As I look back at the recruiting roller coaster ride, I thought it might be helpful to discuss some of the obstacles or challenges you will face and how a parent and the player can better cope with these.
I think one of the most overlooked obstacles could be the administrative side of recruiting. This sounds as if it is a “good problem” and very well may be but it can get out of hand and can create some problems. If your son gets a letter where does that letter go? Does it go to his room or in his backpack to become lost with some of his other papers? Do you want to save it and take it to the family reunion or do fill it out and mail it off today? Who actually mails the letter? Does he mail it and if so, do you trust him to put the right postage on it? You know if he puts his schedule and some other papers in the envelope it might exceed the 1 oz. and the .39 and he probably doesn’t have a USPS scale in his room. If he does have a scale in his room you need to ask some other questions.
I also found colleges to be redundant in a lot of their correspondence. If you’ve already mailed in the questionnaire to State U and you indicated to them he was 6’2” and now you list him at 6’ it might raise some questions-----. Make a copy and file it away. I found professional questionnaires to be more overwhelming and I know some clubs sent us at least a dozen questionnaires. One scout also told me they never received a completed questionnaire back from my son so they thought he wasn’t interested in going pro. I swore I sent it but it may have slipped through the cracks.
PHONE CALLS: Make a “call sheet” that has the questions listed and place this call sheet around the house so your son can ask some very important questions like the name of the college and the coach’s name, phone number, and what state they are in. My son actually received some calls that he was unsure of the name of the college that called. Caller ID is good but many coaches use cell phones with blocked ID’s. Don't wait for the calls to start.....DO IT NOW!
Emails were seldom used with my son. maybe other can add to the email and Txt msg aspect.
Again, all this is probably a good problem but we’re not interested in good problems-----We’re interested in good solutions!
Fungo
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