At the end of my son’s last high school summer baseball season, I was struck by the number of players who had graduated and didn’t know yet where they were going to attend college. I heard a lot of talk from parents about “maybe walking on” to various teams and see what happens. These were good players, the majority better than my son who did know where he was going.
(In 2023, two resources have disappeared from the list of Helpful Athletic Resumes and Player Profile Templates. Given the number of resources already on the list, I decided to just replace those that have disappeared. If you don’t like any of the samples you see here, you can easily find others on the web.) There are plenty of samples of athletic resumes or player templates on the internet. After all, it seems just about every recruiting website has one posted. It’s just tedious going through all the search results to find something useful. Well, I’ve just saved you the trouble–you can thank me later.
(See the end for the updated list for 2023) When high school baseball players start thinking of playing at the college level, they naturally start with the NCAA D1 baseball schools. NCAA D1 is the most competitive for baseball and provides the most scholarships. Yet it might not be the right division based on their athletic abilities and academic requirements. Nonetheless, players need to start the recruiting process somewhere and it can’t hurt to start with D1 baseball colleges. Just keep in mind, chances are that’s not where you’ll end up.
This is a basic introduction to the college recruiting landscape. I’m sure there will be many who will read this and think, “you’ve got to be kidding-how could you not know this?” Yet, you would be surprised at how many families don’t know that D3 schools don’t offer athletic scholarships or that some rules will depend on the college’s conference. Consider this a review of the basic college athletic terms that you need to know to even start the college recruiting process.
So far I’ve covered college recruiting mistakes concerning signs that you don’t understand the college athletic recruiting process and mistakes players and families make about their ability and what it means. Today, I’m going to cover mistakes related to finances when looking for athletic scholarships. If it’s really about using sports to help pay for college, you need to avoid the following college recruiting mistakes:
Many high school players and their families believe that being the best player on their teams is their ticket to playing at the college level. The truth is that star high school athletes are likely to make some assumptions about their ability that will undermine their chances of playing in college. Here are four college recruiting mistakes based on assumptions of talent that you must avoid.
If you spend any time on the internet or reading books on college athletic recruiting, you’ll see lists of common mistakes made by families during the recruiting process. The interesting thing is that there isn’t a lot of variation in the mistakes mentioned, it appears that people are making the same college recruiting mistakes over and over. You have to wonder since there are warnings about them everywhere.
Remember when camps were something you did for a week or two in the summer or maybe over a weekend with a scouting troop? High schoolers didn’t go to camps, they worked at them to save up money for college. Not anymore. At least not for high school athletes interested in playing at the college level.
Showcase camps are a convenient, although increasingly expensive, way to get recruited. Given that most college athletes don’t receive scholarships, it can be hard to see the ROI on attending showcase camps. It’s not that showcase camps (or prospect camps) are automatically a waste of money. But they’re certain to be if you make the following mistakes.
College athletes without a scholarship that play on a team that offers scholarships are generally referred to as “walk-ons.” Over time, the term has evolved such that now some people recognize three types of walk-ons. There are preferred walk-ons, recruited walk-ons, and just plain walk-ons. If you’re going to be a walk-on, “preferred” is definitely the way to go.
