Control What You Can - Tips for Moving Forward During COVID
Written by: beNOTICED and Geoff Raives, CFF Director of Partnerships
As we all navigate these uncertain times, we want to do our part in ensuring your recruiting journey stays on course.
In times like this, when you are unable to connect with coaches on the field, it's important that you are still pressing forward with recruiting and connecting with coaches off the field. Remember, things are uncertain for college coaches too, and there could be huge opportunities if you are doing the right things to help yourself stand out.
We're continuing with our 4-part series with tips to help prospective student-athletes create a college recruiting plan to follow. We will look in to the following:
Tips for Building Your Top College List
What You Need to Know before Contacting College Coaches
Tips for Creating a Highlight Video
Develop a Follow-Up Strategy with College Coaches
Part 2 Refresher HERE
Part 3: Create a Highlight Video
Right now, since you are unable to play in front of college coaches (or at least not as often), highlight video/clips have become an even more imperative part of the recruiting process. Start by gathering your game highlights over the past six months to compile into a reel. (Or longer if you haven't been playing much due to COVID). By sending coaches your highlights, you are staying fresh on coaches' minds and staying proactive.
Here are some things to consider when creating your highlight video:
Intro to your video: A few must-haves at the start: name, team, league/level, jersey #, grad year and your email/your coach email. Something to consider including: a quick 5-10 second intro of you speaking can show personality and put a face to the player on the video.
Keep it short (3-5 minutes): Highlight videos should be just that: your highlights. They should not contain entire games, rather, just clips showing your best moments. If they are kept within 3-5 minutes, they will likely watch most of your video. If it is too lengthy, they may get bored and move on.
Make yourself visible: Remember, the scout doesn't know who you are. Add a circle, arrow, light or some indication other as to which player they should be watching. Don't make them work. Make yourself obvious in every clip.
Best Foot Forward: Put your best clips first. Then your great clips. Leave out clips that are merely good or mediocre. A 1-minute phenomenal video is better than a 3-minute okay video.
Organization: It's helpful to have "sections" in the video that are specific to you/your position. For example: if you are a forward, you can have sections for Goals, Assists, Movement off the ball, and Set Pieces.
Keep it Current: You can edit and perfect your video as much as you want over the course of your recruiting process. If you made a phenomenal play in today's game... add it in. If you have clips that no longer show you at your very best... take them out.
Music: If you are going to use music, make sure it is tasteful, and definitely without profanity. Make sure it is not copyrighted as platforms such as YouTube will delete the video without warning. Keep in mind that MUSIC IS NOT NECESSARY. Coaches are likely listening to their own music while going through videos and will have yours muted.
Keep it positive: While entertaining, this is not the time to show that you're human and have some bloopers. Leave your mistakes off the reel and wow them with your talent.
Player Profile: Don't forget to update your Player Profile with your highlight video(s).
REMEMBER - A highlight video's goal is to entice a coach to want to see you play live. It's not going to get you recruited alone. You can create and edit your highlight video straight from your College Fit Finder account and have it posted and updated to your profile in real time!
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