Are you trying to get into the college football recruiting game but you just can’t seem to get any attention from college coaches? If so, you are not alone. There are thousands of high school football players from across the country each and every school year who are also trying to get recruited. Many of these athletes have the talent and ability to play at some level of college football, yet college coaches don’t really know exist.
If you are going to make it to the next level of football, you have to be recruited first. The first step of recruiting is to get some attention. If you are the next Peyton Manning or Adrian Peterson, being recruited won’t be an issue. Players who are considered blue chip or at the elite level don’t have to worry about being recruited. In fact, their main worry will be trying to decide which scholarship offer they want to accept.
For most student athletes, there are some specific steps you can take to get recruited for college football. Here are seven tips you can use today:
1) Making contact early with coaches
You want to start making contact with college coaches beginning in your sophomore year if possible. You need to start making contact no later than your junior year for sure. Many high school players who do make contact with coaches, simply wait too late to get started.
2) Relying on you high school coach is a big mistake
Don’t count on your high school coach doing the work for you to get recruited. Most high school coaches don’t get involved in the recruiting process. Some simply don’t want to get involved, and some simply don’t understand the recruiting process themselves.
3) Know where you want to go
Before you begin making contact with college coaches, know what part of the country you want to play in. Do you want to stay close to home or get away? If you know for sure you want to play within a few hours of home, don’t wast your time or a coach’s time who is ten or twenty hours away from home.
4) An Athletic Resume is essential
Before you begin making contact with coaches, make sure you have a good athletic resume to give them to help them become interested in recruiting you. Your athletic resume (or football resume) works just like a resume when you are looking for a job. Your resume should highlight your best skills and make the coach want to learn more about you.
5) Attend Some Football Camps
If possible, attend some summer football camps to help get your name out there among coaches. These camps will also to help you improve your skills before the season starts. There is a friend of my son who was not being heavily recruited at all. He attended a summer football camp and he is now playing football at a major Division I school.
6) Go see some college level games
Not sure which division level of football is right for you? Take some Saturday trips to colleges at all division levels and see how you stack up. You’ll be surprised at the talent level at all levels of college football. Taking these trips will also help you see if you have the physical size required to play your position at the division level you want to play at.
7) Promote and market yourself to college coaches
This is perhaps the most important step of all. Unless you have colleges beating a path to your front door to recruit you, you need to be marketing and promoting yourself to college coaches. A good athletic resume and a personal letter to coaches can do wonders for your recruitment. One thing I can say for sure, if coaches don’t know who you are, they will never recruit you.
Summary
Like all collegiate sports, college football recruiting is extremely competitive. You will have to compete with some of the best high school players from around the country (and even the world) to get into the recruiting game. However, if you know you have the ability to play at the next level if you could get some recruiting attention, you need to take control of your recruitment and give yourself the best chance possible to play in college. It will clearly take some work on your part to make it happen, but your work will pay off tremendously if you get some scholarship money and the opportunity to play the sport you love in college.
Gary Hawkins is recognized as a leading expert in the field of athletic recruiting and scholarships. He is the owner of RecruitedForScholarships.Com which is a site dedicated to helping high school student-athletes finally get noticed and get recruited. You can get his free recruiting and scholarship report at http://www.recruitedforscholarships.com/freereport.html
Source: http://www.submityourarticle.com
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