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Why
should you buy The Handbook?
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It could help you to be recruited.
It could save you thousands of dollars
on the cost of college.
It could help you find an ideal college sports situation.
It could help you to avoid bad college sports situations.
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The Sports Scholarship Handbook
can help you to be recruited. The movies, newspaper stories and the
NCAA would have you believe that
every talented athlete has their choice
of scholarship offers. The reality is less glamorous. Coach need a
way to identify talent. Importantly, the coach needs to identify
athletes that are interested in his program and his school. The Sports Scholarship Handbook
details specific actions you can take to contact coaches, establish
your credentials as an athlete and indicate your interest in the
coach's program and school. Sitting back and hoping for a call is easy,
but it might not get you an offer at a school you want to
attend. Do not wait until it is too late.
College
Costs are skyrocking. Few parents and teachers know just how high
costs of attending college have risen. If your sports participation
gets you a 20% scholarship for one year, that could pay 200 times more
than the cost of The
Sports Scholarship Handbook! A full ride for 4 years could be worth
8,000 times the cost of The Handbook. If the handbook helps you to get
athletic aid it will be well worth the price.
Some things are worth more than money. A great college experience
playing your sport may be worth far more than a scholarship that comes
with a bad experience. The
Sports Scholarship Handbook has detailed steps that you can take to
find a great college sports opportunity. The Handbook explains in
detail how to analyze your own talents, how to pick a program that fits
your talents and how to jumpstart your recruitment in that program.
A surprisingly large number of college scholarship athletes are unhappy
with their college experience. Not all opportunities will fit the needs
of all student athletes. A bad fit of schools, coach, team or
geographical environment can cause great disappointment. Such
disappointments are costly in money, time and in personal stress. The
Sports Scholarship Handbook can help you to identify potential
problems and avoid them before the time and costs add up.
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What can you
learn from The Handbook?
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What are the three most
important things to know about recruiting?
What won't coaches tell you?
What won't the NCAA tell you?
What does Title IX have to do with it?
Why is football special?
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You only go through the college sports
recruiting process once. Things
happen faster and faster during your recruiting year. There is
little time to adjust and no time to start over. You will have an
advantage over other recruits if you can plan your steps in advance. The
Sports Scholarship Handbook will guide you through the
recruiting process. If you want to compete in college, start now!
Don't wait for a coach to call you before you learn what you can about
being recruited. Don't wait until the fall of your senior year. Learn
as much as you can as early as you can.
The three most important things you need
to know about college sports recruiting are: start early, start early
and start early. But wait, isn't it the college coach's job to do the
recruiting? Yes and no. Official recruiting generally starts after
your junior year in high school, but there are important steps that you
can take as early as your freshman year to increase your chances of
success. The more you know about recruiting, eligibility and sports
scholarships before your senior year the better prepared you will be
for getting the offer you want from a school you want to attend.
What won't college coaches tell you? College
coaches are typically enthusiastic, charismatic people who like working
with young adults. Coaches recruit student athletes who will contribute
to their team. For obvious reasons they will put things in the most
positive, most enthusiastic light. They have plans for you. When they
meet you in your home, you are the one they're paying close attention
to.
Coaches won't explain that being recruited may be the most personal
attention you will get for a while. Coaches won't point out that soon
after you arrive at college they will be busily engaged in the next
recruiting season, working hard to impress next year's recruits. They
are unlikely to tell you about any rough spots in their own
relationship with the athletic department administration. So, be
flattered and have fun with the attention while you are being recruited
but also use your recruiting visit to learn as much as possible. The
Sports Scholarship Handbook contains 172 pages of advice about
how to learn what you need to know to evaluate a college sports
opportunity.
What won't the NCAA tell you? The NCAA Guide
for the College Bound Student Athlete is full of useful information
and you should get
a copy and study it. However, when you read the NCAA guide you
should also recognize that the NCAA is presenting an idealized version
of how recruiting works and what a student athlete can expect. The NCAA
guide is filled with pictures of smiling students having fun and
learning. Recruiting surprises do not happen in the NCAA Guide but they
are likely to happen during your recruiting experience. The
Sports Scholarship Handbook discusses some of the more common
aspects of recruiting that are not covered in the NCAA Guide and which
may take you by surprise. More importantly the handbook gives you
useful advice about dealing with unanticipated situations.
What does Title IX have to do with it? Title
IX is a provision of Federal law that states that educational
institutions cannot discriminate on the basis of sex. Over the past 30
years the increasing level of college compliance with Title IX has
meant that opportunities for sports participation and sports
scholarships for women have increased from almost nothing to near
equality with men. However Title IX has had a significant negative
impact on men's sports at colleges and universities that compete in
football.
Why is football special? Football has large
numbers of male athletes participating and football tends to be an
expensive sport. For instance in Division I of the NCAA football teams
may have 85 players--all of whom may be receiving scholarships. To
balance those participation and scholarship opportunities with similar
opportunities for women has meant that there are generally more
scholarships given to women than to men in sports other than football.
It has also led to many mens' sports being dropped by some schools.
Regardless of how one thinks about this as a fairness issue, it means
that in many sports there are more positions for women and more
scholarships for women than there are for men. That's tough for men who
compete in these other sports and it's a great opportunity for women
athletes. It means that both men and women need to know as much as
possible if they are to maximize their opportunities.
What should you look for in a book on college
recruiting?
- Do not rely on out of date advice. Any book
dated before 2004 is out of date regarding newer NCAA rules on
eligibility and recruiting.
- Do not buy a book filled up with lists. Some
books are 90% filler made up of lists of athletic programs and
company-sponsored scholarships. These lists quickly out of date. There
are far more useful ways to find the information you need by using the
Internet. Remember, you're looking for advice and insight, not out of
date phone numbers.
- Do not buy into an "idealized" version of
recruiting. Coaches know a lot about the recruiting process but books
written by coaches idealize recruiting. They aren't going to tell you
things that give you an upper hand.
- Beware of "recruiting services." Many books are
mainly promotional material for the author's "sports recruiting
service." These services are expensive and their results are typically
disappointing. You can do better by taking charge and recruiting
yourself as described in the Handbook.
- Books filled with recruiting stories of
athletes may be entertaining but they are unlikely to help you to get
recruited. Examples are useful if they illustrate specific issues and
how you can overcome them. Be wary of books that read like one long
pep-talk after another.
- Some books are obviously specific to one sport.
If that is your sport you might check them out but also be sure to get
up to date general advice also.
- Do get a book that tells you how you can help
yourself. Coaches like team players but they also like leaders. The
things you can do to help yourself are not complicated. Learn how to
get involved in your own recruitment.
How is The Sports Scholarship Handbook
different?
The Sports Scholarship Handbook
shows you how to use the links from this site to find the latest, up to
date information about schools and their sports programs.The
Sports Scholarship Handbook is about optimizing your recruiting
experience and making the choices that are best for you. Sometimes your
best interests are the same as the coach's but many times they are not.
The handbook shows you how to plan your high school academic program to
make sure that you meet the NCAA or NAIA requirements for initial
eligibility.
The Sports Scholarship Handbook will
help you to take steps that will raise your visibility to college
recruiters. The handbook will show you how to use the Internet to find
the college sports programs that best match your needs and talents. You
will learn when and how to recruit yourself. You will learn what kinds
of questions to ask when recruiters call and learn what questions to
ask when visiting colleges. You will learn when should you make
unofficial visits to colleges on your own initiative. The Sports
Scholarship Handbook is also about being realistic in your
goals and taking a businesslike approach to making good decisions.
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© 2004 by Don Campbell |
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