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Are You Missing the Boat As A Recruit? Follow This Plan To Win the Football Recruiting Game!

The football recruiting game and all the options facing parents make it hard to decide how to help an athlete succeed as coaches and colleges are being buried under a mountain of data, film, and phone calls to sift through.

Are You Missing the Boat As A Recruit? Follow This Plan To Win the Football Recruiting Game!

We talk about this alot.  The football recruiting game and all the options facing parents make it hard to decide how to help an athlete succeed as coaches and colleges are being buried under a mountain of data, film, and phone calls to sift through.    Combines, showcase camps, Mega-Recruiting services, and promises that you are going to be a big time kid if you only do X and Y.   And I bet many of you are doing some or all of those things.

keenan-williams-b-and-w

Keenan Williams toured as many schools as he could before choosing EWU where he became the youngest player to ever play for the Eagles and he had a chance to play as a true Freshmen at Autzen Stadium in 2015.

 

What if someone told you the truth.  Let me restate that.  The facts.  Because none of that stuff works as billed.

I get up to 15 calls a day sometimes with parents and athletes asking me what is the right path.  And I keep telling the same story and many of you are listening.   For Keenan Williams of tiny Cheney High School “Plan To Win” as I call it has worked even more then his parents and he could have imagined.  And it is a simple Plan as follows:

Dirk’s Plan to Win ~ 7 Steps to Rising Above the Recruiting Noise to Win the Day

  1. Work hard in school so that you can even be considered to go to college. Strive to meet all NCAA requirements for Credits and GPA requirements. No Grades – No Scholarship.
  2. Train Hard and be the best version of you that you can be.  be honest with yourself and seek honest opinions form those that can help you and want nothing from you.
  3. Compete at more then one sport; Coaches prefer this and recent medical studies have shown that you are only going to be able to last so long at any one sport.  The more you train for one sport and over use and over train the same muscle group the more your risking that you will not make it very far in that sport.  Coaches and colleges want a balanced kid who is not an injury risk.
  4. Have great film and contact info available.
  5. Be visible on the web. NEVER post anything controversial on Social Media.  You do and you are ruining your years of struggle and effort.   Anyone should be able to enter your name into Google and have the first few results be what you want them to find.   For example let’s take Keenan Williams of Cheney HS.  Very few people know him or even where his school is.  But enter “Keenan Williams Cheney” into Google and you will find his Premier Profile at NWPR.    There you do not need a membership to find him.  You do not have to log in.  His Cell,  his Hudl Film, his Email, his Coaches  Phone and Email, and his FB and Twitter and more is all there.  What happens when your name is typed in?  Can anyone even find you?  What would a Coach see if he tried to find you?  If they can not reach you they are surely not going to chase you.  Believe that.
  6. Go to Camps mainly only if 1) There are College Coaches there; 2) If there is National Media there. or 3) If it is part of a regular skill development series where you consistently work on your Speed, Agility, Quickness, or Skill.  Your not getting better as a positional athlete at most camps.  So going places where there are no decision makers makes no sense.
  7. MOST IMPORTANTLY – GO OUT AND MEET COACHES AND TOUR SCHOOLS –  IF YOU ARE A LEGITIMATE ATHLETE GO OLD SCHOOL –  GO PRESS THE FLESH- SHAKE HANDS – MEET THE COACHES AND DECISION MAKERS.  GIVE LOVE TO GET LOVE!  You do that and you will win.  While the other recruits are home chasing girls and playing Video Games you will win by separating yourself as a serious recruit willing to invest as much into the schools as you are expecting them to put into you.

 

Lynell and Bryan sent us a nice message after reading some of my writing.  The family had just returned from a week or more on the road touring several colleges and meeting their staffs.  She had this to say.

Dear Dirk,

Our spring break recruiting visits went great, very educational.  We visited Montana State, University of Wyoming, Colorado State, and Boise State University with a short trip to Utah to see family, we traveled over 2,400 miles. Keenan was given great advice on nutrition and strength training and what it takes to become a Division 1 athlete.

At the end of our visit at University of Wyoming Head Coach Craig Bohl sat and spoke with Keenan and said he was a perfect fit for their program. He then invited him to be a part of their Wyoming family offering him a full scholarship.  The Wyoming coaches were all about building personal relationships with the players and I can see why Coach Bohl has so many championship rings.

While on the trip Cheney High School Head Coach Jason Williams called to ask Keenan to call Coach John Graham at Eastern Washington University, and subsequent to that phone call Keenan was offered a scholarship to play for the Eagles. 

This weekend we are visiting the University of Idaho (They have offered Keenan too)  for Junior day and the Spring game. 

We are following your formula, and it works.   Thank you for the great advice and all your help.   

Bryan and Lynell Williams 

Here are some pictures from the Road.  Doesn’t this look like fun?  To have this experience set a plan to contact a few schools who you like or who like you and visit them.  Go to Junior Days and Spring Practices.  Get out this Summer and pad out for 1 day at the Summer camps they almost all host.  And get to know some of them. Call the football offices and find out who recruits your area.   This Old School approach- the Plan to Win- will help you more then you will ever know until you go.   On top of it all your eyes will be open.  The athlete and the parents will all see up close and personal what is out there and what it takes.  I wish you all well and want you to enjoy the same success that Keenan and the many other kids like him that have followed this have had.

I am the Founder of the Northwest Prep Report. For 17 years I have led the way to the best of my ability to promote the best talent from the Pacific NW free of charge. It is my pleasure to continue to serve High School athletes from all over the Pacific NW and beyond. Formerly with Rivals.com my sites have now crossed over 8,000 stories, 7 MILLION Video Views, and 15,000 regular followers. Together with the best football people in the USA we pursue excellence for our NW athletes.

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