Schedule a 15min Call with a College Scout
4 Stages of the Recruiting Process
1 – Identification and Recognition
Colleges want to identify as many prospects as possible that may be able to qualify them for their program. Imagine a funnel and at the top of the funnel is a catch-all opening. Colleges get these prospects’ names from a variety of places including camps, publications, well connected high school coaches, alumni, and scouts like myself. Once you have been identified as a potential prospect, the college will send you a questionnaire to gather basic information about you. Often, they will also allow a link to upload personal video of your skills and performance against competition. As a potential prospect, it’s important that you get your name and information to as many colleges as possible, and the earlier you get it to them, the better chances you are being recruited.
What can you do now?
Your best chance of moving to the next phase is having an NSR scout evaluate your film and/or invite them to scout you in person.
Note from College Scout Corey Else
“Recognizing you are in the stage is important and far from an offer. For example, in the Identification and Recognition phase in an attempt to fill the largest funnel a college staff may follow you on social media or get invited to a camp. Sounds pretty exciting, doesn’t it? Recognizing that thousands of athletes may be followed by a social media from a social media intern/assistant means very little unless you move to the next phase.”
2 – Prospect Evaluation
This is the beginning of the all-important weeding-out process and one step closer to an offer. The coaches will examine the qualifications of all the prospects that they have information on, and begin eliminating those that they are not interested in. This is why it’s important for a prospect to submit complete data, statistics, and an impressive video to all colleges. You want to maximize your chances of not being weeded-out. If the coaches feel like you may be a prospect, after they have reviewed your data and video, they will put you on their prospect list for future evaluations. All of the
Note from College Scout Corey Else
“In this phase you must realize that the number of athletes vying for the same position scholarship is in the hundreds possibly thousands. College coaches have what is called a recruiting box for which they have determined is a good fit for their program and their recruiting goals. They are looking for measurables like height, reach, vertical jump, speed scores etc. It’s not personal, it’s just business. Don’t have the measurables that fit in the recruiting box? Work to improve vertical jump training. If you don’t have these numbers Pro Day offers this by professional scouts. Contact me here!
If you haven’t gotten on my list to be scouted, that is step one.
3 – Prospect Comparisons
All of the athletes that have made it so far to this level have been compared against each other. There will be several prospects being evaluated for the same position and for the same scholarship. These comparisons will take place for an entire recruiting process and prospects are continuously being weeded-out. The college coach needs to get accurate, updated information on all the prospects in order to determine which ones are the best choices for their team. Oftentimes, the player whose information is best and most updated and who has a good video is listed as one of the leaders to be recruited. The coaches will begin writing, calling, emailing the prospects they are most interested in once they are allowed.
Note from College Scout Corey Else
“At this phase I see about 40 prospect athletes for every 1 position scholarship. Still not great odds unless you are in the prospect comparison stage of more than 40 different colleges. That’s my job and I’m good at it! Enrolling in NSR gets you this kind of exposure. Best and most updated information keeps you front and center of these coaches. Let’s get you scouted so we can have our college coach interview with you by clicking here!
4 – The offer
They will list their top choices of prospects to be recruited in order, by position.
The coaches meet and decide on their choices for making an offer. Oftentimes colleges make offers to certain top prospects early, even before their season starts, and prospects sometimes make verbal commitments to colleges early too. However, neither the early college offer nor the prospect’s early commitment means much because neither is binding and either can change their mind or retract their verbal commitment. Scholarship offers are generally made through a National Letter of Intent (NLI), which is a binding contract between the prospect and the college for one year only. The signing of a National Letter of Intent (NLI) can take place during only specific times, depending on the sport. If the college’s top choice doesn’t accept the offer, they can go to the second choice and go down the list until someone signs.
Note from College Scout Corey Else
“Don’t be fooled in thinking that anytime a prospect student athlete claims they have received a college offer(s) on social media that that is, in fact, true. Some prospective athletes may get invited to camp as a “scholarship-kind-of-athlete” or an “offer-ready-athlete”. THIS IS NOT AN OFFER! and if the college/institution is quiet doesn’t mean it is true either. In fact, you won’t hear a college/institution confirm or deny an offer was made. Why? Because until a National Letter of Intent (NLI) is signed it’s not official. So next time you see a prospective student athlete claim multiple offers there is no “fact check solution” and may simply be an attempt to garner additional and multiple offers.”
More Recruiting Info and Resources
NCAA Eligibility Center – If you plan to participate in intercollegiate athletics at an NCAA Division I Institution, Division II institution, or an NAIA institution, you must register with this clearinghouse to have both your academic and amateurism status certified. Prospects should register their sophomore year of high school. Your coach or counselor cannot do this for you.
Contact – NCAA Division I, II, III have different rules concerning personal contact. Contacts are limited and must be made at specific times depending on the sport and division.
How and when can a coach evaluate you – A college coach is only allowed to evaluate you or scout you in person a few times during your entire high school career. Most of their scouting information comes from outside sources such as NSR.
Number of visits – for Division I – senior year, you are allowed a total of five official visits. (paid by the college). Division II – Unlimited visits in your senior year. At your own expense, you may visit as many colleges as you wish anytime you wish.
Gifts – do not accept any gift, money, or special favor from a college, you will become ineligible for college athletics.
Questionnaires – generally when a college finds out about you, they will send you a questionnaire. You can receive questionnaires as early as your freshman year. The number of questionnaires you receive will indicate the amount of exposure you have with colleges or the amount of interest colleges have in you.
What will you get with a Pro Day and NSR College Scouting Combine?
A professional college scout will test your improve vertical jump training both from a vertical standpoint as well as a touch standpoint. We will test your height as a measurable that college coaches are looking at even if you aren’t finished growing. We will test your reach as that will change too and one of the most important results to determine your touch. Be sure that if you want to improve vertical jump training that you request a side video even just 3-5 seconds long so that a certified vertical jump coach can review your film and provide feedback to improve vertical jump training.
- Height
- Reach
- Standing Vertical
- Approach Vertical
- Block Touch
- Approach Touch