter’s progress.
Showcases and Exposure Camps:
Can you say “meat market”? Let me give you the scenario – It is 7am on any given Saturday. You are standing in a line with your daughter and 149 girls ahead of you waiting to sign in and get a jersey with a 3 digit number on the back. There are parents armed with portable chairs and girls in ankle braces, sizing each other up. A good turn out is about 1 college coach to every 25 girls. Until you have a following or have gotten some contact from some college coaches – it is best to hold off on these events. If you decide to go… make sure you send emails to about 50 college coaches in that immediate region letting them know you will be attending (we’ll cover more about that in the email section). More often than not – the college coaches in attendance will take the list of attendees, set up a mail merge and mass mail a profile letter to the attendees.
Email Updates:
If you are reading this, then you probably know how to use your computer. Emailing college coaches is a no-cost way for you to get them seeing your daughter’s name. Set up an email account in your daughter’s name – used only for recruiting. Start collecting coach’s email addresses (preferably the recruiting coach) and adding them to the email address book. Making college coaches aware of tournament dates and showcase events that your daughter will be attending is your way of controlling the notification to the coach. If you think that your AAU coach or HS coach is emailing every college coach in your daughter’s dream school list – you are dreaming.
Online Profiles:
A lot of schools now have “Prospective Athlete Profiles” online. I wouldn’t suggest consuming your entire day with filling one out for every school in the US, but if you have a feel for what your daughter wants to major in or what region of the country she is planning on attending college – you can go to the school’s athletic website – for the women’s basketball program and see if they have a link to submit an online profile. Some schools use a *.PDF file and you can print it out, fill in the information and send it to the coach’s attention.
Game Tapes:
A great way to get in front of a coach is to send them some game film. They want to see some highlights - but they want to see how your daughter does in a game situation as well. This is especially helpful if your daughter is targeting a geographical area and it isn't logistically feasible for a recruiter to make the trip. (Example: Your daughter wants to go to school in Cali, but you're not going to any tournaments out that way).
The things you can control: Her behavior, your behavior, AAU Tournaments, Showcases and Exposure camps, Emails, and online profiles. These are all marketing tools that in some cases are free or very low cost. I will give an overview of how to use each tool and then go into deeper detail later.
Her behavior:
I tell my daughter all the time – “You never know who is watching”. It is so important – especially at showcase events, camps and AAU tournaments that she conduct herself in a respectable manner. She should not be looking at you during the game, coming over to you during breaks and half-time (unless there is an extenuating circumstance – like an injury), talking to the crowd, cutting looks at the ref and arguing calls, arguing with the coach or her teammates. These are big RED FLAGS to college scouts. Along with her skill level, they are watching how she interacts with her teammates, how she responds to directives from the coach, if she knocks a girl down due to a foul – does she help the girl up. Coaches are looking for competitors – not angry girls with attitudes. Your daughter has to appear coach-able. If a coach has 2 girls: Girl A has incredible talent, but argues with the refs and kicks the chair when she gets subbed; Girl B has a little less talent, listens to the coach and cheers for her team when she is not in the game… They are going with Girl B. The pool is too deep to tolerate poor behavior and attitude.
Your behavior:
I will go into more detail with this – as it deserves its own chapter, but as far as marketing your daughter – you are being recruited too. Not only are the college coaches watching your daughter’s skills and behavior – they are trying to match the loud unruly parent that has something to say about every call and yelling “shoot the ball”, to the kid on the court. Don’t sabotage your daughter’s recruitment because you can not contain your competitive spirit and missed your calling to play in the pros. You are there for support! If you must yell – yell encouragement, “nice pass”, “good shot”, “great defense”. Do not clap because the other team made a mistake – you want to be a good sport and although your team may be struggling, it’s not always the ref’s fault.
AAU Tournaments:
AAU tournaments are a great recruiting tool. The NCAA has strict regulations as to how many days the different “D’s” can view and when they can recruit your daughter. I hear parents of 8th graders saying “my daughter is being recruited by XYZ College” – the truth is - they are not being recruited. Unless your daughter is 6’7” and dunking the basketball (in the 8th grade), colleges may be showing interest – but they are also interested in 150 other girls in your daughter’s age group. It’s flattering and exciting when the letters start coming and is a good gauge for you to know where you should be pointing your marketing strategy, but if you get a letter from Penn State and they say they saw your daughter play at ABC Tournament and think she has the potential to cut down nets with them – it is up to you to keep your daughter in their vision. They can’t talk to her until September 1st of her Junior Year. Don’t wait until August 31st to update them with your daughter’s progress.
Showcases and Exposure Camps:
Can you say “meat market”? Let me give you the scenario – It is 7am on any given Saturday. You are standing in a line with your daughter and 149 girls ahead of you waiting to sign in and get a jersey with a 3 digit number on the back. There are parents armed with portable chairs and girls in ankle braces, sizing each other up. A good turn out is about 1 college coach to every 25 girls. Until you have a following or have gotten some contact from some college coaches – it is best to hold off on these events. If you decide to go… make sure you send emails to about 50 college coaches in that immediate region letting them know you will be attending (we’ll cover more about that in the email section). More often than not – the college coaches in attendance will take the list of attendees, set up a mail merge and mass mail a profile letter to the attendees.
Email Updates:
If you are reading this, then you probably know how to use your computer. Emailing college coaches is a no-cost way for you to get them seeing your daughter’s name. Set up an email account in your daughter’s name – used only for recruiting. Start collecting coach’s email addresses (preferably the recruiting coach) and adding them to the email address book. Making college coaches aware of tournament dates and showcase events that your daughter will be attending is your way of controlling the notification to the coach. If you think that your AAU coach or HS coach is emailing every college coach in your daughter’s dream school list – you are dreaming.
Online Profiles:
A lot of schools now have “Prospective Athlete Profiles” online. I wouldn’t suggest consuming your entire day with filling one out for every school in the US, but if you have a feel for what your daughter wants to major in or what region of the country she is planning on attending college – you can go to the school’s athletic website – for the women’s basketball program and see if they have a link to submit an online profile. Some schools use a *.PDF file and you can print it out, fill in the information and send it to the coach’s attention.
Game Tapes:
A great way to get in front of a coach is to send them some game film. They want to see some highlights - but they want to see how your daughter does in a game situation as well. This is especially helpful if your daughter is targeting a geographical area and it isn't logistically feasible for a recruiter to make the trip. (Example: Your daughter wants to go to school in Cali, but you're not going to any tournaments out that way).
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