HS Football Recruiting: Stop Asking for Exposure and Start Competing and Learning

David Schuman

May 16

Having run football events and been a coach for over 17 years, I am truly amazed when I hear two things. 1. Does your event give me exposure? 2. How do I get more exposure? For years I touted how we send info to colleges and such, how we have streamed events, posted videos, posted stats, so on and so on. Now I ask questions before I even get into that. I ask 4 main questions.

Coach Johnson interviewing MVP

1. How good are you? If you are average, you are not gonna get noticed at camps, heck if you go to a place the provides exposure all you will find out is that you will be exposed…your talent that is. I can’t tell you how many athletes send us clips that say they are D1 and they are too small, too slow or just have no wow factor. If you pop off the screen, everyone will know it.
2. There is no magic formula! If you are a top tier player, each camp and program you go to helps you more. If you are not you better be focused on learning how to compete and learning how to learn your position. If you focus on competing, getting better at competing and learning, getting better at your skill set, then you will be in position to do your best.
3. Have you spoken with coaches, Have you reached out with your film, your info, been on campus? If so, then when you go to 3rd party events, or college events, they can all help you get better and maybe you have a chance to report on your results, show your film, show your camp film and help pitch yourself. If you haven’t then you might as well start reaching out and then going to programs.
4. What does your high school coach think of you? If he thinks your good, then chances are maybe a college coach will. If you doesn’t, then you will not get recommended or seen. So build that relationship. If you go to camps and your high school coach is not a fan of you, you will have an uphill battle.

As for parents, my goodness, please stop living through your children, and start encouraging, supporting and guiding them. If you support them in and guide them, they will love the sport and love you. No one needs their own parents to get in the way. If you do 99 out of 100 times, no college coach will want to deal with you. Guide them and they will succeed. Parents, it is important to note that if you encourage your kid to have high effort, play to the best of his ability and care about other’s successes and not just his own, they will maximize their skills. Having worked with literally hundreds of thousands of athletes, I can tell you that when the parent of an 8th grade football athlete is mad that he didn’t get an award he may have given someone a piece of his mind, but all he did was teach his child to be selfish and ungrateful. Move on to the next day and great things will happen, the sun will shine again, and the athlete will compete. Life isn’t fair, so teach them to get better, have fun and compete and don’t worry about controlling the world, because no one can do that.

Coach Schuman

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