eliteathletesrecruiting

How to make a positive impression during a recruiting interview

Posted on July 16, 2015December 7, 2016 by eliteathletesrecruiting

4 Things to Know for a Recruiting Interview

Set yourself apart by treating your recruiting visit like you would a job interview

In the coming months many 2017 student athletes will take official college visits to solidify the next steps of their recruiting. It is much like a job interview in many respects. Bosses have reviewed the resume, checked references and decided to scheduled the final interview. So treat your recruiting visit like you would a job interview.

College coaches can now contact 2017 recruits So if you’re not hearing from college coaches contact me immediately (mwoosley@csaprepstar.com) so I can help you get the recruiting exposure you need to get noticed!

Keep in mind that while your resume is your athletic and academic accomplishments, what’s really going to put you at the top of the list is how set yourself apart during the recruiting interview. So, here are four tips that you need to know to leave a positive impression during a recruiting interview.

Use proper English grammar. Coaches take their job seriously, so it makes sense that they also look to find serious players. Demonstrate that you are articulate and intelligent by using good grammar.
Dress for success. Leave the warm-ups at home. Dress nicely and wear a tie. Don’t worry about standing out. That’s what you are there for, after all!
Separate yourself from the pack. When everyone else is goofing off, keep in mind that the reason you are there is get noticed and get a scholarship!
Answer questions confidently. Rehearse your responses to questions that a coach may ask. Anticipate questions that revolve around your strengths, weaknesses, concept of team, individual goals, work ethic, and responsibility.

Remember, the objective of the recruiting interview is impress the coach so you move up the recruiting board and ultimately increase your chanced to get scholarships. Follow these tips and you’ll be well on your way to a successful recruiting interview.

Good luck on your upcoming interview!

Coach Mike Woosley

Coach Mike Woosley is a National Scouting Director at CSA-PrepStar. As a professional collegiate sports scout Mike works with qualified next level student-athletes to find the right college athletic and academic fit. Comments and questions are always welcome.

#1 recruiting mistake I see most often

Posted on July 8, 2015July 8, 2015 by eliteathletesrecruiting

As Scouting Director I get to see many of the country’s most talented athletes. As I evaluate, talk and meet with families across the nation and I’ve discovered that a larger number of them struggle with recruiting. I want to share what I’ve found to help you with your athlete’s recruiting.

Most often recruiting struggles have little to do with the athlete’s ability and more to do with timing. The number one recruiting mistake I see most often is related to starting the recruiting process too late.

Because college coaches cannot recruit a player that he/she does not know about you can avoid this mistake by starting the recruiting process early. An early start assures more control over the recruiting process and greater opportunities to be scouted and recruited by more coaches, as well as, saves your family time, money and worry.

However, neglecting to start early has severe consequences. The most common are

unnecessarily spending of precious time and money trying to make up for lost time,
loss of control over the recruiting process
no competitive advantage over the thousands of other athletes hoping to fill roster spots and get scholarships
athletes that are overlooked and not recruited like they should be

Partnering with PrepStar and myself can assure you the right amount of recruiting exposure and assistance you need to stay ahead of the recruiting game or catch up if you are behind.

I hope this tip is both helpful and useful for your athlete’s recruiting. I’ve included a few recruiting resources are included below to help you out.

~ Coach Mike

Simple interesting tips to get helpful recruiting attention

Posted on July 2, 2015July 2, 2015 by eliteathletesrecruiting

Getting attention is necessary for recruiting. The simple reason for this is because coaches can’t recruit players they don’t know about. Here’s a quick tip on how you can use what’s interesting about you to get attention that will help your recruiting.

There is a right way and a wrong way to grab attention.

Simple interesting notice gets attention

Almost immediately, with just a few words and a simple “ding” ESPN managed to get my attention, spike my curiosity and persuade me to watch the video. And, as any good natured sports fan would do, I picked up my phone to to check it out.

Truthfully, I’m not sure why I watched it. However, those few short sentences caused me to be interested enough to click the play button. I wasn’t thinking about Colin Cowherd, Jim Harbaugh or M*ch*gan football at the time. (Although, I grew up in Ohio and my allegiance has always been with the Buckeyes so maybe my loathing for that team up north might of had something to do with it.)

Being interesting gets attention

I learned a few things from this experience that I believe can help you with your recruiting. First, its important to be interesting enough to get attention. Second, its important to keep that attention. Third, once you get attention its important that you deliver the goods. Hype is good only if you can back it up.

Try it out, but ask a few questions first

Here’s a good tip. You’ll get the attention you want if what you give interesting information. So when your polishing your Prepstar profile, making a highlight video, sending an email or text, posting on social media or visiting a college campus consider this question ‘What’s interesting about me that makes coaches want to give me their attention?’

To wrap up, everyone has something about them that makes them interesting that makes them worthy of attention. Its a terrible trap to think that you don’t. Try making a list of interesting things about you, or ask a close friend to name some interesting things about you. Then, you’ll be well on your way to sharing interesting information about yourself to help you get the right kind of recruiting attention.

Find these tips helpful? Experience successful result using them? If so, let me know in the comment or message me on Twitter.

How social media can help your recruiting

Posted on June 26, 2015 by eliteathletesrecruiting

Social media can help with self-promotion

Social media can be a great tool for self promotion for your recruiting. I use it everyday to promote players, share ideas, tips and motivational coaches quotes. On several occasions college coaches have connected with me via social media to ask about my PrepStar athletes.

Social media can also help you connect with coaches, player and key people at prospective colleges. Here’s why.

Many college coaches use social media as another recruiting tool. For them, its a good way to find out what kind of person you are just by viewing your social media pages, posts and interactions.

Two Reasons to Use Social Media

So, if you don’t have a social media account I recommend that you get one soon. Here are two good reasons a why.

First, social media is a great way to start and keep a recruiting relationship going. But what about the email? Emails definitely have a place in recruiting. However, connecting with a coach via social media can open the door of opportunity to send the email to tell the coach more about you. Also, social media is a good way to stay in touch after you’ve gotten to know one another.

Second, NCAA guidelines are a bit vague on the contacting athletes through social media. Texts and emails on the other hand are more regulated and count as a recruiting contact. Use loophole to your advantage advantage.

Lets Review Some Basics

Now, if you want to use social media like Twitter and Facebook to your advantage let’s cover a few basics. Follow these tips and you’re sure to help you use social media to your advantage.

Connect with coaches follow teams to learn about program
Follow college players to collect information, get to know them and learn about the program.
Make your posts interesting. If you put a link, give your follower a reason to want to click the link and find out more about you.
Be wise with the content you post. Don’t post profanity, vulgar or offensive material. And if its on your page delete remove it now! You want to post content that presents you in a positive way.
Its not smart to post injuries, failures and absolutely no whining/complaining about a coach or teammates!
Are you crying? There’s no crying in baseball!

Okay, now that you’ve decided to use social media to your advantage use the social media search menu and started connecting. Also, if you haven’t already, make sure to connect with me on Twitter @michaelwoosley.

Next week, I’ll share some tips on how to get the most out of your social media communications.

Good luck!

Early signing day for football could speed up the recruiting process for some and slow it dow for others

Posted on June 16, 2015June 16, 2015 by eliteathletesrecruiting

Talk of allowing December early signing date for National Letters of Intent for FBS and FCS schools. By the end of the month this matter should be settled following an upcoming vote. ESPN broke the story Monday about the CCA experimenting with new recruiting regulations.

Currently, there no early signing date for collegiate football program. However, most other collegiate sports except soccer and mens’ water polo have early signing date the second week of November. This new regulation can take effect as early as 2016 with a review coming after two year of experimenting with the new rule.

NLI signing dates could undergo a monumental change following an upcoming vote of FBS and FCS representatives.

So, how will an early signing date affect Senior football players hoping to get to the next level?

First, it means for some players recruiting will speed up while for others it will slow down. Secondly, collegiate hopefuls will have to rethink they way they approach the college recruiting process both athletically and academically.

Here’s a general breakdown of what to anticipate.

Undoubtably, recruiting will speed up for prospects that are high on the recruiting boards. These athletes will be identified much earlier and recruited with more intensity. We can count of this because college coaches will need to be more aggressive with blue-chip players to make sure another school doesn’t steal them away.

As a result, this intense focus will cause recruiting to slow down for prospects that aren’t primary targets for the December declaration day. These prospects will likely experience a lag in communication with college coaches. Make no mistake, college coaches will benefit from the additional time permitted by the early signing date to pick and choose the most ideal player, or players, to fill the remaining roster spots. But for the rest, this process might become tedious and perhaps stressful.

So where do we go from here? Simple. Recruiting exposure needs to start earlier and athletes will have to be on top of their core courses and ACT/SAT tests to make sure they are early academic qualifiers.

Most certainly, athletes must be on the coach’s recruiting radar by the Sophomore year to get a pen and paper placed before them in December. Furthermore, athletes will need more aggressive with their strategy to get seen, scouted and recruited. Clearly, the advantage goes to players able to play at the varsity level as underclassmen, who take the initiative to get quality recruiting exposure and perform well in the classroom.

In the end, while the vote has yet to be cast, it is expected to pass. So athletes better start preparing for it.

Twitter: @michaelwoosley

Tips on how to communicate with college coaches

Posted on June 13, 2015June 13, 2015 by eliteathletesrecruiting

“Who dis?”

That’s an actual text response I recently received from a high school athlete. Immediately, I knew that this young man was going to have issues communicating with college coaches. And in recruiting how you communicate is just as important as how you perform on the field.

interview-question-ruins-300x200 — When you talk with a coach your resume is your athletic and academic accomplishments, but what’s going to put you at the top of the list is how sell yourself during the interview.

Most athletes don’t understand that meeting a college coach is much like a job interview. To state it simply, the coach has a open position in his organization and he’s looking for the best candidate to fill that position. So treat your visit like you would a job interview. Your resume is your athletic and academic accomplishments, but what’s going to put you at the top of the list is how sell yourself during the interview.

You want to leave a positive impression. So here are four tips that you need to know.

1) Use proper English. Coaches take their job seriously, they also look for serious players. Demonstrate that you are articulate and intelligent (if you don’t know what those works mean get a thesaurus!)

2) Dress for success. Leave the warm-ups at home. Dress nicely and wear a tie. Don’t worry about standing out. After all, that’s what you are there for.

3) Separate yourself from the pack. Sheep run in a flock so they don’t get eaten, lions roam alone to hunt down their prey! When everyone else is goofing off, keep in mind that your there for one reason; to get noticed and get a scholarship!

4) Be confident when you respond to questions. Rehearse your responses to questions that a coach may ask. Teams practice so that they are prepared for whatever may come during game-time. Anticipate questions that revolve around your strengths, weaknesses, concept of team, individual goals, work ethic, and responsibility.

Remember, the objective is to leave the interview confident that you left a good impression. Certainly, don’t put yourself in a position where you walk away wishing you would have said or did something differently.

Good luck on your upcoming interview.

Coach Mike

Twitter: @michaelwoosley

The value of sports camps for recruiting?

Posted on June 9, 2015 by eliteathletesrecruiting

Almost every conversation I have with athletes and parents the question of camps comes up. Admittedly, sports camps have especially gained a lot of attention as a staple for recruiting. It seems like every college, at all levels, has some sort of athletic camp. But do camps really help with recruiting?

So what is the role of sports camps in college athletic recruiting? Are they worth it? Do they really help with recruiting?

First, camps are great for younger athletes. During camp younger players can learn new skills which can help them in the future. Young athletes can use camp to demonstrate talent level above their peers.

Conversely, older, more experienced players spend most of their time at camp honing the skills they already have. Be warned, recruiting can suffer if player skills are not up to par.

Second, camps are good for team building. Ever see Remember the Titans? hqdefault copy Team camps build the necessary bond of trust and camaraderie between teammates that is needed to succeed. There is also an added benefit when several members of a team has the opportunity to see firsthand how they measure up against talented athletes from competing schools.

So what about the role of camps in recruiting?

The best piece of advice is that camps need to add value to your recruiting. Consider, what will you gain from attending this camp beyond a T-shirt and sunburn? Before you pay fill out the application form its wise to ask yourself this question.

Secondly, athletes should be selective with camps choices. Exposure is the key benefit with camp selection. Target a camps for the benefits it can add to the quality exposure of your overall recruiting campaign.

Lastly, before the check is written, consider the return on investment. The idea is to let the camp to add significant credibility to your recruiting, not make you look like an underperforming athlete or worse, desperate for attention.

In summary, it is important to consider the value of a sports. Good investments add value, and sports camps should add value to your overall recruiting campaign.

Share your opinions. What do are your though about attending sports camps for recruiting purposes?

Finally, follow me on Twitter and locate me on Periscope to watch my upcoming broadcast on the value of sports camps for college recruiting.

How to gauge your college recruiting

Posted on May 30, 2015May 30, 2015 by eliteathletesrecruiting

For many athletes the school year is finally over. The first thing most student-athletes want to do is to relax and take a break. But if you’re an athlete with the goal of playing ball at the next level coasting is not the best thing to do.

Actually, the last thing you want to do is take a break. So instead of taking your foot off the gas and coasting you need to rev up the engine and cover some serious ground. Remember, you only have a small four year window to get seen, scouted, and recruited.

Taking time off can put you behind in recruiting. Plus, athletes can get in a funk where one day off turns into to two, then four then, a week or even a month. Take caution not to fall behind. College coaches recruit athletes year around so you should also stay focused on your recruiting year around.

So, how do you know that your recruiting is on the right track? Follow these tips as a guideline to gauge where you are with your recruiting.

Freshmen- Day 1 of Freshman year, the very first day you step on high school campus, college coaches can begin to communicate with athletes. Get any early start before the school year begins because recruiting really starts the day you graduate 8th grade.

Sophomores that are starting to show up on the recruiting radar of college coaches should be getting letters, emails and camp invites. This is a pivotal year for most prospective athletes and the best time to get noticed.

Juniors can tell that they are on pace recruiting by receiving emails, texts, camp invites or have spoken with several coaches. This is also a great time to take the Act and SAT tests.

Seniors should have heard from colleges the summer before their senior year. Ideally, seniors want to be in a position where they are narrowing down interested colleges instead of hoping that a college coach will show an interest at the last moment.

Follow these tips and you’ll be heading towards the home stretch.

One other piece of advice. If you find that your recruiting isn’t going according to plan, you should get some help to get you up to speed. I’m willing to help. Just contact me via twitter or the email below for a free recruiting evaluation.

Good luck!

Coach Mike

Twitter: @michaelwoosley

The Courtship of College Recruiting

Posted on April 4, 2015April 6, 2015 by eliteathletesrecruiting

This summer my wife and I will mark our 18th year of beginning together (married for 16 years). Believe it or not, however, when I first met my wife she did not immediately start dating me. It’s hard to imagine, I know, but we went through several months of courtship before we committed to dating exclusively. Dating and recruiting are a lot alike. There is always a period of time that it takes for a coach and player to get to know one another before making a formal commitment to spend the next 4 years together.

During the recruiting process the relationship developed between a player and coach leads to great commitment.

So, how does dating relate to recruiting? I’ve outline three steps to communication to grow a solid player/coach recruiting relationship. During that time lots of communication should happen to grow the relationship. Take note, because there are several similarities in process of getting to know the person you’re going to be committed to for the next 4 years.

The first step is to get to know one another. Whether its text, email, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook or SnapChat athletes and coaches need to communicate with one another. Don’t be timid! Healthy relationships grow out of quality conversations. Its okay to be forward, often a coach expresses his/her interests first starting the recruiting communication process by contacting an athlete, viewing their profile or sending an athlete (or family) written correspondence.

The second step is to ask questions. You should ask questions to get the information you are looking for. Keep in mind that you are interviewing a coach, just as much as the coach is interviewing you. Your decision to accept a scholarship offer is contingent on the answers to your questions. Also, keep in mind, coaches solidify relationships by making scholarship offers to players they are comfortable with and confident in.

The third step is to schedule a meeting. Eventually the time will come to decide whether or not to take the relationship to the next level. Real dates happen face to face, not via technology, so its necessary that a time to meet is scheduled. This can be a campus visit, camp, or meeting at your school/home. Point is the communication you’ve had with the coach will determine the chemistry (or lack of) at the face to face meeting.

Lastly, always keep in mind that every relationship takes time. So my advice to you is to give yourself plenty of time to start and grow that relationship. This is a vital because we are well aware that relationships that happen in a hurry often end in a hurry. If you want the relationship between you and your coach to last, you need to invest the time necessary to assure that it will last.

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How to Enjoy the Recruiting Experience Your Senior Year

Posted on March 13, 2015 by eliteathletesrecruiting

Tips for 2016 soon-to-be-seniors to enjoy the recruiting process.

Elite Athletes Recruiting

Almost every athletic competition has time constraints. For example, soccer has two 45 minute halves, basketball four 8 minute quarters, even track and swimming measure placements by time. Baseball and softball limits games by a specified number of innings. Clearly, time management is vital to every game. Usually, the winning team at the end of the game is the team that managed the clock best. In contrast, the team that does not always relies on last second miracles to pull out the victory.

Last Minute Miracles

Athletes in the midst of their senior year should not rely on last minute miracles to land a scholarship. Now don’t get me wrong, I believe that miracles happen, but I’d much rather be confident that everything has been done to assure that victory is certain. Think of it like this. Would you rather hurry and scurry around as the clock winds down hoping…

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