Blame it on the economy, higher demand for college aid, limited sources for free money, increased competition among coaches and colleges or a host of other reasons,  but competition for college athletic scholarships has never been higher. Coaches also have more information about recruits at their disposable with the rise of the internet.  It is never too early to start the process if you have the desire to play college sports.

High school freshmen should contact their high school guidance counselors to make sure they are in the right course track to graduate with all NCAA academic qualifying courses. Summer camps and travel teams allow you to be seen and identified by college coaches as early as 7th or 8th grade.

We have never heard from any recruit that they started too early in their high school career to be prepared. The opposite is of course true. Wait too long to take action and that phone call offering a scholarship is unlikely to happen.  Get a solid plan in place now so you are ahead of the competition throughout the athletic recruiting process and get the college athletic scholarship you deserve.

Most colleges subscribe to the results of these combines and it is an easy way for college coaches to get a quick snap-shot of potential recruits. Coaches like them because the results are far more accurate and verified opposed to an athlete, saying how fast or how big they are.

Summer camps hosted by colleges are another option for high school athletes and athletes over 14 years old can attend most camps for the week. Theses are an amazing recruiting tool and puts you right in front of the coaching staff and can lead to a scholarship offer on the spot if the recruiting calendar allows.

From the view point of the high school athletes, summer camps are far better at producing valuable recruiting juice, than combines. If you use summer camps to your advantage, by choosing a camp that you have a realistic chance of being recruited too or has already actively been recruiting you, this will increase your chances, provided you perform well.

Combines on the other hand can lead to disastrous results. If you show up and produce badly, hundreds of coaches will know about it. Combines are often not attended by college coaches and are run by for-profit recruiting services that promise scholarship leads. This is an option if you cannot afford camps, but you should consider better focusing your recruiting efforts away from combines.

Athletic recruiting is getting very competitive and we believe that it is better to attend summer camps at colleges that have potential to offer you a scholarship, rather than risk one bad day ruining your athletic recruiting potential.

CLICK HERE to learn the best way to attack your athletic recruiting.

As a coach, these services fax 30 to 40 profiles a day to the athletic office. Players from all over the country. There is no way to call back each of these playes and find out who they really are. On these profiles, every player looks the same, the all have the same stats, same layout, same action photo. There is no incentive or call to action for me, as a coach to call these players.

These websites also promise coaches will be searching through their profile looking for players. This may be true at the DIII level where the athletic department has no recruiting budget. Also DIII schools do not exactly have players knocking down their door trying to get noticed.

If you want to play college athletics and get a scholarship, you must stand out from the crowd.  Suscribing to a profile webiste is not the wa to do it. How are you going to separate yourself from the masses and the competition by joining them?

We also see services that will happily charge your $300 to $2000 to make a highlight video of yourself to send to colleges. While you do need a highlight tape it is a common misconception that the more professional the tape, the better chance of getting recruited. Trust us, this is not true. We can tell from a regular tape, you did on your own, how fast you run, how well you play. Professional high def footage does not improve your level of play! Please be smart and don’t waste money of these services.

Tapes and recruiting letters done by the athlete show more initiative and determination that those players who pay to have it done.

The only way to earn a college athletic scholarship is do it yourself. Show desire and treat recruiting with the same effort that you put into playing your sport. We show you in our book how to do it yourself, save a ton of money, and with better results.

CLICK HERE to see the college athletic scholarship recruiting system that shows you how to earn the scholarship you deserve.