What to do for your recruiting as a freshman or younger

One of the toughest things to figure out is what to do to get ahead early in the recruiting process without wasting your time. So I'm going to dive into that. So if you're an 8th grader below freshman or even a sophomore, this is going to be really tactical advice for you. So that way you can get ahead in the recruiting game and set the foundation correctly. And so if you don't know who I am, Trent Lorera, I'm a former college quarterback. I run your first scholarship where we help families get their first college football scholarship and more. And so I've talked to a lot of families. They'll book calls with me because I'm more than happy to book calls with 8th grade or younger or a freshman. Even though we're probably not going to work with them, I'm more than happy to take the calls and see, like, what's going on, what can I do to help and help guide them in the right direction. Because the last thing I want to do is, like, not talk to them. And also, like, I just know too many people that eighth grade, seventh grade, freshman year got, you know, kind of tricked into some service that didn't really help and was a waste of time and money. And I don't want them to fall into that trap. And so I usually tell them to do really one to three things, and I want to give that to you guys. So that way, if you're listening to this and you're just, you know, hey, Trenton probably isn't working with me and I don't want to book a call, at least I can give you this advice now in a much faster way for both of us. And so really the biggest one, really well, the way I see it is it's setting the foundation, like, that's the easiest way I can phrase this because you're not going to get any offers, probably like you technically can. And people always ask the question of how can you get offers, et cetera, if you're below that age where in the summer of your going into your junior year, coaches can actually contact you back. So there's work around in the rules and all that stuff. And I won't get into this video because it deserves a whole other video itself. But at the end of the day, your goal is to get offers when you're younger. Your goal is ultimately to set the foundation from an athletic standpoint, from a social media exposure standpoint. And cool. If you can get known by some coaches, get your foot in the door in some places. That is awesome. You are way ahead of the game. But that's not necessarily the goal. The goal is just to set that foundation, learn some things. That way, once you do get that varsity film and you can start putting out the coaches, you're hitting the ground running, not trying to figure out what you should do next. And so really, the first place is Twitter. I will continue to say this. Twitter is the best place to get recruited to play college football. It's the best app, the best platform. I will never try to build a platform that's better than Twitter because right now all the coaches are on it organically. It's the best spot. And so you're going to want to be active on Twitter. Now, some people may see this as overkill. Oh, social media, this and that. Like, you don't need to be worrying about this. I wouldn't say it's a huge part of emphasis. Like, you shouldn't be posting it on 24 7, but you still want to put some videos out there because you never know who's going to see it and recognize, hey, this is an 8th grader that's really ahead. For example, everybody knows the quarterback scene starts very early. And I just hopped off a call with a parent who his son's in 8th grade. He's a talented 8th grade quarterback and he's trying to set that foundation. I'm like, yeah, Twitter is the place to be because you never know what coaches are going to see him, follow him and realize like, hey, this kid is, is pretty good. You know, they're not necessarily going to offer them right away, but they're going to be like, hey, this is a good eighth grader that we need to keep in mind and see how he develops in the future. Because everybody knows that there's a lot that can happen between eighth grade and signing day. But if you show clear signs of development and just early potential, that's huge to college programs. And obviously they want to recruit that. And worst case scenario, again, I like to play best case worst case because it's like, okay, is the worst case that bad? Worst case, you post a bunch, you only get nothing. You get nothing. That's the worst case. And nothing bad happens. But at least you have some video that if coaches come by and see it later, they know something about you. And so that's really what I see it as, is like, that is the integral part is just posting on Twitter. That's probably where most of your time early on should be spent if you're going to do exposure stuff. The second piece is I would definitely go to camps. And so some people might be like, camps? Why would you go to camps? You don't need to go in front of college coaches. It's great because, yeah, you can get in front of college coaches. You have the opportunity to talk to them a little bit. So if you happen to get noticed, you can kind of get ahead in that relationship game. But really, it's more for the experience because to me, I wish I would have gone to actual college camps early on because it was way more nerve wracking my junior year going to my first camp than it should have been because I'd just never been to one of these, you know, more focused on college, college recruitment camps. And so if you're. It's way better to go on early on, go to a few camps each summer. So that way you kind of get acclimated. And, you know, by the time when it really counts, that junior year and that senior year, you're like, cool, I already know how to do this. I can handle myself. And it's really just about performing at the end of the day, instead of being like, okay, how does this even work? Like, I did not like those camps because I was just always, like, kind of stressed out about it and didn't really know how to go about the right way. And so if you start early, you'll figure out how to go about it. And it becomes much less of a, you know, preparation game instead of just executing the. The playbook that you've been running for so long. And it just comes down to getting reps. Plus, you get to talk to coaches early on. You get those reps too. Like, there's a huge benefit to starting in the camp scene earlier rather than later. Plus, competition, all that stuff. Like, it, none of it is bad. And I'm not saying travel across the country to go to camps. I'm just saying, like, go to a few local D1 camps. Get that experience. It'll be good for you regardless of where you're at. So definitely Twitter and camps big time. Number three, I would just say, like, make sure to continue racking up video. This ties into Twitter posts, but, like, get as much video as possible. It's never a bad thing to have more video, even if it's super young. And so use that, Post it on Twitter, continue to post it out. Now, some couple things I would not recommend is, like, don't go heavy on the outreach. Like, you can reach out to coaches if you want, but it's not an integral part of your strategy. Like, if there are a few schools that you want to try and get in front of, some local schools that you're like, hey, I really want their attention, you can, but it's not going to yield you a huge result because again, they're not heavily recruiting you and they can't technically contact you back. So there's not much that they can do. I mean, they can mark you down, make sure to remember you for the future, but realistically, it's not going to get you a huge amount of return. So it's not like, don't send out a bunch of dms and emails. It's not really going to get you a lot. It makes more sense as you get closer to that date, because you can kind of coaches are going to start thinking about you a little bit more. For example, like sophomore year, going into your junior year, that spring and summer before that date hits is a really good time to get started early because coaches are starting to prepare for that next class. So they want to see you and they want to start to get to know you a little bit more. And they may not technically be able to reach out, but at least if you reach out to them now, they know who you are. You've been in their inbox a little bit, and hopefully they'll jot you down and remember you for the next time that either you reach out or they'll reach out to you just once that date hits. And so it's much more. Because it's much more easier on their part to recruit you, which is a big part of how I think through from there. Like, I would say that the. Probably the last piece, I'll say the most important piece is just like, develop as a player. Like, unless you're. Unless you really feel like you are ultimately a D1 guy no matter what, which is awesome to be confident about yourselves. But there's a huge amount of development that needs to happen from eighth grade, freshman year all the way to your senior year. And so just continue to develop as a player, a person, an athlete. Like, don't just focus on your skills, but focus on the weight room, your speed, your agility, your durability, your flexibility, as well as put your time in the classroom. Because those grades your freshman year are extremely crucial in setting the foundation of your academics. Freshman year, eighth grade year are just extremely foundational years. So you don't need to focus on every facet of your recruiting. You. You need to focus on the core pillars, which is start building a brand, start getting some experience and reps in Just the world of recruiting. So that way you can talk to some coaches, make sure you have a foundation of academics. So getting good grades that freshman year helps you out a ton. So that way you're playing from ahead instead of playing catch up and then making sure to develop as a player and a person. So that way you have the talent, come that senior and junior year and can be really impressive to college coaches. And so hopefully this gives you kind of a quick playbook of how to go about this. Maybe I'll make a course someday. It's not really on my bucket list of like, of things, but if you happen to be, you know, a parent of someone younger that is looking to get recruited by college football or, or whatnot, and you're interested in that kind of thing, let me know. Might put something together, might not. But it's something that I talk to a lot of younger parents about and they always have questions because it's just something that's not talked about a lot. And if it's ever talked about, it's often talked about negatively as, like, you shouldn't be focusing on recruiting, even though that's just, you know, definitely shouldn't be entirely focused on recruiting, but it should be in your mind at some point if that's your goal. Right. And, and so it seems like common sense that it should be something that you think about, but oftentimes when people bring it up, they're quickly swatted down. And I think that's kind of dumb to look down upon people that want to accomplish a goal and are set to do something, especially when you're a parent trying to help your kid. And so would love to put something out there if you're interested in that, definitely let me know. And if you got something from this, if you have any questions, feel free to let me know as well. Hopefully you like this. Like, subscribe. I'll see you in the next one. Peace.