Start Young. Play Strong.

Crack Those Books

CallChuck — Mon, 26 May 2008 11:42:56 +0000

I was recently speaking with David Bailey, founder of Bailey Baseball. David has helped hundreds of young athletes pursue their baseball dreams. One thing he always recommends is that athletes place as much emphasis on achieving academically as they do athletically. He explained, “You should think of it as if you only have one semester guaranteed once you’ve received a scholarship. By making the grade academically, you’re enhancing your chances of keeping your scholarship active.” That’s because your chances are enhanced since good students typically make their coaches lives easier.

High school students who achieve academically may be able to get additional financial assistance from the college in the form of academic scholarships. That additional financial assistance may minimize the “sports program’s” overall burden and contribute to your ability to carry the financial burden that a college education imposes. And, students that make their grades a priority usually mean less trouble for their coaches in the long run by minimizing the overall coaching and administrative burden.

Very few athletes actually make it to the collegiate level of play let alone professionally. We can’t emphasize it enough. Your education (and grades) must be your priority.

“And…..Action!”

CallChuck — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 10:16:13 +0000

Do you have a video that you can send to recruiters? If a coach or recruiter has interest in you, they will almost always request a video. When most people consider video as it relates to their pursuit of sports scholarships, they usually only think of videos in actual game situations or other action highlights. Colleges with athletic scholarships to offer are looking for more than just athletes to beef up their athletic programs. They are looking for athletes with character and a built-in support network. Like a written resume, your video should document more than just your athletic accomplishments.

Don’t misunderstand. A quality video should always include game highlights. In fact, it is in your best interest to have an entire game video in which your actions (while not in the action so to speak) are also documented. However, why not also consider short interviews with coaches, teachers and other mentors or members of the community that are speaking on the athlete’s behalf. At a minimum, there should be a short (15 to 30 second) segment in which the student himself is actually speaking about their athletic and academic goals and aspirations. This may be the only opportunity that you have to express yourself in a relatively live format. After all, if you’re lucky enough to have a college coach looking at your highlight video, why not make the most of it?

Online Is Where It’s At

CallChuck — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 03:48:19 +0000

Whether a student athlete is promoting herself to a college or preparing for the digital world we live in, we recommend that you reserve a relevant domain name that can be the basis of an Internet presence that could last a lifetime. By doing so, you’re essentially staking your claim on the Internet, one that may represent you for years to come. It’s easy and relatively inexpensive. GoDaddy is a good starting point to search for available site names.

Website names constitute a type of branding. The site name and relevance is important to that branding process. It is always advisable that you reserve the name of the athlete if it is available. If the “.com” version is not available, check other extensions like “.net” or other practical extensions.

If you’re still having trouble finding a domain that is not already taken, try inserting a middle initial of other descriptive words like JoeTheQuareterback.com (example only).

Many companies can build simple multi-page sites for the price of a good pair of sports shoes. Your site cab then be hosted for less than $10 per month. For more information please contact us.

Start Young

CallChuck — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 11:28:58 +0000

In practical terms, your sophomore year is probably the optimal time to really start getting focused. However, it’s never too early to start collecting digital images including video and biographical content for your student athlete portfolio.

If you’ve not done that over the years, you may be able to find some photos or video from other teammates and acquaintances. Those pictures can then be cropped to make you the focus of the photo. Document season stats, academic achievements and community service activities in an organized fashion. Also, a minimum one-paragraph bio should be written in a common format such as an MS Word (.doc) file. This, to-the-point paragraph, in a common document format, can be reused and inserted (copied and pasted) into the multiple promotional venues that are available. Old, non-digital pictures can be scanned. Action and group photographs are great for telling stories and in-uniform portrait style photos are useful for profiles. Again, .JPG or .GIF digital file formats are best as they can easily be dropped into resumes, individual websites or posted to other online venues.

Colleges are selective and are especially selective with student athletes due to the limited pool of available sports scholarship funds. Subsequently, your student’s academic and community service activities should be emphasized and documented in resume format. The point is to build a complete biographical of who you are that is not solely based upon your athletic prowess.

Simply put - don’t procrastinate - Start Young!

Postcard Change-up

CallChuck — Sun, 23 Mar 2008 19:02:36 +0000

One of the biggest obstacles an aspiring student athlete faces in their quest for a sports scholarship is just getting noticed. It’s true. There’s so much competition for so few athletic scholarship dollars that unless you approach your recruitment project with some marketing savvy, you may never even get seen let alone noticed.

What do you think will get a recruiter’s attention as they plough through the stacks of mail they get? What will separate your contact with the recruiter from all they others they receive? Instead of just sending a letter and or resume to collegiate coaches and staff, have you considered something more with a little more flash. How about a full color postcard as a change-up? They’re relatively easy to create and some printing companies even enable you to build a postcard online.

What you will need to produce a nicely balanced sports postcard is a good action photo for the front and a profile type photo (headshot) for the back. You’ll also want to have your biographical information ready as well. We suggest a glossy finish for both sides. Since the back will also be glossy, the shiny finish will make it difficult to easily write an address on it. That said, it is probably a good idea to also have sticky-backed mailing labels that can be hand-written or printed.

If you’re a do-it-yourselfer, building a postcard can be easy using one of the many application software packages available such as Microsoft Publisher. The Home version of Microsoft’s Office Suite usually comes equipped with Publisher as a basic desktop publishing software application. Most simple (and inexpensive) graphics software packages have templates for postcards making it easy to input your own information.

Once you’ve developed your first postcard, it will be easy to design subsequent postcards that can be part of your annual campaign to recruiters.

While a postcard will never replace a well-written letter or resume, it is bound to give the student athlete a better chance of at least a first look by a recruiter or coach.