Pennsylvania Rush Soccer

The Recruitment Cycle

The recruiting cycle for all players follows a fairly well defined step by step process. The sport, gender, and division all affect timing and certain nuances, but the following process can be followed for each program you interested. Follow the recruitment timeline.

Step 1: Introduction to Coaches: Cover Letter and Resume

For all players regardless of level of comfort with a particular program, players must introduce themselves and provide them with information to help the coaches know who you are. For parents, think of this as a job search process. 

Introduction/Cover Letter: This explains who you are and why you are interested in their program. It is a brief 3-4 paragraph document that explains who you are exactly, why you are interested in their program, how you feel you can contribute to their success, and contact information or next steps you will take in the process. One great example of a cover letter is below. Notice the details and action items this player uses to their advantage.

___________________________________________________________________

Coach (insert name),

I want to introduce myself and let you know that I am very interested in Program's soccer program, and playing for you starting in the fall, 2017. (You probably have heard mention of me through (Players Name). I am currently 14 years old and a Freshman at XYZ High School in Littleton, CO and play for the (insert age) Colorado Rush team. I am looking forward to going and watching (program) play CU on Saturday, September 28 in Boulder, CO since it is very close to my home in Littleton.

Here are some of my most recent soccer achievements:

Name: (insert your name)

• Achievement 1
• Achievement 2
• Achievement 3
• Publications 
• Ranked 10th Overall (5th positional) IMG Top 150 on TopDrawer Soccer

I hope to make a campus visit soon and meet you and the players. This will also give me the opportunity to learn more about what (college Program) can offer for my academic experience while playing for a top-notch program known for developing and producing national players. I may not be able to make it this fall due to my soccer schedule, but possibly in the spring or the fall of 2014.  For starters, I have completed the on-line questionnaire and am registered in your system.

If you have a moment to meet over the phone, I will reach out to you after I get back from XYZ next week. I can call you on Monday, September 23 at 2:00 PST.  I look forward to hopefully connecting at that time.

Thank You. 

Name
Phone 
Email

___________________________________________________________________

Another example of a generic template can be found here

Player Resume

The player Resume is a document that helps to explain who you are, including contact information and what you ahve accomplished in the academic, sport, and community service areas for coaches. Whiel the document is heavily favored towards sporting acievements, coaches want a balanced person who has other things to offer them. 

For a template of the Rush Resume in Word Click Here

Step 2: Invitation to Watch Play

After the initial introduction to a program and filling out questionnaires, coaches will begin the process of evaluations. Evaluations consist of an onsite, in person, evaluation of a player during competition. Coaches at different levels are limited to the overall number of evaluations that can be done. This can either be by NCAA rules or by the budget of that program. This is why you see so many coaches at such big national events and showcases, it's the biggest bang for the buck so to speak. They can see lots of players on one trip and be able to evaluate them over multiple days.

But, coaches need a reason to come watch you play. Coaches are interested in players who are interested in them. If you want coaches to come to evaluate your play, YOU MUST INVITE THEM! Whether you are a top player on the youth national team or a state level ODP player, coaches don't want to waste their time if players are not interested.

Places you can be recruited/evaluated:

National Events or Showcase Tournaments: These include development academy events, ECNL events, national showcase tournaments (get with your club to decide which tournaments are best), college ID Camps, and regular season games.

It is important to remember that every-time you invite coaches to watch you play that you are precise in the information you send. 

• Game time
• Game location
• uniform color
• uniform number
• position
• Opponent

If anything changes make sure you send a quick email to the coach letting them know about the change. Whether or not they can respond, they will received the email and work their way over. 

Step 3: Coaches Evaluation of Play

Coaches will evaluate on numerous occasions. The myth that coaches will watch you one time, is simply that a myth. Coaches will want to evaluate your play as many times as they can, in as many situations and environments as they can. They are looking for how you respond and react to the good, the bad, and the ugly in games! 

How do you respond after mistakes? Do you elevate your play or do you put your head down and hide?

How do you interact with your teammates? Are you a good teammate or sulk if you  have been pulled off?

How do you handle pressure? Do you play better or struggle to perform when the going gets tough

How do you handle weather and conditions? It's wet or windy, how do you adjust your game to succeed or are you one dimensional?

Once you are evaluated one time, the remainder of the staff will usually also watch you play to confirm one coaches thoughts and asses in their own mind whether you fit with that program. Coaches will all want to agree on players they are bringing in and especially if a scholarship is going to be offered.

All are examples of items coaches are trying to evaluate. Ultimately, they need to see that not only can you play and perform at that level, can you perform in their environment, and what kind of teammate you will be.

Step 4: Player Follow-Up and Coaches Feedback and/or Offer

Players are fearful of this stage, because each wants a positive answer, which is normal. FirstHowever, a "no" can be just as significant in the process as a "yes". Each will move you a step forward in the recruiting process. While the yes is much easier to hear and can help build confidence, always understand that there is a place for you to play, if you want to play. You will still be the same player and ultimately, you are only searching for the one right fit program FOR YOU!

After evaluations are complete, coaches will likely ask you to come visit the college or university. This can be done on an official visit (seniors) or unofficial visit. During this time offers can be extended to the player. It is important to view this process with a level head and make sure your decisions are being made rationally and not based on emotions of the visit. If it was a great fit, it will still be a great fit 3 days or even weeks later. Make sure you take you time to asses the situation and make your best decision.

Step 5: Commitment

 A few reminders about the recruiting process, commitment and the black and white of it all. One, a verbal commitment is just that, a verbal, non-binding agreement between parties that they will follow through. Nothing is concrete until a National Letter of Intent is signed! Coaches are not allowed to put that communication in writing until the NLI. Be clear when you speak with them what the offer includes and excludes:

• Tuition, what percentage?
• Room/Board, included?
• Books?
• What happens in case of an injury?
• Can I earn more money?
• What would have to happen to lose scholarship money or break the verbal commitment on the coaches end?

Official/Unofficial Visits

Official visit vs Unofficial Visit

Official Visit: Any visit to a college that is paid for by that university. You and/or your legal guardians will have your transportation to and from the college paid for. Also paid for by the college will be your room, meals (three per day), and entertainment expenses. Generally you will receive three free passes to that college's home game the weekend you are in town. Before you take a visit you must send your transcripts to the college (Division 1 only) and SAT or ACT score and register with the Eligibility Center.

• You can start taking Official Visits opening day of classes your senior year.
• You are allowed only 1 Official Visit per college and no more than 5 Official Visits to Division 1 and 2 colleges

Unofficial Visit: Anytime you or your legal guardians visit a college campus that is funded by you. You can take as many unofficial visits as you would like. During dead periods you cannot speak to any of the coaches while visiting the campus. Three free tickets to a home game is the only thing a coach can give you during an unofficial visit.

Verbal Commitments

From: http://diycollegerankings.com/need-know-verbal-commitments/6296/

If you’re looking to play college athletics, you can’t help but hear about verbal commitments. And if you’re pursuing an athletic scholarship, chances are that you’ll be making a verbal commitment yourself. Plenty of powerhouse schools expect athletes to verbally commit long before National signing day.  So the sooner you can make a verbal commitment, the better–right? The question is better for whom?

Let’s start with defining a verbal commitment. You’ll find a definition of verbal commitment under the frequently asked questions about the National Letter of Intent (NLI). The definition is “stating publicly one’s intentions to attend a certain institution, is a non-binding, oral agreement between you and the institution. The only binding nature of the commitment is your word and the institution’s promise.”

Why is this even an issue for the NLI? Because the definition is part of an answer to the question “Can I make a verbal commitment to a school and sign an NLI with a different school?” And the short answer is “Yes.” The NLI states that

The NLI program does not recognize verbal commitments. It is not uncommon for a student to verbally commit to one institution and subsequently sign an NLI with another intuition. And, on some occasions, a school may accept your verbal commitment and later offer the NLI to another prospective student-athlete.

Verbal commitments are at best, a gentleman’s agreement. A player promises to attend a college while the coach promises to provide some sort of scholarship (usually, and if there is no scholarship, there’s no official NLI).

With recruiting starting earlier and earlier, it can be a relief to an athlete and her family to settle the question of where to go to college and how to pay for it even if she is only a sophomore. She can also stop worrying about what happens if she gets injured before she’s able to sign an NLI.  The coach gets to fill a slot and move on to the next position, everyone is happy.

And for all the talk about somehow banning the practice, it’s obviously becoming institutionalized. Just take a look at the UCLA Recruiting website which states

We prefer athletes in their freshmen or sophomore years of high school or no later than in their junior season of high school to apply via the biography form. Unless you are a late rising junior it is probably too late to apply for an athletic scholarship in your senior year in virtually all of our 25 sports.

If it’s too late by the time you’re a junior, the scholarships could only have been promised through verbal commitments.

However, none of this is enforceable. Oh, the players will be scared by statements that college sports is a small world and if she de-commits, word will get around and no one will risk taking her. How true this is depends on your sport. But I can’t help think that if someone is willing to recruit a player as a sophomore, the player is good enough that other colleges will still be interested.

According to a Sports Illustrated examination of football recruits, “Of the 500 players ranked in the Rivals100 for the classes of 2007 through 2011, 73 (14.6 percent) de-committed at some point during their recruitment. Of those, 62 (12.4 percent) ultimately signed with a school other than the one to which they originally committed.” A similar analysis in basketball found that “it’s likely that at least one in six players will de-commit.” Rivals reports that “the current recruiting class was represented by 34 players who had given early pledges; of those prospects, 13 have changed their college choices or opened the process to more programs.”

Are these players who de-commit morally suspect because they failed to keep their word? No more so than the coaches who in trying to get one step ahead of their competition, decided not to wait for the NLI periods and created the “verbal commitment” to begin with.

So what’s a player to do? First, understand what drives the process–the chance for an athletic scholarship. This means that if you don’t need an athletic scholarship to attend college, you have the ability to say, “not yet, I still want to look around.”

Of course, part of the problem is that too many students and their families only react to the recruiting process. So if something positive happens, they jump at the opportunity because they have no idea if something else good might happen. However, if these families took a proactive approach to finding colleges with programs that best match the player’s abilities and needs, they would be in a much better position to judge the value of a verbal commitment and if it’s something they can afford to pass on.

Recruitment Terminology

From the NCAA.org website

Calendars: Coaches and their associates are restricted to certain times during the year when they can contact players, and in what way this contact is made. Calendar dates include contact periods, dead periods, evaluation periods and quiet periods.

Camps: There are two types of camps: instructional and showcase. Instructional camps are 3-8 week sessions where players undergo intensive training on improving their game. Showcase camps are usually held by universities where prospective recruits display their athletic abilities to coaches as part of the recruiting process.

Clearinghouse: Formerly known as the NCAA Initial-Eligibility Clearinghouse, the NCAA Eligibility Center is the first step in the recruitment process. The Eligibility Center handles all inquiries regarding an individual's initial-eligibility status. The Eligibility Center also maintains and processes all of the initial eligibility certifications.

Combines: Combines are a camp or clinic where players perform various physical exercises to rate their physical fitness. Scores from combine tests are sent to football programs for evaluating the player as a prospective recruit. Combines as a measuring tool are growing in popularity and effectiveness in the recruiting process.

Commitment: An oral or verbal commit is a non-binding agreement between a student-athlete and prospective school. While it is tentatively understood that the student-athlete will accept the scholarship offer and attend the school, he/she is free to explore offers with other institutions until a letter of commitment has been signed.

Contact: Contact includes face-to-face interaction between a college coach and a prospective student-athlete or his/her parents.

Contact period: The contact period is the time designated in the recruiting calendar when college coaches may make in-person, off-campus recruiting contacts and evaluations.

Dead period: The dead period is the time designated in the recruiting calendar when college coaches are restricted from making in-person, off-campus recruiting contacts and evaluations.

Evaluation: An evaluation is when a prospective coach or recruiting agent assesses a student-athlete's academic or athletics ability. Evaluations usually involve a coach or recruiter observing a game or practice.

Evaluation period: The evaluation period is the time designated in the recruiting calendar when college coaches and authorized staff are permitted to make off-campus evaluations of a prospective student-athlete's academic and playing abilities. Evaluations usually involve a coach or recruiter observing a game or practice. In-person, off-campus recruiting contact during evaluations is prohibited.

Grayshirt: A term used to describe a student-athlete who delays initial enrollment in a collegiate institution to the winter or spring term. Grayshirting usually occurs when a student-athlete is injured before the start of the academic year, forgoes classes and practice to join the team once he/she has recuperated.

National Letter of Intent: An NLI is an official agreement between a student-athlete and a prospective school stating the agreement to attend that institution for one academic year in exchange for athletics aid. Once a student-athlete has signed with a prospective school, he/she can no longer be contacted by prospective schools for recruitment.

National Signing Day: The first Wednesday in February is the official signing day for high school football . Following this date, student-athletes may sign letters of intent with prospective schools to attend that institution for one academic year in exchange for athletics aid.

Official visit: Official visits include any visit to a prospective school by a student-athlete paid for by the school. Official visits include schools paying for transportation, room and meals and entertainment.

Prospective student-athlete: A student-athlete becomes a prospective student-athlete when he/she starts ninth-grade classes; or if before the student-athlete's ninth-grade year, a college gives the athlete, his relatives or his friends any financial aid or other benefits that the college does not provide to students generally.

Quiet period: The quiet period is the time designated in the recruiting calendar when college coaches may make in-person recruiting contacts only on the coach's school campus.

Recruit: A student-athlete is considered a recruit when he/she engages in off-campus, in-person contact with a coach; receives a telephone call from a coach more than once; is issued a National Letter of Intent from a prospective school; or makes an official visit to a prospective school.

Redshirt: Also known as a "Fifth Year Senior," redshirt refers to a student-athlete who extends four seasons of play over five years. A redshirt player typically sits out of games for a season, while still attending practices and classes.

Unofficial visit: Unofficial visits occur when student-athletes pay their own expenses when visiting a prospective school, including transportation, room, meals and entertainment.

Walk-on: This term refers to a student-athlete who plays and trains with a collegiate team without an athletic scholarship.