Alex Swenson, a former Division I coach and recruiter, breaks down how high-school athletes get noticed: play well and consistently, show real character and coachability on and off the field, and reach out directly to schools that recruit your position with clean transcripts and a solid highlight video.
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Hey team, Alex Swinson here and thanks again for joining me. And if you're new to this channel, I'm a former Division I college coach, scout and recruiter with 11 years of experience and I'm here to help you or your son play at the next level. And in today's video, we're going to be talking about how to stand out to college coaches in the recruiting process. And we're going to break it up into the three most important categories to stand out in the recruiting process. So if you get anything from this video, please smash that like button that thumbs up and subscribe to my channel. I put out a weekly video on recruiting and how to just get better on and off the field. Alright, let's get into it. Hey, real quick. Yesterday was national signing day where student athletes in high school that committed to a college or university at the Division 1 or Division 2 level sign their NLI, their national letter of intent, making it binding. So congratulations to all those student athletes out there. And if you're new to the recruiting process or just start started this recruiting process or just in the middle of this recruiting process, don't worry, there's plenty of other signing days to come here in the future. And this is what I do. I say this is one of the biggest decisions of your life to sign that NLI or decide where you're going to college. I put it right behind the person that you're going to decide to spend the rest of your life with. I put going and picking a college right behind that decision. That's how big of a deal it is. And again, that's why I do what I do and I, I love what I do because I know how much of an impact it was for me going to college and the relationships, the life lessons that I've learned, the experiences that I had, and of course playing the game that I love as well, that's what I do. So congratulations to all of you signing your nli. Now let's get into the three categories. How to stand out to college coaches in the recruiting process. Again, comes down to three areas and if you get these three areas down, there's no doubt you're going to stand out to many different colleges and you're going to be part of the 7% that make it to the next level to make it to college baseball. So the first category is athlete on the field. These coaches want to see who you are on the field and I'm going to go a little bit of different route because you guys probably know or have heard me talk about this. And if you haven't, just real quick, These college coaches are going to look at one, your physicality, your metrics, your tools and your projectability, actions, how you move, your skill sets there. They're going to look at those four categories, but they're going to also. These are the big ones that I wanted to get across. Are you consistent on the field? Okay. Do you work and do you work hard? And probably most importantly, out of these three, do you have fun doing it? These college coaches want to have fun with you. Okay? It's not all business at the college level, although a lot of it is. Okay? We get down and we work hard, but we have fun doing it. These coaches are around you all the time for those four years and they want to have fun with you. They want to like you, okay? And if they don't like you, they're not going to recruit you. Which gets us to our next point. Number two is person on and off the field. Are you authentic? Are you caring? Are you a leader? Are you a good teammate? Are you coachable? That's a big one. These coaches want to be able to talk to you and help you and direct you. Are you able to bring that information in, be open minded and run with it? Okay. And do you take care of of business off the field? Of course, in the classroom, but also socially, are you doing the right things? Not only on social media, which they do check, okay. By the way, they scour the Internet about information on you and seeing what you're doing, what you're posting to see again, if they want to bring that type of person into their program. Okay, but are you helping people off the field? Are you volunteering? That stuff matters. It just again shows like, hey, you are a good person. You're not only a good athlete, but you're a good person and they want to spend time around you. Because again, these coaches, frankly, all right, when I was coaching, okay, again 11 years, I spent more time with the players than I did my family, okay? And now I have two little kids and if I was still coaching, I would spend more time with those players than I did my kids. That's what these coaches are do now, okay? So it's very, very important that they bring the right guys on and into their program. Number three, how you go about the recruiting process. And I'm biased, but this is the most important part because number one, as far as athlete on the field, number two, the person you are does not matter. If these coaches don't know about you and you're not proactive in this process, and you are not going after these college coaches the right way and going through the recruiting process the right way. Have somebody help you. If you have no idea what you're doing or you're just not sure, have your high school coach help you. Have your summer ball coach help you. Have a person like myself help you go through this that has experience, okay? You're proactive with them. Then when you start communicating with these college coaches, are you genuine? Okay? Are you genuine with them? And is it coming from you, not your parents? Okay? I want your parents to help you through this process, and you should allow your parents to help you through this process. But when you start communicating with them, it needs to be from you. Again, your parents can edit your emails and other documentations that you send to these college coaches, but when the communication gets going, it needs to be you, okay? And be genuine with who you are. Okay, guys, have everything. Your ducks in the row from your skin video. Again, the information that you need and these college coaches want to your transcripts, etc. The list goes on and on. But make sure you have everything ready and that you are going out and you're getting exposed to these college coaches. Okay? You know who is recruiting your position and who is not. Because you don't want to waste time, money and energy on schools that are not. Okay? Be proactive in this process. Be you. All right, let's do a recap of this. Number one, these are no particular order. Number one is the athlete you are on the field. Number two, the person you are on the field and off. And number three, how you go about the recruiting process. You knock those three out, there is no doubt you're going to stand out from the crowd. Hope you got something from this video. If you have any questions or any comments, please comment down below. Love, feedback or any topics that you want to hear. And make sure you smash that like button and subscribe. Have a good day and I'll see you in the next video.
