By Wayne Mazzoni

Many athletes at the high school level make one of two mistakes when it comes to college athletic recruiting.

First, they may assume they are so talented that when the time comes, college coaches will seek them out to recruit them. Or second, they assume that since no one did contact them, they are simply not good enough to play at the next level. What most athletes and parents don’t understand, however, is the reality of the recruiting process.

First, look at recruiting from a college coach’s view. Most many things working against them, which make it hard for them to seek out athletes at the high school level. Limited coaching staffs, small athletic budgets, scarce free time, and large geographical areas to cover all make it hard to coaches to sort through the millions of kids playing various high school sports. In short, recruiting is difficult and often the hardest part of the coach’s job.

To make matters worse many high school athletes, while having great support from those around them, don’t seem to get the proper individual attention on the recruiting process. Those that care the most – parents – often have the least knowledge of what to do. Those with the most knowledge – high school coaches – often have the least amount of time to dedicate to individual athletes.

Thus, many kids get caught in the recruiting gap.

To overcome this, athletes and parents must do the following:

First, treat recruiting like it were a job search and market their skills to the right college coaches. Don’t just sit and wait for coaches to come find out . . . go find them. If one were a graduate of Harvard (the same as being one of the best athletes in Connecticut), finding a job is not that hard. Companies would find you and hire you to work for them. The rest of us (that is, 99%) who went to good colleges must market themselves to employers.

To do that, you determine the type of work you want to get, where you want to do it and then try every means possible to get these companies to know about you. If one just sat in their sweatpants all day, ate Dorito’s and waited for employers to come find them, hardly anyone in the world would have a job.

Same with recruiting. If you sit back and wait, you had better be a blue-chip athlete or you will be overlooked. As soon as you can begin to determine which schools might be right for you (based on academics, sports ability, and personal wants from college) start making a target list of colleges. The earlier you can do this the better. Sophomore year is not too early, Junior year is ideal, Seniors, drop the paper now and get going.

The squeaky wheel gets the grease. Start squeaking.

Wayne Mazzoni is the author of “The Athletic Recruiting and Scholarship Guide”. He also does seminars at high schools and private consulting. For more info call 888.333.7097 or visit www.mazzmarketing.com.