Whether you are a high school or AAU coach, your role in recruiting is crucial. With social media and all of the recruiting platforms, it’s important to remember that nothing can replace your first hand experience with the players that coaches are recruiting.
Here are a few ways to make sure that you are prepared to help your players reach that next level.
This may seem obvious but.. Pick up your phone! The number of coaches that would be slow to respond or not return phone calls was surprising.
Whether it’s a DI coach or NAIA, understand that keeping communication lines open could majorly impact your players future.
College coaches understand that you have busy lives but if you don’t have the time, assign calls to an assistant that you trust to make sure that your player is not missing out on any opportunities.
Have accurate stats on your players. As a college coach, there were many times where I had to scramble to get accurate information on the kids we were recruiting.
Some states don’t have the convenient stat sites that keep these up to date so having correct information on your individual players performance can be very helpful in a coach’s evaluation.
Film, film, film!
Technology has made it much easier for college coaches to discover kids around the world. It is impossible to expect college coaches, especially during season to make it out to as many games as they would like.
One way to help encourage them to make a trip is to have film so that they have more confidence in the caliber of player they are going to come and watch.
If you don’t have enough staff, ask a parent or student you trust.
College coaches know that you want the best for your players and sometimes that can get in the way of reality.
If your player is a DIII/NAIA player but you like the sound of DI or DII more, that is doing nothing but harm for your player.
Not only that, it can impact your reputation as a coach, especially when it comes to evaluations.
If you are struggling to figure out the appropriate level that your player is at, it’s okay to ask local college coaches for their honest feedback.
When stating your player’s height, be honest.. When speaking on your player’s coachability, be honest..
When asked about your player’s parents, be honest...It will only build rapport.
When coaches can trust you, it will go a long way when you have players down the road that are an appropriate fit for their programs.
“Not only that, it can impact your reputation as a coach.”
Once you have all the appropriate information and have a decent feel for the level of your player, help them get opportunities in front of coaches.
During the high school season, reach out to college coaches with statistics, accomplishments and/or any other applicable information to help get your players name out.
Sending your team’s schedule along with that email is another way to make recruiting your player easier and if you want to take it a step further circle what you think will be the most competitive games - the better the game, the better the evaluation!
Players can take this step too but receiving these types of emails from high school coaches legitimizes the information and has a higher chance of getting a response.
For AAU coaches, this is a little bit of an easier process due to July being a live recruiting period but to reference a point I made earlier about making evaluations more clear, as much as you can, play the appropriate level of competition.
College coaches know that you have a lot of pressure to win games with the current makeup of AAU but understand it doesn’t help your players when we watch them play in blowouts.
Not only that but vs players that don’t at least half resemble the athletes they will be up against at the next level.
So as much as you can, research your tournaments and bracket levels to make sure you are playing quality competitive opponents as frequently as possible.
And finally, for players that choose not to participate at the AAU level, more power to them. There are plenty of opportunities outside of July.
High school team camps and elite camps that are hosted on university campuses are just a couple of ways to get your players seen during the summer season.
There are so many other ways to impact your players recruitment in a positive way, these are just a few to get you going in the right direction. Thanks for reading!