Putting Yourself Out There
Hi! I’ m back! It has been a busy last couple of weeks, but throughout that I was writing this blog. I really wanted to make sure the content was easy to follow while still holding its value. So here it is! Happy reading!
As I was thinking about what to write for my next blog, I realized I sort of sidetracked myself from why I originally started my blog. Not that the blogs I have already posted aren’t important, but the whole reason I started it was to discuss the seemingly daunting and heavy word:
Recruiting
Now, it doesn’t have to be daunting and heavy. It can be actually quite fun! I remember when I started the process 5 years ago in 2019 (yeah I feel a little old that it was that long ago) I was really excited. I had wanted to play college golf for a long time, and now it was finally my chance to make that dream become a reality.
Before I go on, I want to cover some housekeeping things. Because I am still a current player, there is only so much I can talk about. I can talk about my experiences with recruiting, but I don’t want to name any schools or coaches that I talked to when I am writing about this topic.
Now, as I said, my recruiting process started in 2019, over a year before my recruiting window opened on June 15, 2020. I put a ton of work to prepare myself for June 15th.
Here I will pause and explain the significance of June 15. Every year, DI and DII coaches have June 15th circled on their calendars because it is the day the recruiting window opens for the rising juniors in high school. This was a rule change from a few years ago because before there were no limits as to when coaches could contact potential recruits, and when I say no limits, I mean no limits. I remember hearing stories of girls who verbally committed to college in middle school. There were lots of issues with the lack of rules for coaches contacting recruits, so the NCAA came out with the June 15th rule. The June 15th prior to your junior year of high school is when coaches are allowed to start contacting you.
The key phrase to remember here is Put Yourself Out There. Unless you are winning the USGA Women’s Amateur or a part of the USGA National Team, coaches don’t know who you are. They do their research as well, but you are more likely to be seen if you put yourself out there.
To start with this, I created a recruiting profile page for myself. I used the website NCSA, who helped me create my recruiting page. This was a one stop shop for coaches to see my recent tournament results, rankings, stats, personal statement, academic information, and so on. Coaches have access to NCSA as well, so they can look up players based on preferences they set. This helps your page get views. If you want more information on NCSA, I would recommend googling it and reading about all the services they offer.
Once I set that up, I used NCSA to look up different schools based on my preferences and created a spreadsheet. I also filled out their recruiting questionnaires. Often times, programs have recruiting questionnaires listed on their website. There is no timeframe as to when you are allowed to fill these out, so my recommendation is to fill them out about a year before you could talk to the coach. Coaches may not be able to talk to you, but they are always watching, so putting yourself on their radars earlier rather than later will only help you. For reference, I filled out about 120 recruiting questionnaires, and probably only heard from 30 schools on June 15th. That math equals out to 1/4 of schools. I wasn’t in love with every school I filled out a questionnaire for. I went in with an open mind, and if the school had potential, I would fill it out. You have nothing to lose by filling it out, so the more you fill out the better.
The next thing I did was I set up my social media accounts, and would post my recent tournament results. I did this for a few reasons. I would try and find the team’s social media account and follow their page. Sometimes, teams will have players do social media take overs where you can see what a day in the life is like for a player on that team, so this was always a useful tool. You could also see how the team was performing and where they play because most teams post what tournaments they are playing in and how they finished at each tournament. The other potential it allows for is the coach can see who is following their team’s page. If the coach gets a notification that you followed their team’s Instagram page, the coach may click on your profile and see all of your tournament results and a little insight into who you are.
The spring of my sophomore year of high school is when I started sending out introductory emails to coaches. It included a link to my NCSA page, a little paragraph about me, highlights from my past season, and a couple of swing videos. The point of this email was to get my name on coaches’ radars and provide a snapshot of who I was as a person and a player.
Something worth mentioning is that I did not go through this process alone. My parents were a huge support throughout it along with my coaches. I did not know all of the information I am writing about when I was 14. My parents did a lot of research on how to best go about recruiting. All of the support I received helped me eventually end up at the right school with the right people. After going through recruiting twice, support is essential. Having people who want to see you succeed and are willing to be honest with you was key in helping me end up at BG.
I could talk on and on about putting yourself out there, as I believe it is the most important thing in the beginning. But, I wanted to talk in detail about it without throwing out information that doesn’t make any sense. I want to make this blog of a series of blogs on my experiences with recruiting. Everyone goes into recruiting with the goal of only doing it once, but the world isn’t perfect and factors outside of our control can affect the outcome. My goal is to show you my experience and teach the lessons I have learned so you can set yourself up for the most success. So let's tee off! Many more holes ahead of us!
