Through the Net – How the Internet Has Changed College Basketball Recruiting

admin | Blog | May 17, 2010

By Wendy Pan

Big-time college basketball sports recruiting has always been important to university athletic departments throughout the United States. Year after year, top coaches battle each other for the best athletes in the hopes of winning a national title and subsequently earning their university valuable exposure to both prospective students and alumni (and their pocketbooks).

But in the pre-Internet days, recruiting was largely the domain of the insider; fans were almost exclusively on the outside looking in, and rarely knew of the day-to-day activities involved in recruiting. In fact, most fans’ first looks at new members of their basketball team were just before tip-off on opening night. Once fans got online, however, all that changed.

Recruiting Web Sites

Sports recruiting for college sports, college basketball in particular, is now its own industry. Web sites that specialize in recruiting offer fans a chance to track their school’s recruiting progress daily, and also offer a sneak peek at how those recruits are doing in high school basketball games. Just fifteen years ago, high school athletes played in relative obscurity, hoping to catch the eye of a coach who would be impressed enough to offer a scholarship. Now, in large part due to these Web sites that report on recruiting, high school athletes are household names among fan bases, and the blue chippers play big games in front of national television audiences.

Online Message Boards

Additionally, fans chat among themselves on online message boards. Hardcore sports fans debate, argue, ridicule, criticize, and on good days even laud their favorite team’s sports recruiting progress throughout the year. Mere minutes after a top recruit commits to play for a school, thousands of fans flock to message boards to discuss the future of the team. All of this before a recruit wears a uniform or scores a single point, and even before that recruit graduates from high school. The worth of these message boards could be evaluated a number of different ways: Do they damage recruiting by talking negatively about future recruits or even current players? Do recruits read the message boards and base their future decision on how fans treat the recruiting process? The truth probably lies somewhere in between.

The Future

It’s hard to say where the future of recruiting goes from here. As it stands now, high school athletes are routinely being recruiting as young as their freshman year of high school, and some players are being recruited as young as the eighth grade. The battle for top recruits becomes more heated with each passing year as the pressure on coaches to win it all comes from all sides: the university’s administration, donors, and the fans. One thing is certain, however — as long as fans feel passionately about their favorite teams, they will continue to follow sports recruiting online.

Wendy Pan is an accomplished niche website developer and author.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Wendy_Pan

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College Athletic Scholarships – The 5 Misconceptions

admin | Blog | May 17, 2010

Families seem to be in the middle of a perfect storm as they look to send their sons and daughters to college. The stock market has wiped out a lot of the savings people thought they had; college tuition has climbed; the economy has wiped out millions of jobs; house prices have collapsed and destroyed equity; and more kids than ever want a higher education.

Maybe the promising circumstances for you is that your child plays a sport – even plays it pretty well. Sounds like you, right? You wouldn’t be reading this otherwise. So help in the form of an athletic scholarship may well be on the cards. You will need to navigate the recruiting process, and make some difficult judgments about contacting college coaches, bringing on college consultants, negotiating terms (if you are lucky enough to get that far) and all the rest of a potentially complicated process. But for those with prospects, and need, there is just no other way.

And there is no question that a sports scholarship can help pay for that college education. It may not be a full ride – but any contribution would be welcomed by most of us. The challenge for parents though, especially those new to the college recruiting process, is to navigate the unfamiliar terrain in a race where the stakes could not be higher. Hey, it’s only your child’s education!

Jennifer Noonan of College Sports Quest has been counseling high school athletes in Southern California for around 10 years and has advised over 500 families in that time. She warns against leaving everything to the student. It is just too important for the athlete not to have the full backing of the family.

And as Jennifer Noonan she sees it, there are five common misconceptions when it comes to college recruiting and sports scholarships.

Myth #1: If you are good enough, coaches will always find out about you
And all good things come to those who wait. In a perfect world, this is exactly what would happen. Alas, our world is less than perfect. And a college scholarship is too important to leave to chance. You must be proactive. I

Myth #2: You have plenty of time
Not nearly as much as you think. Around 25% of high school athletes are identified as college scholarship prospects when they are freshman. Another 35% are identified as sophomores. And another 45% or so are identified when they are juniors. Not that many get identified as seniors. So you don’t have as much time as you think. According to Noonan and College Sports Quest, the time for you to start your own recruiting efforts – in most sports – is by September 1 of your junior year (or earlier).

Myth #3: Your coach has connections and will get you recruited
Coaches’ first job is to train you – so you can get recruited. And they are busy – many have teaching duties on top of their athletic duties. Not to mention families and personal lives and all the rest of it. Sure, use the help you get offered from coaches, even ask for it and leverage all the connections they have. But don’t make this your only recruiting strategy.

Myth #4: College camps and exposure tournaments mean you will get noticed
By the time most college coaches get to tournaments, they have a very short list of prospects in mind that they are watching. In a camp of 500 student athletes, a college coach may only be seriously looking at 2 or 3. The lesson is that you need to do the work getting on their radar screens before the tournament. And be realistic (but optimistic) about your abilities and the college tournaments you target.

Myth #5: Grades don’t matter
Colleges and the NCAA have high school course requirements and GPA/SAT/ACT minimum standards that you will need to clear. But meeting the minimum standard the NCAA and your college set does not mean you will be able to continue to meet the required levels of academics. And, all things being equal between you and another prospect, higher grades will count.

It always helps to visit the colleges you are interested in. Try to time your visit so you can see your sport being played. Avoid applying to colleges for sports scholarships that you would not consider attending otherwise. In other words, whatever happens with the team – you still have a degree to get!

Sports highlight video
And along the way, athletes will need to consider a sports highlight video which collects their best plays into a video of around 5 minutes or so. A good athletic recruiting video will contain a number of your games and will showcase your skills in a number of different situations. It will start straight in and be edited pretty tightly. It may also contain – as a separate menu item – an entire game/event or portion of a game/event (depending on the sport). If the coach likes what they see then they may want to see more right away.

Talent wins the day in sports. But presentation is important in a sports highlight video. There is a world of difference between a must-watch recruiting reel that says “class” – and something with marker scrawl that sits on coaches’ desks – unwatched. People with high standards – like successful sports athletes – usually have high standards in all they do. Avoid offensive or illegally uploaded music in a sports highlight video, and make an attractive DVD box/case cover. Use two or three images – an action shot, a wide shot with your letterman jacket, and a close up portrait (if possible).

And most important: include all of your stats. What stats are relevant will vary from sport to sport but all sports should include information on the front or back DVD box cover such as height, weight, graduating class (year), coach and player contact information, GPA, and awards, honors and distinctions. Sports recruiting reels are well within the capabilities of most folks but if you need assistance putting something together there are plenty of professional video editors who can help you hit your sports highlight video out of the park.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Jane_Lehmann

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The Browns Turn To YouTube To Find Football Players

admin | Blog | May 13, 2010

I don’t know if the Browns have a guy whose job it is to sit around all day and watch YouTube videos while thinking, “Please, for the love of everything holy, let me find someone on YouTube today who might actually be able to play football.” They might. It would kind of make sense.

If that guy does exist, he’s doing a really good job.
He found a fellow named Joel Reinders, a strapping, 6’7″, 320-lb. Canadian gent with a handlebar mustache who happens to play a little offensive tackle.

Based on that video alone, the Browns gave Reinders a call and signed him as an undrafted free agent. You know who the Browns didn’t call and sign as an undrafted free agent? The guy Reinders blocks in the very first highlight.
When I said that that Reinders played a little offensive tackle, I probably should’ve emphasized the “little” part — he’s played exactly eight organized football games in his life.
He grew up playing hockey, as is his duty as a Canadian citizen. Being 6’7″, he eventually took up basketball, and though he did play for two years at the University of Waterloo, he never truly embraced the sport. But he talked to the football coach, and the coach liked the fact that he was 6’7″, and he set about teaching him to play some o-line.

Obviously, he’s what teams call a “project” — someone who’s got the physical tools but likely needs a couple more years of learning before he can contribute. But Reinder obviously has the size, and there’s some ability there. For a highlight reel put together in the first eight football games of a man’s life, I’d say it’s quite impressive. It really is an incredible story for the guy, even if it doesn’t go past this. I’d love to see him make the team.

And congratulations to the Browns organization, particularly the Scouting/YouTube Perusal Department. All those endless days of wading through keyboard cat and other video oddities finally paid off.

Courtesy of Yahoo Sports

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