Finally you have your own College Recruitment Movie. You have watched it several times and you are excited to present your athletic skills to the college world.
How can you show your skills to the college world?
There are few ways definitely. We will now explore an option that UniHighlights Team believes is the best possible option out there. We call it the CEEPS formula. It presents: Communication, Email, Excel, Proactive, and Social Media.
Let's go ahead and take a look at CEEPS formula.
C - Communication
First step is to find all the emails of coaches in the collegiate world. Then, start emailing them right away.
How can you find their emails?
Find emails on college websites or UniHighlights Team will provide you with a list of all emails of the coaches in Division I, Division II, Division III, and NAIA schools. Just tell us your sport and gender. Please send us an email and we will reply with the attached PDF file of all the emails of the coaches in your sport.
If your Recruitment Movie was produced by UniHighlights, you will get this PDF file as soon as you receive your Recruitment Movie. Once you have coaches’ emails, start sending emails. Immediately.
You must start a communication with coaches. Please do not be shy. Know what you want, be decisive, and be polite. That is all. He can be a coach of NCAA Division I champion, and if you are interested in playing for that team, send an email to that coach.
Coaches always want to bring good players. You really never know what a coach's response can be. Start testing coaches’ responses.
Yes, start sending as many emails as you can. Even if you are not particularly interested in some schools, start sending them emails. It is important to get in the world of communication with coaches.
E - Email
Before sending emails to coaches, make sure you have a concise description of yourself. This email should consist of three paragraphs.
First paragraph is general information about yourself.
Who you are? Where are you from? Which school do you go to? Inform them about your SAT or ACT scores (if you have one). If you do not have the scores, inform them when you will probably have them.
Tell them about your GPA. How long have you been playing (sport)? Why are you sending this email? (Mention soccer scholarship and to be part of the team).
Second paragraph is your sports/athletic description.
You will put information on your strengths. Which position do you play? What attributes would you bring to the team? Are you fast, strong, and good with a ball? What are your two biggest strengths? Why do you think you will be valuable to the team? Are you a good teammate?
The third paragraph is your recruitment movie
As soon this second paragraph ends, put a Youtube link of your Recruitment Movie. Below the Youtube link, write “Looking forward talking to you” and “Thank you” to a future coach. Write “Kind Regards” and add your name below. Send an email, and you are set.
Example:
Recruitment Movie YouTube Link: _________________________________
Looking forward talking to you,
Thank you,
Kind Regards,
Your Name
E - Excel
If you have Microsoft, go to Excel. If you have a Google Account, go to Excel Sheet. There, start putting different kinds of information. For example, first coaches name and email, name of the school, place of the school, division, conference, etc. Three more important cells in Excel Sheet are cells “Email Sent”, “Reply Received”, and “No Response”.
As soon as you send an email, you can put a date on which date you sent an email to a particular coach. When you send an email, make sure your cell “No Response” is marked too.
This way, once you get a response, you may unmark this cell and now you keep track of who responded to you and who has not. Excel Sheet will serve you to stay organized and track your communication process with coaches. In the end, you may organize your Excel sheet however you prefer. Applying creativity is always a bonus.
P - Proactive
Please do not wait on the graduation date to start talking to coaches. As soon as you are junior in that September month, start sending emails to coaches. If you have a professional Recruitment Movie, you are good to go.
Create your own YouTube Channel and YouTube playlist. Technology is super advanced today. Use it to your advantage. Some coaches would like to give you a full athletic scholarship, but they need to see more of your games.
On your Youtube Channel, it does not have to be only your Recruitment Movie. You had really good private sessions, put them online. You can put as many games as you played on that channel. You might have played a State finals, put that game on there.
Even better, create a video where there are only your touches during the game.
You can create player highlights on your own. Or if you want, UniHighlights or some other editing houses can help you have a sharp YouTube Channel.
If you have schools close to you that you are strongly interested in attending, go to their games or practices. If those schools are far away, get their schedule and try to watch their games online. Getting to know the team will give you a slight picture of what collegiate competition is all about.
S - Social Media
If you have accounts on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, be careful what you post. We cannot emphasize this enough. Many athletes have not gone to their favorite schools because of one or two wrong posts on their social media accounts. Do not let this happen to you.
Talk to your parents how you can portray the best version of yourself on social media. It sounds like cliche, but it does work. In simple words, coaches would like to see you as a responsible, dependable, and friendly. As well, try to post a good amount of posts of the sport you are playing. It will serve as proof that you love the sport you are playing.
So, this would be our option CEEPS. There are few other options out there, but UniHighlights Team believes that this is the best and the most affordable option. You are able to do all recruiting processes by yourself. You need a little bit of effort, patience, and belief that dreams are possible.
Reading is over. Now go apply CEEPS in your high school student life!