Subscribe!

May 2005 – Athlete’s Advisor Newsletter
Resources for College Bound Student Athletes and those that support them!

in this edition...  

New Articles - includes nutrition, financial aid and a few baseball focused.
 In the News - NCAA Violations and facility expansions  
Facilities- consider a schools upgrade to turf fields a positive.
Sports Information Director - students promote school's athletes and teams.
NCAA Rules: Football and Basketball Contact Rules
School Visits - official and unofficial.
IT Band Syndrome- a few ways to fight this problem for active athletes.
.Links
Recommended Services

Don't forget to forward this to a friend!  Did you miss last months newsletter?
 

Recent and Upcoming Appearances by Athlete's Advisor -
Speaking at the 2005 MASCA (Mass Association of School Counselors  Association) in Hyannis MA was a great experience for myself and Dave Galehouse of VarsityEdge. We had 35 very eager guidance counselors looking for information that  would enable them to go back to their respective schools and help their students.  We heard many say the wish student athletes would keep them more in the loop with their college ideas as many times they come to the guidance office very late in the process with broken dreams. Dave wrote up a summary of the questions we answered. Check it out.

New Articles.

Audio Interviews: 
Boutin on Baseball - The most recent version of this hitting focused feature.GO

 
Text Articles:  

NextStep Magazine Resource Center Featured Article:  
Next Step has a great college prep web site and magazine and we are fortunate enough to provide a featured article each month from them. This month we have an article called Reading (and Reacting to) Your Financial Aid Package. GO
  
Dave Weaver: New England Catching Camps just launched his "Coaching Catchers" DVD. A must have for anyone coaching youth baseball or softball. He breaks things down into 4 sections and give you a ton of content in this 2 hour 40 minute instructional video. Read more about Dave.

Nutrition: Salt and the Athlete - a good one for summer. GO

Coaches Advisor on CompuSportsMedia.com -  I write a monthly newsletter for this outstanding company specializing in Coaching Software.  An archive of all past issues is listed for your convenience. GO

In The News...
Stony Brook (NY, Division I)  put on NCAA probation for 3 years due to lack of Institutional Control. As part of the penalty, 12.5 scholarships in 10 sports are being taken over the next two years. It is interesting to see how thing are divided up. There was no mention of why they did it this way, but you can see that Baseball and Lacrosse for example,. and Basketball were hit pretty hard relative to a sport like football.  Those two equivalency sports might only have 3 or 4 total scholarships to give. Football has 65.

MacMurry (D-III, IL) was hit with a two year ban on outside competition for the men's tennis program...Benedict College (D-II, SC) was placed on 3 years probation for "lack of institutional control" that led to many violations...you can always read more about these t things in the NCAA News Online

Northern Illinois is spending $9.5 million on an Academic and Athletic Performance Center...Whittenburg University (OH) is dropping $2 million on athletic facility upgrades...

Facilities - I like talking about sports facilities as I know a lot of kids put some emphasis on that when they choose a school.  I also think that the new Synthetic fields are great for sports.  Field Turf is the largest company in this sector and they have a section on their web site where you can look-up who has installed a new field and who is planning on it. The lists are for football, baseball, rugby and soccer.  Usually other sports share these fields in other seasons so there is a good chance lacrosse or field hockey will use them as well.

It is a good place to see who is doing some upgrades. For example, I learned that Springfield College (MA) is adding soccer and football fields this month as are Robert Morris (PA), Fordham (NY) , Oregon State, Penn State, Anderson University (IN), Union (NY), Northwestern (IL) and Drake University (IA).    If I was a football or soccer player considering one of theses as a college choice, I would add that that as a positive check mark on my pro and con list.

You spend so much time on the practice fields that you'd like a quality facility which is playable at all times (most all) and can possibly reduce injuries.

Student Sports Information Director Success Story
More than once I have suggested that high schools create student Sports Information Director positions to help maintain up to date web sites for their sports teams and local community and to give the SID's useful experience and educational opportunities.  Well, glad to see some people are doing it.  Perhaps others will follow-suit.

Honestly, in this day and age, it amazes me when I go looking for information on a high school web site and it is dated, incomplete or totally lacking. There is too much talent in your schools and technology available to let your school sports web site slide. A well maintained and up to date web site will do a lot of the entire school community. Just using it is as timely communication tool is reason enough.

Read article from The Examiner in Washington DC.
 

Recruiting Rules– Telephone Calls and Contacts.
When will coaches start calling? Can I call a coach? How many times can they call me?  You’ve heard them all before, but do you really know the current information on this.

Let’s start with Division I football:

Sophomore year:
A) Athlete may make calls to the coach at the athlete’s expense.
B) No off campus contact is allowed. 
C) Coach cannot call the athlete. (Leaving a message will not result in a call back because of this.)

 Junior year: 
A) Coach may call once during May of athlete’s junior year 
B) No off-campus contact allowed

Senior Year:
A) Coaches can call once per week beginning September 1.
B) A college coach may contact the athlete or the parent/guardian six times (this includes off campus evaluation)
C) One evaluation can occur in September, October and November.

We don’t advocate cheating, but summer camps are a way to get around these rules as summer camps do not count towards the mentioned limits. As long as a coach is not giving you a one on one workout, he is free to conduct his camp in any way as far as evaluating the talent at the camp. This is why you see a mini-combine like testing session as part of most college camps.

Men’s and Women’s basketball has a whole other set of rules to abide by.

Sophomore Year: Same rules as football apply.

Junior Year Phone Calls:
A) Coach may call once during March
B) Coach can once between June 21 and June 30 following junior year
C) Coach can call three times in July following junior year.
D) Coach can call once per week starting August 1

Junior Year Contacts
A) Once during April; at the high school location.
B) After July 1 following junior year.

Senior Year

A) Coach can call once a week

B) Off Campus contacts are limited to three during their senior year
C) No more than 5 total contacts and evaluations with an athlete.

Next month we will outline the rules for all the other sports as they pertain to telephone calls and contacts. 

Campus Visits and Overnight Stays - Closing the Deal
A softball dad and one of the first readers of The Making of a Student Athlete, keeps me updated on his daughter and her club squad teammates as they all go through the recruiting process.  They are now up to the point where some have made overnight visits and it has made a big impression.  Now is as good a time as ever to go over visits.

Keep in mind that recruiting is one of those things that is a little different for everyone, so what I write here is general. Something might be different in your situation.

Types of visits:

1) Official - Quite simply this is when a school pays for your trip to visit the campus for a period not to exceed 48 hours. They pay for transit, food, lodging and campus entertainment. 

Each student athlete can take only one official visit to a given D-I or D-II school and a total of 5 visits. .  The colleges themselves can offer only a limited number each year by rule so they do not just hand them out like water at a marathon.  Division III has no limits on visits, but most programs don't offer very a large number  because of budgets

Schools use official visits to continue the evaluation process by seeing how you fit in with the school, players and campus environment. While a visit is a very good sign that the school is interested, it does not mean you will get an offer. Many times you will get an offer during the visit but if you do not commit to the school soon after, then that offer might not be available after a certain length of time. Most scholarship offer letters say the offer is contingent on several factors (for example -academic qualification) including availability.  In other words the school has the right to tell you the offer is no longer available. They have chosen to do so. 

Keep in mind that your host player on campus will report back to the coach and give his or her impression of what kind of person you are and if you seem to fit in. These opinions are important to the coach.

The timing of the visit can have strategic meaning as well.  In football for example, when a school knows that a prospect will take all of his visits they lobby for the last one. It gives them the chance to have the last impression, sell hard and try to close the deal on the visit.  A lot of times recruits save their top schools for last and visit the first few very early in the process - this sends a message as well.

For the average student athlete, just getting one or two official visits is great. Use them to judge the program from the inside out - it is really one of your only chances. Hang out with the players as much as you can - they will be your campus family, can you live with them?  Are they your type? Do they share common interests and values? Are they too snooty for you as they were for one of the softball girls we spoke of? Her visit told her she could not play with this type of girl and have fun. 

Will the program dominate your life as a student as one of the other unsuspecting softball girls learned about a Division III program which runs like a D-I outfit? Her visit told her she wanted a less intense and completive program.

Keep your eyes open, ask questions and don't run your mouth about how good you are. Observe everything around you and ask yourself - do I feel good about my visit right now?  Do I think I can mesh with these other athletes?  Am I comfortable? Do the other players seem happy with the school and the program? People like it when others ask them questions about themselves - take that approach. What position do you play? Where you recruited for that position out of high school? How much did you play this year? What do you think the team will be like next year?  These are all just examples to make a point.

2) Un-Official Visits - Most athletes ending up taking one of these visits, even on over nights to near-by schools.  This is where you pay your way to campus and the school provides you meals and tickets to a campus event (usually the team game). You can take as many of these as you like providing you pay your way to campus.  There are no limits. Basically you can do the same things as on The NCAA Division III.

The same things apply to using your unofficial visit to get an inside look at the program as
they do to Official Visits.  Since no scholarship offers are made at the D-III level there is less pressure to commit and cancel your other visits, but there can still be some pressure to apply early decision and drop your other schools of choice. But again, since no scholarships are offered you do have the "wait and see" on the financial aid package to fall back on if you are asked this.

A good visit should include a full campus tour. Go on the regular campus tours for all students in addition to any tour the coach gives you of the facilities. If possible, sit in on a class in your potential major. Sometimes you will dine with the team and all the coaches and there might be an event for you parents after you leave for the evening with your student host.  It depends on the school. My buddy "E" at Harvard runs a big function for the parents each recruiting weekend - they all share recruiting and college choice stories, compare schools, socialize with the staff and generally get to know what the program is about.

Net-Net?  Don't make your decision until you visit the school and meet the people.

ITB Syndrome - runners, soccer-lacrosse-basketball players.
If you suffer from frequent muscle pulls or things like IT Band Syndrome (as I do) then I would recommend a few products for you. 

First of all we have the simple Foam Rollers that have been the favorite tool of massage therapists and trainers for a while.  Simple, easy to use and inexpensive.  I like the 6 inch round by 3 feet long size.

While at the Boston Marathon Expo last month I was given a demo on a product called the Trigger Point Massage Ball. It worked well at the demo, but I don't have a ton of experience with it. I think this product is a bit more diverse than the Foam Roller as far as applications go. It is also more expensive. Check it out the website for more info.
 

Links :
NextStepMagazine - Life after High School, great for students and parents.
Choosing a College Savings Plan - summarizes and compares State 529 Plans, 529 Prepaid Plans, Independent 529 Plans, Coverdell  Education Savings Accounts, and more
Independent529plan.org - a complete site dedicated to the Ind. 529 plan - private schools
NCAA.com now links to www.ncaasports.com
NCAA.org  is their official business site - rules, publications, etc. Let's hope they make that site a little user friendly as well.
Campus Dirt - where college students tell you how they really feel! Need to register but it is free.



Recommended Services and Tools
College Coaches On-line - Directory of all college coaches, 20,000 plus NCAA and NAIA. a must have to start your proactive college search. 
Money4college123.com - a great financial aid management tool!
Webball.com - baseball nuts will drool over this site!
Common Application - Over 255 colleges use the common application.
TrainBoston - athlete performance and conditioning - Wellesley, MA
The Ponds - Ice and Turf facilities for youth.
Muscular Sports and Skin Therapy - athlete performance and conditioning Wakefield, MA
Athlete's Edge- athlete performance and conditioning Acton, MA

Comments, questions or you want to subscribe?