Rec and Sports

How To Get A D1 Athletic Scholarship

Last Friday, there was a game between Crespi and St.Bonaventure and I, along with another friend of mine, were watching the game. Most of our conversation centered around a thoroughly inspiring story that is in fact, a great recruiting story. After hearing the story, I started viewing my college recruiting process through a different perspective altogether.

My friend and I were discussing a STUD RB back in Southern California that was not getting any love from college coaches…college coaches were only looking at his variables: Height, Weight, etc. and they were missing the size of his heart.

They had not seen any film on the kid, so they just assumed based on his paper variables that he couldn’t play at their school. Well, my buddy started working with him on how to get his name out there; they started putting together a highlight video, putting it online and emailing coaches. One of the key components to his story is that when he would email coaches, he would use a UNIQUE subject line in his email…for example:

SUBJECT: “I am the Running Back YOU need”…; “Running Back to help YOUR program”; “CA Star RB to help your program”

These subject lines were mainly used to generate interest in the minds of the coaches to open the email and read it. Of course, in the email, he would request them to go through his online video that showcased his profile.

He started linking the online video profile to his signature on his emails, at least a few of the coaches would click to view his profile.

In other words, this young lad knew the trick of the trade that he had to do a PR job by suitably empowering his recruiting campaign with PR components. He also got in touch with important people at Scout.com and tried to promote himself. When the hype around him heated up, he succeeded in getting his first offer. Within a few weeks, the number of offers went up to 8 D1 offers. He utilized the first offer for revisiting the other coaches in whom the first offer triggered considerable interest.

College coaches are just like you and me…they want what they cant have, so once they heard that one of their competitors had offered this young man they figured they should jump on the band wagon so they don’t miss out on a GREAT recruit. Let’s face it…the college coaches are going to POKER play you, so you gotta POKER play ‘em back. I hate to be so CANDID and I am happy to be so CANDID for your sake. Later, he happened to be in North Carolina. He called up the coaches at the major universities across the state, told them he was in the area, and he asked them to stop by and show them his tape. His family drove around the entire state to meet with ALL the major colleges in the state of NC. By the end of the day, he had 4 offers on the table from NC schools.

Hence he went from 0 – 8 D1 offers, and the story gives you the following tips:

1. BE HUNGRY and STAY HUNGRY – YOU will only go through this process once, so make the most of it!

2. For promoting yourself, you should cover all possible avenues. This is the PR age.

3. You should be sure and carry DVD’s with you so that you can show your video profiles to all concerned. Treat them like your business cards, and they must also contain details of your online profile.

Coach Chris Berg wants to share all his athletic scholarship secrets with you, so you can achieve your collegiate dreams. Stop by his site where you can get all of his Athletic Scholarship Secrets.