Transitioning from a high school athlete to a college athlete is hard. Roughly 7.2 million students nationwide play high school sports, but only 181,512 will compete at the Division 1 college level. You must get noticed by a coach or recruiting staff to make the cut, but achieving this can be difficult with so many students competing for so few places.
To stand out to coaches, you can work with a recruiting website service to help you build a profile, understand the recruiting process, and strategize your recruitment approach. These services can help you stand out in the crowd and get noticed by top programs.
Questions Surrounding the Recruiting Process
The recruiting process can be confusing, frustrating, and hard to navigate. Student-athletes and their families often have questions regarding this process, such as:
How do I get noticed?
There are several ways to get noticed, including high school coach recommendations, summer camps, showcase tournaments, social media, and online scouting reports.
Do I need a recruiting service? What am I paying for?
Coaches often have thousands of recruits to choose from, and student-athletes must focus on schools where they might be a good fit. A recruiting service can help guide student-athletes and their families along the process.
Can I do this myself?
While it is possible to handle everything yourself, the process may feel challenging and offer you a lower chance of success. Unless you have help from a professional, it is hard not to get lost in the crowd of other recruits.
Every student-athlete and their family is different. Depending on the sport, some student-athletes might get noticed early in high school and never need to worry about promoting their skills, and other students may need to showcase their talents later in their high school careers. Speak to Scout Logix today to learn where you stand and what approach is best for you.
Sifting Through Different Recruiting Tools and Services
Any quick internet search will show several different recruiting tools available to student-athletes. You can find paid recruiting tool services and free options, with some offering better services than others.
NCSA free service vs. paid packages
NCSA or Next College Student Athlete is one of the most popular recruiting services online. It offers four service options, from free to MVP, with increasing personalized services and attention levels.
All tiers provide free content through their web platform, giving student-athletes basic knowledge about the recruiting process and how they can successfully navigate it. The free version only provides group counseling sessions, online recruiting classes, and access to digital products.
The three paid tiers provide additional services, including expert feedback, personalized direct messages to coaches, and SAT/ACT prep. Many of NSCA’s services are group-based. At the top MVP tier, you gain access to personalized services handled by agents. However, these agents may work with many clients at the same time.
You can achieve much of what the NSCA’s services provide on your own. While their free services can help, paying for recruiting services through such a large organization doesn’t give you personalized attention. NCSA might increase your chances of getting noticed by coaches, but it is only one of many ways to get noticed and recruited.
Coaches Have Limited Time and Resources
Recruiting is only one part of a coach’s job, and it is not usually the priority. Their job is to coach their team to victory. While preparing the following year’s intake of student-athletes is important, it often takes a backseat to coaching the team.
Under these challenging circumstances, they must rely on other methods to narrow down recruit options and find outstanding talent. Many college coaches cultivate relationships with lower-level coaches who pass on the names of skilled high school athletes and are critical for college coaches.
When a coach receives a name, they may need more information to consider the recruit. Additional information includes playing statistics, highlight videos, grades, and test scores. When all the data appears in a one-stop location for a prospective student-athlete, it provides the coach with the details to start the recruitment process. It also presents the recruit in an eye-catching, informative, and persuasive way.
A Personal Website Gives Coaches Get Holistic View of a Student-Athlete
A personal website gives every student-athlete an edge in recruiting. Instead of a coach gathering a range of information, they can easily find all the information they need to make a recruiting decision on an attractive, informative, personal website.
Performance stats
Performance stats are perhaps the most critical metric a coach considers when making a recruitment decision. They need to know that a high school athlete can compete at the college level and that their particular strengths will be a good match for the existing team. All personal websites must feature detailed stats.
Grades
Second only to stats, a prospective recruit’s grades are critical. If a student-athlete can’t handle their coursework, they will quickly become ineligible to play. A coach wants to know how a student performs academically, and this information must be prominent on any personal website.
Extracurricular activities
The life of a college-level student-athlete is time-intensive, and they have to be able to work hard on the field and in the classroom. If a student participated in several extracurricular activities in high school, it is a good indication that the student can handle the workload of a college student-athlete.
A personal website should highlight these activities, emphasizing how it has cultivated a recruit who can handle many time-consuming activities simultaneously.
Community involvement
Student-athletes are often ambassadors of their universities. Coaches want to find recruits engaged with their community and committed to bettering the world around them. This type of athlete best represents the values of the university.
Leadership
Many sports are team games, and teams need leaders. Any leadership roles or experience would be highly beneficial to a recruit, and coaches actively look for student-athletes with this experience. A personal website shows how a student-athlete developed and accepted leadership roles in those activities.
Scout Logix is Better Than the Others
Scout Logix is the superior option when it comes to recruiting services. It offers personalized services that larger competitors can’t. Scout Logix also provides information and resources that aren’t available for free online.
Website control with access to change and update at any time
Scout Logix offers a personal website designed for each student-athlete. With Scout Logix, you have complete control and freedom over your site’s content. Every student has full access to their website and can add or change information.
One time setup fee, optional maintenance fee for managed content
There are no hidden fees with the website. You pay a one-time fee to set up, host, and design the website, with the option for continued maintenance.
Flexible options
Unlike larger competitors, Scout Logix has personalized, flexible options that cater to the needs of each student-athlete. These options allow the website to be more than a cookie-cutter list of facts; instead, it provides a custom experience highlighting the recruit’s accomplishments.
Entirely customizable for future NCAA exposure
Scout Logix’s services continue even after recruitment and are customizable for future exposure as an NCAA athlete. The recruitment website can become a personal page highlighting accomplishments at the university level.
Streamlined conversion to College Athlete Profile for sponsorships
Due to a recent change in rules, college student-athletes can now compete for sponsorships. These deals can prove to be highly lucrative if properly negotiated.
To be eligible, a student-athlete must create a college athlete profile. The Scout Logix recruitment page can be easily converted for this express purpose, opening up sponsorship and endorsement opportunities for the collegiate athlete.
Transparency and control
Scout Logix prides itself on transparency and customer control. Unlike larger companies like NSCA, which are opaque and less than forthcoming about their dealings with student-athletes and families, Scout Logix is open, honest, and clear about all services, prices, and expected results.
The Scout Logix Difference
Scout Logix provides open, honest, personalized services to student-athletes and their families. The recruitment process is complex and challenging, and Scout Logix can help. Our services can set you apart from the crowd and highlight your skill and dedication to coaches.
Contact Scout Logix today and start the process of being found, recognized, and recruited.
