“If you really love your sport, does it matter what division level you get to play?” Matt Rogers, Significant Recruiting: The Playbook for Prospective College Athletes
As we turn the corner of the New Year, many of us will commit to a New Year’s resolution. Some of us will focus on our health, some on our finances, and some on our futures, whether that be our career or our relationships or our mental well-being.
If you are a family or a student-athlete in the midst of your college recruitment journey, I think it is important that your New Year’s resolution start with 2 things: (1) Committing to the journey of playing in college more than the final location or division, and (2) learning and accepting your true value and reality as a college recruit.
This is where most families fail. They never truly commit to any and all opportunities for their child to play in college. And, they often fail to look for or accept the reality of their ability and recruit-ability.
There are hundreds of thousands of former high school athletes who every day regret the fact that they did not continue to play in college. Any time I am with any group of new people, what we do for a living always comes up in the conversation. When people find out that I’m a coach and college recruitment adviser, there’s always someone quick to tell me their story, and there’s always an excuse at the end:
I got hurt my senior year.
My high school coach didn’t do anything for me.
I had some coaches interested in me, but they stopped calling for some reason.
What I never hear are these things:
I called every coach I could find a number for, and no one returned my call.
I only wanted to play D1, so I didn’t respond to any of the D3, D2, NAIA or JC coaches who tried to recruit me.
I gave up on my dreams, and I regret it.
It is hard for anyone to express their regrets and assume accountability for something that happened or didn’t happened 10-20 years ago. That is mainly the case because they started their journey with incorrect information. Most ill-fated recruits simply never knew if they were good enough to play in college nor how good they really were.
As you start your recruitment journey (or re-evaluate the path you are on), it is important to start with the truth of your reality. I will not take a recruit on as a client if they are more focused on NIL money or playing on television or getting an athletic scholarship than they are about continuing to do what they love. Those recruits are not serious about their craft. They are not committed to something they are passionate about. They simply want the fame and the fortune of what less than 1% of all recruits will ever have access to.
You may not like the sound of that, but that is the truth. The great recruits are the ones who love to play their sport and need ZERO incentive to keep playing. The great recruits cannot imagine giving up their sport for any reason. The great recruits typically end up with the most leverage in the end because college coaches are drawn to their humility and commitment to the college education that comes with the opportunity to be a part of something bigger than themselves.
So, where does it all begin? The 3-Legged Stool: Academics, Character, and Ability. Every college coach will evaluate you and judge you on those three things. If one of those legs is shaky, your entire recruitment falls down.
How do you determine your 3-Legged Stool? It will be different for every coach you enounter:
- Academics (Do you fit the University requirements?)
- Character (Do you fit the team’s culture and can you make their culture better?)
- Ability (Do you fit the roster needs? Do you have a skill-set and versatility that makes the team more competitive?)
The more you develop those three categories: (1) the stronger your grades and test scores, (2) the stronger you are as a leader and teammate, and (3) the better your overall skills, abilities and versatility you can bring to the table, the more coaches don’t have a reason to NOT recruit you.
If you are truly committed to being a college athlete, start 2024 off with a commitment to learning your value and true reality as a recruit…and don’t get upset and give up if that value is not higher than the D3 or Junior College level. I’ve never met a D3 or JC or NAIA or D2 National Champion who regretted playing at a level below D1. Most are grateful they got to play at all…and achieve their dreams of winning a championship.
The biggest regret anyone can have in life is turning away from those people who value you the most. You will probably never get recruited again in your adult life. Don’t pass up the opportunities to listen to those who believe in you and see the fullness of your worth!
Happy New Year!
Enjoying these blogs? Want to schedule a free 30-minute college recruiting assessment with Coach Rogers? You can do so here: https://www.significantcoaching.net/
Interested in Coach Rogers’ Book? You can find it here: https://bit.ly/Matt-Rogers-Significant-Recruiting-Amazon
