The youngest of 4 kids in my family, I was extremely active in sports! I grew up shooting hoops in the barn with my brother on our family’s farm. I was responsible for a lot of chores on the farm and would sometimes get help from my softball teammates so I could be finished in time to get to our games. I played as often as I could, but never thought I would have the chance to do so in college. None of my siblings had attended college and there were very limited opportunities at that time for women in sports.

During high school, I lettered in volleyball, basketball and track. I spent my summers playing softball (after my chores were done of course!) because it was not offered as a sport in high school. Late into my senior year, I realized that I may have an opportunity to attend college. A recruiter from a state school in Wisconsin came to our high school and invited students to come on campus for a visit. Being only an “average” student, I was not all that interested in getting a college degree. However, I had not given much thought to what kind of work I would do after high school. I qualified for financial aid and decided to attend college. I was most excited at the prospect of continuing my sports career. That was definitely my main motivation for going to college.

I had no idea the impact that college sports would have on my life. I learned to manage my time better and became more interested in the classroom and “student” aspect of being a student-athlete. Doors were opened for me to travel overseas and compete with Christian softball and basketball teams. After graduation, I went to Latin America, Europe and even played semi-pro basketball in Vienna, Austria. I have made friends and contacts through sports that I never would have otherwise made.

Being a part of these amazing teams was a great motivation for me to get into coaching. I went on to get my master’s degree as a graduate assistant and coached for over 20 years in various sports. I have had the privilege of giving back and helping other families as a direct result of my experiences and fortunes of being a student-athlete and coach. Being involved in organized sports has been one of the most enriching parts of my life.

Now, as a recruiting coach with NCSA, I have been able to continue my life-long involvement with sports. I thoroughly enjoy playing a role in the recruiting story of hundreds of current student-athletes. Looking back at my days on the family farm, I never dreamed all of this would be possible!

Unlike many student-athletes, I never really thought seriously about playing college baseball during high school.  I did not have grand visions of playing for Arizona St. or Cal State Fullerton so the recruiting process was not a very high priority for me.  I started receiving a few letters my junior year and a couple of phone calls my senior year from various coaches, mostly at the DIII level.  Despite being from a family full of athletes, no one had any clue how the recruiting process worked.   I did not send my information to college coaches or create a highlight tape…I did not market myself at all. 

Ultimately, I decided to attend Dennison University after corresponding with the baseball coach a few times and visiting the campus.  Although I thoroughly enjoyed being a part of the baseball team and appreciated the rigorous academic cirriculum, I found myself unhappy with the school socially.  It was smaller than my high school and did not offer the type of atmosphere that I had envisioned when picturing my college experience.   Ater much consideration, I decided to transfer to Indiana University where I would not continue my baseball career.

Even though I loved my three years in Bloomington, I still to this day regret not playing baseball for my entire collegiate career.  I strongly believe that had I understood the recruiting process during high school, I would have been able to open up many more doors and potential opportunities at schools where I might have been happy playing all four years.  If I had a book like Athletes Wanted when I was going through the recruiting process, I am confident I would have found the right college fit academically, socially, and athletically.

- Adam Diorio

Athletes Wanted is the ultimate guide for student-athletes and families looking to get serious about finding the right academic, athletic, and social college fit. The “Fast Facts” alone are with skimming through and would save high school students and families hours upon hours in their search for a college.

My favorite chapter is chapter 3, “The Parent’s Role.” I could have highlighted almost every sentence in that section. Every single parent and student-athlete should take some time to read this part. Most people don’t realize that finding the right college fit is a PROCESS until they experience it. After reading Athletes Wanted everyone will understand that it takes time and energy to make sure you are making a quality life-long decision, not just a four year choice.

Playing collegiate soccer was something I didn’t think would ever be in my future. When I was a young girl playing sports in the front yard with all the neighborhood kids seemed like the most fun. Flash forward several years later and I find myself in a starting position on the High School Varsity team as a freshman. Playing the entire game and receiving awards, it was then when I knew playing soccer in college would be my number one goal. It was up to me to solve the obstacles to be recruited.

Since I was the first child who had these aspirations in the family, there were a lot of unknowns for how I would achieve my dream, Division 1 NCAA full scholarship. I set the goals high because I wanted to go for it all. I had the talent and mindset, I just needed the help.

My first step was to join the number one team in Michigan and become part of a highly competitive club soccer team where I was surrounded by girls who all wanted the same thing I did. We traveled to showcase tournaments, practiced four days a week, drove hours to get to a different state and scarified the standard high school social experiences to make it to a game.

During my junior year, the thought of when I would be offered a scholarship ran through my head daily. When am I going to hear from college coaches? I know I have the talent and grades, where are the coaches? Why am I working so hard and hearing from no one? Without the correct knowledge of the recruiting process, I ignored all of the letters and calls I received from D1, D2, D3 colleges out of state. I didn’t know what to expect, but I didn’t want those schools for some reason. Senior year arrived and I found myself with nothing.

Luckily, I walked into a great situation and was finally offered a handsome amount of scholarship money to play for a Division 1 school in Michigan. I had achieved my goal and the money my parents paid for tournaments, club teams, trips all over seemed to pay off. Since working at the NCSA, I now use my recruiting story to help educate other aspiring collegiate athletes so they won’t make the same mistake I did!

-Jaclyn Thomas

My recruiting story is different because it’s not my personal story but my daughter’s story. So this is from a parent’s perspective.

I was watching my 12-year old daughter play shortstop for her U14 softball team during one of her tournament games. The entire season, it dawned on me that my daughter was a better athlete than anyone else on the team. And she was playing with girls 2 grade levels ahead of her. Why else would the coach play her at shortstop? Why else would the coach bat her 3rd or 4th in the lineup? So I started thinking maybe this is a way to have my daughter get her education paid for. Then it happened. A sharply hit ground ball hit up the middle by the opposing team’s number 3 hitter. Quick as a flash, my daughter ranges over 5 steps, stretches her glove out, stabs the ball, and, in one motion while on the move, transfers the ball to her throwing hand and throws a strike to the first baseman; retiring the batter by about 4 steps. WOW!! Did you see that, I asked all of the other parents around me. They all confirmed what I saw with my own two eyes. (Or maybe they were just being nice.) So that’s when I decided that my daughter was going to play college softball. She had no clue until years later that I put that plan in motion for her.

So I started asking questions. Are there different levels of travel softball? Where do college coaches find talent? What does it take to get my daughter recruited? How should I act when my daughter has a bad game? How should I act when she has a good one? What lessons do I need to provide for her? Is all of the expense worth it? What are my daughter’s goals? More importantly, how can I guide her to set the right goals? I must admit, I didn’t do a very good job because I was a bit over-bearing. I’m sure that there were times my daughter thought I was a nut-case. I’m sure there were times that her coaches felt the same way about me. I wish I’d had a guide. I didn’t. Fortunately, in spite of my ignorance on the subject, my daughter turned out just fine. More importantly, she continued playing her sport in college. She will never have any thoughts of, “could I play?” Equally important, she’s at her perfect fit school. She’s attending the 16th ranked academic college in the country. As they told us new families during freshman orientation, graduates walk out after four years with a certain intellectual swagger. More important to me, she attends a college that costs over $50,000 per year that I haven’t written a check to yet. So how did she find this school?

She embraced the recruiting process. By understanding and applying a few principals, she achieved recruiting success. She received recruiting information from 145 different programs. She narrowed those down to about 25 colleges that had real, genuine interest in her. She again narrowed those to 3 colleges that offered financial aid to play. And, she chose the best fit for her. She’s entering her senior year playing D1 softball. She was elected one of the captains as a junior and led her team by batting .418. She will be studying in London her first semester senior year. She has interviewed already with top Wall Street firms. I couldn’t be prouder.

-Keith Babb

Even though I never played sponsored collegiate athletics or went through the recruiting process, my mind was constantly reaching back to my high school volleyball days remembering what it was like to be a full time student-athlete. Remembering the drills that seemed to last forever, the coarse calluses on my hand, and the sweat that never seemed to escape my face. I have so many memories of that gym, that ball, and that game that gave me so much.

I was hoping to write some all encompassing, inspiring snippet about all that sports has given me and taught me, but now I don’t think I can do that. Every story is so vastly unique but also so insanely similar that it is hard to describe unless you’ve been there. That is what Athletes Wanted was for me, a chance to relive my individual experience yet share that experience with all those other athletes before and after me. I can think of no other way to summarize my Athletes Wanted story than with this. “You see, you spend a good piece of your life gripping a ball and in the end it turns out that it was the other way around all the time.” –Former Big Leaguer, Jim Bouton.

Sport has given me so much and I hope that one day I can give as much back.

-Jim Broe

“Upon the fields of friendly strife are sown the seeds that upon other fields on other days will bear the fruits of victory,” MacArthur famously said decades ago about sports’ role in the armed forces.