Sports Hawaii’s very own guru on the recruiting process made an awesome post to remind parents about July 1st:

To all parents and athletes:

July 1st is the date college coaches can start telephoning rising seniors. This first call is critical if you have not met a coach directly. Here are some important pointers for the conversation:

1. Humble is good! The coach would not be calling if you weren’t a player so don’t talk about yourself, instead show interest in the program and the university.
2. Have your questions written down and waiting, in fact practice them! Focus your questions on the following:

“How many (your position) are you recruiting this year?”
“What are some of the most important attributes you look for in my position?”
“What can I do to best prepare myself for your program and university?”
“What are your academic requirements for incoming freshmen?”
“What information do I need to get to you that would make your job easier”

I had a one hour conversation with an offensive coordinator at an NAIA school in Oregon this week. I asked him what were the things that were a “turn off” to college coaches? Here were some of the things he mentioned:

1. We don’t want to talk to the parent, we want to talk with the athlete. It is impressive when a high schooler calls me and his great questions prepared.
2. In Division II, Division III and NAIA we are dependent on “other money.” When an athlete or family has done their homework about every non athletic scholarship and grant available, we will take that player over one with equal ability in in many cases give that player more money lot less because we know he is likely to stay and not leave for financial reasons.
3. When the athlete shows interest in our program and our school that means a lot, especially if he has done his homework. We are proud of our program and want athletes who want to be a part of us.

We talked about a lot of other things which I will save for another post. If you guys like these tips let me know and we will start doing one each week. There are so many things athletes and parents can do to get to the next level!

By the way, the July 1st is for sports other than football. The football outbound contact date is September 1st.

Coach Ken