How to get Recruited After a Late Start

Getting started late can create a huge crunch on time for any athlete looking to make it to the collegiate level. Starting late doesn't mean the end of any athlete's careers by any means it just means a different strategy needs to be employed. The work that needs to be done to find your college team all depends on how much time you have until you graduate.

How late is starting late?

Starting late in pursuing college sports generally means making that decision around the middle of your junior year. That said, “late” can mean different things. Picking up a brand-new sport at that point and aiming to play it in college is extremely tough, since building the necessary skills takes time. That’s what I’d call an extremely late start. If you’ve been playing for a while and are above average, it’s still a late start but not a huge crunch. And if you’re already advanced in the sport when you decide in junior year to play in college, time isn’t as big of a concern, developing skill is the most time-intensive part of getting recruited.

What do I do if I Started Late?

There are 2 different things that go into getting recruited that are time dependent, one is skill and the other is personal marketing.

Skill at your sport is one of the hardest things to build quickly but if you're getting started late there are plenty of different ways you can accelerate this process. Since you're pressed for time, this means you have to make the most out of it with quality coaching and dedicated training. A great way to not only market yourself to coaches but also get better is to attend camps. There are a few different camp options but the best one for you at this point is one you can afford and one that is put on by a college. This is a good place to learn what you need to know for your sport to make it to college because it's the coaches and athletes at that college doing the teaching.

Now for arguably the most important part of getting recruited that gets overlooked and luckily for the late starter the quickest skill to learn, personal marketing. Being abl

e to market yourself to college coaches is one of the best tools you can use to be recruited. Since you've gotten started late that means you need to put your name on as many coaches' radars that you can. This means making a great highlight reel and working out the best pitch you can and then finding the right audience and sending emails. A great professional example of this is Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen, he sent over 1,000 personalized cold emails to all sorts of college staff on different division 1 football teams before Wyoming gave him a scholarship. This is one of the fastest ways to be recruited.

Summary

Getting started late in the college recruiting process doesn’t mean your athletic career is over, it just means your strategy needs to be sharper, faster, and more intentional. By putting in more work now you can line yourself up with a great landing spot in college athletics. Being in a situation like this means that you should get all the help you can to beat the clock. I can help and set you up on the right path to get to college athletics

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