RECRUITED HOW HIGH SCHOOL ATHLETES CAN EFFECTIVELY MARKET THEMSELVES TO COLLEGE BASEBALL AND SOFTBALL COACHES

RECRUITED HOW HIGH SCHOOL ATHLETES CAN EFFECTIVELY MARKET THEMSELVES TO COLLEGE BASEBALL AND SOFTBALL COACHES

The college recruiting process can often be a difficult and confusing process. This manual will help guide you through the process and make it work for you. Carefully read through the following pages and familiarize yourself with its content. Once you understand the recruiting rules and the necessary steps to get started, you are well on your way to realizing your dream of playing college baseball or softball. Andy Pohl DNA Sports Co-Founder and College Recruiting Consultant 2012 DNA Sports, LLC. All content is the property of DNA Sports, LLC. No part of this manual may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by an information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from DNA Sports.

My name is Mike Huber and I work for the Chicago White Sox Academy in Naperville, Illinois as a hitting instructor and college showcase coordinator. As a former collegiate coach at the Division 1,2, and Junior College level, I have found the recruiting process to be extremely stressful for parents and the players themselves who are looking for the right fit for their collegiate baseball career. Over the years I have seen too many misplaced players who have dedicated themselves to programs that were not right for their skills and goals as players. There have been way too many incidents where I find players who have ended their college careers early because of a lack of research into the programs they decided to attend. I see the problem simply as a lack of education and guidance about college recruiting. Most parents and student athletes play the recruiting process too much like a gambling casino rather than a long term investment into their education and baseball career. In other words, there needs to be an outlined guidance system that leads respected college prospects to the right types of schools, both from an academic and athletic standpoint. This investment and guidance system I am speaking of is best outlined in Andrew Pohl s Collegiate Recruiting Manual, where he very specifically details what college coaches are looking for in a recruit, the academic guidelines to go by, and tips of how and when to start campaigning for your college baseball career. Andrew Pohl has had extensive experience as a baseball coach, a baseball training facility manager, and a baseball marketing specialist, in addition to working as a scout and a talent evaluator for a major baseball recruiting company. He has taken from all of these experiences the greatest of information that can help future college baseball players get the most comprehensive and realistic information that help them understand where they fit from an athletic and academic standpoint in the most confusing game of college baseball recruiting. Working with Andy Pohl, coupled with this manual, will save you time and money. Andy effectively answers all of the how s, why s, where s, and what if s concerning college baseball careers. Consider Andy as your college guidance counselor. Andy is the best one there is in this field, and reading his manual will surely get you going in the right direction and save you many headaches caused by a lack of information and research. Your chances of finding the right college will definitely double if you can implement the information in his book into your college recruiting process. Best of luck! Mike Huber Hitting Instructor and College Showcase C0ordinator Chicago White Sox Academy

Table of Contents College Recruiting Explained The Differences Between Levels of Collegiate Athletics... 3 Athletic Scholarships... 5 Athletic Measurables by Level of Play.... 7 The NCAA Initial Eligibility Clearinghouse... 11 Academic Eligibility Requirements.... 12 Important Recruiting Terms.... 16 The Recruiting Calendar.... 18 The National Letter of Intent & Commitments.... 19 NCAA Rules & Regulations.... 21 The Recruiting Process Getting Started: Choosing Potential Schools... 24 Understanding your Athletic Potential.... 26 Reaching your Athletic Potential.... 28 Contacting College Coaches.... 29 Following up with College Coaches.... 34 Sample Questions to Ask College Coaches.... 36 Creating Leverage in the Recruiting Process.... 37 Visiting College Campuses.... 38 The Application Process & Financial Aid... 39 Athletic Scholarships... 40 Personal Recruiting Timetable... 41 Attending College Camps & Showcases.... 44 The Truth about Showcases, College Camps, Elite Travel Teams, & Recruiting Services.... 46 Recruiting Checklist.... 50 Thoughts From Student-Athletes & Families.... 51 Appendix Partial Qualifier... 54 Student Athlete Goal Implementation Form.... 55 Student Athlete Goal Report Card.... 56

SAMPLE QUESTIONS TO ASK COLLEGE COACHES Asking the correct questions is a key to a successful recruiting process. College coaches are interested in student athletes who ask insightful questions about their school and program. In addition, answers to the financial questions below are essential before signing your scholarship. Below is a list of sample questions you can ask a college coach: Athletics: What is the best means for you to evaluate me as a player? What qualities do you look for in your recruits? What position do you see me playing at the next level? What other players may be competing at the same position? Will I be redshirted my freshman year? How would you best describe your coaching style? Who else are you recruiting at my position? What are the long term goals of your program? How do you see me fitting into those goals? Academics: What are the academic strengths of your institution? Who is the best person to contact to get insight on my intended major? What academic support programs are available to student athletes? (If you have a diagnosed and documented disability) What kind of academic services are available to students like me? How many credit hours should I take in season and out of season? Is summer school available? What percentage of players on scholarship graduate? Financial Aid: What does my potential scholarship cover? What are my opportunities for employment while I am a student? Am I eligible for additional financial aid? Are there any restrictions? Under what circumstances would my scholarship be reduced or cancelled? Are there any academic criteria tied to maintaining my scholarship? What scholarship money is available after eligibility is exhausted to help me complete my degree? What scholarship money is available to me if I suffer a career ending injury? 36

THE TRUTH ABOUT SHOWCASES, COLLEGE CAMPS, ELITE TRAVEL TEAMS, & RECRUITING SERVICES The amount of recruiting resources available to student athletes can be overwhelming. If you type college recruiting into any Internet search engine, you will be bombarded with hundreds of different resources aimed at helping student athletes in the college recruiting process. These resources include elite showcases, college camps, summer exposure travel teams, and college recruiting services. However, does the existence of these resources make college recruiting easier to understand? Do all of these services provide each student athlete with a greater chance of achieving success in the recruiting process compared to past generations when few of these resources existed? Does the cost of these recruiting resources justify their benefits? While there is certainly a greater amount of recruiting resources available to today s student athletes, their existence has undoubtedly caused greater confusion about the process, in addition to wasting thousands of dollars. Many families are unclear as to how to properly utilize these available resources, a fact that further hinders student athletes from being successful with the recruiting process. Prospective college recruits and their families need to be educated about the process in general, and also need to understand the limitations of these recruiting resources in order to avoid destructive traps that can take student athletes off the correct path. Let s separate fact from fiction when it comes to the various recruiting resources that are available to student athletes COLLEGE SHOWCASES Student athlete says: I am going to 10 showcases during the fall and summer, and each showcase company has provided me with a list of 30 schools who will be in attendance and names of past student athletes who received scholarships after attending this showcase. I will certainly be discovered at this event. FACT: The chances for student athletes to be discovered at college showcases are slim. College coaches use showcases as a means of evaluating just the players they already know and have had prior contact with. If you are not on a coach s radar prior to the showcase, odds are low that the coach will be watching you when it is your time to perform. FACT: Many showcase companies do not provide the proper forum for college coaches to fairly evaluate a student athlete s strengths and capabilities. Fielding four ground balls, making four throws from the outfield, taking 10 swings, and throwing 5-8 pitches in the bullpen is not nearly enough for any college coach to make a true evaluation of your talents. FACT: Many showcase companies list names of past high school athletes who attended their events and were later awarded an athletic scholarship from a Division I or Division II school. These players did not need the help from this particular showcase to get signed. The truth is they would have received their scholarships anyway, regardless if they attended this showcase or not. 46

FACT: College showcases are revenue generators for the companies who sponsor them. The main priority for college showcase companies is to make every event profitable. Student athletes are secondary to this. This is not to say that showcase companies do not care about student athletes, because most probably do at some level. However, it is important to keep in mind that student athletes are not number one on their list. FACT: Showcases can be a valuable recruiting tool if used properly. If you are interested in going to a showcase, choose one that will be attended by schools that you academically and athletically qualify for. Before you go to any showcase, find out the schools that will be in attendance, and contact those coaches at least one week before the event. This will help ensure that you will be evaluated by your schools of interest. COLLEGE CAMPS Student athlete says: I am going to the University of Illinois Camp and then the University of Iowa Camp. I received brochures from both coaches in the mail, and this will give me the opportunity to showcase my talents for them. FACT: College camps are revenue generators for the sponsoring coaches and programs. Therefore, college coaches want to fill their camps with as many student athletes as possible. The greater number of student athletes in attendance, the higher the profits. FACT: If you are not personally invited by a college coach to attend their camp, chances are your invitation was sent out simply to increase attendance of the camp. Just because you received a camp brochure in the mail does not mean that they are sincerely interested in you. In fact, chances are the coach sent you this camp invitation without even knowing who you are. In many cases, college coaches get names and contact information from a list of players who attended past showcases, camps, or exposure tournaments. FACT: Division I and Division II schools make up the majority of schools who offer college camps. Receiving camp information from these schools does not mean you are a serious Division I or Division II prospect. FACT: Similar to showcases, college coaches use their camps to evaluate players they already know. The chances for student athletes to be discovered at a college camp are slim. If the college coach does not know who you are prior to the camp, you almost certainly will not be seriously evaluated for their program at the camp. FACT: College camps can be a valuable recruiting tool for student athletes if they have had prior contact with the college coach. Attending college camps gives student athletes a great opportunity to showcase their talents in front of a college coaching staff. If a highly personalized letter accompanies your camp brochure, or you receive a phone call from a particular coach inviting you to their camp, then attending the camp is certainly worth considering. If you are interested in a particular school and you believe that the coach is indeed actively recruiting you, it is in your best interest to find out if the coach is either hosting a camp or will be in attendance at another camp. 47

SUMMER & FALL ALL STAR TRAVEL TEAMS Student athlete says: My All Star Travel Team is going to be playing in the Holiday Wood Bat Classic in Peoria during the 4th of July Weekend. This is a great opportunity for exposure. FACT: There are only a select few baseball or softball tournaments where a vast number of college coaches will be in attendance. College coaches will not be spending their summers attending small tournaments. FACT: Getting exposure through tournament play is only possible if college coaches know who you are prior to attending a particular tournament. Just like showcases, most college coaches come to tournaments to evaluate players they already know. Thus, being discovered at an exposure tournament is unlikely, unless you play for a well known elite program. In that case, many college coaches are already familiar with the caliber of players that compete for your team. FACT: Travel baseball and softball is extremely watered down. Playing for a travel all star team does not necessarily mean that you are on a truly elite team, despite what the coaches of these programs may say. FACT: Travel baseball was at one time only about player development. It later evolved into a contest between coaches to see who could win the most games and tournaments. More recently, several coaches and organizations realized that money could be made if they somehow tied college recruiting to travel baseball and softball, or at least made it appear that a connection between the two existed. When choosing a travel team, find a coach and program that put the needs of student athletes first. Travel baseball and softball is first and foremost about development, not about winning tournaments or getting exposure. If you choose a program that is sincerely about athletic development, then the recruiting aspects will take care of themselves. RECRUITING SERVICES Student athlete says: I hired a recruiting service that sends my profile to hundreds of schools. This service has a success rate of 95%, and their student athletes receive on average $9,000 a year in scholarship dollars. FACT: A recruiting service will never hurt you in fact, it can only help. The essential question about recruiting services is evaluating whether or not the benefits of these services justify the cost. Many of these recruiting services cost thousands of dollars for the creation of a profile and/or video, which they then email to hundreds of coaches nationwide. The overwhelming majority of the schools these services send your information to are probably schools you would never consider attending. So it is clearly much cheaper to create your own list of schools, and send your information out to them yourself. FACT: Recruiting services send out multiple profiles and videos each day to the same college coaches. Because there are numerous recruiting services doing the same thing on a daily basis, college coaches are inundated with similar emails from recruiting services who are recommending prospects that the services themselves barely know. In short, many of these emails are considered nothing more than junk mail or spam, and are consequently never opened. 48

FACT: College coaches want prospect information from sources they trust. If student athletes are paying a recruiting service to market them to college coaches, the recommendations and evaluations that these recruiting services create are clearly biased. FACT: Any college coach will tell you that they want to hear directly from the student athlete, not mom or dad, and not from an outside source that is being paid to recommend and represent you. Contacting college coaches on your own is a proactive approach to the recruiting process that shows maturity, poise, and responsibility, qualities that college coaches are looking for in all of their potential players. FACT: Recruiting services are profit-driven organizations. Their focus is to sell their program to as many families as possible. In order to keep enrollment high, they often dishonestly evaluate potential prospects and make promises they cannot keep. While many insist that their primary focus is on student athletes, in all reality this is secondary to meeting their enrollment numbers. With such a large number of student athletes enrolled in a particular recruiting service, they cannot possibly provide everyone the individual attention that they need and deserve. FACT: Similar to showcases, many recruiting services publicize the names of their student athletes and the scholarship offers they receive. It is unclear as to the role the recruiting service actually played in this process. FACT: Many recruiting services claim high success rates and average scholarship dollars awarded. These numbers are not accurate. Recruiting services get their success rates from graduating seniors who choose to fill out a survey indicating their overall satisfaction with the recruiting service during the process. Thus, the satisfaction rate can represent a very small portion of a service s entire client base. The same can be said for average scholarship dollars awarded. These numbers are also accumulated by those graduating seniors who choose to fill out the survey and disclose this information. In addition, some recruiting services may include academic scholarships and financial aid in this average scholarship number. Clearly, student athletes do not need the help of a recruiting service to earn an academic scholarship or to be awarded financial aid dollars. Secondly, there is a clear difference between academic scholarships, financial aid, and athletic scholarships. FACT: A recruiting service can be a useful tool but has limitations. If you decide to go with a recruiting service, understand that it is still really critical that you do some work on your own. Remember, you are your own best advocate. Be sure to consistently communicate and follow up with your recruiting service, and hold them accountable for everything they say they will do for you. SUMMARY Nothing is more upsetting to me than hearing families discuss how much money they wasted on a recruiting service that overpromised and under-delivered, or the amount they spent during a particular weekend for transportation, food, lodging, and entry fees to attend showcases, camps, and elite tournaments with the hope of their child being discovered. While some coaches, tournament directors and recruiting services will undoubtedly disagree with several of the statements above, understand that my goal is to report in an honest and straightforward manner what I know from my many years of experience working with student athletes. DNA Sports have no hidden agenda the well-being of student athletes is always our top priority, and the reason we created this manual. 49

THOUGHTS FROM STUDENT- ATHLETES & FAMILIES Father of NCAA Division I Softball Player Andy Pohl s softball video focuses on a player s throwing, fielding and batting skills, not on promoting his video production capabilities. He doesn t use unnecessary soundtracks and gimmicky graphics, but presents a player s field-play in an honest, straightforward, no-frills manner which is what most college coaches prefer in skills videos from their prospective recruits. In addition, Andy employs his knowledge of the recruiting process and will advise the player accordingly to meet their individual athletic aspirations. NCAA Division I Softball Player I got into the recruiting game very late and I knew at the time that it would be a long-shot to be recruited by a Division 1 school. This did not prove to be an issue with Andy Pohl. He took me step-by-step through the whole recruiting process from making the skills video to initiating contact with collegiate coaches. He provided me with copies of NCAA rules and regulations as well as helpful guides to talking and writing to coaches. He even prepared me for interviews by suggesting questions and topics, coaching me through the entire process. Andy is totally dedicated to his clients. He is more interested in promoting the athlete than all the services he offers. He is supportive and straightforward and advises accordingly for what level of play is best suited for the athlete. He is with his client from the video and evaluation to signing day. I was much more confident presenting myself through skills videos, emails, phone conversations and personal interviews as a result of working with him. Father of NESCAC Conference Baseball Player Thank you for all of your efforts in helping John and me navigate the waters of college baseball recruiting. Your expertise, your advice, and your sincere concern for John s best long term interests mean a great deal to us. NAIA Catcher I wanted to give you another quick update on what s been going on. This weekend, I will be making two college visits the first is to Mid-America Nazerene University and the second is to Concordia University-Nebraska. Also, I have received a $5,000 baseball scholarship offer from Siena Heights University and have spoken to Coach Keister at Goshen College who is supposed to get back to me about playing at Goshen. Again thanks for everything. None of this would have been possible without your help. 51

NCAA Division III Softball SS I am going to go to Rockford College. Thanks Mr. Pohl! I really appreciate you guiding me through this process! Mother of NCAA Division III Catcher David is working on his applications and we re getting organized. You have been so great to us I can t tell you how much I have appreciated your advice, and the DVD has been a significant factor in our approach to the coaches. Two of them told us that they had timed his pop time on the DVD. Father of NCAA Division III Softball Pitcher We want to thank you for all that you have done for our daughter both in taping her and personal advice with regards to recruiting. You have been a great influence and asset in her recruiting success. Father of NCAA Division III Softball Pitcher Courtney was accepted at all schools to which she applied. Close contenders were Missouri Valley College, which saw her tape, as did PSU. Both made very generous softball scholarship offers. In the end, she decided to accept the offer to play at UW-Platteville. I wanted to take the time to thank you for your input and guidance on putting together material to help. As a D-III there is of course no athletic scholarship money but she did get some grants and can get others next year too. But this may be a better fit all the way around. Another example of why we were not in it just for softball money. Again, thanks for your input and guidance! NCAA Division III Recruit Thanks again for all the time and effort that you are putting into this process with me. The list of schools you gave me was very helpful and the recommendation you wrote me was awesome. I need to thank you most for the confidence that you have had in me. You bringing up the possibility of me playing college ball has given me the extra motivation to improve my speed, strength, and abilities; but more importantly it motivated me academically to get my grades up and to prevail through hours of boring ACT practice. Without this motivation, I know I would have avoided both the ACT and my grades until it would have been too late. Regardless if any of these coaches contact me, I want to let you know that your work with me has already been a success. Father of Division II Centerfielder Gavin did it with much help and advice from you! I want to personally thank you for the time you gave with this long process. It is good to know that there are people like you out there who put the student athletes ahead of the money that can be made! We are lucky to have you on our side! The final package: 80% tuition covered 5K from athletics not bad. We will keep in touch! Best of luck with you and your high school program. I know you will do the right things for your players! 52

ABOUT DNA SPORTS DNA Sports specializes in customized baseball and softball skill programs, college recruiting education and preparation, and coaching clinics. We use video skills analysis to maximize players inherent talents, i.e their athletic DNA. DNA Sports is committed to designing programs that promote teamwork and sportsmanship and emphasize the mental side of sports performance. Our College Recruiting and Guidance programs provide student athletes the personalized recruitment education, recruitment guidance, and skill development required to effectively pursue playing baseball or softball at any level of collegiate play D1, D2, D3, NAIA, or Junior College. We have worked with over 200 athletes who have gone on to play at the collegiate level and beyond. DNA Sports offers coaching seminars and clinics that emphasize organization, practice plans, training regimens, game preparation, in-game decision-making, and effective communication with every athlete regardless of skill level and attitude. We stress situational disciplinary measures and the importance of team play and teach proven, advanced, and up-to-date methods to increase player confidence and inspire growth, while incorporating new techniques and adapting them to particular age groups. Learn more: www.dnasportsonline.com

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