As a perspective student athlete, the most important thing you need to know is that it is up to you to play college baseball.
Not your coach, not your trainer and not your parents. Unless you are a rare prodigy, no scouts are going to come knocking on your door!
So how do you get to college and play baseball? It is all about making your presence known to coaches, and then convincing these coaches that you are right for the team. Here, we will talk about some of the best methods for promoting yourself to get a baseball scholarship.
1. Online Profile
An online profile is where you can put all of the info about yourself in one place. It makes it easier for coaches to keep track of you. Or, maybe a coach sees your highlights video on YouTube and wants to know more. The coach could just click to your profile. Having an online profile also shows coaches that you are serious about a career as a collegiate student athlete.
There are a few ways to make an online profile. One is to make your own mini website. You can keep it as simple as a single page with your stats and video. Another option is to make a free profile with 643Recruit.com dedicated to simplify the recruiting process. Our website allows athletes to easily send their profile and skills video to college coaches and receive notification when their profiles have been viewed. It will focus on your academic and baseball achievements. Some of the things you will need to include on you profile:
*Personal Information: Your name, nickname (if you have one), height/weight and other physical stats, contact info, a photo, and an action photo (optional)
*High School Athletic Information: High School Coach contact info, number of games played, and stats
*Club Athletic Information: Club Coach contact info, position, and stats
*Highlights: conference wins, top wins, team or individual wins, etc.
*Academic Information: High school name and address, year you will be graduating (Class of 20XX), Grade Point Average, SAT or ACT scores, Academic honors
*Other Activities: Extracurricular activities (such as non-athletic clubs you participated in), leadership & community service activities (such as volunteering as a coach), and employment
All of this information is very important to coaches so they can quickly get an overall idea of your abilities. The academic and other activities are just as important as your athletic stats. If, for example, you were able to hold down a job, edit your school newspaper, and get a 3.8 GPA all while playing baseball, they will see that you are mature enough to handle the pressures of being a collegiate student athlete.
2. Highlights Video
Also called a recruiting video, a highlights video is a short video which showcases your athletic abilities. To make one, you will need to have someone film you playing and then edit the best shots into a short video. Ideally, the video should be in HD and shot from various angles.
Your highlights video is your greatest shot at getting a coach’s attention. If you are serious about getting a sports scholarship, then consider hiring a professional to shoot and edit your highlights video. Considering that a good highlights video can mean the difference between having lots of scholarship offers or not, it is worth the investment.
Here are some notes about highlight videos:
Keep It Short: A highlight video should be under 4 minutes. Coaches don’t have that much time to look through hours of footage.
Don’t Add Music: This is a sports video, not a music video!
Make a Strong First Impression: You better lead with your best ability. Coaches often won’t watch past the first 30 seconds if they don’t think you have promise.
Show All Your Skills: Your highlights video should show a wide range of skills.
Include Contact Info: Include your name and contact info, as well as contact info for your coach.
Put the Video Online: It used to be common practice to mail coaches DVDs. Now, you upload your video on your profile page. You will let the coach know about the video URL when you write an email or letter. Go to 643Recruit.com/video for sample..