Promoters

[1leggedduck]

Some guys from SA have called me and want to promote my kid to colleges. Anyone have any experience with this? Do they make a difference? Is it worth the $, or will the schools find him either way? Should I be filming him? He is just starting his Jr. year, but I don't know how I can best help him.

 

[vculou]

I suggest you contact the NCAA and ask for asistance nderstanding recruiting.
"Agents" can keep your child from NCAA level competition and cause great recruiting difficulty.
They may try and sell your child and make some bucks but that is a big problem for your child and most univesities.
For sure contact the NCAA and ask for recruiting legal guidlines and no nos...
Dont skip this if you really care about the future...

 

[TigerPride]

If it's football or basketball, start sending him to camps.

 

[Texdoc]

If your real name is James Gray, don't waste your money.

HOOK 'EM,
Texdoc

 

[PropositionJoe]

camps.

see if you can get copy of game film from his coaches. go to an independent person and put together a highlight film.

i dont know that i would trust anyone that seeks you out.

 

[Bill in Sinton]

Hey vc and PropositionJoe I think agents are not needed or recommended if you are a well known highly recruited player. I think they are useful for those that will be playing in smaller division schools because these are players that aren't well known or get much publicity and would be able to play at smaller schools. These may not even be agents but I once saw on 60 minutes that they help kids get scholarships at smaller schools. The agent was paid about $5,000 but a kid was able to get a football scholarship at a small school and everyone was happy because besides getting to play football he got a scholarship estimated at $40,000 that paid for his education. So he continued playing football and got an education out of the deal that he otherwide might not have got.

 

[1leggedduck]

These gus are not agents. They put together fact sheets and profiles, and shop your kid around, for a one time fee. Like BinS points out, they work the 2nd tier of kids that probably don't get the pub that prospective D1 recruits get. He did LH camp a couple of times, but I think camping at some of the lesser campused may be the deal. Maybe UTSA, or TS. Any other good ones out there anyone is aware of? Do coaches from smaller schools get to coe to the camps put on by the larger schools?

 

[bevaux]

I wouldn't waste my time. Just my opinion. We had this happen a couple years back when our son was a junior and senior. Got emails, calls, etc. I politely said "no". At the same time we were getting contacted by about 30 different schools, so i didn't see the benefit of hiring someone to put together tape, and a slick flyer, etc. Talk to his coach, ask the best way to get his name and skill set out there and known. they are usually great with this sort of thing. They should have plenty of film if you don't. This day and age it s easy to put together a nice highlight tape, even by yourself.

 

[geezerhorn]

Seems like UTSA is perfect for this. Coker seems to try and be doing all he can to stay involved here in S.A.

Surely someone from his staff could at least counsel you wisely.

Try calling the UTSA athletic department and asking to speak with someone from his staff. It's free and it couldn't hurt.

Good Luck!

 

[bassale47]

This is very long, but I have some experience with this issue, so here goes:

These are not "agents." People call them that because everyone thinks that if you're trying to help a kid get a scholarship, you must be using him in some way. Sometimes that is the case, sometimes it isn't.

I used to work for a company in Houston that did this, but we worked mostly with kids who were 2nd and 3rd tier type players. In other words, they weren't going to be getting phone calls from Mack Brown, but they definitely had scholarship potential at lesser D-1 and D-1AA schools. We did have one kid who had offers from Virginia Tech, Kansas State, and A&M. I won't give his name out of respect for his privacy, but he's one of the Aggies' better defensive players. We had a kicker who got some interest from OU but got injured and gave up football.

As to whether or not these companies are worth it, I would say it depends on how good your kid is (if you can make an honest determination of that), who these guys are, and what, exactly, they are willing to do. We had a guy on our staff who was a former college football player and a sportswriter, so he had a lot of contacts with college coaches. But a lot of these companies don't have any real contacts. All they do is make a highlight video and mail it out for you, and maybe create a website for your kid, all of which you can do yourself.

Another service we provided was admissions and clearinghouse counseling. We had a certified admissions counselor on our staff who could work with the athletes and their parents to help them understand the clearinghouse process and how to make sure they were staying on track, academically, to be eligible to play.

Really, other than having legit contacts, this is all stuff you can do yourself if you have the time. Most of the families we worked with, the parents just didn't have time to do everything.

So my advice to you is:

1.If your son wants to play college football and he's good enough that you've already got well-known programs contacting you, then you don't need this kind of help.

2. If you know your son is not quite at that level, but you think he could play somewhere, you definitely need to start working on this ASAP, and he definitely should be going to whatever camps you can send him to.

3. See if these guys are willing to meet with you in person or give you plenty of time on the phone for you to ask questions.

4. Find out what kind of contacts they have with COACHES, not other recruiting services or "important people." Do they know and have a good reputation with coaches?

5. Ask them what all they are able and willing to do, as far as videos, websites, newsletters, etc.

6. Try and get a sense of whether or not they are familiar with the NCAA's ever-changing recruiting rules. There are certain things they are not allowed to do on behalf of your son, and if they are unaware of these things, it could jeopardize his eligibility. (You can find the NCAA's manual here: The Link; the recruiting stuff starts on p. 81).

7. Ask them questions about the clearinghouse process. While there's not a ton they can do FOR you in that regard, they should at least know what YOU and your son need to do.

If you have the time and interest to research all of this stuff and make the videos and websites and letters, etc., then why not do it yourself? But if you don't have the time, it's not a bad idea to get some help. Just make sure the people you enlist to help you actually know what they are doing.

 

[1leggedduck]

Thanks for the word. He is good o lineman and will be a legit 6'4" by the time he grads but his frame will never support more than 265-270#. He is good. He doesn't and probably wont have D1 measurables. So he is at the level you mention. Grades and scores will not be a problem. I talked with the guy who shoots the film for the TV rebroadcast and he told us to pick out a few plays of each game to make a highlight disc, and pick out 2 complete games and he would do the editing for $200.00. He said call the coaches and ask at each school we're interested in what they want and send them a package accordingly. Thanks again for the advice. If I had less time on my hands, I wouldn't need him to scholly so badly.

 

[Horns11]

You could probably find people or friends to do the basic video editing at work/church for free. I know how people got all frazzled when the RiR videos used to come out a few years ago, and now that editing stuff is so second nature, even to kids.

And it wouldn't take much to send those tapes to schools. One of my wife's best friends was a coaches' assistant (student helper) at Iowa when Tate was there, and it was her job to go through all of the DVDs from parents and high schools and take notes on each one for every position coach. If you send it, chances are very good it will get watched.

 

[tdelong]

The guys in SA ARE NOT agents, lets make that clear. If they were having a negative impact on kids NCAA eligibility I don't think they would still be in business. There are bad seeds in EVERY industry, but the SA guys are a food family owned group with a long and strong reputation in the community and at the college level. I know that they have helped alot of very good student athletes(at every level of play) maximize this once in a lifetime process/opportunity. 99% of high school athletes and families could do more during the recruiting process, because it doesn't just fall out of the sky for very many kids. Alot of kids get left behind all together or do not find the best academic and athletic match possible, whether that's D1, D2, D3, NAIA, or JUCO. They MIGHT hear from a few coaches, but their are 850 four year programs out there, so a few coaches is risky business. Sure, you can attack this process yourself, but people can also paint their own house, remodel their own kitchen, change their own oil, represent their self in the court room, etc, etc, but working with a professional will usually lead to better results. Don't leave this 40 year, life time decision in the hands of his coaches or friends/volunteers, this is your sons future, not theirs. His high school coaches are a crucial part of this process, but the responsibility is ultimately the athlete and families. I would call the guys from SA and ask them any others questions directly.

 

[bassale47]

Eh, I don't really believe in the concept of anyone being a "professional" at promoting high school athletes for college scholarships. The people who do this kind of work for a living didn't get a degree in it.

If you find a good company, the biggest advantage they will provide is time. They do the work, and you're free to worry about something else. This is really not like representing yourself in court vs. hiring a lawyer. It's more like hiring movers instead of moving yourself.

Like I said, if you're someone who knows that you're going to have to do some selling to get your kid some offers but you simply don't have the time to do it, by all means, hire someone. But if you've got the time, then there is very little these people can do for you that you can't do for yourself.

 

[VYFan]

There's a guy in Austin that does this named Randy Rodgers, and I met him once or twice in another context. From independent sources, I think he is quite legitimate, but I am not the person to be vouching for someone in particular. Anyway, I happened to be talking to someone in Galveston about their kid going to college on a scholarship to a second-tier school, and they had used Randy for this service. They were quite happy, and they don't have much spare money.

As a parent, it is well worth it to pay a few hundred dollars to have someone else--not you--be the one to say point blank to your kid, "Realistically, you will never be a pro athlete. Never. So, you need to pick a college situation that blends your desire to play football, to get a good education, and to have some fun. With your skills and background, you are looking at the range of w,x,y and z schools. If we can improve your presentation in these particular ways, we can shoot for w or x, but otherwise, you are looking at y or z."

If there was a $400 pair of shoes that you thought would help your son run .02 seconds faster in a forty, you would probably be buying them right now. Why not buy $400 of advice? And especially to get out of that scenario where he wants to apply to schools that are a waste of time and you have to be the bad guy saying, "LSU isn't going to take you," or whatever.

Find someone legit, and get some advice!

 

[TigerPride]

Make some appointments to go visit the campuses of some schools who are interested. That's one of the ways my oldest got recognized. A school with limited recruiting dollars will appreciate the effort and as the other posters said, take some vids that highlight his play.