FINDING THE RIGHT BALANCE WHEN IDENTIFYING YOUR "WOW FACTOR" SCHOOLS by Catharine Aradi www.fastpitchrecruiting.com
In my work with college bound athletes, I find that 75-85% of the time when I ask a player what schools she’s contacting, the schools she names will be at the top of, or even out of, her---probable---target zone. (I use the term target zone in my book to describe a range of schools that includes both schools where a given player would make a major impact immediately to schools where she’d—at best—have to try to make the team as a walk on.)
No judgment is implied here because I really believe there’s a spot on a team somewhere for most truly dedicated ball players. But I also have twenty-five plus years of guiding families through this process, and one thing tends to ring true. Find your particular “wow factor” schools, and you’ll get recruited. The problem is that the schools many kids (and parents) believe are their wow factor schools simply aren’t.
And therein lies the challenge. You really don’t want to be playing catch up your whole senior year—and by that I mean every time you find a school that you like that might work for you, the coach tells you, “Sorry, we’re done. We like you a lot, but we already found someone.” In other words, had you written and followed up with that coach six or ten months earlier rather than waiting for Florida State or Alabama to call, you might have been the player this coach recruited. They didn’t necessarily find someone better. They just found someone sooner.
I don’t mean to be a party pooper. I’m not trying to burst the bubble of the girl who attended a camp at the #2 ranked D-I college when she was eleven and was told to dream the dream, aim for the stars, etc., and who has spent a lot of years believing this college would recruit her if she only worked hard.
But the fact is that recruiting isn’t fair. Not all players are created equal when it comes to talent, drive/determination, opportunities and luck. Given that—statistically-speaking—75% of all of you will play at D-II, D-III or NAIA colleges (and this number is carved in stone), Arizona or Oklahoma State are reachable goals for only a small percentage of players. If they recruit you, terrific! But if they don’t, and you really do love the game and want to play ball in college, you need to be prepared to consider other options.
That’s where the idea of balance comes in. You need to have a very big target zone to greater increase your chances of hitting your wow factor schools the first time around. So, don’t just write the schools whose names you recognize from ESPN or that happen to be within a hundred mile radius of your home town. Be brave! Be bold! Do some research!!!!
If you write 30 D-I schools, also write 30 D-II schools, 30 D-III schools and 30 NAIA schools. If you only write 10 schools of any kind, you may need the kind of luck that wins the lottery. Even if you have a fairly realistic sense of where you might play, there are just too many good players out there, and many of them are extremely ambitious. They will reach out to 50, 60 or 70 schools.
And yes, I do realize that when you’re talking to college coaches, they will often tell you to narrow your list down, find the school you really want to attend, etc., etc., etc. Good advice except for one thing. They’re only concerned with finding the 3 or 4 or 5 kids they need for next year’s team. And if, by some chance, you’re not in that group of prospects when the dust settles, you may be left with nowhere to play ball because it’s too late.
When you start writing colleges, aim big, but also aim small. Understand the recruiting realities, and make sure that enough coaches know about you—at all different types of college programs—so that you can happily say at the end of your senior year that you ARE one of the lucky athletes who will go on to play collegiate softball!
NOTE: If you belong to that group of players who chooses to listen to the travel ball coach who promises you that he or she will get you that scholarship, that all of his or her players get recruited, etc., all I can say is go buy some lottery tickets too because you just might need that money you're so sure you'll win. Are there players who "...just get seen and snapped up by college coaches?" Sure. But 95% of the time, those kids are either: 1) the topmost elite athletes in the country; 2) players with huge lottery-winning luck; or 3) pretty much happy to go to any school that recruits them. If you fall into one of these three categories, more power too you! Your college search might be fairly easy. If you can't guarantee you'll be one of these players, however, you might want to take the road less traveled...the one that's almost certain to ensure you find a college and a team! (See my book for details!)