Internespo > Guide > Recruiting > Get noticed by coaches

Gaining exposure to college coaches can be difficult for everyone, even for top athletes in high school. That’s why athletes should create recruiting profiles and highlight videos that will make it easy for coaches to evaluate them.

Key Takeaways

• Start early and create multiple free recruiting profiles to gain exposure
• Create a professional highlight video so coaches can easily evaluate your skill level
• Upload your video to YouTube and then link your video to recruiting profiles or emails

1) Create Recruiting Profiles

Getting attention form college coaches can be difficult. That’s why athletes should create recruiting profiles and make highlight videos to increase their visibility.

There are many different resources or recruiting platforms that athletes can use to create a profile and gain exposure. However, it is generally recommended to use free platforms to create profiles to optimize chances of being recruited. Additionally, an athlete can always reach out to coaches via email to see if they are interested. Certainly for different sports, this process can vary. For example, track athletes usually are able to showcase their talent simply by emailing a coach their best marks and finishes in events.

    Tip – Websites that increase your visibility

• • • Internespo.com
    • NCSA – Next College Student Athlete
    • Athletes USA

2) Create your Highlight Video

An important part of your recruiting profile is your highlight video. A way for you to showcase your talent in a short video and gain exposure to more college coaches. Your highlight video should include clips from a game or practice that show your best plays, skills and talent. Depending on your sport, you may want to showcase different things (you can easily find online what coaches are looking for specifically in your sport).

You may need to think ahead about having enough good film to use to create your highlight video. In your sophomore and junior years you should ask your coaches if film is already being taken of all your games, or if you should get someone to film. Collecting enough footage is important so you have more highlights to select from and combine.

The summer after your junior year is a great time to start creating your highlight video so you have it ready going into your senior year. Some athletes may think putting together a video is difficult, but both iMovie and windows moviemaker are great platforms to simply edit the transitions between clips and add labels to identify yourself in the clips.

2.1) What college coaches are looking for

• • Did the athlete make a smart tactical decision, or just simply take advantage of a mistake?
  • Good sportsmanship and attitude
  • Coaches will care just as much about work ethic and attitude as they do about performance

2.2) Key points for your highlight video

1. Make it sport specific: Depending on your sport you should include different types of footage. For sports like soccer, football, and basketball, in-game footage is very important. But for other sports like baseball, you may just want to show technical skills.

2. Keep it short: Coaches are very busy so it’s important to keep your highlight videos between 3 and 4 minutes. Some coaches may only watch for about 20-30 seconds, so it’s important to put some of your best clips first.

3. Point yourself out: It’s very important to identify yourself in the video using labels, so the coach can quickly see who you are in the start of the play and follow your moves. Additionally don’t forget to include a picture of yourself and some stats so a coach remembers you.

4. Showcase the level of play: It’s easy to look like a good player when you are playing against poor competition. Try and showcase clips where you shined against good competition and highlight the level of play in your video.

5. Ensure good quality: Make sure your video is of high quality. If you can, try and get film from a nice camera and avoid iphone shots. You may even think about buying a film camera with other teammates to share and have for your own videos. *Although a lot of high schools programs will already do this.

6. Link full lenght games: Your video should contain small clips and quickly transition between them, showcasing your best plays. However you can also provide coaches with links to full length games if they want to watch a bit more of your play throughout a game.