By Avi StopperThe opening
whistle blows. The ball gets dropped back to you. Your
first touch isn't so good and the ball slips away. You
scramble to it just before a defender gets there, but
you hit it awkwardly and it bends out of bounds. Uh oh.
You look over at the sideline where the ball
went out and see the coach from Northeast Southwest
University. You gasp in disbelief, "I didn't realize
he was here." Your mind is racing for the rest of
the game: "What did he think of that touch? Did he see
the shot I just took? Why does he only seem to be
watching when I mess up?"
To be successful at a
tournament, you have to ignore the college coaches on
the sideline. Worry about recruiting before the
tournament begins and then focus on playing while you're
there.
Why is it so important to focus on
recruiting before a tournament even begins? Let's do
some quick math. The average tournament has 16 teams in
each age group. There are three age groups from which
college coaches recruit. And there are 15 players on
each team. That means that there are 720 players at the
tournament. For any given player, the odds of randomly
"getting seen" are impossibly low - about .1 percent.
How then to beat the odds? College coaches
typically go to tournaments with a list of players they
want to see play. The list may include five names or it
may have 50. Either way, the college coach is focusing
his attention on a fraction of the total number of
players at the tournament. Simply put:
You need
to get on that list.
Fortunately, it's
not that difficult. Once you've figured out which
colleges you like and started communicating with them,
email the coaches your tournament schedule.
A
week before the tournament begins, send the
coach a quick email saying something along the lines of:
Hi Coach Affleck,
I'm excited
about playing next week at the Southside Invitational.
Are you planning to be there? If so, I would really
appreciate it if you'd take the time to see me play. My
schedule is as follows:
- Saturday, 9 am, Field
9.
- Sunday, 11 am, Field 2.
I'm very
interested in playing for you and I hope that after
seeing me play, you'll be convinced that I'm a good fit
for your team. Thanks so much for your time. I hope to
see you there next week!
Ralph K.
Smithsonia An email like this is
surprisingly simple, but it shows a coach that you're
interested in playing for him and that you're doing
everything you can to get him to see you play. This
makes a big difference to college coaches, who otherwise
have to spend an absurd amount of time chasing players
down to see if they're interested. Simply showing that
you're interested and asking a coach to watch you play
can dramatically advance your cause.
OK, so
you've emailed coaches your schedule and at long last
you get to the tournament. You're pumped and ready to
play, if a bit nervous. Inevitably you look over to the
sideline and there he is, sitting in his lawn chair, pen
and paper in hand, school logo emblazoned on his shirt.
The best thing you can do is play the
way you normally play. Don't start dribbling all over
the place in an effort to impress him. Most importantly,
don't dwell on your mistakes -- college coaches know
that everyone makes them. In fact, the way you respond
to mistakes is something that coaches often watch. Most
importantly, enjoy the game and embrace the opportunity
to play. If you do that, you'll be able to sideline your
concerns about recruiting.
(Avi
Stopper is the founder of
CaptainU.com, a college recruiting software company,
and author of “Make the Team: The Art of
Self-Recruiting.”
