How parents can help their children in the NCAA recruitment process

Key topic

Parents and athletes going into the recruitment process are a team, where the athletes should get the MVP vote from the get-go. This lesson explains how parents should facilitate the recruitment process and be of help, with a clear focus on the things they can control and should process, during the last two years of the athletes’ high school careers.

Learning objectives

• Understand your role as parents in the NCAA recruiting process
• Become prepared to incorporate all requirements in your children’s academics
• Develop proper habits to follow the NCAA rules and avoid violations
• Discover the importance of amateurism in the NCAA recruiting process
• Create conditions that will maximize your kids’ potential and opportunity to become NCAA student-athletes

It’s time for parents to become All-Stars

Hopefully by the time you are attending this presentation, your children will have developed into the model combination of a student-athlete, ready to pursue the dual career and dream of being a student and an athlete at the collegiate level. It has undoubtedly been a very long ride, with sacrifices made from the entire family, young athletes included of course, but this is actually the final stretch in the process.

You probably have been, repeatedly, advised to be very discrete in your role as a participant in the process of your kids’ sporting development, starting years ago when your kids only wanted to go out and play sports to have fun. You have been told, time and again, to create distance from your adolescent stars and allow them to enjoy the game and the participation, allow the coaches to do their job and allow stress-free competition for your kids and teach them the fundamentals of sport participation, outside the required skills. Well, now is the time to fully engage in the process; now is the time to step up and be an All-Star wingman/wingwoman to your kids’ effort in securing a roster spot in a college team.

Being an All-Star is defined as that person who makes the difference. The person whose performance and attitude adds value to the team and facilitates the betterment of those around the All-Star; a leader, a person who is recognized and well respected for many things other than just the game-performance. You need to be that person; you need to help your family, your team, as well as your teammates which are your kids. Lead them, but be extra careful not to overshadow them. Guide them, but be cautioned that you should not and cannot be this game’s MVP. It’s a fine line you are asked to walk and yes it should be recognized that it’s not an easy task at all. Yet again, which aspect of parenthood has ever been easy?

We want you to remember that college student-athletes represent only 6% of the national high school student-athlete body, who tried to become NCAA student-athletes. Remind your kids too and brace yourselves, as this is a two-way street. We will discuss the unfortunate scenario, later on.

As already discussed in a previous lesson, parents and students have to concentrate on very specific and simple tasks. These, in brief, are:

1. Register with the NCAA Portal for Prospective Student Athletes (PSA)
2. Register with the Academic Eligibility Center
3. Take the right courses and college entry tests and make good grades
4. Refine and perfect the sporting skills to reach the level required for collegiate sports
5. Maintain the status of amateur athlete at all times

At this point of your kids’ athletic maturity and skills development, there is very little, if any, a parent should concern themselves about as you all have been strictly set wide apart from this task, having allowed the coaches to do their job and the college recruiters to identify your kids’ special sports talents. Fundamentally important is for the entire team (family) to recognize that the ultimate decision lies outside the home; college coaches and recruiters will make the final choice and have the final say on offering a roster spot to your kids.

Regardless of achieving high academic and sporting standards, it is a possibility, a rather good one unfortunately, that the decision you can’t control will not go your team’s way. So, your focus as All-Stars should be on the things that you can control; namely academics, paper-work and some networking.

Additionally, please consider the following in relation to the recruiting process:

Exposure:
Exposure comes mainly from your high school coach. College coaches tend to acquire prospect information from high school coaches, based on individual relationships that are built over time. It is, however suggested to create and send every college of your kids’ choice, a highlights video of your kid’s accomplishments.

Role of the High School Coach:
Every high school coach is expected to supply audiovisual game material, usually by the winter of junior year and again in the middle to the end of the senior year, for most Division I schools. Along with this material, correct and accurate evaluations of athletic and academic performance, supported by adequate documentation, are expected from them

Attending College Camps:
This is where most college scholarships are awarded. Attend and perform at the different college camps in-front of college coaches. Student athletes need to perform in front of the college coaches because college coaches want first hand information they can trust. Performing on a college campus and against other prospects can reinforce a prospect’s evaluation. All camp dates are posted on college websites.

Audiovisual Material from Games (Game Tapes):
College coaches evaluate student-athletes based on real game tape footage. Make sure the college coaches have game tapes at the appropriate time, as already discussed. If they feel that an athlete is a real prospect, they will connect with their coach and also with you as parents, within the NCAA limitations and restrictions. The higher the division desired by your kids to compete in, the earlier the tapes are needed. It’s not uncommon, for example, for athletes to receive offers based on sophomore-year game tapes.

Paying a Private Recruiting Service:
Paying a recruiting service for “exposure” or for help with the recruiting process does little to help in recruiting and it’s not advised. The NCAA mandates and approves all recruiting services colleges can use. Most of these services are not accessible to the public.  All of these services are free to the high school coach and student athletes. There is no harm in using “free” services, but make sure the services are NCAA-approved.

Camps, Combines, Showcases and other recruiting events:
Attending these types of events can be a crucial step in your kids’ recruiting process, but it is important to know how to make them worth your while because they can be fairly costly and time consuming. The types of events your child can attend vary by sport, but the below are the main categories:

• Camps– At the middle school and early high school level, camps are focused on fundamentals and building skills under the instruction of a high school coach. As the student-athlete advances, they can attend college camps, which give them the chance to play in front of college coaches who may be interested in recruiting them. These types of camps may be invite-only.
• Combines – These events are held to test student-athletes’ athletic ability. They usually involve specific conditioning drills that assess speed, strength and overall skill.  Combines and showcases do not typically require an invitation and are mostly attended by third parties that can help student-athletes get exposure, not coaches.
• Showcases – These events usually include both sport-specific drills and actual competitions.
• Tournaments – Usually put on by third parties, tournaments give college coaches a chance to see top recruits compete against each other.

AAU model events:
If your kids’ sport allows for the participation on an AAU team, you and your kids should choose the team carefully and wisely, based on the fact that coaches in high school and the AAU team should have similar approaches in all fundamental issues (performance, attitude and otherwise). You should also be aware of the fact that, even though these events may offer intense competition and some skill improvement, the athletes’ performance in high school competition is what ultimately determines scholarship offers.

Moreover, you, as parents, should understand and communicate with your children that, in fulfilling the dream of a collegiate athletic career, they must:

• Understand the NCAA and NAIA Academic Eligibility rules as early as ninth grade year begins, as well as academic eligibility requirements which kick in very early.
• The overall GRADE POINT AVERAGE (GPA) is the most important number in the recruiting process. The higher the GPA, especially above a 3.0, the more athletic opportunities a student athlete may have available. The most important high school report card is the first semester of the student athletes’ ninth grade.
• College athletics scholarships are limited and in high demand, often based on the subjective evaluation of coaching staff, whereas academic scholarships are available everywhere. Student-athletes need to work hard to earn either and also maintain either scholarship, but admittedly academic scholarships are easier to receive and hold, as they are solemnly dependent on the academic outcome and not on anyone’s evaluation, which could be rather subjective.

Moreover, it is often the case that colleges will also evaluate the parents and not only the student athletes in order to make sure that they too are a good fit for their program. This is because colleges have identified that:

• Parents of recruits provide insight into the maturity and character of the recruit
• Parents of recruits foreshadow if they will be a handful in the future
• Parents of recruits will foreshadow how they will represent the program and school
• Parents of recruits will reveal how much of a distraction/help they will be to their child
• Parents of recruits reveal what type of student-athlete the coach is recruiting

Please, do keep the above in mind!

Eligibility checklist for parents

As already discussed in the previous lesson, there are two types of eligibility that high-school student athletes should meet. One being of course the academic eligibility and the other being the overall NCAA eligibility, which includes successful fulfillment of the paperwork process, and achieving as well as maintaining, amateur status as athletes.

This checklist was designed by NCAA recruitment officers and personnel, in order to aid parents involved in the process. It actually appeared in the USA Today newspaper, in 2017, so it is already accessible elsewhere too.

The NCAA Eligibility Center is responsible for deciding the academic eligibility and status of  all NCAA Division I and Division II athletes by assessing their high school records. Coaches are prohibited from overlooking these two criteria, something that parents should remind their children. The Eligibility Center essentially makes sure that student-athletes are college qualified. Traditionally, an athlete needed to go through the NCAA Eligibility Center only when recruited by a Division I or Division II program. Yet, a few years ago the NCAA revamped the platform to include a free profile for families who don’t know yet whether that will be the case for their young athlete. Therefore, it’s best to register anyway and you can choose to either create a profile page or a certification account.

In short, if you’re not yet sure in which division your child will compete, or even if your child is considering attending a junior college program or Division III – which come without academic requirements – then you should opt for a profile page which is free. You can always switch to a certification account, if something changes and your kids get recruited by higher division schools. However, if your children are being chased by a Division I or Division II program, then you need to sign up for a certification account; this account will carry a small fee as well. If you qualified for ACT or SAT fee waivers, remember that it means you have also qualified for a fee waiver in the NCAA Eligibility Center. All you need to do is ask one of the authorized high school officials to submit the necessary documentation online, after you’ve completed your registration.

So, the first step of this process is to create an account with the NCAA eligibility center (online platform). Visit the website, where you will be asked the initial questions about your child’s personal information, academics and sports history. It’s best if you do this early, preferably at the start of your kids’ high school junior year and definitely before the start of their senior year. Make sure that you receive and store the NCAA ID number, assigned to your child by the platform, as it will be asked by colleges later on the recruitment process.

The second step is to schedule a meeting with high school officials, namely the Athletic Director and the Guidance Counselor. The Athletic Director should provide parents and athletes with accurate recruiting information, which will instill confidence in the process and goodwill amongst all parties involved. The goal of these meetings should be to avoid any false expectations from the parents’ part or from the recruiting process. These meetings also provide outside resources for the presentation of accurate information about the recruiting process, as well as pass on any printed material that the district has prepared. The Guidance Counselor should talk to you about academic requirements and the NCAA Core Course requirements. Remember it’s not just about making good grades, it’s also about being enrolled in the appropriate courses. If your kids are on their way to a Division I program, that means that they need to take 10 out of 16 core courses prior to their senior year, with seven of those being an English, Math or Science course. In other words, these meetings should take place as early as possible in your kids’ sophomore year or beginning of junior year to avoid any unwelcome surprises. Remember, also, that the requirements differ slightly between Division I and Division II.

The third step in the checklist is to register your kids to take the SAT or ACT test and work together with the high school administration office to send official transcripts to the NCAA Eligibility Center, by uploading them on the High School Portal (please note that you are not allowed to send copies; this must take place physically through the office). This is a process that must take place at the end of the junior year of high school (11th grade) and this will aid in the preliminary certification, provided you also submit an SAT or ACT score by the end of the 11th grade, which is not however mandatory.

The next step is to submit the SAT or ACT scores to the NCAA Eligibility Center, by using the code number “9999”. If your kids choose to take the test multiple times, to ensure better results, you are encouraged to submit their score each time they take the test, as the NCAA will only use the best test scores when assessing their eligibility. There is no issue with submitting multiple test scores.

The final step, at the conclusion of your athlete’s senior year, is to make sure their  guidance counselor sends an official version of their final transcripts. Once that is done, log into your account on the NCAA Eligibility Center and request final amateurism certification.

For student-athletes this is the final step that will initiate NCAA proceedings to determine the athletes’ eligibility status.

Do keep in mind that if an athlete is enrolling to college in the fall, they can request final certification starting April 1 of the same year. Spring enrollees can start on October 1 of the year before they attend college.

Dos and Don’ts for parents in the recruitment process

In the recruiting process, it’s very easy for parents to get too involved and take over their child’s experience. Whether it’s contacting coaches on behalf of the athlete, heavily following a college team’s social media, or pressuring their athletes to make a decision, parents have to remember that they are All-Stars, but their teammate is destined to be the MVP, as their kids are the ones being recruited and not them.

Here are some useful suggestions for parents with athletes involved in the recruiting process:

• Assist your athletes in communication with college coaches. Empower your kids and promote self-advocacy. If you want to monitor the communication closely, it is suggested that you create shared email accounts, or have conference calls, but refrain from taking lead in the communication and responding to the communication on behalf of your children.
• Help athletes remain organized by jointly creating lists and calendars dedicated strictly to recruiting and encourage them to keep track of the details pertaining to their communication with colleges and coaches.
• Become a facilitator in the process by seeking information and following up on communication, or questions the athletes may have. Teach them the importance of open communication and follow up for the inflow of the right information.
• Encourage and support the athletes’ efforts in the classroom and the playing field, in order to show them you care, show them you are participating and that you understand the hard work and dedication required to achieve their goals.
• Be realistic in your expectations of your kids’ future and in your communication with them. Allow high school and college coaches to dictate expectations, based of course on the athletes’ own expectations and desire and not your own.
• Allow your kids to choose the list of colleges that would interest them, as well as the academic major they feel is best suited for them. Do participate in the process, making meaningful contributions, but don’t guide them in something they do not wish to do. Encourage plenty of research both on the available choices of colleges and the possible academic majors.
• Allow the recruiting process to come to your kids and yourselves and not the other way around. In other words, be patient, don’t over-push and trust the process. Explicitly avoid behavior that would otherwise not be socially acceptable, when it comes to interacting with any sort of third party in the process.
• Refrain from over-promoting your athletes on social media or bombarding colleges’ social media pages with material and information regarding your athletes. Whatever you do, make sure you depict an accurate and truthful image of your kids’ abilities sport-wise and academically.
• Learn to face and accept rejection or lack of interest from colleges and also prepare your athletes to do the same. Discuss this possibility and be prepared, having in mind that early offers or late offers count exactly the same. Don’t allow yourselves or your kids to be discouraged at any point. An offer could literally come on the last available day.
• Remember that you too, as parents, are being somehow evaluated by colleges, which are looking at mirror images of what to expect from your kids as student- athletes.

Amateurism

As already discussed, amateurism is one of the cornerstones of the NCAA eligibility process. The NCAA promotes amateurism to create a level playing field for all student-athletes, who must be students first and then athletes second. If an athlete wants to compete in NCAA sports, they must be an amateur athlete.

Below are some situations that may impact a prospective student-athlete’s amateur status:

• Taking a break between high school/secondary school and full-time collegiate enrollment and continuing to participate in your sport(s).
• Using a recruiting agency, scholarship agent or a scouting service.
• Receiving payment from a sports team to participate.
• Receiving funds or money to offset training expenses.
• Accepting prize money based on performance/finish at a competition.
• Being represented or marketed by a professional sports agent.
• Promoting or endorsing a commercial product or service.

To safeguard your child’s amateur status, please take into account the following tips:

• Parents should recognize that their relationship with their kids takes precedent over any sort of relationship with a college. This means that parents that also serve as an athletic booster, or representative of any college’s athletics interests of any sort, are recognized by that college as a parent first and a booster second.
• Make sure to avoid any sort of communication or, even worse, an agreement with representatives or agents.
• Student-athletes, their parents and relatives should not receive any additional benefits from an agent or anyone related/associated with an agent. Doing so could jeopardize the athlete’s eligibility.
• Student-athletes and/or their parents should not receive any additional benefits due to the student-athlete’s participation in athletics.
• Per NCAA rules and regulations, it is not permissible for your kids to accept anything that is not generally available to the student body, at the high school or college level.
• Do not accept anything from a sports agent, scout, runner or outside equipment vendor.
• Do not accept any complimentary or discounted items, such as merchandise or lodging, offered because of your status as the parent of a student-athlete.
• Do not accept any sort of gifts, payments, meals, reimbursement of expenses by the university or by a representative of athletics interests (booster). A booster is a person who promotes a specific college program and/or makes a financial contribution towards that program and/or provides other benefits. This is a status that once acquired, can never change, so don’t be mislead by them.
• It is not permissible for student-athletes, their friends and relatives to sell any item received incidental to the student-athlete’s participation on a sports team.

Dealing with the emotional roller coaster

It has been mentioned, time and again, throughout these presentations that most high school student-athletes will not get the opportunity to play collegiate sports; 94% of them precisely, according to NCAA 2018 statistics, will not play organized sports after their high school days. It’s not intended to put kids down, or discourage parents from making an investment in their kids. It is repeatedly mentioned, because repetition is the mother of learning and because preparation is key; preparation is more than half the battle to be won.

Going through the last two years of high school is a true game changer for these teenagers. Hormones are sky rocketing and sexual maturity begins to heighten. Peer pressure is enormous, social influences derived from social media are exponentially growing to the point that they have become truly dangerous; pressure from teachers, pressure from parents, some bullying perhaps, little free time and everyone’s eyes and great expectations concentrated on these young adults. Can you feel it? Can you imagine the emotions?

This is a description of the hurdles faced by a normal high school student. The hurdles faced by a high school student-athlete is a ten-fold of that; add coaches, teams, games, travelling, eyes from the whole school being on them, what they wear, what they say, pressure to perform in the playing field, the need to be top in your “game”; everyone wants to have game, on and off the playing field. It cannot be really understood from those who have never done it.

Your kids are reaching that point in their life, where the sacrifices are greater than the returns. You first, and them too, should know and accept this fact; sitting at home after the game, wondering what the scout really thought; being home on a Sunday morning after church hoping for the phone to ring from a college head coach; reading the local newspaper at 6am every morning, hoping for a glimpse of news that a reporter may accidentally have overheard or got a coaching staff member to say “off the record”, about a National Letter of Intent being sent; checking emails ten times a day, pounding that refresh button, hoping for some communication. This is what is coming for the next two years in your household.

Embrace it.

As mentioned, you need to be the All-Star; it’s time for you to step up. Support your athletes in any way possible. Talk to them about how to put their emotions in check and how to concentrate on one very simple task. Control the things you can. At this point, a student athlete can control two things, the classroom GPA and the sport performance, which arises from effort in practice, resolve, goal-orientation and a pure never-ending thirst for a “Return on Investment”, the pure will to say “Failure is not an option”.

Prepare your kids for success. Prepare them to be greater than ever before. Attitude is key. Being focused and remaining humble is a good recipe for success. But don’t put pressure on them. Prepare them for the great chance of not playing collegiate sports too, which is by no means a failure of their own, or an inadequacy of theirs. It’s just the way the system works: 94% of the student-athletes will be in the exact same position. They are not failures; they would not have failed and most certainly they would NOT have failed you. Stress that enough, stress it over and over so you too can accept it.

Dealing with this emotional rollercoaster takes patience and a lot of hard work from everyone in the family. Siblings need to also be in sync, as their life takes a passenger, back- row, seat for some time, as everyone concentrates on the student-athlete. Try and avoid this as much as possible, but let’s be honest, it will happen in some shape, way or form. Be prepared and prepare those around you too.

If you were to attack this head on, you should ask your kids to be real with themselves concerning their expectations and dreams; ask them to own these dreams and expectations, while taking responsibility for the adverse outcome too, if it were to occur. Advise them to make only one decision, one and final, and stick to it; ride it out. Ask your kids to be grateful at all times. If they do make it to college sports, this is only the beginning, there is nothing to be taken for granted and they need to work hard in the next four years. If they don’t make it, they should still be thankful for the opportunity to participate, the opportunity to try and the sacrifices everyone around them have made (family, friends, love partners, teachers, coaches, trainers, tutors, counselors and the list goes on), so they at least could have a shot; being thankful, at the same time, means feeling respect and appreciation for this support system in place. Comradery developed over this period of their life will be something to cherish in the years to come. Ask them to worry only about themselves and not to compare their journey and their experience with their friends’ journey in other sports, or their teammates’ journey which is unique for everyone. Share the joy with those who make it to college, obviously they deserve it, athletes know that first hand.

Then there are the tough choices. Athletes may receive offers from schools they don’t like, or coaches that don’t click, or colleges that don’t offer the degrees they want to major in; even worse, colleges may offer roster spots without full scholarships, or even in the total absence of one. You, as parents, should always choose to prioritize the best future for your kids. No one would even imagine the possibility of advising kids to turn down offers from colleges. But don’t rule it out. Make sure the decision ends the emotional rollercoaster and puts your kids’ mind at rest; because if it doesn’t, you probably (as a team) made a bad or a wrong choice of school. There is no silver lining, there is no right or wrong, not a “fix” that can be used in this scenario. It’s all trial-and-error dear parents. In this scenario, you are on your own; you and your kids have to decide what’s best. Remember that playing it safe is a very good option some times. Other times, the greatest risk is not taking one. It’s all up to your kids and you to decide; In that order; Enjoy the ride!

Action steps – Exercise 1 (15 minutes)

• Everything we discussed today and in the previous class may sound overwhelming. How ready are you to tackle all these?  What steps have you already taken towards getting your child ready for NCAA recruitment?

Lesson wrap-up

Today we covered several things. We explored the ‘Eligibility Checklist’ with a summary of what you and your child need to do vis-à-vis the NCAA. Most importantly, we discussed the boundaries that you need to set for yourself, your attitude in the entire procedure, the do’s and don’ts (for you) of the recruitment process and finally, how to deal with a possible success or failure in the end.

At this point we will wrap up today’s lesson. First, we will go over the learning objectives of this lesson and we want your feedback as to whether they have been achieved and then we will address any questions you may have. Please feel free to ask anything you’d like in relation to today’s lesson and we would love to hear how the concepts we discussed today relate your athlete kids, and your family!