Seniors: The time to get noticed is now!

For some senior high school athletes, spring is a time to enjoy the last weeks of school before continuing their athletic career in college.  For many others who have been hoping to land one of those coveted college scholarships, spring is a time when panic might begin to settle in.  The phone calls from college coaches have stopped or maybe they never started.  Suddenly, the end of an athletic career is staring you in the face.

So, what's a senior athlete to do?  Is all hope lost?  The answer is no.  However, the time for action is now!  To win one of the quickly dwindling number of scholarships available for the 2010/11 school year, you may need to re-adjust your focus and your goals as you search for a program that is still searching for incoming college sports prospects.

Start contacting college coaches now!  Since you are working with only a limited amount of time, you need to be very aggressive in researching potential college playing opportunities.  Develop a "top ten list" of some colleges in your region that offer your sport.  Then contact the coach at the schools, explain why you feel you are a qualified athlete who can benefit their program, and ask what you need to do to be considered for admission to their school and their program.  Remember, there are lots of coaches who are under pressure to find eligible, talented recruits before the school year ends.  Plenty of coaches are still looking!

Broaden your search!  At College GAMEplan, we work with a number of athletes hoping to win an athletic scholarship to a major Division I school.  However, many of these schools will have already finished their search for incoming athletes (depending on the sport, many Division I schools know a full year ahead of time who they will be recruiting for a particular year).  If you are interested in finding the most coaches with the biggest needs at this point in the school year, try contacting Division II, Division III or NAIA schools.  Some offer many of the same benefits that bigger Division I schools offer and many play with very comparable athletic talent as Division I schools.  Give those schools a chance to show you why they might be an excellent choice for your college athletic career.

Ask your coach to help!  You may have an important ally in your search to play college sports - your high school or club coach.  If you haven't done so already, talk with them about contacts they might have at the college level.  Many of these coaches are former college athletes themselves and would be happy to assist you in finding an opportunity to play collegiate athletics.

Make sure you've done your homework!  That is make sure you have taken the right classes, and taken the SAT or ACT tests - an area that many athletes overlook. Don’t assume that just because you can sink a three pointer from NBA range, or run the 40-yard dash in 4.3 seconds that the academic requirements will just take care of themselves.  Wrong!  You need to meet NCAA and/or university requirements for admission and athletic participation.  Doing your homework means taking care of the paperwork behind the scenes.

Be flexible!  What if a college you have contacted is interested in having you play sports, but doesn't have a scholarship available this year?  Are you willing to be a walk-on athlete and wait for a scholarship?  Or, if nothing is offered, would you go to a junior college to play sports and transfer to a four-year school in two years?  Get ready to face these potential questions.  They can often represent viable alternatives when compared to giving-up your athletic career. 

The bottom line is this: Time is running out quickly.  You and only you, have the motivation and desire to clear this final hurdle.  If you take the process seriously and enlist the help of others, your goal of playing college sports and possibly earning a scholarship is still within your reach. 

If you need more assistance, visit College GAMEplan's Recruitzone at http://collegegameplanonline.com/RecruitIntro2.html or call or email us at 314-322-1920 or info@collegegameplanonline.com.  We’ll be happy to assist you.