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skip navigationCollege coaches attend combines, tournaments, sports camps and showcases to evaluate student-athletes in person. Knowing what coaches are looking for at these events can help you stand out.
A recruiting event can host hundreds or even thousands of prospects in one place. Coaches usually arrive with a pre-planned schedule, ready to check out athletes who have already contacted them ahead of time. You’ll make the most of your experience if you spend time before the event researching coaches’ contact information and sending them an email introducing yourself. You can also try placing a call or even sending a DM or tweet. Either way, reaching out ahead of time is a smart move.
Read more: How to Email College Coaches
During peak recruiting season, college coaches can spend eight-hour days scouting and watching games, sometimes several days or weekends in a row. That’s why recruiting events are so appealing: they can observe many student-athletes in one place.
On the flipside, it’s difficult for athletes to stand out in this kind of crowded environment. Always remember that you can leave an impression both on and off the field. Maintaining a positive attitude, especially during bad plays, will tell coaches that you have leadership potential.
Game-time performance is obviously important to coaches, but they’re also trying to find student-athletes who are coachable. This means they’re not only looking at the game, but they’re also observing the sidelines to see how athletes interact with their teammates, opponents, coaching staff and even parents. Sure, you may be the best athlete on your high school team, but there’s a good chance that won’t be the case on a college squad. Coaches are looking for the student-athletes who listen and are engaged, exhibit a passion for their sport and have a positive influence on their team.
Read more: What Your Body Language Tells College Coaches
While every coach has a shortlist of top prospects that they hope to recruit, getting every name on that list to commit to their team is a longshot. Coaches need to fill a full roster, which means they need to discover student-athletes who previously were not on their radar.
Every team has its own unique culture and coaches are on the lookout for athletes who can thrive in that specific culture. That’s why it’s important to play the right way, support your teammates, and exhibit maturity at recruiting events. Even though coaches are busy scouting specific players, they always have one eye open, looking for athletes who can make an impact.
Read more: The Ins and Outs of Camps, Combines and Other Events
NCSA is the world's largest and most successful collegiate athletic recruiting network. A wholly owned subsidiary of Reigning Champs LLC, NCSA's 700 teammates leverage exclusive data, proprietary matching algorithms and personal relationships built over nearly two decades as the industry leader to connect tens of thousands of college-bound student-athletes to more than 35,000 college coaches nationwide across 34 sports every year.