A lot has been going on outside of the facility as "money month" continues. I dubbed June "Money Month" because it is the biggest opportunity for players to earn scholarship offers by jumping on the camp circuit. Schools will have numerous camps throughout June and a player could find a camp nearly every day to go to in June if he had the resources to do so. Because there is a camp almost every day it is important to make sure there is legitimate interest or potential for a player to play at the school he goes to camp with because otherwise it would be a waste of money.
I have been doing a lot of research into colleges in our area which include: all MAC schools, Sun Belt schools, Missouri Valley Football Conference schools, and every FBS and FCS Division I school in the midwest to determine the best spots for some of my players. After determining the current state of the roster I will call coaches that I know at those schools to confirm their situation at each position for players I'm looking to get them in contact with. In those conversations either through phone call or e-mail I am going back to my calendar which has each player I'm dealing with and making sure they are getting to as many one-day camps as they can in the month of June. It is important that those camps are schools that have some actual interest in the player and not just trying to get more people at their camp to boost revenues. It is a lot of leg work, but definitely worth it in the end of the student athlete can get some money to pay for their school.
Another element to this intense recruiting process is informing the parents and players themselves of realistic expectations and understand the process a little better. A lot of schools send numerous general letters to a player, but it does not mean they are being recruited and that's hard for some parents to understand. I have learned a lot more about this process as I have been a part of the AWP staff. Not only has it helped solidify relationships with coaches, it has really provided me with perspective on how to evaluate talent objectively. Using one of my players for an example, he has attended 3 camps since our June 1 visit to Toledo and I have been in contact with 6 other coaches from different schools about him going to different camps through July 12th.
Additionally, relationships with media members can help create a buzz about players and get the players name out. Local media is great, but 247sports.com, Rivals.com, Scout.com, ESPN recruiting are all more important to spreading the word about the players. To share a quick story, we had one player who is ranked as one of the top players at his position in our state. Because of that media ranking a school from far away was looking for the "top player" at that particular position in each state and by simply Googling "top player in Indiana at ___" the coach found a few names, watched the film and decided to offer a scholarship to our player. The power of the media is intense and getting exposure is the job of each player's coach to put them in the best position to do so. This type of attention is also important to control because it can lead to the aforementioned problems with parents and players thinking they are better than they actually are so it is definitely a fine
I have been doing a lot of research into colleges in our area which include: all MAC schools, Sun Belt schools, Missouri Valley Football Conference schools, and every FBS and FCS Division I school in the midwest to determine the best spots for some of my players. After determining the current state of the roster I will call coaches that I know at those schools to confirm their situation at each position for players I'm looking to get them in contact with. In those conversations either through phone call or e-mail I am going back to my calendar which has each player I'm dealing with and making sure they are getting to as many one-day camps as they can in the month of June. It is important that those camps are schools that have some actual interest in the player and not just trying to get more people at their camp to boost revenues. It is a lot of leg work, but definitely worth it in the end of the student athlete can get some money to pay for their school.
Another element to this intense recruiting process is informing the parents and players themselves of realistic expectations and understand the process a little better. A lot of schools send numerous general letters to a player, but it does not mean they are being recruited and that's hard for some parents to understand. I have learned a lot more about this process as I have been a part of the AWP staff. Not only has it helped solidify relationships with coaches, it has really provided me with perspective on how to evaluate talent objectively. Using one of my players for an example, he has attended 3 camps since our June 1 visit to Toledo and I have been in contact with 6 other coaches from different schools about him going to different camps through July 12th.
Additionally, relationships with media members can help create a buzz about players and get the players name out. Local media is great, but 247sports.com, Rivals.com, Scout.com, ESPN recruiting are all more important to spreading the word about the players. To share a quick story, we had one player who is ranked as one of the top players at his position in our state. Because of that media ranking a school from far away was looking for the "top player" at that particular position in each state and by simply Googling "top player in Indiana at ___" the coach found a few names, watched the film and decided to offer a scholarship to our player. The power of the media is intense and getting exposure is the job of each player's coach to put them in the best position to do so. This type of attention is also important to control because it can lead to the aforementioned problems with parents and players thinking they are better than they actually are so it is definitely a fine
