Archive for March 2012
March 12, 2012 | 
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How to Start Your Search for a Sports Scholarship
How to Start Your Search for a Sports Scholarship
Many times, when writers or experts in a particular field start to write about a subject, they forget the most fundamental and important thing; that is what you should do if 
you are just starting out. In other words, what are the very first steps that you need to take in order to get your athletic scholarship. In this blog post I am going to try to show you the very first steps you should take in order to gain yourself the sports scholarship that you want.
The very first thing that you need to do in order to get your sports scholarship, is to start educating yourself about how the athletic scholarship recruiting process actually works. You may want to start as early as your freshman year in high school, to begin considering this. I am not saying that you have to 100% start in your freshman year to look at athletic scholarship opportunities in the process to set yourself up, but as soon as you can start working toward your goal of getting an athletic scholarship, then you will be better off. So, try to start as early in your high school education as you can to apply for sports scholarships. Fundamentally, you need to have good grades, have a qualifying score on your SAT or a ACT tests and you will need to graduate from high school without any complications or problems.
What Coaches Are Looking for
Coaches are usually looking down the road anywhere from one to five years to see who they can use to fill the slots on their teams. They may also be looking for players that will be upcoming who can replace an athlete will be graduating in a couple of years. You have to admit it, the job of a full-time coach at a university or college must be a rough one, because he has to constantly be able to forecast ahead of time who he will need for his team. Sttudents graduate and leave the school eventually and they will always have to be replaced.
Your job as a student athlete is to play the best at your sport that you possibly can. You will have to show up on time, pass all of your classes, study, and perform on the field for your school and team. This is why colleges and universities offer scholarships so that you can play for their team in repayment for the discount you get for going to their institution. There may be some fundamental differences with coaches, but basically all coaches good quality players who will work for them and well with other players on the team. Don’t forget, the evaluation process of a student athlete is an ongoing process, and you can lose your scholarship at any point in time, especially if you do something stupid like not show up the practice or get drunk and get into a lot of trouble. So, just keep your nose clean and your grades up. As a matter of fact, it is not uncommon for coaches to a valuate your letters, e-mail, phone conversations, games, practices and anything else they can get their hands on as well as asking other players what they think about you.
So, here are the basic steps that you need to remember:
- Start educating yourself early about the scholarship process
- Make sure you graduate from school
- Get good grades on your ECT and SAT scores
- Keep your nose clean and stay out of trouble
- Always attend your classes
If you would like a free copy of a guide/blueprint on how to obtain a sports scholarship, please click on this link : Guide to Obtaining a Sports Scholarship
Tags: The Annual Donors of Sports Scholarships in 2011
Below is a graphic that is circulating around on the Internet in the last couple of days. I spotted it on twitter and thought it was very pertinent to this blog and also the people that read it. According to the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) usually about $1 billion of awards and scholarships are given into Division I and Division II level in college athletics. Other associations like the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics( NAIA), as well as the national Junior College athletic Association (NJCAA) are also associations that award athletic scholarships. In Division I alone there are 318 awards given in Division II there are 423, and that is just for starters.
The Opportunities Are out There
In America today there are approximately 2000 schools that offer opportunities for students to continue their athletic careers. So, the message here is that you need to realize that there is a very large field for you to access and that your opportunities may be more plentiful than you think. However, getting an athletic scholarship is not an easy task and it may require a bit of work. But if you’re diligent, and have a good attitude you can succeed in getting the athletic scholarship you need help you get through school.
A Wide Variety of Athletic Scholarships
Among the different types of sports scholarships there are these different fields: archery, badminton, baseball, basketball, bowling, cheerleading, cross-country, cross-country skiing, downhill skiing, diving, equestrian, fencing, field hockey, football, golf, gymnastics, ice hockey, indoor track, lacrosse, rifle, rodeo, rowing, rugby, sailing, soccer, softball, squash, swimming, synchronized swimming, tennis, team handball, track and field, volleyball, water polo, and wrestling. With this wide variety of different sports scholarships you can see that there are opportunities for you to apply.
Important Athletic Directories to Use
Just to let you know, there are several great resources that you can use in your quest to get a sports scholarship. These locations must universities and colleges in the United States and the sports that are offered with the name, phone number, address, and fax number of each coach that is at the school. The two most important are The Blue Book of College Athletics and The Directory of Collegiate Athletics. These are two books that you absolutely cannot do without if you are on a quest to get a sports scholarship.
Just remember that the world of sports recruiting is loaded with all sorts of myths and mistaken beliefs. Make sure that you do your homework and get the right information before you begin applying. You can get a Free copy of a book that will be a tremendous help you here: Guide to Obtaining an Athletic Scholarship