Timeline for College
Athletic Scholarships
by Tom Fakehany
Never lend your
car to anyone to whom you have given birth to, but you can never do to much to
help them obtain a college athletic scholarship. The key to succeeding is
exposure. You must let college coaches know that you are out there, but you must
not jeopardize the thousands of dollars of scholarship money by violating the
current NCAA rules.
I have read and
studied Jim and Marcy Herb's book entitled, "In
Search of the Athletic Scholarship." This booklet is really a manual
for the student athlete and their parents. It is a "parent and
student/athletic Do It Yourself" book, written by the parents of a
high school volleyball player, and what they learned in the process of
sucessfully searching for a college athletic scholarship. The elements within
their book apply to all high school sports and is rewritten yearly to apply the
latest NCAA regulations.
The book covers
such topics as, How to get started, Preparing your Athletic Resume, How and When
to make the first contact, Your first face to face meeting, Maintaining Academic
Eligibility, The NCAA Initial Eligibility Clearing House, Campus Visits, How to
prepare your video tape and much more. If your looking at playing sports in
college, with or with our a scholarship this book is required reading for both
the student and the parent. I've corresponded with Jim, over the Internet for
several years, and I've asked for permission for readers of this article to send
him an electronic message about his book, or about the process of searching for
the Athletic Scholarship.
Send Jim and
Marcy Herb your address and you'll get a copy of the Athletic Recruiting
Timeline and Athletic Scholarship Information. For scholarship articles by Jim Herb, such as "How To Write An Athletic Resume,"
visit his volleyball locker off the home page.
mailto:JVEF60A@prodigy.com
mailto:JVEF60A@prodigy.com"Electronic
Post Card directly to Jim and Marcy Herb
Time Line
Freshman Year
* Get settled in
high school. Concentrate on a solid high school Curriculum.
* Talk to your coaches or Athletic
Director about local volleyball club teams.
* Setup a workout schedule allowing
comfortable time for academics and sports.
If you think you
are interested in attending a college for a sport, send an introduction letter
in your freshman year. Send an update at the end of the season, along with your
club schedule. Register with the NCAA Clearinghouse (it's never
too early, but it can be too late). Prepare your athletic resume.
Sophomore Year
* Continue striving
for academic success. Research NCAA academic requirements.
* Make sure that you are "on
target" for all core requirements.
* Stay active in Club Volleyball and High
School Volleyball.
* Visit your High School career center or
counselors office and start investigating colleges and their admission
requirements.
* During the summer between the Sophomore
and Junior years, prepare your athletic resume.
* Prepare to send out your initial
contact letters with resumes. Include high school and club volleyball playing
schedules, if available. If schedules are not available, mail a follow-up letter
and schedule as soon as they become available, but still send out initial
letters.
Update academics
with Clearinghouse. Monitor the academic requirements of
the universities you want to attend. Send an update letter to the schools
you are interested in, send club schedule in the winter. Refineand update your
resume. Prepare an skills videotape (10-15 minutes in length with 6-7 minutes of basic skills and the
rest of game footage). During
the fall season, go to the college matches (if they are local)and talk to some
of the players, the coaches, etc...or during the summer
before your junior year, make unofficial visits to the colleges.
Junior Year
* Send out athletic
resumes now, if you have not already done so.
* Register with the NCAA Initial
Eligibility Clearinghouse.
* Request that ACT/SAT test scores be
sent to the NCAA Initial Eligibility Clearinghouse.
* Keep up with your studies and once
again review the NCAA requirements to make sure they have not changed.
* Keep investigating other colleges and
send out additional resumes.
* Prepare video tape to be sent when
requested.
* Send out update as your season closes.
Include your new stats and any special recognition's you may have earned.
* Visit some of the campuses that you are
interested in, if you can.
* Try to watch some local college games
in you sport, especially if one of the schools you are interested in is playing
close by.
* In July, after completion on your
Junior year, phone contact with college coaches is permissible. Begin
heavy contact with the schools you are interested in, even makinga few phone
calls (but remember that coaches cannot call you back until July
1 after you complete your junior year). Update your academic informationwith the
Clearinghouse. If your top choices of colleges have not panned out
send info to your second and third choices. Send out your club schedule
ASAP. If coaches want to make home visits, they will do thisafter
Nationals/Davis are finished. Make more unofficial visits to schools that interest you.
Senior Year
* Do
not let up on academics
* Review your core requirements with your
high school counselor.
* Send out your senior team schedule as
soon as possible for high school and club volleyball.
* Keep college coaches posted on any
changes or updates to your team schedules.
* Send out last of resumes, if new
interest in other schools.
* Find out Letter of Intent dates for
Volleyball from NCAA.
* Take advantage of, no more than 5,
college paid visits, if offered.
* Ask a lot of questions and weigh all
the advantages and disadvantages of the schools you are interested in.
* Study hard and play hard, but remember
you are a student athlete and the student comes first. If you are being seriously recruited by a
school, they will invite you to make an official visit (where travel, room and
board is paid during one of their home weekends. Continue phone contact with
schools.Some schools ask their top recruits to verbally commit to attending
during the spring or summer before their senior year. Most school like to be
finished recruiting by the end of the volleyball season. The thing to remember
is that a committment is not binding until a National Letter of Intent (NLI) and
Offer of Financial Aid is signed by the recruit. The first official signing day
for VB is typically in early February and extends into August. Recruits may
change their mind about a school after they've made a verbal committment, but
not after signing the NLI. If they do not attend the school they sign with or
transfer before one year is completed, they will lose at least a year of
eligibility. Players must also understand that being brought to campus on an
official visit does not constitute an offer of a scholarship. DO NOT WAIT UNTIL
YOUR SENIOR YEAR TO MAKE FIRST CONTACT OR REGISTER FOR THE CLEARINGHOUSE.
There are so many
minor details for students to know about the recruiting process that thousands
will never know. Recruiting classes are typically 200-300 players per year. Most
recruiting is finished by April each year. Many coaches attending USA Volleyball
tournaments in April and later are looking at Juniors and Sophomores, as well as
standout Freshman. Coaches still looking at Seniors in the spring may have had
some lack of continuity in their recruiting (maybe a coach left) or had a player
transfer out of
school in the spring or may be an NAIA
school or lower level NCAA program or some other circumstance.There are lots of
questions I'm sure that you have regarding the recruiting process.
A outstanding place to discuss the recruiting process is on the Youth,
Junior USA Volleyball, AAU Volleyball NAGWS Volleyball and Federation Volleyball
email list. You can subscribe to it FREE at http://www.onelist.com/subscribe.cgi/jov
** Alex M. Postpischil, Assistant Coach - University of Maryland, Former
Assistant Coach - Creighton University provided help in the writing of this
article.
