The recruiting process is a confusing time for parents, exciting for players & arduous for collegiate coaches.
As head coaches we can help the process along by being detailed and organized. Today I will detail how we try to provide college coaches with an organized and efficient means of collecting data on our guys.
Hudl has really gone a long way toward streamlining the process with film and highlights. We can now send and receive film with the push of a button. In addition, setting your Hudl account to the public allows recruiters to view film on your guys whenever they have time. It is not necessary for you to share or send it to them. However, Hudl relies on your players to fill out their profile. I do not rely on our players to fill out demographic information accurately. What we do is create a spread sheet. Our spread sheet is done in Excel. Our packet consists of a cover page with head coach contact info, a player info page with all contact info, an achievements page & finally a transcript page.
When a college coach comes to recruit our high school, they know they will receive their packet almost immediately upon arrival. Most times, especially if they notify me ahead of time of the day they plan to visit, I will email the packet to them the day before for them to review. This process helps streamline the visit. They come in ahead of time with all athletic & academic info so they can tell me who they plan to target in recruiting. This allows me to pull those students from class ahead of time, have them waiting in our conference room, and make the recruiting visit an efficient one for the coach. There is no waiting around nor visits to guidance for transcripts.
This makes coming to Meade HS a pleasant experience for the coach in knowing that they can spend their entire time recruiting and not sit around waiting. In addition, it allows them to know that when they come to Meade, they will always be on schedule.
In the next article I will detail how we make the process a simple one for our parents.