During the recruiting process, coaches don’t just look at your athletic results and rankings. There are many more factors that coaches consider when deciding whether or not to add you to their team. Some of these factors apply to all sports. To help you out, we have compiled a top five important factors.
Are you about to start the whole recruiting process, are you already in the middle of it or are you just curious what coaches are looking out for now? Then read on quickly and we assure you, from now on you will be on top of your game.
Character
Probably not an unexpected aspect for many, but your character is even more important than you probably think. Imagine starting the recruiting process and seeing yourself as Christiano Ronaldo, the best in your sport, and therefore too good for all but the best teams. This mindset will not go unnoticed by coaches. Coaches look for boys and girls who put the team above themselves. In addition, it is important that your character fits the characters of the team, and that you are open to coaching and feedback from them. A good connection with a coach is of tremendous importance in college sports.
In addition, don’t forget that as a student-athlete, you represent a university and are therefore the business card of this university, so to speak. Therefore, it is important for coaches that you are not only strong athletically, but that you can also represent yourself and the university well outside of sports. If the coach feels that you do not possess these points, they do not care if you are the best in your sport. As long as you are motivated and willing to work hard, they will also be willing to help you with this.
Academic results
As a student-athlete, you are also expected to care about your studies and get good results. The name says it all; you are a student athlete. Academic results are therefore of great importance, first of all because they can influence whether or not you are admitted to a particular university. But it is also important for coaches to get good grades because then they don’t have to worry about your eligibility to play. An important detail is that you have to pass your courses, otherwise you are simply not allowed to play games for your team. So do your best at school!
Every sports team also tries to achieve the highest possible team average. If you do well in your studies and get good grades, you automatically motivate your teammates to do their very best as well, and then the team average goes up as well! So it’s a win-win situation.
Commitment and loyalty
Coaches value reliable athletes – guys and gals who do what they are supposed to do and keep promises. They look for athletes who will always be on time, every day, with no exceptions. Being on time for practices and appointments is an important part in all aspects of life, but some coaches see it as one of the benchmarks of an athlete’s commitment.
Also, coaches find athletes with perseverance very important and see them as good additions to their team, in bad and good times. And perhaps most importantly, American coaches are looking for true leaders – boys and girls who (dare to) take the initiative and who have it in them to motivate others to give themselves 100% to achieve the team’s goal, especially in times of adversity.
Communication during the process
Communication is key. Coaches see communication with you during the process as a hugely important part of that as well. This is, in fact, a kind of dress rehearsal for them as well, of what to expect in terms of contact and communication once you are in college as an athlete. If you don’t show interest in the team, they probably don’t think you’ll care much about the team as a student-athlete either. And if you wait a long time to answer a coach via email or Whatsapp, it comes across as if you have little interest.
It is therefore important to be on top of things: this shows that you are organized and that you take the coach, their work and their time, seriously. In this way, you show interest while ensuring that communication between you and your possible future coach is smooth.
Try-outs/videos
Last but not least, the coach would like to see in action, either live or via video footage. One of the first steps, but also one of the most important steps, that coaches take during the recruiting process is watching your video footage to get an idea of your level. Especially in sports such as tennis, (ice) field hockey, basketball and soccer, where your level and skills cannot be immediately determined using personal records, as in swimming and athletics, this is of enormous importance. But for any sport, make sure you have good video. A good video will undoubtedly get you the attention of coaches faster.
Of course, Slamstox will help you pick out this video footage and create your final video. In addition, Slamstox also regularly organizes a showcase for the different sports, where coaches are often present live to see new talent in action and scout them.
To get an idea of what a recruiting video looks like, you can also always take a look at our current available Slamstox athletes to see what images are important.
Want to learn more about the recruiting process? Or discover if college sports is something for you? Then contact us quickly by using this form and we will be happy to help you!
