I am not one to sit idle and wait for the college recruiters to find my daughters. I am a firm believer in having my child proactively contact college coaches. One of the best tools that I found to assist with sending emails to coaches is a platform called SportsRecruits. I wanted to bring this tool to your attention and outline why I am in love with this product.
1. Organization of Colleges of Interest
As the recruiting of your child begins to heat up, they could be working with ten or more colleges that they are actively connecting with on a weekly or monthly basis. The SportsRecruits tool allows your child to select a college as a “favorite” and then puts these schools into a list on your child’s home page. This assists in making sure that each school is touched regularly. Also, it allows them to categorize them as a “Safety,” “Fit,” or “Reach” school and then keeps track of the last email contact that they have had with them. Lastly, the feature allows your child to keep track of five milestones related to contact with a university: Introduce Yourself, Receive View, Campus Visit, Receive Offer, and Commit.
2. Email Database and Ease of Use
The email database is, by far and away, my favorite function of the site. One of the most challenging aspects of reaching out to schools is having to gather all the coach’s email addresses from the websites. The SportsRecruits profile eliminates this hurdle. Your child simply needs to type in the college that they would like to email in the “To:” section of the email. The school will pop up, and then the site provides the email for the head coach and all assistants. So with a few keystrokes, your child can send an email to all the coaches at a program. This is a tremendous time-saver. Using this tool, my oldest daughter and I were able to send emails to every Division I, Division II, and NAIA school in the country in just a couple of days. It is truly a powerful and efficient tool for emailing.
3. Instant Notification of Views from College Coaches
One of the most exciting features of the SportRecruits program is the feedback that it provides on the emails that you send to coaches. Every time a coach views your child’s profile, video, or transcript, the program sends you an email and text. It is so much fun to see that the coach watched the highlight video or took the time to examine the transcript of your child. This type of feedback motivates your child to continue to plug away at the recruiting work of contacting and following up with schools.
4. Highlight Reels and Raw Video Footage Storage
For my children, the creation of highlight video in coordination with the powerful emailing capability of SportsRecruits was an absolute game-changer. Once the reel was added to the profile, the number of views and responses increased significantly. While I am sure that there a myriad of ways that a highlight reel could be created free of charge, I opted to have it professionally done by SportsRecruits. It came with a cover page and conclusion page. During the clips, an arrow showed specifically where my daughter was on the court. They also selected music that did not infringe on any copyrights. I have placed a link below of the highlight reel so you could take a look.
Lastly, I can store hours of raw video footage of my children on the profile giving college coaches plenty of opportunities to see them play in high school and club games.
5. Comprehensive Player Profile
The program also allows your child to build a comprehensive recruiting profile. The profile is separated in the following categories:
- Highlight Video
- Video
- Contact Information
- Teams Played For
- Jersey Number
- Team Contact Information
- Position
- Stats, Athletic Honors, and Other Sports
- Club Schedule
- Academic Information
- Transcript Upload Tool
It is clean and very professionally done.
Conclusion
I have found the creation of an online profile to be beneficial. I am sure that there are differing opinions from college coaches and club coaches on the benefits of these online recruiting platforms. Still, I can definitively say that the recruiting profile, highlight reel, and emails sent from SportsRecruits assisted us in obtaining several scholarship offers for my eldest daughter. Please do your research on the platforms available to fit the needs of your child. Reach out to me with any follow-up questions that you have. I would be happy to share my experiences ((I would be happy to share my experiences with quitting …. https://legislature.vermont.gov/Documents/2016/WorkGroups/House%20Human%20Services/Bills/H.171/Witness%20Testimony/H.171~Benjamin%20Dana~Written%20Testimony~2-24-2016.pdf)).