In order to commit to play collegiate sports you must first establish a commitment to the sport itself. Whether that means spending your free time playing wall ball, practicing your ball-handling, or running multiple miles to stay in shape for the upcoming season. Playing high school sports is a time commitment and trying to get recruited to play at the collegiate level is an even bigger commitment. You as an athlete must spend time planning out your phone conversations with coaches, introduction emails, check-in emails, etc. and that doesn’t come until after you’ve established your target schools.

Establishing your target schools is relatively simple, you start by creating three list your academic and your athletic and your target list:

• Academics List
  • Create a list of your potential majors.
    • You don’t have to know what you want to be right now, but you do need to have a general idea so you can narrow down your academic matches.
    • Know your limits.
      • Ivy League schools are not for everyone.
• Athletics List
  • Create a list of schools that are an athletic fit for you.
    • Don’t become set on going to a school in a certain division.
    • There are three NCAA divisions, NAIA, and Junior Colleges (JuCo)
      • The main differences between Division 1 (D1), Division 2 (D2) and Division 3 (D3) is funding.
      • NAIA schools are extremely similar to NCAA schools they mainly differ in athletic level and the emphasis placed on the equality between athletics and academic

• Target List
  • Record the schools that occur on both your academic and athletic list.
  • Assess this list and select your target schools
  • Attempt to make contact and tour the campuses
    • This includes attending camps, clinics, and open houses at schools on your target list.

Remember that making contact with your target schools is your job. Reliance on your parents to go through the recruiting process for you is not an efficient way to get to know yourself or your potential college coach.