Eight Tips to Help Your Child Get a College Athletic Scholarship
March 30th, 2010 
Carol 
Parents always want the best for their children, and for parents of student athletes, helping their children navigate the recruitment process and gain a college athletic scholarship can be stressful. With recent stories about parents’ involvement in the process, such as young David Sills who was offered a scholarship to USC for 2015 due to the aid of his father and private quarterback coach, the question of how to balance supportive yet not too involved at the same time has come into question.
The country’s leading college athletic recruiting organization, National Collegiate Scouting Association (NCSA) has outlined eight tips for parents to follow to help them define their role in the recruitment process in the book, “Athletes Wanted”.
“Parents’ primary challenge is walking the fine line between guiding their student athlete through the process and becoming overbearing,” says founder of NCSA and author of “Athletes Wanted”, Chris Krause. Here are the golden rules for parents to help their children.
Don’t be a “helicopter mom” or “we dad”. Many parents will either hover over the child by not allowing her to act for herself or the “we parents” will live vicariously through the child’s accomplishments. The student-athlete should be the one communicating with college coaches. Coaches are impressed by students who initiative conversations and are confident enough to make lasting first impressions.
Teach humility. Parents are primarily responsible for their children’s attitude, and parents who expect more of their children are easily noticed due to their extreme work ethic and ability to go the extra mile. Parents should use the ACE formula to teach students to be accountable for their Academics, Character and Effort.
Parents should be their child’s assistant and mentor, not just the cheerleader. The parent’s primary role is to help not just offer encouragement and approval. One crucial way that parents can be of assistance to their child is to help role-play with the student-athletes by having them practice leaving voicemails for college coaches and asking questions that the coach may ask the student.
Parents need to create a specific plan and follow it. It’s important to start the recruitment process early, and the parent’s job is to help the child stick to a timeline of academics, athletic accomplishments and a Recruitment Action Plan (which can be found at www.athleteswanted.org).
Parents should be realistic and get an honest evaluation of their student athlete. While all parents are partial to their own children, they should find objective statistics about their child performance from coaches or outside sources. Also, it is important to be realistic about the financial side of college and set parameters of what educational costs you can afford as a family.
Parents should know their Expected Family Contribution. The family must know how much they can contribute to the education and how to adjust and allocate assets to best leverage their financial situation.
The greater the distance, the greater the opportunities. Parents should avoid fixating on one school or only considering colleges close to home. Student-athletes positioned for success can evaluate all options without restrictions on geography.Parents should not risk their child’s collegiate future by relying solely on the coach. It is the parent’s job to assist the child in getting a scholarship and getting recruited not the high school coach. The average high school coach has personal contact with fewer than five college coaches, 90 percent of whom are local so the parents must be the aid establishing relationships with coaches.
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