article Getting players names out there??

My name is Todd Adler, I'm the head coach at Logan County High School. I'm in my 2nd year being head coach and I'm looking for some advice. Everyone knows the struggle our program has went through over the past years. We are working really hard to try and change that this year!!

My question is what is best way to get kids names out there to college coaches? No matter the size of the college, what's the best way to get them to notice a kid? I know of course the kid has to be a player, have size, speed, athletic, etc. Just seems like it's always been a struggle for Logan County kids to get noticed or get a opportunity to go play at next level. That's something I want to do as a coach, is get our kids that want to and have the ability to go play at next level the best opportunity to do so.

Yes I know playing deep in playoffs and state championship helps. I know attending camps at certain schools help out the process. I have created highlight films for the player that may have potential to play at the next level and emailed them to colleges, but I'm sure they get a million of them a day so getting the coach to read it and look at film is probably pretty hard to do sometimes and that's understandable.So I'm wondering if anyone, coaches, parents, or even fans could let me know anything else to do. Maybe it's something they do or have done in the past. I just want to coach our kids, teach them about life in general, and give the best opportunity to give them a chance to go to college and play the game they love if they are capable.

If you know of any camps, ideas, or ways to make this a process better please share. I'm young, still learning the process and recruiting has changed in a big way over the years. Being from small Ole Logan County don't help matters but I want to work my tail off to try and change this if I can.

Thanks,

Coach Adler

Don't have any ideas for you, but this is very admirable coach. Nice job!

For a new young coach.

I think the best place to start is Network, Network, Network. Then send film via hudl to a college friend that will tell you straight if the kid is a D1-D2-D3 etc. The best thing to do with this is to keep sending film to the right people who are going to see the film. Call and make phone contact with these contacts. Stay up.

Once you do this you will start a network and trust with these coaches.

Always be honest about a player with a coach. Don't lie about a kid under any circumstances.

Send their Hudl film to all kinds of schools and tell them to go to combines and camps.

I think you have to start reaching out to all of your local colleges and building relationships with the college coaches. The other ideas are solid as well as far as sending out films, etc. But you have to be the one to try and get these guys to come into your building and speak to the kids. The kids need to go online and fill out the recruiting questionnaires on the schools athletic pages that interest them, and keep sending film to every school in the area and other schools the kids are interested in. That is a good place to start.

For a new young coach.

 

I think the best place to start is Network, Network, Network. Then send film via hudl to a college friend that will tell you straight if the kid is a D1-D2-D3 etc. The best thing to do with this is to keep sending film to the right people who are going to see the film. Call and make phone contact with these contacts. Stay up.

 

Once you do this you will start a network and trust with these coaches.

 

Always be honest about a player with a coach. Don't lie about a kid under any circumstances.

I think this is great advice. And the part about not trying to "oversell" a player. You may be successful with that one player, but if her doesn't pan out you will lose that trust and opportunity for future players.

I do coach high school and get to talk to college coaches and that's my number one rule is to make sure they have a clear understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of a player. Then they can make their own decision.

I think the other thing is to educate yourself with what a player looks like at each level of college (by position). If you don't no what is important to each level of the college ranks, you may oversell by mistake. As you network, really ask a lot of questions of the college recruiters to understand what they look for. Then when you have a kid come along with some abilities that may be college worthy, you at least have a starting point on where the kid may fall.

I think you have to start reaching out to all of your local colleges and building relationships with the college coaches. The other ideas are solid as well as far as sending out films, etc. But you have to be the one to try and get these guys to come into your building and speak to the kids. The kids need to go online and fill out the recruiting questionnaires on the schools athletic pages that interest them, and keep sending film to every school in the area and other schools the kids are interested in. That is a good place to start.

I agree with this too. The kids need to do a lot of the leg work too. It's great to assist, but they have to want it and earn it too. I tell my kids, I will match the effort you put in. If you don't care, I don't care. Show me you care!

The Rivals and Nike camps have became a necessary evil.

There are a lot of these imposter camps but the two that College Coaches still care about are Rivals and Nike. Unfortunately, and though they may deny it, college recruiters still depend on these camps heavily to evaluate talent and recruiting rankings do matter.

The other thing that is important is getting kids involved early. FBU (Football University) has had a lot of clout in terms of starting the recruiting process at the Junior High Level. Once again, there are a lot of money rackets out there though.

As mentioned, the most important thing I would say is to make sure players have highlight videos put together on Hudl and to be proactive in engaging the Coaches you have some ability to form a bond with. You may not have the ability to have a Coach from UK or Louisville stop in, but engage Murray State, Austin Peay, and the local NAIA and lower Division Coaches.

Support their programs in response! Attend Junior Day events and take unofficial visits on gamedays (having lots of kids on the sidelines makes them look better and gives credibility to higher profile recruits they are targeting), and engage them on what measures you can take to assure eligibility and a smooth transition if they were to offer a kid.

The other thing I would stress is have your kids active, but respectful on social media. Make sure they are never bad mouthing a school or coach and have them actively send their highlight videos to positional coaches at schools and following them on Facebook or Twitter.

And I keep coming up with stuff....also be honest with kids and parents. If you educate yourself on what it takes at each level, make sure to keep the player grounded on expectations. Some parents think Johnny is the next best thing and they just aren't living in reality. Sometimes I see kids chase the D1 dream and miss out on D2 or NAIA because of it. There is still very good money at those levels, especially if you are a borderline D1 player.

Austin Dotson and Cole Bentley of Belfry are an example of how the little things make a big difference.

Cole Bentley had over 30+ Offers with numerous Power 5 schools. He was a 4* recruit on some services and played in a reputable "All-American" game. Cole was active on the camp scene since he was in Middle School, very active on Social Media, and wore out the Rivals Camp scene.

Dotson did ONE Nike Camp. He didn't even have a highlight video until the end of his Junior Season when the Belfry coaches made one for him. He doesn't even have a twitter account.

IMHO, had Austin Dotson did what Cole had done he would be a 4* Recruit with offers to multiple SEC programs. Dotson got noticed because of Belfry's coaches and the fact he dominated at the State Finals his Junior season. Not every kid has that luxury though.

I am not saying every kid needs to spend the money that Cole's family did to earn a scholarship offer, but each one of those camps helped get him noticed and once coaches started following him and saw the offers coming in it created a case of forcing their hand with an offer.

Austin Dotson and Cole Bentley of Belfry are an example of how the little things make a big difference.

 

Cole Bentley had over 30+ Offers with numerous Power 5 schools. He was a 4* recruit on some services and played in a reputable "All-American" game. Cole was active on the camp scene since he was in Middle School, very active on Social Media, and wore out the Rivals Camp scene.

 

Dotson did ONE Nike Camp. He didn't even have a highlight video until the end of his Junior Season when the Belfry coaches made one for him. He doesn't even have a twitter account.

 

IMHO, had Austin Dotson did what Cole had done he would be a 4* Recruit with offers to multiple SEC programs. Dotson got noticed because of Belfry's coaches and the fact he dominated at the State Finals his Junior season. Not every kid has that luxury though.

 

I am not saying every kid needs to spend the money that Cole's family did to earn a scholarship offer, but each one of those camps helped get him noticed and once coaches started following him and saw the offers coming in it created a case of forcing their hand with an offer.

Agree. If your a top talent, they will usually find you. But the easier you make it for them to find you, the easier the process will be and more likely to end up at your choice of school than maybe being in a situation where you may "need" to take the offer.

Agree. If your a top talent, they will usually find you. But the easier you make it for them to find you, the easier the process will be and more likely to end up at your choice of school than maybe being in a situation where you may "need" to take the offer.

I don't completely agree with the first sentence. My example is Dante Hendrix out of Cooper. I do not care what anyone says, this young man could play DB at a major D1 level (Power 6 Conference, not necessarily Alabama or Clemson) but because Cooper did not get the exposure, not a ton of big schools went after him. He had some MAC interest, but I think Indiana State got a steal with this kid and will be a contributor his RS Freshman year there because of it. Had Cooper made it to the State Finals, I think that he may have gotten more looks. I guess what I am trying to say is, if you are a top talent you get noticed, but you don't get the serious looks unless you play on a really good team that gets a lot of exposure, and Cooper was just a little above average this year.

My advice is similar to what a post stated at the beginning, network. The longer you're in "the game" the more coaches you meet from various high school and college ranks. Send a kids film to the coach and allow the coach to evaluate the player, and hopefully the longer you coach the more coaches you meet the more film you can send out.

Also, making solid connections with high school coaches in your area could help you as well, because some of the established high school coaches can vouch for you and your players to colleges that come through their school.

Being at LC I can imagine is tough for recruiting, but keep trying to connect with coaches and at some point a player will come through your system that will draw the attention of college coaches and the process will begin.

I don't completely agree with the first sentence. My example is Dante Hendrix out of Cooper. I do not care what anyone says, this young man could play DB at a major D1 level (Power 6 Conference, not necessarily Alabama or Clemson) but because Cooper did not get the exposure, not a ton of big schools went after him. He had some MAC interest, but I think Indiana State got a steal with this kid and will be a contributor his RS Freshman year there because of it. Had Cooper made it to the State Finals, I think that he may have gotten more looks. I guess what I am trying to say is, if you are a top talent you get noticed, but you don't get the serious looks unless you play on a really good team that gets a lot of exposure, and Cooper was just a little above average this year.

I will beg to differ just slightly here. My son played at Highlands and kicked in State Championship games as a frosh, sophomore and junior. During his sophomore season, one game was shown on ESPN and there were several others where the competition faced was very strong. Due to some circumstances, we were not able to get him on the camp circuit and get his NAME out there. Yes there was contact from several schools from D1 all the way down to D3, but not many put anything out there on the table. There was plenty of exposure by playing at Highlands in addition to playing 14 or 15 games in each season. That did not help as much as doing the camp circuit would have IMO.

Coach, do your kids a favor and tell them that if their grades and test scores are not up to snuff, they will not get the looks they want.