Posted by Jon Fugler on Tue, Jan 19, 2010 @ 01:34 PM
It's a competitive world out there for athletic scholarships, but don't lose heart. In this day of instant gratification, the scholarship pursuit does not fit that way of thinking. It can take months, even years, before you get to the finish line, depending on your year in high school.
Bear in mind that while you are keeping your pursuit going, there are thousands of athletes that are dropping off every day. They just don't have the endurance to stay with it. From that angle, your competition is decreasing. On the other end of the spectrum, though, are student-athletes who are just starting the process.
Here's an encouraging story from Christian "Bubba" Luna, who just signed to play football with the University of Hawaii. His hometown paper in Southern California, the Valley News, wrote a feature on him:
"I always dreamed of getting a scholarship and it came through," he said in a recent interview. "All the hard work paid off."
Receiving a scholarship was a godsend, said the teen's parents. His mother, Lourdes, works as a mortgage loan processor. Her husband, Ray, works as a sales representative for Behr paints. Bubba, who got his nickname as a child, is the second oldest of the couple's five children. Ray is known in the family as "big Bubba."
"When that (scholarship) call came through, it felt like a big relief," Lourdes Luna recalled. "I'm in the lending business, and things aren't too hot right now."
Read the entire articleand see how Bubba stayed with it and worked hard to get the scholarship.
Posted by Jon Fugler on Tue, Oct 06, 2009 @ 04:14 PM
How can can you or your student-athlete get a swimming scholarship? You've invested years in the sport, and it's time to get a return on that investment.
Yes, there's a lot of competition out there. But, just like in your sport, some swimmers will win-- and in this case, the prize is a swimming scholarship.
Swimming is considered a minor sport, contrasted to football and basketball. And, as a result, colleges do not have enough scholarship funds to award full scholarships for every athlete. Therefore, they divide the money and offer partial scholarships to most athletes.
Travel and recruiting budget restrictions also make it difficult for swimming coaches to recruit student-athletes to the same degree as the revenue sports (football and basketball). They have to rely heavily on athletes contacting them and showing interest in the program.
So that's your #1 action to get started on the road to a swimming scholarship--contact the coaches. They will be thankful that you do. They may never hear about you otherwise.
If you're already in contact with college coaches, then you're on the right track. Now you need to cultivate those multiple relationships and continue to feed the coaches information that will present you in the best possible light. You want to keep moving up their lists of recruits.
Once you become a prospect in their eyes, they may start calling you and asking you to make a visit to the school. Be sure to qualify whether it is an official visit or not. An official visit shows that they have high interest in you, because they are paying for your trip.
The NCAA defines an official visit:
Official Visit
Any visit to a college campus by you and your parents paid for by the college. The college may pay the following expenses:
- Your transportation to and from the college;
- Room and meals (three per day) while you are visiting the college; and
- Reasonable entertainment expenses, including three complimentary admissions to a home athletics contest.
Before a college may invite you on an official visit, you will have to provide the college with a copy of your high school transcript (Division I only) and SAT, ACT or PLAN score and register with the NCAA Eligibility Center.
This is compared to an "unofficial visit":
Unofficial Visit
Any visit by you and your parents to a college campus paid for by you or your parents. The only expense you may receive from the college is three complimentary admissions to a home athletics contest. You may make as many unofficial visits as you like and may take those visits at any time. The only time you cannot talk with a coach during an unofficial visit is during a dead period.
See this NCAA webpage for more recruiting definitions.
Communication:
As you go through the recruiting process, it is important to have clear communications with the coaches so you know exactly where you stand. You don't want to get all the way down the road and assume you are one of their top prospects and learn that they do not intend to offer you a scholarship. Be sure to ask along the way about their interest level.
Those are a few pointers on how to get a swimming scholarship. Yes, just the beginning of a deeper dive into the recruiting waters. We believe in gettting the basics done right, because you need to have a strong foundation in this step-by-step process.