Draft 3

As a student in high school I participated in various athletics. I was what people called a “student athlete.” When you are a student athlete in high school, there are many things that you must do in order to play sport in college. This part of the high school to college transition is very fuzzy. The NCAA has many rules and regulations on becoming a college athlete that sometimes cause the application process to become a little more difficult.
In today’s society student athletes in high school have a have very difficult and long journey to make their next step from a high school athlete to a college athlete. The questions to theses athletes’ future are not always easy to find. They ask; How do I get recruited, How do I contact coaches and when am I allowed to? The college application process is long for these athletes they begin their junior year in high school. They must abide by all of the NCAA rule and regulations otherwise they will be unable to participate at the college level. The first thing a student athlete should do is sign the NCAA Clearinghouse form in their junior year of high school.
The NCAA Clearinghouse form is signed to make sure that all student athletes follow the NCAA recruiting regulations. It ensures that all of these prospective students know the rules; therefore they can not say they did not know about a particular rule.
Firstly, an athlete usually must be recruited, but how is an athlete to do this? There are various ways in which people do this. They will travel all over the country in order to get recognized at something called “College Showcase Tournaments.” At these tournaments colleges from all over the nation send their scouts there to watch some games, now depending on your age and year in school depends on weather or not the scout can contact you person to person. If the scout sees that you are doing well they will probably follow up on some more of your games.
Another way in which, students have been getting recruited is by contacting the college coaches themselves This can only be done at certain points in time and there are regulations on how often a prospective athlete can contact theses coaches. They may send a resume to the coaches, but a coach cannot really get a sense of how good a player is from a resume. The played in turn may higher a photographer to video tape their games. . Tiffany Yovino of the Hofstra Women’s Soccer Team said, “I sent out a highlight tape.” This highlight tape may be sent to the coach and they can look at it and if they like what they see, it could lead to future contact with the coach.
When being recruited though by coaches there are some certain aspects that can very confusing. Michael Sopko, of the Stony Brook Men’s Lacrosse team said, “The hardest part about recruitment is knowing when and when you cannot speak with the coaches.” The NCAA guidelines provide the information for when you can be in contact with a coach. Through research I found that, each sports recruitment period is different for when you can be in contact with the coach. Listed below is a general outline for the college recruiting contact…
· During a contact period, recruiters may make in-person, on- or off-campus contacts and evaluations. Coaches can also write and/or phone you during this period.
· During an evaluation period, they can only assess academic qualifications and playing abilities; no in-person, off-campus recruiting contacts are permitted. Although letters and phone calls are permitted.
· During a quiet period, they may make in-person recruiting contacts only on the college campus. Off-campus, recruiters are limited to phone calls and letter-writing.
· During a dead period, they cannot make in-person recruiting contacts or evaluations on- or off-campus or permit official or unofficial visits. However, phone calls and letters are permitted.
-(http://www.fastweb.com/fastweb/resources/articles/index/101262)
If an athlete is being recruited there are various ways in which coaches, try to lure you to their school. One thing coaches will do is take them on a tour of the school with the athlete and their families. If the athlete and coach are both happy after their first encounter the coach may invite the athlete back for an official visit. An athlete can only have three official visits. On the official visit the athlete is taken around the school by a host athlete that is currently playing at that university. The coach may get the prospective athlete tickets to a sporting event that may be going on at that particular date in time. The prospective student is able to get a feel of what it is going to be like to be a college athlete at that university.
When I spoke with these the three athletes, I asked each of them about their own recruitment process and how they felt about it. Each of these three individuals was excited during the whole recruitment period. They would go home everyday to check their mail/e-mail. Tiffany Yovino said, “I would have two or three pieces of mail everyday from various colleges that wanted me to play there.” These athletes were excited to get the opportunity to play at the next level. In addition, when being recruited the coaches would treat them like gold and really make their time on those college visits enjoyable. For instances, Mike Sopko said, “They took me to an Army versus Navy football game. I could not ask for more when I went there.” The college recruiting process is a time consuming, but exciting time for each of these athletes.
If a player intends to play college sports he/she must not be a professional athlete. The NCAA defines a professional athlete as this athlete must not ever have been paid and cannot receive gifts of any sort from outside family members.
The next step after a coach wants to get a player to come to their school by offering them a scholarship would be a player sign his/her national letter of intent. The national letter of intent is,

“The National Letter of Intent (NLI) is a binding agreement between a prospective student-athlete and an institution in which the institution agrees to provide a prospective student-athlete who is admitted to the institution and is eligible for financial aid under NCAA rules athletics aid for one academic year in exchange for the prospect's agreement to attend the institution for one academic year.” (NCAA.org)

If a player signs this letter they are committing to the college that they sign with. Although it said that if a player signs this letter they must college there are ways out of it.
If the coach that you sign with leaves you are able to opt out of your contract.
If your not legally binded up until national signing day, because up until that point it is a verbal commitment and nothing more.
After the player finally gets thought the recruiting process and commits to the University depending on the season; depends when you will show up for the fall semester. The athlete then begins to practice. A typical college athlete has a workout routine on top of his/her regular team workout. They will usually have a certain time to be in the gym with the trainer. The trainer will guide them in what kind of workout they should have for their sport. The trainer will also assist with spotting and stretching.
If an athlete is not recruited by the coach to play on the team there is still hope for that athlete. A roommate and friend of mine came to St. John’s University to play baseball, but he was not recruited. He actually made the team for one semester. When I asked Mike about how he went about getting on the team, Mike said, “As a walk-on you get a three hour major league style tryout. If they like you they then keep you on the team until at least the end of the fall.” I then asked if he felt accepted by the team and his response was, “Originally you have to work a lot harder to be accepted as part of the team, but after a while the players start to accept you. It is much more difficult to be accepted by the coaches.”
When an athlete is not in season they typically workout for about four to five hours depending on the particular day with usually only one day in the week off. Each freshmen athlete is required to participate in study hall. This makes sure that all of them are not just concentrating on their particular sport, but on their studies as well. It allows them quality study time.
The next step after preseason for these athletes would be season. Finally, after all of this work the athlete gets to play in some games, if they are good enough. When talking to these athletes I tried to get a sense of what it was like to be in season from them. The biggest difference between college and high school sports would be the speed and size. Sopko said, “In high school everyone is the same size as you, but in college they jump up to about six feet five inches tall.” Everything moves quicker and every move you make has to better and quicker than the next. These other athletes are out there to win and will not let anything get in their way. The only way to compete at this level is to have the same mentality as the players on the other team; if not you must want it more than them or you will not stay on the field very long.
All in all there is a great step that student athletes must take from becoming a high school student athlete to becoming a collegiate athlete. They must go through the recruiting process while trying not to break an array of rules. Then way these students do get to college, they have a very difficult schedule with very little time to themselves. They must make the next adjustment to the new game speed and style and must find the correct balance between work, sports, and fun.