College Recruitment From the Parent Point of View

Lynda D. Mallory
Sep 8, 2018 · 5 min read

I could almost swear I just woke up and I was walking my son to his first day of Kindergarten. Now, here we are and he’s a 6'6" Senior in high school. The last year has been a whirlwind with coaches, colleges, and recruitment to play basketball in college. My son was a starter for the Varsity basketball team at his high school last season and who knew that this would be nothing like I’ve ever experienced before.

For my son it was fine as he would show up to games and practices each day with me making sure he was there on time while looking after my 10-year-old daughter. For me it was work, more work, schedules on schedules, multiple calendars, and of course making sure both kids had what they needed on a regular basis and then some to account for days when things came up.

During the last basketball season, the 2017–18 school year, our team lost a kid who was taller than my son…way taller as in 6'10". This left my son as the tallest kid on the court and compared to the teams we were playing, we looked tiny. We finished the season 24–11 and made the Washington Post ranking as high as #5 in our league. Awesome!…I thought and there was work to do because then people were watching. We really gelled as a team and I formed some great relationships with the parents and became close to the kids and parents of the kids graduating. I was approached by the coaches to plan and coordinate the Senior Night for the Basketball program and this was a view into what we had to look forward to for this year.

Late in 2017, college coaches began calling, texting, and reaching out to the head coach of our basketball program about my son. I had no idea — another parent called me while I was out of town for my first vacation in 6 years. With the vacation already planned and the beginning of the season starting, I did feel a little guilty about heading off to Miami for some fun in the sun. Post trip, I am so glad I did as it was much needed since the next few months into 2018 would be a whirlwind of 35 games, 40+ practices, travel and planning like you wouldn’t believe.

While in Miami, one of the parents reached out to me and said: “Hey! You need to get your son on Prep Hoops!” I said: “What’s that??” And the parent explained this is a website for college basketball recruiting and you can update Prep Hoops with video highlights, information, and athletic accomplishments. This was the start of the college recruiting process…

From the parent perspective and from my perspective at least, I will share a few tips that I’ve shared with other parents, coaches, and those who have kids who are athletes and working to pursue their athletic dreams beyond high school. The most important thing to remember is the passion and the drive needs to come from the kid athlete and they have to want it and we as parents cannot want this life for them.

So here is my list of best practices and feel free to use this as a guide and be prepared for changes and bumps along the way and know that it is and will be all worth it:

  1. Be sure to talk to your child about what his/her interests are beyond the sport. What do they want to do in life? What will they major in during their college years?
  2. Good grades are a must and honor roll is even better. Most college coaches want to see the dedication beyond the court or field.
  3. Maintain good communication with the coaches and never be late to a game or practice unless it is an emergency and be sure to communicate with coaches and team members where required.
  4. Talk to your child about what to say when they are contacted by a college coach or recruiter. Their interaction with college coaches and the first impression speaks to their character and relationship building.
  5. By the Junior year in high school (and earlier sometimes), connect with organizations such as Prep Hoops for basketball and create an online profile. Look at this as an investment in your child’s future. Note: Connect with the organization associated with the sport your child is involved in. Prep Hoops is for basketball.
  6. Register your child for the PSAT/SAT as soon as possible and review the results and focus on areas of improvement. There are many online resources to help with the PSAT/SAT process. See www.collegeboard.com for more details.
  7. Create a spreadsheet of colleges that recruit for your child’s sport of choice. For example, Big 10, Big South, Northwest for basketball. Add a tab to keep track of college interests, college scholarship opportunities and applications. Add a legend with colors to better see the progress being made during the recruitment and application process.
  8. Visit https://apply.commonapp.org to get your college choices saved in the common application. This is a great tool and you can add up to 20 colleges in the common application so your child does not have to type and re-type essays for multiple schools. Some colleges do not participate in the common application and for those colleges be sure to save copies of what is written so the information can be used elsewhere. In some cases, you may be able to get the application fee waived and some colleges do not charge an application fee.
  9. Stay in contact with the high school guidance counselor and teachers who will write recommendations. It is important to be in good standing academically and especially when playing sports. High school transcripts, recommendation letters, and other information required from your child’s high school will come from the Guidance Office. Be their BFF!
  10. Lastly, you may have a lot of coaches calling, texting you or your child. This is ok and some you may not get back to each and everyone one of them. At a minimum, keep the lines of communication open for the colleges that show the most interest and ones that you and your child are most interested in since you never know how this process will work out.

That’s all I have for now on this topic and if you want to read more about this journey, I am happy to share additional insider tips. Send me your comments or questions to: lynda@alifewithaviewblog.com. Remember, I’m just a mom, a parent walking (crawling) through this process and I am happy to share this journey with you.

Footnote: The content and tips above are from my perspective and do not represent the actions or opinions of the organizations and websites sited in this post.

Lynda D. Mallory

Written by

A writer, blogger, foodie and lover of all things positive.

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