Important note: this checklist is assuming you have reviewed and completed our BRX Freshman, Sophomore, and Junior Year Checklists and Guides. If you are a senior, are just beginning the recruiting process, and haven’t gone through these documents, please read through them first to make sure you haven’t missed any critical steps. If you have missed some, simply add them to the list below.
Step 1: Get another evaluation of your skills and abilities
Step 2: Research how your skills compare to athletes your age who are committing to schools
Get a senior year evaluation from any of the following sources:
Now that you’re a senior, it will never be easier to figure out where you should be spending your time with respect to reaching out to college coaches.
While a small percentage of college-bound athletes commit during their freshman and sophomore years of high school, the vast majority decide during their senior years – so don’t panic if you’re a senior and haven’t found the right fit yet!
Now that you’re a senior, take a look around at your peers who are committing to college programs? How do your current measurables, stats, and ability level compare?
Your answer will give you the direction you need for further refining your college coach outreach.
Step 1: Review your evaluation feedback
Step 2: Update your target, stretch, and fall-back schools
Step 3: Take a closer look at your fall-back schools if you aren’t getting much interest
Step 4: Stay in contact with schools every 2-4 weeks
Make sure you take your evaluation feedback seriously and update the schools on your list accordingly:
If you aren’t getting the interest you initially anticipated when you started the process, now is the time to start the full court press, take a closer look at your fall-back schools, or consider the idea of attending a junior college.
Each time a season and/or school year ends, send one-page updates to coaches you have been in contact with to keep them posted on your progress and athletic development.
Make sure you log all communication – both outgoing and incoming – in your BRX Recruiting Chart so you know who you have contacted, who you need to follow up with, etc.
It bears repeating: the vast majority of coaches you send emails to are extremely busy and will not respond. Remember this: all it takes is one. Stay persistent!
Step 1: Review your social media archives
Step 2: Delete any inappropriate material – even if it’s borderline inappropriate
Not much to say about this besides the obvious: review all of your social media content since you created your accounts and delete anything that could pass as even borderline harmful or inappropriate
Step 1: If uncommitted, make sure your highlight and/or skills video is up-to-date
Step 2: Notify all coaches on your list of the update to your skills video and videos folder
If you’re still uncommitted, make sure that your main skills and/or highlight video is up-to-date and has your most impressive highlights first. You only have seconds to catch the coach’s eye.
If you had a skills video created your junior year and have made considerable progress since, make sure you have a new video created that reflects your current abilities.
Coaches love seeing progress over time in their recruits; this shows that the athlete they are recruiting is on an upward trajectory. Assuming you’ve completed both an initial assessment and reassessment at BRX, giving the coaches you’re communicating with access to your BRX Dropbox Videos folder is a great way to show this upward trajectory.
Lastly, make sure your folder is organized and viewer-friendly. If there are certain videos that should be deleted, makes sure you reach out to the BRX staff to have it completed.
Step 1: Prioritize college camps that will get you in front of the coaches on your list
Step 2: Reach out to college coaches prior to attending to introduce yourself
Step 3: Follow up soon afterwards to thank them
If you read our recruiting resource College Coach Q&A, it’s pretty clear that attending the camp of a school you’re interested in is one of the best – if not best – way to get a coach’s attention. Here is Yale Lacrosse coach Andy Shay on the importance of camps (which they call “prospect day”):
“The best way to be seen by our coaching staff is to come to our prospect day [camp]. Really, it’s the only way that you can guarantee that we’ll see you. Unfortunately, there will be 100 kids at our prospect day and a large portion of those players aren’t going to end up here. That’s just the reality of recruiting. But, if you do show up to our prospect day, it’s a guarantee that we will see you and be able to evaluate your chances of playing at Yale.”
Now that you’re a senior and it’s go-time, prioritize camps that will get you in front of the coaches on your list.
A friendly reminder: reach out to the coaches who will be in attendance before the camp begins to send a short, personalized message that shows your interest in their program. Send a short thank-you email soon after the camp concludes to express your interest in playing for their program.
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Step 1: Schedule unofficial and/or official visits to schools you’re interested in
Step 2: Reach out to coaches beforehand and follow up soon after with a thank you
What’s the difference between “unofficial visits” and “official visits?”
With that said, official visits are sometimes few and far between. Due to the expensive nature of an all-costs-paid-for weekend and regular athletic department budget cuts, it’s usually only the Division 1 schools with the largest budgets that can offer these sorts of visits. Don’t get discouraged if you aren’t offered an official visit – it does not usually mean a coach isn’t interested in you if you are not offered an official visit.
If an official visit is in the cards for you, the coach recruiting you will extend the invitation and tell you everything you need to know about setting it up.
Unofficial visits can be facilitated by one of the coaches or by yourself. If it’s being facilitated by the coach, they’ll likely bring up scheduling an unofficial visit at some point during your recruitment if they’ve been actively pursuing you for a considerable amount of time.
If you are not being actively recruited yet, don’t panic! It’s totally fine to schedule an unofficial visit yourself to tour the campus and facilities. Reach out to the campus admissions department to get all of your questions answered about scheduling an unofficial visit
Important note: even if you orchestrated the unofficial visit yourself, still send the coach a short email a week or two before your visit to notify them that you’ll be visiting the campus; you might be surprised by how many coaches will reply once you have shown the initiative to schedule the visit yourself.
Step 1: Re-take the exam if you want to get a better score Step 2: Send your scores to the NCAA eligibility center with code 9999 or NAIA with code 9876
If you are unsatisfied with your first score or simply want to take it again to see if you can improve, you can always re-take the ACT or PSAT.
Once you finish taking the exam, be sure to send your scores to the NCAA eligibility center with code 9999 and/or the NAIA eligibility center with code 9876.
Step 1: Look through scholarship resource sites to uncover potential financial opportunities
Step 2: Make sure all of your necessary financial aid forms have been submitted
Like you did your junior year, take another look at sites like studentscholarshipsearch.com and bigfuture.collegeboard.org/scholarship-search to look for potential financial aid opportunities.
Taking the time to look into the opportunities mentioned above will make your senior-year meeting with your school guidance counselor much more efficient.
Step 1: Confirm you’ve satisfied all academic requirements and eligibility center requirements
Step 2: Make sure your transcripts have/will be sent in
Step 3: Ask any last-minute questions on financial aid
For your final meeting with your school guidance counselor, make sure of the following
Step 1: Personally call every coach who is actively recruiting you to thank them for their time
Step 2: Make your school selection
Step 3: Celebrate!
For some of you, this step will have happened prior to your senior year. Regardless, take this part seriously. You never want to close a door and high integrity is a must. Many coaches spend countless hours recruiting prospective athletes that comes at the expense of time with their families. Make sure you sincerely thank them for their time and effort in recruiting you BEFORE you make your public announcement.
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