Athletic Recruiting Services

raisincane · 11-30-2009, 10:39 AM

Anyone have experience with NCSA? They're talking to us about helping my son, a football player, match to a good college. There's a nontrivial fee involved, but they appear to do quite a bit of hand-holding, video preparation, etc. We're clueless ourselves, so considering it. If anyone is familiar with NCSA or another recruiting service, we'd love to hear about it. Thanks.

ShesOnHerWay · 11-30-2009, 11:11 AM

We had a great experience with NSR - National Scouting Report. We had to do a lot of the recruiting stuff (video, emails, follow up, maintaining the website, etc) by ourselves in order to maximize D2's exposure. But the direction and validity that NSR gave us was invaluable.

If I had another athlete to "market", I wouldn't need NSR again because I've already done it once. But for athlete #1, I think NSR made the difference.

mayhew · 11-30-2009, 09:20 PM

Also, for a minor fee, BeRecruited is a good website to post your son on. My D posted herself on it just a few days ago, and has received a significant amount of responses to her posting of some basic information.
I have learnt SO much from this Athletic Recruiting forum. Truly, it has been invaluable for me and my D, a competitive athlete in her junior year aspiring for Div. 1, and very interested in the Ivies. The recruiting process has begun early for her, and has been extremely active considering her year in school and the fact that her sport is a spring sport, in which she only has one season under "her belt" so to speak. As a sophomore she found her talent and passion!
Good luck with this wild ride!

DukeAlumnus2003 · 11-30-2009, 11:28 PM

I wouldn't waste a penny on those services. Do you seriously think coaches are going to sites like "berecruited" to find athletes?! Coaches are all about AAU and the Club Sports. The only valuable services coaches subscribe to and pay for are recruiting ranking and evaluation services. Sites like "berecruited" are scams. If your kid is good enough, he or she will be seen and generate interest...

Sammy the dog · 12-01-2009, 12:01 AM

Don't wait for your son to be "found". There are thousands of athletes all over the US that want to play college sports. Start by reading everything you can about recruiting. A good start is a book that can be purchased from Varsityedge.com: athletic recruiting advice and information, athletic scholarships, college athletic recruiting, high school recruiting, high school athletes. This is a great book with insight about the recruiting process in all sports for all divisions. After reading then decide if you want to spend thousands on a recruiting service.

Most of all you and your son need to be proactive. Good luck!

raisincane · 12-01-2009, 04:37 PM

Thanks everyone for your comments and advise. My initial inclination was like DukeAlumnus' - good college coaches wouldn't bother with this service, but I've learned that in fact, they do go on and search. I was surprised.

mayhew · 12-01-2009, 08:58 PM

I agree with raisincane - my initial reaction to recruiting services was "what a rip off", and to some extent, I think I still feel that way. Also, I agree with DukeAlumnus that a lot of services probably are a load of rubbish.
However, as a cynic, I can tell you that I was not 100% correct. My D has received the most responses from coaches who she herself wrote with her statistics, etc. (some of these coaches already had her on their radar, and are now developing a relationship with her).
However, just over Thanksgiving break, D put herself on BeRecruited just for the fun of it/curiousity (I think with a total cost of about $60 - a drop in the bucket for what a "professional" might charge, needless to say) and has received contacts from both D1 (2 truly elite schools) and D3 coaches (3 strong LAC), all top colleges in their rank. She can see what coaches have viewed her profile, who has "bookmarked" her, and then she receives initial recruiting letters from those interested. So, it was $60 well spent, if nothing more than the flattery of receiving these letters!

cgpm59 · 12-02-2009, 02:47 PM

We are using BeRecruited and have noticed that -- in Texas at least, looking at football and men's soccer -- the really big schools are not listed, but lots of D2 and D3 schools are. The big schools have the budget and the staff to cover the state to scout for athletes, but smaller schools don't. BeRecruited is certainly worth the $60 annual fee to upload your resume, athletic and academic accomplishments, photos, videos, etc. At the very least, it's a good and inexpensive starting place.

While we are not paying NCSA for anything, they do have a great FREE weekly email newsletter that has LOADS of info -- and they do not say "pay us to help you" every other paragraph.

10scholar · 12-02-2009, 04:49 PM

This is sport-specific, but for anybody looking at tennis, tennisrecruiting.net is where everything is. It's very similar to what people are describing for berecruited, where kids can upload stats, results, and now, even videos. They accumulate tournament results so they can calculate their own rankings, which are done by recruiting class, which is pretty neat. Coaches have memberships and can see and search based on stats. Best of all, it's free to create a profile. To get more advanced services, including seeing which coaches are looking at you, it's like $50/year, or $8/month. I didn't get it, but probably should have. Their rankings are used by coaches now more than USTA ones, and overall it's where tennis recruiting is all centered. Great site!

mayhew · 12-02-2009, 06:42 PM

I am sure that different sports have varying success with different "exposure/information" sites. My D's sport is crew. To follow up on yesterday's post, my D received a few more letters written by recruiting coaches who saw her on berecruited - two Div. 1s and 2 Div. 3s. Definitely worth the effort.

3xboys · 12-03-2009, 10:41 AM

mayhew, Concept 2 (makers of the infamous ergometer) has a site for high school athletes as well. Might be worth your D's time to get herself a page there too.

mayhew · 12-03-2009, 06:08 PM

Thank you 3xboys! I would have to be living in a hole if I didn't know what Concept 2 was - lol!! The amount of gear, etc. she has advertising Concept 2 & Vespoli....I will pass on your thought - thanks

DukeAlumnus: Duke is researching athletes on BeRecruited.

pacheight · 12-04-2009, 12:01 PM

i bet more and more coaches are using online tools to find athletes. it would be an efficient way for them to see if they "missed" anyone. especially a kid who's not from a big time sports school or club where coaches and community are more wired in to the college coaches already.

DukeAlumnus2003 · 12-04-2009, 04:11 PM

Please explain to me: Why would a coach spend his or her time on a site like "berecruited", when he or she can go to an AAU tournament and see 500 kids?! Why go to site like "berecruited", when a coach can subscribe to a ranking/evaluation service (ie. BlueStar), who has experience and specializes in that specific sport?!

pacheight · 12-04-2009, 06:15 PM

just another resource. why use facebook, linkedin, and twitter when i have a phone and number. and a car and an address...its just more resources. thats all