Parents who interfere
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- April
- 17
People used to tell me all the time that I “ruined” their child’s chances of being recruited Division I because I wasn’t giving him enough coverage. After laughing, I usually responded by telling them this:
“When Jim Calhoun begins recruiting prospects at UConn, he doesn’t run and buy The Journal News.”
I doubt any college coach does, whether they’re Jim Calhoun or a Division III swim coach. There are plenty who check in on teams and keep up to date through the media. But they’ll never offer scholarships based on what they read, just what they see.
A lot of recruiting problems, unfortunately, start with the parents. I read an interesting article on the National Collegiate Scouting Association web site regarding the topic. I highly recommend you do, too.
It’s difficult to say who really should take responsibility for an athlete’s recruitment —a parent, the kid, the coach, a guidance counselor, a hired adviser, a sibling who has gone through the process. Who knows for sure? I’d always defer to the coach if I was the parent. Those situations tend to work out the smoothest. However, there are coaches out there who don’t want to be burdened by the pressure, or don’t see eye to eye with the parent on the level the athlete should be aiming for.
I would bet recruitment is at the forefront of most coach-parent problems at the high school level.
Just my thoughts. I’d love to hear yours.
This entry was posted
on Thursday, April 17th, 2008 at 3:18 pm by Kevin Devaney Jr..
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Kevin,
Just in case you hadn’t heard, markell rice paris walker and samad waggstaff have been named to the governors bowl.
what is gov bowl..more basketball at this late point of the season
914,
Where did you get that info? I’ve been looking for the New York roster.
http://www.anygivensaturday.com/forum/showthread.php?t=39119
lists NY State Golden Fifty for Governors Bowl. Some section 1 players named.
The parents and kids need to know that if they do not have the grades ( unless they are a high school stud going to a D 1 program) the coaches do not want to talk to them. I am speaking from a football point of view. There are not many D1 kids out of Westchester. There are plenty of smaller programs the Westchester kids can do very well in. BUT, i have seen in the past and continue to see. If you do not have the grades, they do not want you. Kids and parents need to understand this. I know coaches tell the kids at a young age.
this is an interesting discussion. The first rule for a parent should be to evaluate where your child is going to go to high school. If your child is in junior high and presumably headed to a high school that hasn’t seen a kid recruited in his/her sport for a decade, then you should evaluate your options. If your child is not recruited from such a high school program it shouldn’t be surprising. AAU programs are great (and in many cases, necessary) showcases for kids, but good high school programs can really help develop the player. There are some very good local private high schools in this area that may be options for your child depending on their interests/needs. No parent is ever going to talk their way into having their child recruited. Even a well-connected high school coach is at best going to get a college coach to take a look at a particular kid.
As someone who went through the recruiting process when I was in high school (albeit a long time ago!), I think the most a parent should be involved these days beyond maybe the high school choice is videotaping games and financing the making of DVD copies to send out to colleges. If a kid is a blue chip athlete or from a premier program, enough coaches will have had a chance to see them play. If a parent feels a kid is being under-recruited, videotape some games and ask for the coaches help in getting some addresses of colleges that your son/daughter would be interested in attending. Send the tapes with a note to the college coaches and ask the HS coach to make a phone call on your kids’ behalf to the college coaches.
The horror stories of parents baggering HS coaches about their child’s recruitment are terrible and that behavior never seems to do anything for the kid.
I am obviously biased, but as far as high school football players in this area looking to increase their exposure for recruiting purposes, all they have to do is join the website I co-run, http://www.Section1Recruiting.Com . I won’t take up space on this blog to explain why the service we provide is so unique, you can go to our website for that info. What I will say is this. I have had several college coaches’ comment to me on how valuable the service we provide them is, and how invaluable it would be to any potential recruit to use the service. We make the player’s, parents, college coaches, and high school coaches job so much easier. We provide “one-stop” shopping for college coaches to find high school recruits, and we allow them to do it from their office on campus. Another thing we do is to host a Combine/Player Evaluation Day that allows high school football players to record measurements that college coaches use to recruit players. Why we don’t sell out the 250 spots we have immediately is beyond me. When a player attends our combine, every football playing school in the country is made aware of that player’s interest in playing college football, and they have the numbers to compare him to all the other players in the country that have attended a combine anywhere in the country! And that’s the name of the game: Exposure! There are a couple of Combines around the Tri-State area, but none that are local, or do what we do. The amazing thing that we provide that no one else in the Tri-State area does is having college coaches come and coach these players. High School players in this area get a chance to show off their skills to college coaches, BEFORE they get to college! The number one reason why pretty much only colleges from the Northeast recruit Section 1 is money. Those colleges simply don’t have the recruiting budget to recruit players from any other areas of the country. The same is true for colleges from other parts of the country, even the so-called “Big-Boys”. There are very few truly “National” college football programs. USC, Notre Dame, Florida come to mind. Most other schools in the country are regionalized. And it really is because they don’t have the money to recruit nationally. Look at the 2007 roster of the Ohio State University. They’ve been one of the Top 2 or 3 schools in all of college football the last 5 years. Of the 106 players on their roster, 70 were from the state of Ohio!!! Think of how many colleges don’t even send reps to Section 1, because they can’t afford it! But, if the player joins our website, he gets instant access to every college recruiter in the country! The more schools that a player has recruiting him, the more money in aid he will get to attend college. It’s as simple as that. The more exposure he gets, the cheaper college is!
The NY Times last month wrote a series of articles about college scholarship money. fact v myth… My son is a baseball player…it was very discouraging to read that baseball is the most neglected college sport..ncaa mandates a total of only 11 baseball scholarships per school. and many colleges do not even fund 11 baseball scholarships…what this means is that 40 kids share sometimes less than 10 scholarships. nobody gets a full ride in baseball…..study hard boys, because academics seem to be the path to more $$...
To all High School Football Players and Parents:
1)First off, consult your High School Coach before you or your son sign up for ANY recruiting service(Your Coach will tell you how you project for free!) Recruiting Services are interested in one thing, YOUR MONEY and not your kid.
2)Second speak to your guidance counselor, understand where you are academically and if you are recruitable. Dont allow a recruiting service to collect YOUR MONEY money only to tell you later(when the check clears)that you didnt have the grades. Ask them for a refund if you dont qualify and see what happens.
Now for the Football aspects:
Your High SChool coach will be able in most cases to tell you what level(if any) of college football you could play at. Its a matter of basics:
a)Are you an ELITE High School Player?
How big are you? How fast are you? How strong are you?
These factors will determine how you project.
b)You dont need a recruiting service for any of the above, be realistic, not impressionistic.
c)If you are an Elite player they will find you!
The reason Ohio State recruits regionally is NOT $MONEY$(Their recruiting budget is staggering…) anyone who says that is a “FOOL”. Its because the Ohio Valley is one of a few HS Football “Hotbeds” in the country, along with Florida and Texas/Oklahoma. College programs that recruit these areas successfully are very, very sucessful PERIOD!
You dont need to pay HUNDREDS of Dollars to get College Football Coaches email addresses, they are all avaiable online on the University or College Website. If you are a “Legimate College Prospect” they would love to hear from you. It makes their life much easier.
Ask the people who run the Recruiting service this: What level of College Football did you play? The answer will be very revealing. Dont let them tell you about their so called “connections” if they really had connections they would be doing something else.
Over my many years I have found recruiting services to be on thing, A SCAM and the people who run them to be full of ——! Ask a top College program/coach if you dont believe me.
Keith Fagan
Are you kidding me?
Please explain your statement:”The more schools that a player has recruiting him, the more money in aid he will get to attend college. It’s as simple as that”.
I’m going on the assumtion that your being overzealous in an attempt to “plug” your website. In aid do you mean scholarship or financial aid? You must have at least a little idea what your talking about before you mislead people.
Mr.Fagen,
My son was accepted to a very good D3 upsate college, he is a very good football player and ranked 12th in his class. The coach recruited him very hard. He was going to receive 6ok over four years toward his education. Interesting enough, the money was for his grades not football. He decided not to play football and go to a top D1 school down south that was also offering him money and putting him in an honors program. I guess what I’m trying to say is the college coaches found him thru his grades and coaches.
Not to beat a dead horse but Ohio State spent over five hundred thousand dollars on football recruitment the 2006-2007 season.
$500,000.00 on recruits in one year is about $20,000.00 per eventual recruit assuming they get one out of four thats still $5000.00 per. Its plain to see that money isnt the issue for Major D1 Football programs. Its sad thatpeople will raise the expectations of a child to make a few dollars.