Alex SwensonRecruiting Advisor| This is a digital version of Alex

Want to stand out to college coaches? It’s not just about your skills on the field!

7 Jan 2025 · 2 min

Watch on YouTube

1:31

A short YouTube video by Alex Swenson (uploaded Jan 7, 2025) outlining the top five non-athletic traits college coaches seek in high-school athletes: (1) resilience/handling failure, (2) game IQ/understanding the game, (3) teamwork/selflessness, (4) coachability/receiving feedback, and (5) focus/engagement in practice and games. Swenson emphasizes these off-field traits matter as much as on-field skills and offers them as practical priorities for athletes aiming to reach the next level.

Chapters

Here are the top five non athletic traits college coaches look for in a high school athlete. Number one is how do you handle failure? How do you handle mistakes? That is going to happen. A lot of athletes crash and burn and are not able to recover. They are not resilient. College coaches are looking for resilient athletes. Number two, how is your IQ in your game? Are you thinking ahead? Do you understand your game at a high level? At a coach's level? Number three, how are you as a teammate? Are you there for your team or are you a selfish player just thinking about yourself? Are you there to actually help the team win? Number four, how do you handle coaches feedback? Are you coachable? Or when you get some criticism on your game, how do you respond to? Do you step back and blame the coaches or blame the surrounding and circumstances around you or do you take that in work? And number five, how engaged are you at practice, training and in game? Are you focused? Are you dialed in? College coaches love focused athletes, especially these days when there's so many distractions at practices, even obviously off the field with their phones and in training. Are you a focused athlete? Focus on these five non athletic traits to help you get to the next level.