Get a Second Opinion!

So, you think Junior (your kid) is one of the best basketball players in the city. He can handle the ball like Steve Nash, he can shoot like T-Mac, and he rebounds like Benn Wallace. Guess what? College coaches do NOT care what you think! They cannot afford to trust your assessment of Junior and neither should you; at least not until you get a second and third opinion from qualified basketball people who do not have a personal interest in Junior! In other words, take Uncle Joe and Grandpa’s opinions with a grain of salt. Of course, Uncle Joe played college ball at Weese State and you trust him. The point here is that you NEED an unbiased opinion. These opinions may be accurate, but most parents and close relatives are biased. In many situations, the livelihood of a coach is dependent on recruiting the best possible talent. They cannot afford to trust you or Uncle Joe – their kids need to eat too!

It is important that you KNOW how good your kid really is and how much potential he has for improvement. Why? If your child has the potential to play college basketball, YOU need to know at what level he is capable of playing. You need to know this in order to market your kid effectively! Yes, I said market. There are many colleges that have scholarships to offer that cannot afford to “find” Junior. Many deserving athletes do not receive scholarships because the schools that need them simply have no idea that they exist. The one exception to this rule is if your kid is an exceptional top level player. Generally, high level coaches (i.e. Division 1) will find your kid. Especially if in addition to playing in school, he or she plays in a summer basketball program (i.e. AAU). Even in this case, you may need to market in order to be considered for scholarships at schools your child wants to attend.

Many parents waste precious time and money writing letters, sending tapes and email, filling out athletic interest forms on the internet and bugging coaches to recommend their kid to a school when the kid does not possess the ability to play basketball at that school’s level. If Junior has the ability to play ball at the Division 2 or Jr. College level, Mom and Dad are wasting their precious time, money and hopes contacting all of those high Division 1 schools. If no one is responding, could it be that you are advertising to the wrong market? This is why you need an accurate assessment of Junior’s ability and potential. While you are wasting time in the wrong market, others are getting those scholarships that may have been just right for Junior. Division II, NAIA and some Jr. Colleges offer athletic scholarships. It is important to find the right market for Junior.

The first step is getting an unbiased assessment, how do you do this? Start with Junior’s coaches, high school and AAU or summer ball program. Check with local and national scouting services. Do they know about Junior? What are they saying? Take some time to study Junior’s stats. Statistics are not always an accurate indicator, but if Junior does something well, it should show up in the stats (i.e. scoring, rebounding, steals, shooting percentages, etc.). You may have to look at some of these numbers and average them by minutes played, if possible. The key here is that the numbers do not know Junior personally.

More about numbers

High school stats can be tricky for many reasons. Sometimes inexperienced or biased students are recording these numbers. Playing time is generally not reflected in high school stats. Game situations and strong or weak opponents can also skew the numbers. Just remember, the numbers do not know your kid and generally, they treat everyone the same. When my son was a senior in High School, he had great numbers during the first half of the season. In my opinion the numbers were a good indicator of his ability and potential. During the second half of the season the numbers took a major drop. When I took a closer look I had to consider a number of factors including injuries, playing time due to inferior opponents and the human tendency to “rest on our laurels”. Yes, numbers are not prejudiced; they just reflect what was or was not done. Take the time to take an honest and close look at the numbers to help you assess talent and potential.

Basketball Camps

Another way to get other opinions is by sending Junior to one or more basketball camps. Camps can be a great way of getting unbiased input about Junior. It will be worthwhile to investigate and get recommendations before selecting a camp though. Look for camps that provide thorough skills assessment and will provide you with a report. If you can actually get to talk with coaches during or after the camp, this would be great feedback. One of your goals would be to get an honest assessment of ability and potential. You may want to ask (take a deep breath). “Do you think that Junior has thee potential to play college ball? At what level?”. The answer you get may or may not be accurate or honest, but at least you have one more opinion! The camp might even be helpful when you are ready to market Junior. If their opinion is positive, ask them to help you contact schools that you may be interested in or schools that they have a relationship with that might fit Junior’s abilities.

After my son’s junior high school season, I selected a camp for him to attend. The camp requested that his high school coach fill out a skills assessment form prior to attendance. By the way, this was good feedback for my “unbiased” assessment project. The camp personnel assessed my son and provided a report of their assessment (you can view it here). This assessment was actually better that I expected. I attempted to balance the report by asking my son what he thought the level of competition was at the camp. My point is this, your assessment will only benefit you if it is as accurate as possible, Remember, this is “Junior” and you are biased.

I actually called the coach who signed the assessment on the carpet! I felt that if he really believed his own report, then he would help get us in some doors with college coaches with whom he had a relationship. I sent this coach some tapes and he DID pass them around! Everyone will not do this for you, but it does not hurt to ask. Camps can be a big help when it comes to marketing. At the minimum it is an opportunity for someone else to “see” Junior and for you to get another opinion.

I would like to point out one benefit of an overnight camp which houses attendees in college dorms. When my son attended one of these camps, it represented the first time he had been away from home, family and friends for an extended period. The first night he called me and wanted to come home. After encouraging him to “hang in there”, he persevered. By the third day of dorm life with a complete stranger, he was OK. I believe that this turned out to be an experience which helped to prepare him for college life. We were not aware of this before hand but we recognize it now.

Take advantage of every opportunity to learn what others think of your athlete. If Junior is a “super” (college coaches use this term for exceptional players) the top schools will find him, in most cases. If not, you are going to have to do some work. How much time and effort you expend in the marketing process will be directly proportional to how focused you are on your target market. In order to maximize your efforts you must know which schools to market. In order to know which schools to market, you must have an accurate assessment of Junior. OK, now get busy. Get those opinions!

Want to know what coaches really think about recruiting? Check out this preview of RCS Sports Parent/Coaches Workshop. A complete tape is available for purchase. Note: You need RealPlayer to view this clip.

Here is a great blog entry on “Getting Your Kid Seen.