The Recruiting Process

    My high school was a small little 3A out in the middle of nowhere. Since we were a 3A we had a total of approximately 400 students. Being from a small town, made it feel like it was harder to get noticed by colleges and made my recruiting process a little different.

To help with my recruiting process, I decided to use a recruiting website. I did not know much about interacting with coaches nor did I know how to get to the division 1 level in track & field. Using this website, allowed the recruiting process to go smoothly and helped me achieve my goal. The website I used was ncsasports.org. NCSA (Next College Student Athlete) is a website that allows you to email coaches, creates a profile with your stats, and makes the recruiting process easier. It helps you write these emails correctly and shows you which college viewed your profile. 

    Every athlete that uses the website creates a profile that has a list of their personal records and racing videos. The website takes you to step by step through the recruiting and helps you understand what requirements to fulfill once you accept an offer. Before getting recruited I did not realize how many steps there were to become a collegiate athlete. There are specific GPA requirements, NCAA eligibility requirements, and paperwork that needs to be sent to the university. Thankfully, using this website helped me understand and allowed me to get noticed by coaches. 

        

                                                

    The first college that discovered me was Texas A&M Commerce. I began my recruiting process with this school. I went on my first official visit to this university. I toured the facilities, meet the team, and discussed scholarship opportunities with the coach. I was extremely excited and overwhelmed with joy that I was presented with this opportunity. A couple weeks after thinking about the offer that the coach presented me, I decided to verbally commit to this university. Being verbally committed means that you plan on attending, but it is not set and stone due to the lack of signed paperwork. But little did I know that this was not the only university interested in me. 

                                                                

A couple weeks later, I received an email from the coach from UTRGV through the NCSA website, and that's when everything changed...