“Only by recognizing greatness in others will you manifest greatness in your own life. You cannot become something you cannot perceive.” – Morris Walker
I’m picky. I only take on 3-5 new recruit clients per month. The kids I work with must have the commitment, grades and ability to play at the next level before I will say “Yes! Let’s go make your dreams come true!” It is also important to me that I can provide the necessary time to families that they will need throughout their personal journey, and I cannot provide that if I am working with 100 student-athletes at a time.
The recruitment process can be such a roller coaster ride because you never know when a college coach is going to call, text, request a visit, make an offer or, unfortunately, let you know they will NOT be recruiting you. Because of this, I want my families to feel like they have a concierge service in me when they need questions answered or guidance given in, sometimes, a matter of minutes.
This is why it is so important to me that the families I work with have a full grasp on their student-athlete’s reality.
The quote above seemed fitting for my message this week but not for the reason you may think at first glance. It is easy to read the quote above and say, “It makes sense that young people need to see greatness in others in their sport to better understand how they too can be great in that sport.”
This is the mistake many families make as they start their recruiting journey. “My daughter completely out-played that girl who just signed at Kansas this past season. If that girl can play D1, so can my daughter.” OR “My son has the same 40-yard time as that Cornerback who just signed at UCLA, why are the D1s not offering my son?”
You and your child need to see and understand greatness in order to understand that greatness (in your child’s sport, not in life) may be out of reach.
That reality check may be a shot to your heart and spirit, but it is important that you absorb it, accept it, and begin redefining your understanding of “greatness”.
Most college coaches can watch a match in any sport and, within minutes, know who the recruitable athletes are in front of them. It takes them seconds to know that there is greatness in front of them. You know when you see greatneess because in a matter of moments of seeing it, you unconsciously say “Wow!” out loud.
I had one of those rare moments last weekend in Atlanta where my wife and I were watching my daughter and her club team play in the largest prep volleyball tournament in the country. The facility we were at takes your breath away when you first walk-in. There were 150 volleyball courts with over 500 teams and over 5000 volleyball players aged 14-17. I saw tons of good players and potential college players. There were even numerous “wow” moments.
However, it was at the end of Day 2 as my wife and I were walking through this pantheon of volleyball courts (it takes a good half mile walk just to get from one side to the other) when I stopped dead in my tracks and said “Wow!” out loud. We were passing a court with at least 4 scholarship athletes among the players, but only 1 kid made me go “Wow!” at first glance. She could not have been older than 15 or 16. She was easily 6’3”, skinny as a rail and was dripping with athleticism just by her walk. I immediately looked around, and as I expected, there were at least a half a dozen Division I volleyball coaches scattered around the crowd watching this particular game. It was the first time in our 2 days at the facility that I had noticed college coaches at all.
As I turned my attention back to this young lady on the court, her setter made the first set to her that I was able to witness. It was a bad set, but this 6’3” gazelle of a girl jumped so high that her shoulders were level with the 8-foot net. Although there were some very raw qualities to her game, the potential (I mean highest of D1/Olympic level) for what she could become was more than evident. As my wife and I stood their watching the next 5-6 points of the game, I began to see the additional talent on both sides of the net. There were 2 other girls that I would grade out to have D1 potential and another 2-3 who I would have graded out at the high NAIA and D2 levels, but it was the 6’3” superstar who made me stop and pay attention.
Why was it important for me and my wife to see this? Because no matter how hard my daughter works on her body and game over the next 4 years, she will never have the gifts that his young lady was born with. Most kids have to fight through blood, sweat and tears to ever get the opportunity to sniff greatness. This young lady was blessed with it, and it is 100% up to her what she will do with it.
If you are a parent reading this, you may have a child in your house who is the best player on their high school team and maybe they have earned All-Conference or even All-State recognition. That is fantastic, and you should be proud. However, by no means does that mean that college coaches see greatness in your child. Why is this important? It is important because D1 greatness is rare. D2 greatness is less rare. NAIA and D3 greatness is much more common (although still rare). When talking about your child’s future, please keep that in mind. You don’t have to be great to play in college. You don’t even have to be capable of “wow” moments. However, you do need to buy into the fact that you love to play and what level you play at doesn’t matter if you have the opportunity to keep playing.
Student-athletes: Please do NOT play for your parents or your coaches or the crowd or for a scholarship or (God forbid) the NIL money. If that’s what you play for, you’ll never achieve your potential at the college level. You have to play for you. You have to be committed to playing the sport you love and doing it no matter the level of greatness in you or around you. The best recruits play for the love of the game. When you see greatness, it should motivate you to be better, but that doesn’t mean you have to reach that level of greatness to have a great career!
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