Your recruiting experience

[AZRaiderH8r]

I am really enjoying reading the updates of all the potential future Huskers and the analysis that you all provide. This got me thinking about the other side of the coin. Do any of you have experience as the one who was being recruited (whether it was by the Huskers or not)? I'd be very interested to hear how that experience was from someone who went through it.

 

I have a son who is currently a sophomore in high school, and he's been getting some interest from schools (both academically and athletically). He's currently playing in three sports at the varsity level, but may not be playing football next year and may focus on wrestling and track (he's pretty small for football unfortunately). I'd really like to get an idea of what he may be in for.

 

Thanks!

 

AZ

[zeWilbur]

It can be as crazy as you let it. Depending on how sought after he is, of course.

 

Here are the things that made my life SIGNIFICANTLY easier being recruited. The goal is to get the schools he wants to attend to offer instead of random schools offering. Then things get simplified pretty quickly.

 

1. Admit that college is important enough to pay for even if you do not get a scholarship. Once you accept that then the focus will shift from getting things for free to getting what is best for you. Too many people(especially parents!) lose sight of this.

 

2. Ask him what he wants to be when he grows up. It's fine if he is not sure but he should have some idea to help get you in the ballpark.

3. Ask him where he is comfortable. Some people are great in small schools/towns, others have to be in large ones. Does he get homesick? Does he want a change of pace? Use all of this information to figure out where his sweet spot is and focus on schools that fit the mold. This includes D-2 and NAIA. D1 is nice but may not be the best option socially.

4. Men's track teams get ~12.6 scholarships for the ENTIRE team. Not sure about wrestling but doubt it is much better. Figure out schools that are more likely to give scholarships to your son's specialty. One way to tell is to look up what the head coaches specialty is. The scholarships tend to run in that direction.

5. Coaches are aware of results in meets but can only reach out to so many resources. Email or call the assistant coach for his position and ask for any tangible you can get. There is no point in pursuing something your kid is just not going to be able to do. Or you have some good bulletin board material. Either way you know where you stand.

6. Find a coach to be your "wingman". Heck, find ten. Coaches give MUCH more credit to other coaches opinions than to yours. Usually they are happy to reach out for you as well.

7. Get his grades in order. It sounds like this is already done(good for him!) but it always bears repeating.

8. Be comfortable saying NO. Not being able to tell someone no only adds to the frustration of the process.

9. Set ground rules before it is too late. No phone calls before 8AM or after 7PM. No instant/text messages after 9PM. Whatever you are comfortable with the coaches will abide by. You just have to stay in control of the situation. Also, if it is getting bad, getting another phone can help. If coaches are ignoring your rules then just turn off the phone whenever you choose and get back to them on your time. Until you sign that LOI you have the power.

10. Commit and never question it again. You had a process and came to a decision. Respect that and realize that it does not make much difference where you go. Part of your process was to include things that were most important to you and those will not change. UNL will not be Stanford academically by the time he graduates from high school. Just is not going to happen. Aside from that, the college experience is what he makes it. If he is willing to work and is happy at that school then he will excel.

 

 

Once you have all of this information you can start listing out the schools that fit what you are looking for. His counselors at school have massive books indexing all of this information. Google is also your friend. If you are contacted by a school that does not fit what he is looking for then it is easy to tell them you are not interested. If he starts with a list of 50 schools, that's fine. 100, that's fine too. Two mistakes I saw quite a bit were: a) thinking that you had to reduce your list by a specific amount and agonizing over who got the last spot. And b) Re-adding schools that had been eliminated. If he's not comfortable dropping from 10 to 5 then go from 10 to 6. Just do not go from 10 to 11. The school was cut for a reason. Just trust in your process and you will be fine.

[AZRaiderH8r]

Great feedback, thanks!

[ShawnWatson]

If coach would have put in the 4th quarter back in '82, things would have been different.

[IllinoisHuskerFan]

I think zewilbur nailed it! He saved me a whole bunch of typing.There is alot of good advise in his post. I advise to go on as many recruiting trips as possible. Go to places he is interested in and go and choose some other places outside of the box. The bottomline is you want him to be compltely comfortable with his final decision, so knowing what each school has to offer is a good idea. Make sure the school has a good academic program that he is interested in and make sure there is alot of support. Make sure he is comfortable with the coaching staff and have him get a good feel about what type of people are within the program. I wish I could have done my recruiting process over again...and prepare for a lot of mail and phone calls during dinner.