Southerncali wrote:My daughter has been emailing coaches but over a year now and she has had some success with getting in touch with a few. Now we have been looking into services and has anyone heard of this place: Athletes For College, LLC? THey sound good but when we ask for refrences they only send us people from other sports that has had success with them. There is a fee to use them and they said they assist in getting in contact with colleges. Any feed back is really appreciated.
Thank you fellow Bucket members
I never heard of that one and I'm not convinced that any of them are really necessary.
I asked a college coach that was recruiting my DD during the last Surf City tourney if he had ever heard of the one we were using and he hadn't. He didn't seem interested in any of them, quite frankly. In fact he mentioned being annoyed by how often one of the most popular and expensive of those sites sent him updates on players. Maybe he'll grow to understand and like that site better, but for now...annoyed.
My advice:
- First off sit down with her and mom and try and figure out what she wants to do in college and life. If you are able to figure that out then make sure she is targeting schools where she can achieve those goals. Also make sure she targets schools in places where she would actually enjoy going, There are tons of stories of very good players abandoning their scholarships and coming home because they just don't like being there.
- Email, email, email...and make a YouTube site with some short videos of her doing good things and provide the link in the email. No videos of her doing stuff wrong. The coaches I've talked to don;t want to see that. You've got their attention for a short time...make the most of it.
- Make sure grades come first and have her take her SAT and ACT early and often to try and get the best scores you can. Get a tutor if necessary.
- Go to the target schools' camps. Yes this can be a money grab, but IMO there's no better way to get your kid in front of the coaches and have their full attention. Even if your DD isn't given an offer while you're there the coaches will be way more likely to come and scout you after they get to know your DD and her abilities/potential first hand.
- Did I mention emailing? Email, email, email...
Good luck. It's not easy.