It Isn’t Easy to Get Recruited on Your Own
If you contact almost any company that helps athletes in the recruiting process you will hear a similar story about why they started. Usually the founder got themselves or their child recruited on their own and after realizing how difficult of a process was, decided to start a service that makes the process easier. How these companies go about getting your recruited can be different, but they all more or less start from the same place. We understand that you can get recruited on your own, but we also know it is very difficult.
There was an excellent story by Matt Stephens that chronicles the recruiting process for Demaurier Blackwell. He like many athletes went about the recruiting process on his own. With a lot of hard work, he and his family were able to secure a last minute offer and signed a NLI with Colorado State University on February 5th. Here are the things you should take away from his story.
The Numbers Behind Getting Recruited Your Own
700 emails – Number of emails they estimate they sent in the off-season *this doesn’t count follow up emails throughout the season
314 views – Views of his Junior Season highlight tape that he sent to 700+ coaches
225 students – Number of students at his very small high school
125 tackles– Number of tackles he made his senior year (64 solo)
21 days – Days they spent researching schools before sending emails
6’3” & 250 lbs – Demaurier’s height and weight as a linebacker
4.7 seconds – His 40 time
1 day – The number of days before National Signing Day he knew he had a DI offer
0 – How many times Demaurier heard from CSU coach’s before they offered him
Key Lessons from Demaurier’s Story
Size and measurables aren’t enough – He might have a combination of size and athleticism that puts him in the top 5% for his position, but that still leaves him competing against hundreds of other recruits. Don’t expect to get offers and interest just because you have a good 40 time.
Only 314 views of his junior highlight tape despite being sent to 700 coaches. This means less than 50% of the coaches he contacted even bothered to watch his video. This is why you need to email hundreds of coaches just to find a few opportunities.
Contrast the number of views of his junior year tape with the 700+ views of his senior year highlight tape. I am sure Demaurier followed up his emails from the summer/fall and shared his senior tape. This was the film that got him recruited. It is your job to follow up with a coach even if you haven’t received a response from them in previous emails.
He had not talked to the coaches at CSU ONCE before they called and offered on the day before signing day. Imagine yourself in that situation, having done all the work he did and in the months and weeks leading up to signing day you hadn’t heard anything. No emails, letters, phone calls or visits. While I wouldn’t recommend going into the week before signing day like this, it proves, you must continue to work at the recruiting process even if you aren’t hearing from coaches.
I applaud Demaurier and his family for all of the effort they put in to his recruiting. The lessons he learned about hard work and not giving up will stay with him long passed his days of playing football. Whether you use a recruiting service or not, recruiting takes effort and our site is here to help in that effort.
Please share this story if someone you know would benefit from it. Thank you.