More discussion on college camps from our previous years' threads. Posted in the Spring 2010 season, this Q&A largely reflects what we recently offered on the camp subject. BOTN Industries recommends reading the recruitment threads here on the College Board as this material is covered in substantially more detail.

I have a question. In the point of view of a college coach, is league play all that important? If a team attends showcases, and impresses coaches with its players, does it really make a huge difference if the team is LIJ or NERP?

My son is on a LIJ team, and will hopefully play Bu18 D1 next fall. Just wondering if that makes a huge difference because the coaches that have seen him, like the way he plays and want to see more.

I have a question about proper etiquette when approaching college coaches at a showcase tournament to give them a team profile brochure.

My daughter's team will be at a US Club Regionals tournament this coming weekend. We have a team profile brochure created with information on each of the players (uniform number, name, position, height, weight, parents' names, phone number, email address, high school grad year, GPA, SAT/PSAT scores, academic achievements, and athletic achievements - along with a headshot photo). Our plan is to hand these out to college coaches who attend their games this weekend.

Here's the challenge - the team my daughter plays on was placed in a lower division of the tournament so we're not sure how many coaches will be coming to watch their games - unless we do a little proactive marketing. We have talked to the other girls on the team and their parents about the need to send individual emails to their target colleges (after sharing the concept of two college lists - academic and athletic, at least when asked for our advice) in advance of the tournament, inviting them to come and watch the team play. Our daughter is doing this now - a little bit late, but there are extenuating circumstances. We're not sure how many of the other players have taken this step.

The higher division of play is happening at the same facility, just on different fields. We expect there to be plenty of college coaches at the event (although US Club doesn't release the names of the coaches who are registered to attend, unlike some showcases), but they may be watching games in the higher division.

The challenge may end up being to persuade them to come watch my daughter's team play.

To be blunt, my daughter can serve as a "draw" to accomplish this purpose. She has enough "credentials" as a soccer player to peak a coach's interest.

With that in mind, is it acceptable to approach college coaches at the beginning or end of a higher division game (or at a coaches' tent), hand them a flier, tell them they might be interested in coming to watch my daughter's team, point out my daughter's credentials, and hope that would convince them to come watch?

My wife and I would not do this ourselves - trying to be sensitive to rules about contact between coaches and parents of a player that a coach might be interested in - but we would recruit another parent of the team to go talk to the coaches, present the flier, and mention our daughter's credentials as a "draw."

Thoughts?

Thanks in advance,

Frank

The number and quality of showcase events to which a team is accepted is generally correlated to the league level at which the team plays. Why? It is simple enough that the better the team, the higher the league.

Now, if you have written a college coach, that coach shows at one of your games, and stays to review your player, the league has absolutely no importance in that discussion. If you entire team's players are getting their desired college coaches to appear at games, the level of the showcase really does not matter since the connection is being made.

That said, remember that the college coach will be evaluating the player in the context of the game. In theory, an LIJSL D2 match will be slower and less appealing than a Region One or top showcase match. The college coach is looking for the capablility of playing at collegiate pace and quality. The pace of the college game is faster than many Region One Premier League games.

The only challenge that we see is making sure that your son can get into events that are being attended by his target coaches. That is why the team's acceptability to specific showcases will matter to your family.

Thanks for your questions and we hope this has helped.

Frank, welcome back to BOTN's College Board and thank you for the questions.

Having your players write to target coaches in order to secure their scouting at a showcase game is the very best way to get "targeted marketing" for your players.

Short of that preferred method, standing at the field corner during the pregame to invite passing coaches to attend is absolutely a great strategy. While this is somewhat like "cold-calling" or "telesales", you can make this strategy work for you. How?

If your players have reviewed the "attending coaches list" available at most showcase websites and given you (or the coach) a list of three to five schools in which they have an interest from that attendees list, you can use the total team list to know what coaches you might want to cold-call by handing them a profile and asking them to stay for fifteen to twenty minutes. You will be surprised just how much foot traffic you can get on the main campus of some tournaments. Even without a letter from the player, a parent acting as a scout can help generate some interest.

Be absolutely sure to record each and every school's name that sees your team at each game. This way, you can be sure to have the players interested in that school send thank-you letters after the event.

Thanks BoardLord. Very helpful.

One more question came up last night. My daughter will graduate from high school in 2013. One of the coaches my daughter sent an email to responded with this statement: "Due to NCAA rules we cannot communicate with you until after August 1st when new NCAA legislation allows us to make one phone call per month to you."

We were surprised by this - we had been anticipating she would start receiving emails after September 1, but didn't know there was a new rule that allowed phone calls starting August 1.

Are you aware of this?

Thanks,
Frank

Frank, this caught us completely by surprise. We will continue researching the issue, but we have found some very specific text on the Colgate University web site dealing with the revised dates. BOTN will present the official documentation from the NCAA once we find it while sifting through their web site.

On the surface, this new legislation seems to bring the murky subject of college coach contacts and discussions (which are clearly happening for junior year students to verbally commit) out into the open with NCAA oversight guidelines.

Phone Calls

2012 Grads - NCAA rules prohibit us from initiating any phone calls to you until July 7th following your Junior Year (Grade 11) in High School, we may call once per week. Then, on August 1st, 2011, NEW legislation allows us to phone you up to twice per week.

NEW 2013 Grads - Beginning August 1st, 2011, we are allowed to phone you once per month until August 1st, 2012 and then we are allowed to phone you TWICE per week.

NEW 2014 and Younger Grads - Beginning June 15, 2012, We are allowed to make 1 telephone call per month on or after June 15 at the conclusion of the individual’s sophomore (grade 10) year in HS through July 31 after the individual’s junior (grade 11) year in HS AND 2 telephone calls per week beginning August 1 prior to the individual’s senior grade (12) year in HS.

EXCEPTION TO PHONE RULE - We may make an unlimited number of phone calls to you in the five days preceding your Official Visit.

A phone call made by us, where we speak about Colgate with your parents, is considered a call to you and must adhere to the above rules.

You may phone us at any time, at any age (or grade) and as often as you wish. However, realize that, if you (or your parents) leave a message, one of the above rules may prohibit us from returning your call.

Interesting. I would agree that it seems like an effort to bring oversight to what is already happening. Although as the Colgate content says, a player can call a coach as often as they want at any age as long as the player is the one initiating the call. Unless they were to say that there can be no contact whatsoever (no matter who initiates the contact), I don't know how they really maintain the oversight they are admirably trying to bring to the process.

But as your scrolling message says - this is a favorable development for players. Although we were expecting a slow rampup of contacts after September 1. Now I'm thinking there's going to be an onslaught of phone calls after August 1. Time will tell.

Thanks again,
Frank

Has BOTN or anyone else been able to confirm the new call information for college recruitment? I haven't been able to find anything confirming this - and I wasn't able to find it on the Colgate website, either.

thanks

Good article in today NY Post - while it references Golf & Tennis. Soccer is using the same policies:

Cry me a water hazard: The recent, widespread laments about the downturn in American golf and tennis talent -- not sure if that's true, but only that it coincides with upturns from those born in other parts of the world -- is to a certain and perhaps large extent our own fault.

More specifically, the fault of the win-at-all-costs mentalities and actions of American, NCAA Division I universities, a/k/a the minor leagues.

It's not just basketball. The best and often slightly older young golf and tennis talent throughout the world is brought over here, down here and up here to compete for American schools.

These extra-expensive recruits are provided the finest facilities, training, coaching, golf courses and, should they choose, college courses. A free college education, although the education part is strictly optional among scholarship athletes at D-I universities, is thrown in.

And with every such scholarship bestowed to a 20-year-old from the UK or Lithuania or Spain or Argentina or from wherever scouring the world for superior talent takes U.S. college recruiters, an 18-year-old American kid is shoved further back in the line.

Consider that this month, for a second straight year, Georgia's Augusta State won the NCAA D-I men's golf championship, beat all the giants, Oklahoma State, Georgia, Texas, UCLA. Again. Augusta State's only D-I program is golf. Among the 11 players on its roster, this championship season, four are from Sweden, one is from Australia. Three of the Swedes are 24.

In May, Southern Cal won its third straight D-I men's tennis title. Among its 11-man roster were recruits from Switzerland, Ecuador, England, Estonia and the Netherlands. In the finals, USC defeated Virginia, which had two players from the Netherlands and one from China, Colombia, Guatemala and India.

Last year Brazilian Alex Rocha qualified to play on the PGA Tour. He finished tied for 68th at this year's U.S. Open. He was recruited to play at Mississippi State, although when he arrived in Starkville, Miss., he couldn't speak a word of English. How do you attend -- on full scholarship -- an American university when you can't speak English? You break par, that's how.

And don't worry, we'll find you. We'll fly you in just to show you around; first-class treatment, whatever it takes.

While I don't consider it a national calamity that Americans no longer dominate tennis or golf (see, Masters, U.S. Open, Wimbledon), I'm still reminded of cartoonist Walt Kelly's Pogo, who famously said to himself, "We have met the enemy and he is us."