So you want to play softball in college and think you have the grades and skills necessary to do so.  That’s great!  But do you have a plan?  Even if you’re one of the best on your team or even in your league, you still need a plan.   Hopefully by the time you finished reading this you’ll understand why.

Being able to continue in sports after high school is over involves more than just good grades and physical ability.

I know a student-athlete who:

• Was a 4-year varsity starter
• Made the all-conference team 3 times
• Made the all-state team 3 times
• Was named player of the year in her conference as a senior
• Graduated with a 3.6 GPA
• Graduated with an Honors diploma from an academically challenging prep school
• Graduated in the top 10% of her class
• Took the SAT only once and scored a 1290 back when the test was still out of 1600
• Was on a “high profile” team (conference champs 4 times, state champs 3 times)

Her senior year the local newspaper did an article on her and said she was “a top college prospect.” In the 15 years her coach led his team to 4 state championships and even he said she was “the best fielding, throwing, hitting, and running player I’ve had in my 15 years of coaching.”

This player had physical ability and strong academics, but no college recruiting plan.

This player was me…

IF you have all of the above going for you right now, then you *may* get lucky like me  and get 1 lonely offer from a DI school.

Why do I call it luck?  Because I did NOTHING to get the word out about my interest in colleges.  I was LUCKY that I live in a small state where college coaches actually pay attention the to the local high school league.  I was LUCKY that the year I entered college, my team had a big incoming class.  My first year in college there were 9 incoming players…NINE!  That’s a lot!

Imagine if the coach only need 1 or 2 incoming players that year.  Would I still have made it? Would I still have received that offer?  Or would the coach  just have picked up the pitchers and catchers or the short stop instead?  I guessing the outfielder who had been invited to try out for the 1996 Olympic team may have beat me out had there been only a few openings on the team that year.

If you don’t have all those things above going for you…

• If you don’t live in a place where college coaches happen to pay good attention to the league you play in
• If you aren’t on a team that’s in the spotlight
• If you don’t have an 1290 or higher SAT (verbal and math only)
• If you aren’t in the top 10% of your class
• If you don’t have a 3.5 GPA or higher
• If you haven’t been a starter every year from the time you were 14
• If you’re local newspaper isn’t writing articles about you
• If the colleges you’re interested in or the ones that are interested in you don’t need 9 players for your recruiting year

…if all those things aren’t lined up for you the way they were for me…then the odds are quite high that you will NOT be as lucky as I was and you will NOT get that scholarship offer I did. Heck, even if they are all lined up and even if your line up is even better than that, why leave it to chance? Why not do everything you can do to give yourself the best chance possible at continuing to play this sport and get your college education at the same time?  Why simply cross your fingers and hope if there’s something you can DO to better your chances.

Crossing your fingers and HOPING is not a plan!

You need a real plan. You only get one shot at this.  There are no do-overs.  There are no second chances.  You only go through high school and the college recruiting process once.   Get educated about it so that you can make the best decisions possible during your journey.

Here are 5 great resources that can help you with this plan:

1.  Get the NCAA’s Guide for the College Bound Student-Athlete (free download).  I won’t post a link here because it changes every year as they put out a new publication every year.  But if you Google “NCAA Guide for the College Bound Student-Athlete” you should be able to find it rather quickly.  Get the guide.  Read it cover to cover.  Make sure you understand it and do the things the NCAA suggests.

2.  I have a couple of free college recruiting resources up on our Fastpitch Freebies page.  Check those out as well.

3.  $1 College Recruiting Webinar:  I did a webinar on why it’s so super important to start early.    Got some valuable information in there and it’ll only cost ya a buck.

4.  Online College Recruiting Educational System:  Feel like there’s more you need to know about the college recruiting process?  Learn the ins and outs of college recruiting so that you can create your own blue print for success.

5.  Help from NCSA: The college recruiting process can be overwhelming and frustrating.  If you feel that you need personal assistance through this journey you can get it from people who help families like yours every day.  They are as passionate about what they do as you are about softball.  The only people I recommend for this is NSCA.  As much as I know about this process, I plan in tapping into the wealth of knowledge and expertise they bring to the table when my oldest daughter begins her journey in 2010.

Here’s what one dad had to say about his experience with Joyce (the “softball lady” at NSCA)…

“My daughter had the pleasure of working with Joyce for the past couple of years.
You will find her well versed in the recruiting process and maybe more
importantly, she has an ability to help calm the nerves of the parents. She
takes a genuine interest in the ladies she is working with. We successfully
concluded our journey with my daughter finding the perfect fit for her. It took
a lot of hard work on my daughter’s part but certainly the journey was made much
easier with the unwavering guidance from Joyce.”