Scouting for talent can take more than you might initially realize. Here are the steps college coaches generally follow these steps during the recruiting process:
Compile a List of Prospects
This first step is to gather a list of prospects whose athletic skills and academic abilities meet the college's needs. This list is compiled by self-nomination, coaches' referrals, or recruitment lists of other colleges.
Send Recruiting Letters
Once the list of prospects has been compiled, coaches send out recruiting letters, questionnaires, and invitations to their camps. The recruiting letters and questionnaires give the prospects information about the school, such as academic requirements, financial aid offerings, athletic facilities, and schedules. They also remind prospects that they are under consideration for an athletic scholarship.
Conduct Evaluations
After receiving responses from interested recruits, the college coaches will then conduct evaluations on prospects. This is used to determine whether or not they are ready for collegiate athletics. A coach will also determine whether or not the college is a good fit for the prospect. Prospects can do this by attending a camp or conducting a personal visit.
Extend Offers
After evaluations have been completed, college coaches will then extend a verbal offer and a scholarship to those they wish to recruit. They will do this by phone and during campus visits.
Officially Sign the Recruits
After verbal offers have been extended, the college coach then sends an official offer letter of scholarship funding and a National Letter of Intent. The National Letter of Intent is a federally-binding contract between the athlete and the college, which outlines the specifics of the scholarship offer.
College Recruiting
There are so many stages in the player recruitment process that differ based on the college levels (NCAA - NAIA - NJCAA). Coaches recruiting cycles never ends. Many coaches have many manual tasks that go along with their positional role on the team and in the new era coaches now have to spend a lot of time recruiting their own players in fear of losing them to the transfer portal.
One common issue that we have discovered by speaking with 100's of coaches is that solutions that automate the recruiting process tends to be beneficial in a variety of ways. One could be having a clean database with full player profile info to quickly review the athlete or an integration that allows coaches to quickly work together as they build reports or navigate a specific athletes recruiting journey.
Whatever the case, recruiting tools are essential for coaches at all levels and across the entire sports ecosystem. College coaches have many tasks when it comes to the player recruitment process and in the future the Willis Sports platform will help create winning opportunities for coaches to be able to streamline the recruiting process.
We wish you happy recruiting and if you would like to learn how we can help you schedule a meeting below.
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