During 11 years as a college coach, I hosted lots of families in my offices in both Bloomington, IN and Washington, DC. I heard many interesting statements from recruits and parents who knew anywhere ranging from a little to a lot about the college recruiting process.
As a performance coach and college recruiting expert, these myths are some of my favorites and worth mentioning. You may be holding onto some of these myths yourself.
Myth #1: If I play really well this summer, coaches will find me. All I need is one breakthrough tournament.
Reality: Coaches are looking at your entire body of work. One or two solid tournaments, while impressive, won’t cause a whole line of coaches to knock on your door. You may get attention from a few coaches from a great stretch of tournaments, but it’s best not to put that pressure on yourself and rely on multiple above average performances. Stay proactive and engage with coaches regularly. Send them email updates. Follow their programs on Instagram. Like their posts. Get to know what type of coach you would be playing for and what type of players attend that program. Learn about the culture and long-term goals of the program so that you can evaluate whether or not it’s a match. You must do your part in this. It’s a marathon—not a sprint! Enjoy the process so that you can make an informed decision.
Myth #2: I’m targeting a Division I offer. Based on my experience, I expect a full ride.
Reality: Let’s talk numbers here. A Division I fully-funded men’s program has 4.5 scholarships. Fully-funded women’s programs have 6 scholarships. These scholarships are divided up among all players on the roster which can range from 8-12. There are 298 men’s programs and 267 women’s programs in Division I. These coaches are recruiting the best players in THE WORLD. If they bring in 1-2 players per year, you need to have a pretty substantial resume to play Division I golf at all. One of the best ways to see the types of programs you should be targeting is to look at your Junior Golf Scoreboard ranking compared to the class that is graduating this year. Those players have announced their commitments on the website. See what types of universities the players of your ability level are attending. It will save you time and determine the caliber of school you should be targeting.
Myth #3: I’ll hire a cheap recruiting service to do this for me. Coaches love getting those emails every day.
Reality: Coaches receive countless emails from recruiting services every day. Typically, 90% of the golfers being marketed in these emails should NOT be targeting their schools. An example of this would be from my time as the head coach at Georgetown. I would wake up to about 5-10 emails from various recruiting services. Most students had SAT scores of below 900. The average SAT for incoming freshmen was above 1400; therefore, none of these students had any business in trying to get admitted to the school, much less the golf program. Coaches are aware of these “puppy mill” services and see them as a lazy way to handle your recruitment. At Golf Globally, we help guide you through this process and won’t do everything for you. I have a number of students who have come to me after buying annual subscriptions to recruiting services. Yes, they are often a good deal, but coaches don’t like to have their communications with you living on some 3rd party platform. Are you really going to outsource one of the most important decisions of your life? My goal is for you to take control of your recruitment and enjoy this process because it can be incredibly fun!