Hello!
"3...2...1... Buzz!! He made it!! They just won the NBA Finals!!" Almost every kid has said that while shooting hoops in their backyard. Everyone wants to take the game winning shot and have it go in and have their favorite team win the championship. Although the chances of getting to the pro's is slim for most kids, there are the lucky few that make it. And there are the lucky ones that make it to play in college too. It seems now that National Signing day (February 1st) is a bigger production then getting nominated for a Grammy. The recruiting industry has become huge with recruiting websites housing thousands of player profiles to shell out to coaches and help get the students names out. Have you ever wondered what the recruiting process is like for a high school athelete? Or what its like for the coaches? What about the recruiting websites (i.e. Scout.com, Rivals.com, or ESPN.com)? Well in this blog i'm going to be catching up with some coaches, recruiting experts, and some players to talk to them and take a closer look into the experience of getting recruited. While i'm doing this blog I'll also be taking a look at how social networking sites have changed the recruitment process.
It seems now-a-days its not just the school that are trying to recruit the kids there, but its also the kids that are trying to recruit the school. With the invention of social networking tools (i.e. Youtube, Twitter, and Facebook) it seems now that these recruits are doing more of selling themselves then the coaches trying to sell them. Here's a link to a story about how students are using recruiting sites to their advantages and getting their name out there "Do-it yourself recruiting".
One of the problems that some of the kids struggle with is posting offensive material on their Facebook or Twitter accounts. That can be real turn off for coaches and can not only turn them off of recruiting you but can also make them pull your scholarship. Like the story of Yuri Wright. He was a 4 star cornerback who had a scholarship to his dream college the Michigan Wolverines, but because of some vulgar and sexually explict tweets on his Twitter account he was expelled from school and also had his scholarship offer taken away. You can click here to read the full story of Yuri Wright on ESPN.com
Well I think that about wraps up this blog. I'll be back in a couple days with a new update and some insight. for now be safe and go Jazz!
Eric
