College Athletic Scholarships » Human Interest

Field Hockey Scholarship Success Story

Coach Farrell — Tue, 05 Oct 2010 15:33:04 +0000

Today we wanted to share a letter we received from a happy parent who used the guide book to secure a spot for his daughter to play Division I field hockey at UNC, a top 5 school. The took action, used the strategy laid out for them and achieved their goal.

Dear Coach Farrell,

1. My daughter worked extremely hard to rehab her acl, and used the downtime to study the nuances of the tactical game, learn some specialty moves, practice her stick work, and generally make the rest of her body stronger. She came out of the injury a better player than before she was hurt. She did end up committing to UNC –Chapel Hill to play field hockey- UNC has won the Div I field Hockey title 2 of the last 3 years. They offered her guaranteed acceptance to the school, and a place on the team, but no guarantee of scholarship money her first year. We made the decision to allow her to go, with the hope, but not expectation, that she will receive aid in following years. That seems to be the pattern at this particular school.

2. What got her a one on one interview with the head coach was that she compiled a video of herself and placed it onto YouTube.com. The coach, when she contacted my daughter, told her that she received dvds of players all the time, which she typically discarded without viewing. No one had ever sent her a link to YouTube.com to watch a player, so she checked it out, mainly out of curiosity, and liked what she saw. She also actually liked that the film had had not been compiled and edited by a professional, but that it was clearly my daughter’s own work… and that it showed off what my daughter thought was important to portray, not some professional video editor… misspelled words and all. She invited my daughter down the following weekend for a campus visit, and asked her to verbally commit while on the trip, while my daughter still had her leg brace on.

Although she was intimidated by the perceived level of play on a top 5 ranked program, she considered 2 things- (a) if I don’t go to the best competition I can find, I’ll never find out how good I really am, and am willing to take the risk of not playing much, and (b) if I have a career ending injury the first week of practice, where do I want to go to college as a student? She attended UNC summer camp this summer with 3 of the other recruits, and came back very convinced she has the skills to play at this high level.

Thanks again for the help from your book. R. Bell

Congrats to both you and your daughter on all of your hard work. The important thing to take away from this letter is they put into action the lessons taught in the book. They had clearly defined goals of playing at a top school and used the strategy to get the job done. Best of luck in your college career!

Athlete Recruiting- Checklist for Seniors

Coach Farrell — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 14:50:53 +0000

For high school Seniors, time is critical now. The fight for athlete recruiting really picks up once the first day of school starts. What have you done or what are you doing now to be ready? Do not wait for the college coaches to start calling. You must beat the competition to the coaches and show colleges you are the athlete they need to recruit.

Checklist for Seniors:

Register with the NCAA Clearinghouse if you have not done so already.
Finish your personal assessment and narrow school choices down.
Finish recruiting strategy plan.
Complete athletic resume and start making highlight tapes.
Communicate with high school coach.
Register to take SAT or ACT’s.
Have a great Senior athletic season.

You only get one chance to go through your senior athletic recruiting. You should be doing everything possible to make sure it is a success. Remember it is often not the most talented athlete that gets the college athletic scholarship, but the athlete who prepares their self for college recruiting the most and follows a proven system.

Learn how to do athletic recruiting the right way and beat out your competition. CLICK HERE

College Athletic Scholarships – What Scholarships Are Available?

Coach Farrell — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 13:41:51 +0000

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The NCAA or National Collegiate Athletic Association is the main athletic conference in the country. They offer college athletic scholarships at the Division I and Division II level. Division III does not offer direct athletic aid, but will give recruited athletes aid disguised as “grants” and “performance based financial aid” that will often cover 50% of tuition.

Sports in NCAA DI and DII are either categorized as “headcount” or “equivalency” sports. Headcount sports are given a set number of full-ride scholarships that cover tuition, room and board and fees. For instance, DI Football has 85 scholarships. They are only allowed to award 85 players these scholarships, no more. Most schools will not award their full number at a given time and will reserve spots for transfers and walk-ons.

Equivalency sports have a set number of full-ride scholarships but can divide these up into as many players as they wish. As an example, DII baseball has 9 scholarships. If they give you a 50% partial scholarship, then they have 8.5 more scholarships to award.

NCAA Division I teams have more scholarships per team than DII schools do. Also the Ivy and Patriot leagues in NCAA DI, do not offer athletic scholarships, but will provide grants to recruited athletes that average over 50% of tuition.

The NAIA or National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics and the NJCAA or National Junior College Athletic Association both offer athletic scholarships. They use a headcount and equivalency designation between sports and offer fewer sports than the NCAA does.

Too many athletes get a narrow focus during the recruiting season. The only focus their efforts on NCAA DI schools when there are many other great options to getting an offer to play in college.

If you want a college athletic scholarship then don’t wait any longer. You must start today. Learn how to choose the right athletic conference for your talents and have a successful recruiting season ending with a scholarship offer.

CLICK HERE to see the college athletic scholarship recruiting guide that will show you how to earn the athletic scholarship you deserve.

Baseball Scholarships- Behind the Numbers

Coach Farrell — Sun, 10 May 2009 02:10:05 +0000

Baseball scholarships are tough to get if you look at the numbers. This makes following a game plan for your recruiting even more crucial. If you go at baseball recruiting without any know-how, you will get beat. Let’s look at the numbers data for baseball.

Baseball is classified as a equivalency sport. This means there is a set number of scholarships that can be awarded, but the coach can divvy up the scholarships and awards partials to as many players as they wish. NCAA DI baseball teams can award 11.7 scholarships. NCAA DII have 9, NAIA have 12 and the biggie here is NJCAA schools that have 24. This means if the coach awards you a .4 or 40% partial, very common in baseball, he has 11.3 more scholarships to give out. Divide this over four to five years of athletes and a coach may only have 2-3 scholarships to divide up each year for incoming freshman.

There are just over 135,000 senior high school baseball players in the US. Of these players, 8,200 will make a NCAA team as a freshman. This includes DIII and non-scholarship players. The actual number of baseball scholarships for incoming freshman is only around 1,100. Coaches can also recruit you as a walk-on in baseball or award small .1 or .2 scholarships with the verbal agreement that if you make the rotation your scholarship will be re-examined at year’s end.

In other sports we do not recommend this so much, but baseball is much different. Last year alone there were 161 players drafted from the NJCAA into the Major League Baseball Professional Draft. Depending on your goals and how your recruiting is going, considering junior colleges is an excellent choice to get a baseball scholarship. Junior college players are also highly recruited into NCAA DI and DII schools.

CLICK HERE if you have the drive and ability to get a college baseball scholarship. We will show you the way.

NCAA Scholarships- Do You Have What It Takes?

Coach Farrell — Mon, 04 May 2009 15:15:32 +0000

Every year the NCAA governs colleges and universities as they hand out over $1.2 billion in athletic scholarships. The competition is fierce for a scholarship. The percentage of high school athletes that will play in the NCAA is only about 6%. That includes all athletes, not just scholarship athletes.

To earn a college scholarship you must have what the coaches are looking for. The misconception that coaches will find you because you are a star athlete will leave you sitting home after you graduate high school. To earn a college scholarship you must recruit yourself and help college coaches find you. As a coach, if we don’t know about you, we can’t recruit you!

If you look at a group of 100 players in any sport. As an example, they all have the same academic grades, athletic talent, athletic ability and have all shown the same amount of success thus far in their careers. How does a coach choose from these athletes whom to award a scholarship?

How do you stand out from this crowd? In order to earn a scholarship, you must compete at the recruiting game with a level of determination and attitude that matches how you play in your sport. It is often a fine line of those who get a scholarship and those who don’t.

Aside from athletic and academic ability, those who have what it takes to earn a scholarship treat recruiting like a business. They develop a recruiting game plan and carry out that plan throughout the recruiting season. Even if they hear 20 NO’s from college coaches, they know that the next school they recruit themselves too could be the school that awards them a scholarship. If you have what it takes to follow a recruiting game plan, stick to that plan, and carry it out with maximum effort, then you can earn a NCAA Scholarship.

CLICK HERE to view the top NCAA Scholarship guide available. Learn what to do and how to do it the right way.