College Recruiting Advice

First is a list of the top 10 “Do’s and Don’t’s” in the recruiting process, provided by several successful college coaches themselves. Below that, I have made some observations about the process and how a student-athlete can improve his chances of playing at the next level.

10. When narrowing down your schools, have a few schools in each category (dream school, great school, safety, etc.). This way you are safe all the way through the process.

9. When you email or write a coach about your interest, make sure you include your home address and phone number as well as what you are interested in at the time.

8. If you decide to take an “unofficial visit” with your parents on campus or a coach comes to your home, let the player do the talking and answer the questions, rather than the father or mother speaking too much on behalf of the student-athlete. The coaches want to get to know the student-athlete in the interview process.

7. When you play in tournaments where you know there will be a lot of college coaches, make sure that your coach has given the tournament directors the correct jersey number and name of the player so the college coaches evaluate the right player. You want the college coach to be evaluating your son and not someone else because of inaccurate information on the roster. Be sure to check the roster at the start of the tournament to make sure you are represented properly.

6. Be pro-active in finding out about a school, and don’t put too much stock in what your friends say or what you read on the internet. Schools appeal to student-athletes for many different reasons, so take unofficial visits to the places that interest you.

5. When a coach calls you, ask questions of the coach that you think are important, and don’t freeze when the time comes to ask them. Everyone has different needs and expectations about his potential college experience, and sometimes you go to a place as a freshman and find it’s not what you believed it would be. This is often not the coach’s fault, but rather the lack of careful investigation done by the student-athlete on the school.

4. If you decide to send a coach a film or video of you playing, make sure you send an entire game, not just highlights. The ideal video includes a short highlight portion plus an entire game. Make sure you list your number and color of the jersey as well.

3. When you are competing in front of college coaches, you are being evaluated on a lot more than how skilled you are as a lacrosse player. Your attitude, how you treat your teammates, how hard you play, and how you act on the sidelines are equally important as anything else.

2. During the recruiting process, be completely honest with coaches. If you commit to a school, go out of your way to let all of the other schools know you have committed so they don’t waste their time continuing to pursue you.

1. When you decide to take an “official visit” to a school you are particularly interested in, remember that you are not only evaluating the school, but you are being evaluated by the coaches and the players as well. Be a standup person and carry yourself in a way that is respectful and courteous to those around you. No matter how good a player you are, if the players and coaches are not impressed, they will lose interest in you.

Coach Dalicandro’s Recommendations and Observations about the College Recruiting Process

Every player and parent should be aware of the following before beginning the recruiting process.

Grades: The bottom line is that a student-athlete’s performance as a student will matter most in his ability to play at the college or university of his desire. To that end, he should strive to achieve and maintain a GPA of at least a 3.0 to keep college coaches interested.

Test Scores: Studies show that the more times a student takes the SAT, the better he does, even if he hasn’t taken a test-taking course such as Kaplan. I recommend that the student take the SAT at least twice, and maybe a third time if he is still unsatisfied with his score. Many college coaches also recommend taking the ACT, as it provides them more information to use when convincing their admissions department that this student-athlete should be accepted. (Info websites on the ACT: http://www.actstudent.org ; http://www.act.org)

Exposure to Coaches: For student-athletes who really hope to play at the college level and have demonstrated the athletic potential to do so, you need to be pro-active in making yourself known to college coaches. Most college coaches will not be able to see you play during the spring season, unless you send them a tape of you playing. Crucial in terms of timing, then, is the summer after your junior year. You need to dedicate at least a couple weeks of your summer to attending recruiting camps where college coaches will be hoping to see players that would help their programs. Be warned that these camps are invariably expensive, and they do not necessarily include much in terms of instruction. You are essentially paying to be noticed, and nothing is guaranteed except that certain college coaches will be in attendance. You should contact coaches of the colleges you are interested in and find out where they will be that summer so you can attend at least one of those camps; or, contact a coach and let him know the camps you will be attending. He may try to see you or send an assistant coach to see you.

Many of the more exclusive recruiting camps require a recommendation from the player’s high school coach in order for an athlete to be accepted, and they only allow on average about four recommendations per coach/team. Contact me in late October or early November if you want a recommendation.