“It’s the little details that are vital. Little things make big things happen.” – John Wooden
When it comes to your college career, learning how to pick the right college coach for you is a crucial step in ensuring your success.
I will be the first to tell you that I have some genuine concerns about the NCAA Transfer Portal. I have had numerous conversations with dozens of head college coaches in multiple sports about it, and I am slowly coming around to the value of the transfer portal and the good it has done and will continue to do for student-athletes. Ironically, I wish the portal would have been around when I was playing.
With that said, I still have huge concerns about kids committing but not really “committing”.
Yes Coach. I am all in to come play for you…[under their breath]…But if you don’t play me enough or pay me enough right away, I’ve got one foot out the door to find somebody else who will.
I make it clear to all my clients that Year One is going to be hard. No matter how many dreams they’ve had about starting as a college freshman, winning a National Title, and getting drafted into the pros after just one year, the odds of one of those things happening is the same as seeing two shooting stars in the same night’s sky.
The best players and teams are usually the ones who have stayed together the longest. They’ve bought into a culture of Us-over-Me and celebrate and support each other through the good and the bad. If most coaches get to build a relationship and coach an athlete for 4 years, that athlete typically will leave that program with a degree, an amazing self-confidence and self-worth, a long-term relationship with the coaching staff, and a playing career that got better and better each year they were in that program.
I want all my student-athletes to be prepared to fight through the hard times and not give up on themselves or their coach. However, too many times, athletes and families rush to make a decision on a coach and a school without thinking about the consequences of pulling the trigger too quickly.
As you begin to talk to more and more college coaches, here are 5 keys to consider in order to pick the right coach for you:
1. College First: It is essential that the college/university fits your educational, geographical, emotional, cultural and financial needs before anything else…including the athletic fit. If the college isn’t a fit, then it is a non-starter no matter how you feel about the coach. [Remember, that coach could quit, get fired, or retire tomorrow. Will you still be happy at that school?]
2. Concise Evaluation: The Head Coach articulates why they like your character-fit and ability-fit for their program in similar ways to how you see yourself.
3. Consistent Answers: You’ve asked all your hard questions [see April 10, 2024 blog] to the Head Coach, their staff and their current roster, and everyone independently expresses similar answers with a similar tone and emotion about the coach. Everyone seems to like the coach, and they seem sincere.
4. Teacher before Coach: The Head Coach has made it clear that there are no guarantees, but they are committed to developing you to give you every opportunity to start or have a clear role on the team as a competitor in your first year IF you put the work in and compete to earn your spot each day.
5. Committed to Learn You: The Head Coach has gone out of their way to get to know you and your family through numerous phone calls and visits, and it is clear that they genuinely care about you. [Usually, Time Invested = Quality of Interest]
As Coach Wooden so eloquently expressed in the above quote, it is the little things (that a coach demonstrates), that make the big things (great growth and relationships) happen.
Interested in Coach Rogers’ Book on College Recruiting? You can find it here: https://coachmattrogers.com/book/
Want to schedule a free 30-minute college recruitment strategy session with Coach Rogers? You can do so here: https://coachmattrogers.com/contact/
