August Update:

DON'T WAIT! Three Big Mistakes to Avoid in Your Recruiting Process

First, thank you for your patience! As College Athletic Advisor has grown, our newsletter has gone from monthly to bi-monthly. As I write this issue, I have filmed a training video for aspiring college consultants at the IECA Summer Training Institute (for the 5^th consecutive year), hosted STI participants in a live zoom Q&A, organized and moderated a panel presentation for 7EDU Global School with a pair of AMAZING current student-athletes (complete with NIL agreement), AND trained a group of independent college consultants in New Jersey – in addition to supporting students and families in every phase of the recruiting process (shoutout to our recent commits AND students just sending their first emails to coaches). What gives all this work meaning is YOU, so once again, thank you for your trust and support!

The other thing you know if you are a regular reader, client, or have attended one of my presentations is that I truly believe the recruiting process should be fun, informative, and empower students. You will have heard me say that your timeline is your own and the recruiting “stress industrial complex” should mostly be ignored. So, putting together “THREE Mistakes to Avoid!” kind of newsletters is unusual for me! So… DON’T DO THESE THINGS – they are easy to avoid and it is LESS work to help yourself! Let’s dive in!!

Mistake #1:

And let me share that this is MY PERSONAL MISTAKE… don’t be like me and come up with reasons to justify procrastinating! DO NOT WAIT for some magic achievement, a future event, the moon to be in retrograde… whatever… JUST START REACHING OUT TO COACHES.

Coaches understand player development – they will look at your performance IN CONTEXT (so a slower track time is more impressive early in the season when college coaches know you are not yet “peaking” for big meets). They expect that you will continue to develop… and if they DO ignore you, you can always reach out to them again as you improve. But expressing interest NOW is the best move (unless you’re not in high school… if you’re not in high school yet, just keep on having a blast and growing into yourself). The longer you wait, the less time the coach has to follow your development and evaluate knowing you are interested in his/her school! Come on… you can do it!

Mistake #2:

Don’t overshare in your first email! That first email needs to be laser focused on enabling the coach to assess your competitive fit. Every coach values prospective student-athletes’ character, intelligence and other admirable qualities, but they don’t assess that until they have decided a prospect can help the program win. Save all that great stuff for a conversation where you and the coach are trying to learn about each other in more depth!

Mistake #3:

Don’t commit without understanding every aspect of what you are agreeing to, including the EXACT cost to YOU, of attending college. If a coach can’t share that information, explain you can’t commit until you connect with financial aid or whomever and figure that out. Commitments should be symmetrical. A lot of the complaining about verbal commitments centers around student-athletes who got asked, “are you ready to commit?” and said, “yes!” with no follow up questions. You are not REALLY committing unless you are clear about WHAT YOU ARE COMMITTING TOO! If there’s no specific financial offer/promise of admission in writing (could be an email or a text), it’s just talk. This is a controversial opinion, but I don’t have any personal horror stories about commitments falling apart because when you do your due diligence, you know where you stand! If you are afraid to ask… that probably means you REALLY need to!

As always, if you are looking for the individualized or institutional consulting help that puts you ahead of your peers, check out our services here! You can make an initial appointment through the link on our homepage! School administrators and counselors access our free resources, appointments and programs for school collaboration here.

For more information, contact Dave Morris, College Counselor & CEO, College Athletic Advisor, dave@collegeathleticadvisor.com or phone: (719) 248-7994

©2025 All Rights Reserved https://collegeathleticadvisor.com/addedtime/