If you’re an aspiring athlete in high school it’s probably your dream to get a university or college scholarship through athletic recruiting.  The process involves your talent and ability to draw the attention of athletic directors and coaches from various colleges and universities from all over the country.  Your biggest goal is to probably be given a scholarship to a division 1 school that is well known for the sport that you excel at.

The Selection Process

If you go to a high school well known for its athletic department and sports program whether in football, baseball, tennis, swimming, track and field, softball, basketball, wrestling, volleyball or soccer there are probably University scouts already reviewing your school’s performance and already know of its records.  Athletic director’s jobs are to find outstanding players with promising athletic credentials to recruit to their respective college or university.  Big 3A and 4A high schools well know don’t usually have an issue getting their athletes recruited by major universities as they are well exposed.  Small high schools of the 1A and 2A high school athletes with real talent are often overlooked due to the lack luster performance of the athletic department in their high school.  For student athletes in these smaller schools to be eligible for athletic recruiting it is necessary for them to expose their skills to talent scouts, coaches and athletic directors of colleges if they want to be successful.

How to get Picked

The summer is often a time for college and university coaches to host clinics that teach players useful skills and drills that will hone the skills of athletes.  If you’re a football player this probably goes along in conjunction with your coach and will occur during the two-a-days practice regime.  For incoming high school seniors at the varsity level this is often accompanied with some testing to see their athletic abilities including number of 185lbs bench press repetitions they can complete, agility testing, and the 40 yard dash.  This gives university scouts, coaches and athletic directors necessary baseline data as to who may be probable candidates for athletic recruiting.  Along with this they may visit regular practices and games or review footage of games your team is involved with to look for blue chip and yellow chip candidates.  Colleges are only allotted a certain number of free slots for recruitment each year and as such college coaches will have stringent picking criteria and will only select the best candidates for athletic recruiting.