By:Natalie Pedersen

Theme music is great for adding drama to movies. Inserting animations and effects to a PowerPoint can help engage your audience. However, when it comes to creating your highlight film, college coaches don’t want to see any of this.

College coaches want straight-forward information without the distractions of glitz and flare getting in their way. The purpose of your highlight film is simple: evaluation. Your highlight film is the first chance college coaches have to start evaluating you as an athlete. Adding dramatic effects to your tape won’t make a coach think you’re a better athlete, so what’s the point? Your skills and ability should be enough to captivate your audience, so focus on what’s really important: you!

Think about the movie The Blind Side when S.J. submits video footage to Tom Lemming’s office. The film shows Michael Oher taking his opponent to the bus because, “it was time for him to go home.” The video doesn’t include any special effects because the jaw-dropping block was the focus; it was its own effect.

On another note, college coaches have a variety of mediums to get to know you as a person. They don’t need (and also don’t want) to watch an interview at the beginning of your highlight tape. Your tape is your first, and possibly only, chance to impress a college coach with your ability, so show off your athletic skills and focus on those crushing blocks, mad ups, killer spikes and out-of-the-park grand slams.

Take the advice of this former college football coach: “In the initial evaluation stage, we want to see how an athlete is going to help us on the field. We want to get directly to the tape. There will be plenty of time to learn about the athlete through phone calls and emails as opposed to sitting through an interview. Slow motion or effects also pull coaches away from your athleticism. One question I would ask recruits is ‘Why do you want to ever slow yourself down on film?’ For music, we typically are listening to our own music during eval sessions.”

So, you heard it straight from the source. Keep the glitz and flare out of your highlight film and save it to impress your teachers!

Coach Taylor-

Is junior college a good option to explore during the recruiting process?

Interview with Division I Women’s Soccer Coach

By:Callie Hemming

I had the chance to interview a current Division I W. Soccer head coach. She was a former collegiate athlete herself as well as a coach for one of the top women’s soccer programs in the country. She offered some insight into the recruiting process from her eyes.

1. How do you hear about players? How do they get on your recruiting list?

We hear about players through club coaches, high school coaches, emails we receive from interested players and by evaluating ourselves

2. What do you look for in a player? What catches your eye the most?

We look for talented soccer players who can compete physically at our level but also who have the psychological components that will allow them to develop and reach their potential (Work-ethic, competitiveness, focus, self-motivated).

3. When do you typically start looking for recruits?

Typically we will start watching potential student-athletes in their sophomore year (sometimes freshman as the recruiting timeline does seem to be speeding up).

4. What is the worst thing a recruit can do, that can make you stop recruiting her? The best thing?

The best thing a recruit can do is to express interest in the program, follow up with their schedule so we can evaluate them, send us their transcripts and be very proactive if they truly have an interest. The worst thing a recruit can do is probably have grammatical errors/spelling errors in their email or to leave another coaches name on the email because they are sending out mass emails.

1. 5. Are there any misconceptions in the recruiting process?

Hmm. Never too early, never too late to find the right fit.

6. Any advice for players just starting the recruiting process?

Advice would be to talk with your coaches to get an idea of what level is realistic for you and then reach out to some of those programs to express interest. Do your research.

7. Do you ever look to social media sites (Facebook, twitter) to find out about recruits?

We are starting to look at social media more to make sure there are no red flags.

8. Any success stories, of girls who were not initially on your recruiting list but ended up making it on the program and having success on the team?

Success stories – Absolutely. We found one student-athlete very late because there was a transition in coaches and after seeing her play in a high school game we knew she could contribute at a high level (it was the spring of her senior year in high school).  She ended up out performing almost her entire class throughout her career.

After talking with this coach, it is clear that that the key to getting recruiting is to stay proactive in the process. Coaches like the persistence because it shows the student-athlete is serious about playing at the next level. She also emphasized the points of researching the right school as well as staying in communication with coaches.