7 Things a High School Football Player Can Do During the Season to Help His Recruitment

The busiest periods of the recruiting process typically happen in the off-season when both recruits and coaches have time to focus on building relationships and visiting campuses.  During the season, however, it can be hard to handle the demands of both a player’s season, and his recruitment process.Below are some steps each recruit can utilize to keep up his recruiting during their football season.

1. Be an impact player

The first step in getting recruited to play college football is to be a great high school player.  Less than 7% of high school players go on to play football in college.  Coaches are looking for individuals who can help make their team better and help them win more games.Having a great, productive football season while displaying your athletic and football ability on film is the absolute best way to positively impact your recruiting.

2. Attend College Campuses/Football Games 

In accordance with NCAA rules, a college football program is allowed to give each perspective student-athlete and their parents (or guardians) 3 free tickets to each home game.  Attending a schools’ home football game can really give a potential recruit a great way to experience the stadium and gameday atmosphere, in addition to allowing possible face-to-face contacts with coaches or members of the recruiting staff.Visiting a school who is recruiting you, or where you are interested in in attending, can go a long way towards showing interest to the coaching staff.  While big Division 1 schools may have hundreds of potential prospects on the sideline of a big home game, smaller schools may not have as many prospects attending a game, and allow you to make more of an impression on the coaching staff.Keep in mind, coaches and recruiting staff are very busy on gamedays.  Be outgoing and introduce yourself to each coach you cross paths with, but understand that it is gameday for them.  If they have a conversation with you, it is a great sign of interest.  If they shake your hand and thank you for attending, that’s also good. In both cases, follow-up to each coach or member of the staff you meet with a hand written letter or email thanking them for the tickets and gameday experience.  Not many people follow-up and this will help you stand out amongst the crowd.

3. Take care of your business – No excuses!

Although you are going to be busy with the season, this is no excuse to slack off in the classroom, weight room, or at home.  Playing college football is HARD, and I can guarantee college coaches do not want to hear your excuses for why your grades suffered during the Fall semester.  After all, the academics are only going to get harder at the next level and you want to be sure you are letting coaches know that you can handle that challenge.Develop the mindset that you are going to raise your game in spite of how busy your life has become during football season.  Your full schedule of practice, weight room, and academics should leave little time to mess around.  I’m not saying you can’t go out and have fun with your friends, but just make sure you’re taking care of your responsibilities.Your goal should be to not only meet, but exceed, expectations.  Coaches notice these sorts of things and it becomes something that you can proudly display to them down the line in the recruiting process.  It means a lot to recruiters when a young man can display an improved GPA while dealing with the rigors of a football season.

4. Email Updates

Although phone calls are always better, email is a great way to communicate with busy coaches during the Fall season.  These emails should always remain simple and to the point.  They should include:

• Season Update: A short line or two on how you and your team have been performing the last few games. Let the coach know how your season is going. Always be positive, regardless of your team’s record.
• Stats: Even though stats rarely play a significant part in the recruiting process, it’s alright to boast a little here and let coaches know that your defense is ranked #1 in the conference, or that you rushed for 3 TDs last week in a win over your school’s rival.
• Highlight Video Link: The more recently updated the film, the better. Always make sure the best plays come first.  You can even reference an updated play in your email, like “Hey Coach Burk, check out the Punt Return TD I had last week that I added to my highlight film!”
• Coach Information: College recruiters are going to talk to your coaches about you because it helps them get a better understanding of you as a player and person.

Remember, college coaches have to keep up with recruiting, get ready for daily practices, and ensure that their players are prepared for that Saturday’s game, so do not be discouraged if they don’t respond to you.  By updating them by email every week or so, you can ensure you are getting in front of them and keeping them informed on your season, even if they don’t respond to you right away.

5. Updating your Highlight Film

Each college program is different in the way they evaluate recruiting film, so you never know when a coach or program will be watching your film.  Keeping an updated highlight film available for coaches to view at any time can be extremely helpful when they are recruiting and evaluating you during the season.If you are fortunate enough to have played multiple Varsity seasons, it may be helpful to split up your highlight film by your Sophomore/Junior/Senior year, in addition to keeping a high school career highlight film, so coaches can easily identify your improvement through the years.The proliferation of hudl in high school football programs across America has made it a lot simpler for players to tag plays and update their highlight film.  Take advantage of this technology and spend an hour each week updating your film so coaches can see how you’re doing.If your school doesn’t use hudl, you can also put highlight films on youtube or make your own youtube channel to direct coaches to.  Providing any link to video that can be emailed helps make it easy on the coaches to view your film.Video Tip: When titling your videos, make sure you include: Your name, title (“Senior year Highlight film”), position, high school, and graduating year so that you can be easily found if coaches happen to search for you online.

6. Keep up your Social Media

Updating your Social Media accounts (Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and Snapchat) are a great way to keep coaches informed of how you’re doing and what’s going on in your life.  You may not think coaches are watching because you haven’t heard from them in a while, but when they do think of you, your social media accounts are the first place they will go to get an insight on your recent activities.If coaches follow your social media accounts, this also gives them something to talk to you about in the future, whether it is about your prom or the NFL game you attended a few weeks back.To avoid any issues with your social media accounts, I suggest picking 3 aspects of your life you care about most and only post about these 3 things.  For example, let’s say the 3 aspects are family/friends, football, and food, then those are the only things you post about.  By sticking to the “3 aspects of your life” policy, you will avoid any pointless commentary or reckless twitter fights that could unnecessarily tarnish your reputation.

7. Enjoy the season/experience

Although this is an article about keeping up your recruiting, it is paramount to enjoy your season.  I know it is cliché, but you only get one high school career, and I believe that you should be taking in and cherishing all of these moments playing with your high school friends.By enjoying the process of playing in high school, you can direct your focus on the game and improving every week, rather than focusing on receiving a scholarship at the college of your dreams.Remove the focus on the outcome (Getting a scholarship/playing opportunity) of playing football and instead focus on enjoying the process of playing football.  Recruiting will all come in due time, but those that respect (and enjoy!) each step of the process will end up having much more pleasant recruiting and playing experiences than those who focus solely on the outcome.